SDN Ingress Node Packet Encapsulation for Control Plane Decoupling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern communication and data networks have become complex due to the integration of various protocols and standards, making them difficult to manage and optimize, and existing solutions do not effectively decouple the control plane from the data plane, limiting network scalability and customization.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a software-defined network (SDN) architecture that uses an ingress node with a processor to encapsulate data packets in an SDN packet header, providing flow-specific information, allowing for decoupling of the control plane from the data plane and enabling efficient traffic engineering and routing, regardless of transport protocols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If network nodes are customized and optimized to support multiple protocols and specifications, then network functionality and adaptability improve, but network complexity and difficulty of management increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network into two distinct planes: the control plane (centralized SDN controller) and the data plane (network nodes). This segmentation allows network nodes to be simplified while maintaining multiple protocol support through the centralized controller, directly resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The SDN controller acts as an intermediary between the centralized management system and the network nodes. It handles the complexity of multiple protocols and specifications, while network nodes simply forward packets based on controller instructions, thus maintaining functionality without increasing node complexity.
2Productivity
If control plane functions are distributed in network nodes, then routing decisions are made locally, but scalability and centralized optimization are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts control plane functions from distributed network nodes and consolidates them into a centralized SDN controller. This extraction enables global optimization and centralized traffic engineering while maintaining efficient packet forwarding at the nodes, resolving the contradiction between local routing efficiency and centralized scalability.
3Productivity
If transport protocol specific handling is implemented at network nodes, then protocol optimization is achieved, but transport protocol dependency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal packet encapsulation format that can carry any transport protocol type. The SDN controller handles protocol-specific processing, while network nodes uniformly encapsulate and forward packets using the same mechanism, achieving protocol independence without sacrificing forwarding efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
An ingress node in a Software Defined Network (SDN) comprising a receiver for receiving a data packet, a processor coupled to the receiver and further configured to obtain the data packet from the receiver in a transport protocol agnostic manner, and encapsulate the data packet in an SDN packet header, wherein the packet header comprises SDN flow-specific information provided by an SDN controller, and a transmitter coupled to the processor and further configured to transmit the encapsulated data packet across a single SDN toward an egress node in the SDN.