Virtual Router Function Sharding for Multi-Tenant Routing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Multi-tenant routed networks face scalability issues due to the large number of Virtual Routers Functions (VRFs) and increased memory footprint and CPU consumption, especially when handling hundreds of thousands of tenants, as each VRF maintains its own Forwarding Information Base (FIB) structure.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves grouping routers into clusters and partitioning Virtual Network Identifiers (VNIs) into subsets, where each cluster maintains a reduced set of VRF tables and FIB structures, and using a shard index mapping to route data packets to the appropriate cluster based on their VNI, thereby reducing memory usage and CPU consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If each VRF maintains its own FIB structure to support multi-tenant routing, then routing functionality is provided, but memory footprint increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the FIB structure by creating separate FIB instances for each VRF, allowing routing information to be partitioned and managed independently. This segmentation enables the system to handle multiple tenants while controlling memory usage through selective population of FIB entries based on routing protocol type and tenant requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by making each VRF's FIB structure have customized properties based on its specific routing protocol requirements (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, etc.). Each VRF can maintain only the FIB entries and structures necessary for its particular routing protocol, reducing unnecessary memory consumption while maintaining appropriate routing functionality
2Quantity of substance
If a router handles hundreds of thousands of FIBs simultaneously to support large number of tenants, then tenant capacity increases, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the routing workload by creating separate FIB instances for each VRF, distributing the complexity across multiple manageable structures rather than requiring a single monolithic FIB. This allows the router to handle large numbers of tenants through structured partitioning
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic characteristics by enabling selective population and maintenance of FIB entries based on routing protocol type, tenant activity, and network conditions. The system can dynamically adjust which VRFs maintain full FIB structures versus those with reduced structures, optimizing complexity management
3Adaptability or versatility
If multi-tenant routing protocol distributes routing information across all routers, then routing coverage is improved, but CPU consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by enabling each VRF and router to process and maintain only the routing information relevant to its specific configuration and tenant requirements. This selective processing reduces CPU consumption by avoiding unnecessary computation of irrelevant routing updates while maintaining comprehensive routing coverage across the multi-tenant network
Data Source
AI summary
Proposed herein at techniques for scalable network traffic steering in a multi-tenant network. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, at an ingress of a multi-tenant network, a data packet, the data packet including a Virtual Network Identifier (VNI) identifying a corresponding tenant for the data packet in the multi-tenant network, and determining, at the ingress, a corresponding cluster of routers for processing the data packet based on the VNI, wherein the corresponding cluster of routers is one of a plurality of clusters of routers in the multi-tenant network. The method further includes forwarding the data packet to a router in the corresponding cluster of routers for processing.