Network traffic distribution

摘要

A switch for a switching network includes a plurality of ports for communicating data traffic and a switch controller that controls switching between the plurality of ports. The switch controller selects a forwarding path for the data traffic based on at least topological congestion information for the switching network. In a preferred embodiment, the topological congestion information includes sFlow topological congestion information and the switch controller includes an sFlow client that receives the sFlow topological congestion information from an sFlow controller in the switching network.

主权项

1. A switch for a switching network, wherein the switch comprises:
a physical platform, including:
a plurality of ports for communicating data traffic;data storage including a Layer 2 forwarding information base; anda switch controller that controls switching of data traffic between the plurality of ports of the switch by reference to the Layer 2 forwarding information base, wherein the switch controller includes an sFlow client and is configured such that:
the sFlow client of the switch controller receives sFlow topological congestion information from an sFlow controller in the switching network, wherein the topological congestion information is generated by the sFlow controller based on sFlow datagrams received from multiple switches coupled to different network links of the switching network and identifies one or more forwarding paths of the switch that are experiencing higher congestion relative to other forwarding paths of the recipient switch;the switch controller selects a Layer 2 forwarding path for the data traffic from among multiple forwarding paths then available and reachable from the switch based on at least the received topological congestion information; andthe switch controller updates the Layer 2 forwarding information base based on the selected forwarding path and an Layer 2 destination address for the data traffic.