Flow Management in Software-Defined Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Software-defined networks face challenges in managing flow definitions, particularly due to the inefficiency of updating rules across all ports in a single linked list and the coexistence of software-defined flows with traditional network architectures, leading to erroneous forwarding decisions and significant overhead in updating flow definitions.
Innovation Solution
The system converts generic flow definitions into port-specific rules and uses per-port linked lists to store flow identifiers, allowing for efficient updates by only rewriting affected rules in the content addressable memory, thereby isolating traditional and software-defined ports and reducing update overhead.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single linked list is used to store flow definitions for all ports, then the structure is simple, but updating flow definitions causes significant overhead and requires rewriting all rules in the content addressable memory
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the single linked list into multiple per-port linked lists, where each linked list stores flow definitions specific to a particular port. This segmentation allows updates to be isolated to individual ports, reducing the overhead of rewriting flow definitions in the content addressable memory and improving update efficiency without significantly increasing overall system complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If generic flow definitions are applied to all ports, then the configuration is simplified, but erroneous forwarding decisions occur when mixing software-defined and traditional ports
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different flow definition characteristics to different ports by maintaining separate per-port linked lists. Software-defined ports can have generic flow definitions applied to them, while traditional ports maintain their specific configurations. This local differentiation ensures that each port receives the appropriate type of flow definition, preventing erroneous forwarding decisions while maintaining configuration simplicity where applicable.
Data Source
AI summary
A system facilitates flow definition management in a switch. During operation, the system identifies a generic flow definition which specifies a flow that is not specific to any input port of a switch. The system further stores in a flow lookup data structure one or more port-specific flow rules based on the generic flow definition, wherein each port-specific flow rule corresponds to a respective port capable of processing data flows.