Systems and methods for determining network topologies

摘要

A controller may control client switches in a network including client and non-client switches. The controller may maintain a link discovery table including entries that identify links between client switches. The controller may classify the links as direct or broadcast links. To classify links of the link discovery table, the controller may direct client switches to send broadcast and directed discovery packets from switch ports. Client switches that receive the discovery packets from other client switches may forward the discovery packets to the controller. The controller may use the discovery packets to classify the links of the link discovery table. The controller may classify ports as broadcast or regular ports based on the classified links. Non-client broadcast domains of the network topology may be identified from the broadcast ports using the broadcast and direct links of the link discovery table.

主权项

1. A method of using a controller that controls client switches in a network having non-client switches and end hosts that are coupled to the client and non-client switches, the method comprising:
maintaining, at the controller, a link discovery table including entries that identify links between client switches; processing, at the controller, the entries of the link discovery table to generate a network domain topology that includes client domains formed from client switches and non-client domains formed from non-client switches, wherein the client domains are separated by intervening non-client domains; selecting, using the controller, a link discovery table entry of the link discovery table; generating a classification, using the controller, for the link identified by the selected link discovery table entry based on timestamp information in the selected link discovery table entry; identifying, using the controller, broadcast ports of the client switches from the link classification generated based on the timestamp information in the selected link discovery table entry; identifying, using the controller, a broadcast domain associated with the non-client switches based on the identified broadcast ports; generating, using the controller, client domains from groups of the client switches; generating, using the controller, network topology information based on the generated client domains and the identified broadcast domain; generating, using the controller, flow table entries for the client switches based on the generated network topology information; and controlling, using the controller, the client switches to forward network packets through the network by providing the flow table entries to the client switches.