Silent Host Detection via Targeted Flood Lists in Software-Defined Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
In software-defined networks, discovering and communicating with silent hosts, such as IoT devices and printers in sleep mode, is challenging due to their lack of active network registration, making traditional flooding methods inefficient and unscalable.
Innovation Solution
A method involving fabric devices identifying unregistered endpoints and transmitting notifications to the control plane to create a targeted flood list or multicast group for directing traffic to silent hosts, avoiding network-wide flooding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If network-wide flooding is used to discover silent hosts, then all endpoints can be reached, but bandwidth consumption and network resource wastage increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network into controlled propagation domains using bridge domain filters. Instead of flooding the entire network, the system divides the network fabric into smaller segments where flooding is contained. This allows host discovery to be performed reliably within each segment while preventing excessive bandwidth consumption across the entire network.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by implementing bridge domain filters at specific fabric devices rather than uniformly across all devices. Each fabric device can independently configure filtering rules based on local conditions, allowing targeted host discovery in specific network segments while conserving bandwidth in other areas.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If network-wide flooding is used to discover silent hosts, then host discovery can be performed, but scalability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the network into controlled propagation domains, the patent enables host discovery to scale with network size. Each segment can independently perform host discovery without affecting the entire network, allowing the system to handle larger numbers of endpoints while maintaining detectability of silent hosts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by performing flooding only in necessary network segments rather than the entire network. This selective approach maintains the ability to detect silent hosts while avoiding the excessive resource consumption that would prevent scaling to large networks.
3Ease of operation
If traditional flooding methods are used, then silent hosts can be woken up, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces bridge domain filters as intermediaries between fabric devices and endpoint devices. These filters act as mediators that control traffic propagation, reducing the complexity burden on individual fabric devices while maintaining the ability to communicate with and wake up silent hosts through controlled flooding mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for discovering silent hosts in a software-defined network and directing traffic to the silent hosts in a scalable and targeted manner include determining interfaces of a fabric device that are connected to respective one or more endpoints, where the fabric device is configured to connect the endpoints to a network fabric of the software-defined network. At least a first interface is identified, where an address of a first endpoint connected to the first interface is not available at the fabric device. A first notification is transmitted to a control plane of the software-defined network based on identifying the first interface, where the control plane may create a flood list which includes the fabric device. Traffic intended for the first endpoint from the network fabric is received by the fabric device can be based on the flood list.