VXLAN Tunnel State Management for Redundancy Protection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The multi-active gateway in VXLAN networks lacks a perfect redundancy protection mechanism and has high requirements for synchronization and latency due to its load balancing mode, which also fails to ensure consistent uplink and downlink traffic directions.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves setting tunnel states for VXLAN tunnels based on priority, where one tunnel is active and the other is inactive, with state information being notified between VTEP devices to ensure redundancy and consistent traffic directions, and ARP entry synchronization is achieved without needing entry backup links.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multi-active gateway is used in VXLAN network, then network reliability is improved, but synchronization and latency requirements become high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the gateway functionality by introducing a primary gateway and multiple standby gateways, where only one gateway is active at a time. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by eliminating the need for simultaneous synchronization across multiple active gateways, thereby maintaining high reliability through redundancy while reducing synchronization and latency requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of having multiple gateways simultaneously active and forwarding traffic (multi-active mode), the patent inverts the approach by having one primary gateway handle all traffic forwarding while standby gateways remain inactive until needed. This inversion resolves the technical contradiction by sacrificing the parallelism of multi-active gateways to eliminate synchronization overhead and latency issues.
2Reliability
If multi-active gateway is used in VXLAN network, then network reliability is improved, but complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments gateway roles into primary and standby configurations, simplifying the system architecture compared to multi-active gateways. This segmentation reduces device complexity by eliminating the need for complex load balancing and synchronization mechanisms while maintaining reliability through the standby gateway that can take over if the primary fails.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the traffic forwarding function from multiple gateways and concentrates it in a single primary gateway. This extraction simplifies the system by removing the complexity of coordinating multiple active gateways, while standby gateways provide redundancy without participating in active forwarding, thus reducing overall system complexity.
3Productivity
If load balancing mode is used, then traffic distribution is improved, but synchronization requirements become high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the load balancing approach by using a single primary gateway for all traffic forwarding instead of distributing traffic across multiple active gateways. This inversion eliminates the need for synchronization between gateways while maintaining productivity through the primary gateway's full capacity utilization, with standby gateways providing redundancy.
Data Source
AI summary
A virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) packet forwarding method, device, and system, where the method includes setting, by a local VXLAN tunnel end point (VTEP) device based on a priority of a VXLAN tunnel, tunnel states of at least two VXLAN tunnels coupled to the local VTEP device, sending the tunnel states of the VXLAN tunnels to at least two peer VTEP devices, where the at least two VXLAN tunnels are in a one-to-one correspondence with the at least two peer VTEP devices, and separately confirming, by the at least two peer VTEP devices, the received tunnel states of the VXLAN tunnels. A VXLAN tunnel in an active state is in a working state, and a VXLAN tunnel in an inactive state is in a non-working state, thereby improving a redundancy protection capability of a VXLAN network.