SDWAN Router Affinity Routing for Policy-Light Gateway Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current techniques for load-balancing traffic across gateways in SDWAN networks are resource-intensive and require complex control policies, leading to degraded network performance and scalability issues.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing affinity routing by assigning affinity numbers and preference orders to gateways and edge devices, allowing automatic load-balancing without complex policies, ensuring deterministic route selection and reduced resource usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If complex control policies are used to achieve load-balancing and affinity routing, then route selection precision is improved, but device complexity and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex control policy into two independent components: affinity numbers assigned to gateways/services and affinity preference orders configured on edge routers. This segmentation eliminates the need for complex centralized control policies while maintaining deterministic route selection. Each edge router independently selects routes based on its local preference order matching gateway affinity numbers, achieving load-balancing without complex policy coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the routing control mechanism from complex policy-based control to simple parameter-based control. Affinity numbers (identifiers) and affinity preference orders (priority lists) are introduced as parameters that enable deterministic route selection. This parameter-based approach replaces resource-intensive control policies with lightweight numerical comparisons, reducing device complexity while improving route selection precision.
2Measurement precision
If complex control policies are implemented for affinity routing, then route selection accuracy is improved, but processing resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the routing decision-making process into simple local operations at each edge router. Instead of centralized policy processing that consumes significant resources, each edge router independently compares its local affinity preference order with gateway affinity numbers to determine route selection. This segmentation distributes the computational load and eliminates resource-intensive centralized control policy evaluation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces expensive, resource-intensive control policies with cheap numerical parameters (affinity numbers and preference orders). These simple numerical values require minimal processing power to compare and evaluate, significantly reducing CPU and memory consumption on edge routers while maintaining accurate route selection. The lightweight nature of numerical comparison makes this approach scalable to large networks.
3Productivity
If multiple gateways are deployed for load-balancing, then network capacity is improved, but control policy complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal load-balancing mechanism that works across any number of gateways without requiring gateway-specific control policies. The affinity number and preference order system provides a generic framework that automatically adapts to networks with varying numbers of gateways and services. This universal approach eliminates the need to create and maintain separate complex control policies for each gateway addition, enabling scalable network capacity expansion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables edge routers to perform self-service route selection based on locally stored affinity preference orders. When multiple gateways are deployed, each edge router independently determines the optimal gateway to use by comparing its preference order with gateway affinity numbers, without requiring centralized control policy coordination. This self-service mechanism automatically achieves load-balancing across multiple gateways while minimizing control complexity.
4Reliability
If send-path-limit is increased to ensure preferred routes are sent, then route reliability is improved, but resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having edge routers pre-configure their affinity preference orders before route selection is needed. This pre-configuration allows routers to immediately and deterministically select preferred routes based on their local preference lists, eliminating the need to send multiple paths or increase send-path-limits. The preferred route is determined in advance through the preference order mechanism, ensuring reliable delivery without consuming additional routing resources.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes techniques and mechanisms for utilizing affinity routing in SDWAN networks. The techniques may enable network administrators to assign and/or configure affinity numbers to hub(s) and/or gateway(s), tunneling interface(s), service(s), etc., as well as affinity-preference-order(s) to edge device(s) within the network. Network administrators may also configure control polic(ies). The techniques enable a scalable and simplified way to automatically load-balance traffic across different gateways within a network, while reducing network resource usage. The techniques may utilize routing affinity to achieve a variety of networking related functionalities, including automatic load-balancing of traffic, provisioning of active and backup gateways, optimal route distribution to routers from routing controllers, optimized service placement for edge routers, without the need for any policy configuration at all, let alone complex policies.