FORWARDING PACKET FRAGMENTS USING L4-L7 HEADERS WITHOUT REASSEMBLY IN A SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING (SDN) SYSTEM

摘要

A network element of a software-defined networking (SDN) system forwards IP packet fragments without reassembly is disclosed. The network element receives an IP packet fragment and determines whether the fragment is the first fragment of an original IP packet. If the fragment is the first fragment, then fields in the first fragment that are associated with open systems interconnection layers (OSI) 4-7 are retrieved and placed in an entry in a fragment information table so that the entry is associated with the original IP packet. If the received fragment is not the first fragment, then a matching entry in the fragment information table is to be identified and the associated OSI layers 4-7 information is retrieved for processing the non-first fragment.

主权项

1. A method implemented in a network element of a software-defined networking (SDN) system, the method comprising:
receiving a packet at the network element implemented by one or more network devices; determining whether the packet contains a fragment of an original Internet protocol (IP) packet, wherein the original IP packet is fragmented into a plurality of ordered fragments, and wherein only a first fragment of the plurality of ordered fragments contains one or more fields associated with open system interconnection layers 4-7; upon determining the packet contains a fragment of the original IP packet, determining whether or not the packet contains the first fragment of the original IP packet; upon determining that the packet contains the first fragment of the original IP packet, adding an entry to a fragment information table of the SDN system, the entry associated with the original IP packet and comprising data contained in the first fragment in the one or more fields associated with open system interconnection layers 4-7, wherein the entry is used by the network element to process non-first fragments of the original IP packet; and before all fragments of the original IP packet are received, processing the first fragment of the original IP packet based on the data contained in the first fragment in the one or more fields associated with open system interconnection layers 4-7.