Multi-stage switching topology

摘要

The present technology considers multi-stage network topologies where it is not possible to evenly stripe uplinks from a lower stage of the network topology to switching units in an upper stage of the topology. This technology proposes techniques to both improve overall throughput and to deliver uniform performance to all end hosts with uneven connectivity among the different stages while delivering uniform performance to all hosts. To achieve improved network performance in case of asymmetric connectivity, more flows may be sent to some egress ports than to others, thus weighting some ports more than others, resulting in Weighted Cost Multi Path (WCMP) flow distribution.

主权项

1. A method for distributing packets in a network, comprising:
receiving the packets at a source node; identifying a destination node for the packets; identifying a first intermediate node of a plurality of intermediate nodes over which the packets can be sent from the source node to the destination node; identifying a second intermediate node of the plurality of intermediate nodes over which the packets can be sent from the source node to the destination node; identifying a first bandwidth of a first connection between the source node and the first intermediate node and a second bandwidth of a second connection between the source node and the second intermediate node; identifying a third bandwidth of a third connection between the first intermediate node and the destination node and a fourth bandwidth of a fourth connection between the second intermediate node and the destination node; determining a first percentage of the received packets to transmit from the source node through the first connection based at least on the first bandwidth and the third bandwidth; determining a second percentage of the received packets to transmit from the source node through the second connection based at least on the second bandwidth and the fourth bandwidth; programming the source node to transmit the first percentage of packets to the first intermediate node and to transmit the second percentage of packets to the second intermediate node; and transmitting the first percentage of the packets and the second percentage of packets by the source node.