Aggregation Layer MAC Address Mask Matching for Data Center Forwarding
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In geographically dispersed network sites, existing technologies face challenges in efficiently managing and forwarding messages across large-scale data centers due to the need to store and process a large number of individual MAC addresses, which can exceed storage limits and increase processing burdens on edge devices.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of MAC address aggregation and mask matching, where aggregation layer devices learn aggregated MAC addresses and masks, reducing the size of MAC address information stored and processed, and using protocols like EVI and IS-IS for neighbor discovery and message forwarding, allowing for efficient message forwarding between sites without the need for individual host device MAC address storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If individual MAC addresses of all host devices are stored and processed by aggregation layer devices, then message forwarding accuracy is improved, but storage capacity requirements and processing burden increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual MAC addresses into a single aggregated MAC address that represents a group of host devices. Instead of storing and processing separate MAC addresses for each host, the system stores one aggregated MAC address per VLAN, significantly reducing the quantity of MAC address information while maintaining the ability to forward messages to the correct destination through the aggregation mechanism.
2Measurement precision
If individual MAC addresses of all host devices are stored and processed by aggregation layer devices, then message forwarding accuracy is improved, but processing burden and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple MAC address lookup operations into a single lookup operation by using aggregated MAC addresses. When a message needs to be forwarded, the system performs one lookup for the aggregated MAC address rather than multiple lookups for individual addresses, significantly reducing processing time and computational burden while maintaining accurate message forwarding.
3Reliability
If MAC address tables are maintained at aggregation layer devices to enable message forwarding, then network connectivity is improved, but device complexity and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent simplifies the MAC address table structure by merging multiple individual MAC address entries into a single aggregated MAC address entry per VLAN. This reduces the complexity of maintaining and managing MAC address tables while preserving the ability to establish and maintain network connectivity through the aggregation layer devices.
Data Source
AI summary
A first aggregation layer device at a first site learns Media Access Control (MAC) address information received from a second aggregation layer device at a second site. The MAC address information includes: a VLAN identifier (ID), an aggregated MAC address, and an aggregated MAC address mask configured at the second site. When receiving a message addressed to the VLAN ID and a destination MAC address, the first aggregation layer device searches for the MAC address information based on the VLAN ID and destination MAC address and forwards the message to the second aggregation layer device according to the MAC address information. The destination MAC address belongs to the same MAC address segment as the aggregated MAC address and searching for the MAC address information includes mask matching based on the aggregated MAC address mask.