Traffic Flow Redirection via Routing Encapsulation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In networking environments, existing technologies face challenges in managing traffic flows efficiently, leading to issues like loss of application visibility, duplicated processing, and traffic loops due to misclassification and rerouting, which affect network performance and optimization.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a routing encapsulation key and binding table system, where a policy server distributes a binding table to border routers, allowing packets to be encapsulated and routed through GRE tunnels, ensuring stable and consistent traffic flow management without the need for reclassification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traffic flows are redirected among border routers to improve performance and load sharing, then network optimization and failure tolerance are improved, but traffic loops and misclassification occur leading to loss of application visibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary classification marker (such as a VLAN tag, MPLS label, or custom header field) that is inserted into traffic flow packets when they are classified at the ingress border router. This marker travels with the packet through the network, preserving the original classification information even as the packet is redirected to different egress border routers. The marker acts as a mediator that maintains application visibility throughout the redirected path, preventing the loss of information that would otherwise occur during traffic flow redirection.
2Productivity
If traffic flows are dynamically redirected among border routers, then network performance and load sharing are improved, but duplicated processing occurs due to reclassification requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary classification action at the ingress border router where traffic flows are classified and marked with classification markers before being redirected to egress border routers. This preliminary action ensures that the classification is performed only once at the entry point, and the resulting markers are preserved throughout the traffic flow's journey through the network. Egress border routers can then use these pre-existing markers to determine routing decisions without needing to perform reclassification, thereby eliminating duplicated processing and reducing the time lost to redundant classification operations.
3Productivity
If routing decisions are made at border routers based on performance information, then traffic flow optimization is improved, but traffic loops occur due to misclassification and rerouting
Solution Approach 1:
The classification marker serves as a stable intermediary that decouples the routing decision-making process from the traffic classification process. The marker is set once based on the original traffic classification and remains unchanged as the packet traverses the network, providing a stable reference for routing decisions. This prevents traffic loops because the routing decisions are based on the stable marker value rather than re-evaluating traffic characteristics that might change or be misclassified at different border routers, thereby maintaining routing path stability while still allowing for optimization.
Data Source
AI summary
In response to receiving one or more packets from an interface, an anchoring border router classifies the traffic flow and either transmits the packets based upon the routing control table as usual, or determines that the packets of the traffic flow are to be forwarded to a forwarding border router. Upon determining that the packets are to be forwarded, the packets are encapsulated with a routing encapsulation key corresponding to a routing path and are forwarded from the anchoring border router to the forwarding border router via a routing encapsulation tunnel. When a forwarding border router receives the redirected packets over the routing encapsulation tunnel, the forwarding border router removes the routing encapsulation key from the packets of the traffic flow and transmits the packets via a routing path corresponding to the routing encapsulation key.