METHOD FOR SCALABLE COMPUTER NETWORK PARTITIONING

摘要

Various techniques for partitioning a computer network is disclosed herein. In certain embodiments, control plane functions (e.g., computation of network routes) and/or forwarding plane functions (e.g., routing, forwarding, switching) may be partitioned and performed individually on per domain basis based on (1) a network configuration of a particular domain (e.g., end points and/or lower-level domains in the particular domain); and (2) one or more higher-level domains connected to the particular domain in the hierarchy. Thus, a particular domain can manage various network operations of the domain without concerns regarding end points or network nodes in other domains of the hierarchy. Thus, network configuration and operation may be partitioned to reduce hardware costs and operational complexity even as the size of the overall computer networks increases.

主权项

1. A method of transmitting packets in a computer network having a hierarchy of domains individually having one or more network nodes interconnected with one or more end points, the method comprising:
at a network node in a first domain of the hierarchy, receiving a plurality of packets with corresponding end point identifiers individually having a value corresponding to an end point in a second domain different than the first domain; determining at least a portion of a network route from the network node to the end points in the second domain by performing a comparison of at least a portion of the values of the received end point identifiers with entries in a forwarding table in the network node, one of the entries of the forwarding table specifying a higher-level domain corresponding to all end points in the second domain; and forwarding the packets to the higher-level domain based on the determined at least a portion of the network route.