SDN Service Discovery via Routing Advertisements Across Clusters
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for network service discovery in software-defined networks (SDNs) face challenges such as reliance on DNS servers with long time-to-live configurations, loss of administrator control, and complexity in managing service meshes, leading to inefficiencies and increased computational overhead.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing a routing protocol to advertise network service information between clusters, allowing direct communication between control planes without external hardware or complex service meshes, and enabling dynamic management of virtual execution elements as endpoints.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If DNS server is used for network service discovery, then service advertisement is achieved, but time delay occurs due to long TTL configuration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the service advertisement function from the traditional DNS server and implements it directly within the SDN control plane. Control planes of different clusters exchange service advertisement messages peer-to-peer, eliminating the DNS server's TTL-based caching mechanism and enabling immediate service discovery without time delays.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces service advertisement messages as intermediaries that carry service information directly between control planes. These messages replace the DNS query-response mechanism, enabling direct communication and immediate service discovery without relying on DNS server intermediation and its associated TTL delays.
2Adaptability or versatility
If service mesh is implemented for cluster interconnection, then service delivery is enabled, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential service delivery function from the complex service mesh architecture and implements it directly in the SDN control plane. Control planes exchange service advertisement messages to enable service delivery without requiring service mesh proxies, sidecars, or complex interconnection infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using service mesh to interconnect clusters and then advertise services, the patent inverts the approach by having control planes directly exchange service advertisement messages. This eliminates the need for service mesh infrastructure while achieving the same service delivery capability.
3Loss of information
If DNS server is used for service advertisement, then service information is distributed, but administrator control is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables control planes to autonomously exchange service advertisement messages with each other. Each control plane independently publishes service information and discovers services in other clusters without requiring external DNS server management, giving administrators full control over the service advertisement process.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for a computing system comprising processing circuitry having access to a storage device, the processing circuitry configured to: generate, by a network controller executing in a software defined network (SDN), an advertisement in a first network cluster executing within a container orchestration platform of the SDN, wherein the advertisement conforms to a routing protocol and comprises information identifying a network service executing in the first network cluster, wherein the network service exposes a backend of a network application to the container orchestration platform of the SDN; and broadcast, by the network controller and to a second network cluster executing within the container orchestration platform of the SDN, the advertisement in accordance with the routing protocol.