CONTROL DEVICE DISCOVERY IN NETWORKS HAVING SEPARATE CONTROL AND FORWARDING DEVICES

摘要

A Software Defined Network (SDN) includes a plurality of forwarding devices and a routing control device located separate from the forwarding devices. The routing control device, establishes paths to and from the network forwarding devices. Using such paths, forwarding devices send the routing control device information reflecting the topology if the network. Embodiments disclosed herein enable automatic discovery of the topology of the network and the paths to and from the routing control device.

主权项

1. A method for discovering routes between a plurality of forwarding devices in a network via a routing control device, comprising:
(a) sending, from the routing control device, to a forwarding device from the plurality of forwarding devices, a control packet, wherein the control packet includes an address of the routing control device and a serial number of the control packet; (b) periodically receiving, on the routing control device, messages from the forwarding device, each message identifying the forwarding device and other forwarding devices in the plurality of forwarding devices that the forwarding device is connected to; (c) constructing a topology database representing a topology of the network based on the messages received in (b); (d) receiving, on the routing control device, a message, wherein the message requests the routing control device to determine a path through the plurality of forwarding devices to forward packets of a data stream; (e) determining the path through the plurality of forwarding devices, based at least on the topology database, the determined path comprising a subset of the plurality of forwarding devices and connecting a source of the data stream to a destination of the data stream; and (f) sending configuration messages to each forwarding device in the subset of the plurality of forwarding devices to instruct each forwarding device to forward packets of the data stream along the determined path.