Fortinet, Inc.

Edward Lopez

Joe Mihelich

Matthew F Hepburn

Venkateswara Adusumilli

Son Pham

Donald Krall

Neil Huynh

Sashidhar V Annaluru

Shivashakara Desigowda

Che-Lin Ho

Methods and systems for detecting an application associated with a given IP flow and differentially forwarding packets based on determined application are provided. According to one embodiment, an initial Internet Protocol (IP) packet of an IP flow is received by a network device. An application with which the initial IP packet is associated is determined by the network device. Based on the determined application, a forwarding rule to be applied to the initial IP packet is identified by the network device. Thereafter, the initial IP packet and subsequent IP packets associated with the IP flow are forwarded by the network device based on the identified forwarding rule.

Application-based network packet forwarding

Systems and methods for an SDN switch that provides application-based conditional forwarding and session-aware load balancing are provided. According to one embodiment, a packet is received at an input port of a Software Defined Networking (SDN) switch. The packet is forwarded by the SDN switch to a first flow processing unit (FPU) of multiple FPUs of the SDN switch. The first FPU determines whether the packet is to be tracked. And, if so, the received packet is transmitted to a second FPU of the SDN switch; otherwise, the packet is transmitted to a third FPU of the SDN switch. When the packet is received at the second FPU, the packet is conditionally forwarded by the SDN switch to an application device. When the packet is received at the third FPU, the packet is conditionally forwarded to an output port or dropped.

Application based conditional forwarding and load balancing in a software defined networking (SDN) architecture

Systems and methods for an SDN switch that provides service group chaining for sequentially serving multiple network security devices are provided. According to one embodiment, a packet received by the switch is processed by a first FPU based on a first set of rules and forwarded conditionally to a first security device. The packet is security processed, including dropping it or forwarding it to an egress port or forwarding it to a second FPU. When forwarded to the second FPU, the packet is processed based on a second set of rules by forwarding it to a second security device or dropping it or forwarding it to the egress port. When forwarded to the second security device, the packet is security processed, including dropping it or forwarding it to the egress port or conditionally forwarding it to a third FPU to be sequentially forwarded to a third security device.

Sequentially serving network security devices using a software defined networking (SDN) switch

A method for balancing load among firewall security devices (FSDs) is provided. According to one embodiment, a switching device performs adaptive load balancing among cluster units of an HA cluster of firewall security devices. A load balancing (LB) function implemented by the switching device is configured based on information received from a network administrator. A LB table is maintained that forms associations between hash values output by the LB function and corresponding ports of the switching device to which the cluster units are coupled. Network traffic received by the switching device is directed to appropriate cluster units based on the LB function and the LB table. A traffic load on each of the cluster units is monitored. Responsive to a deviation from a predefined ideal traffic distribution, an attempt is made to improve performance of the HA cluster by dynamically adjusting the LB balancing table to address the deviation.

Load balancing among a cluster of firewall security devices

Systems and methods for an SDN switch that facilitates forwarding/differential routing decision determination are provided. A packet is received at an input port of the SDN switch. The switch includes a first and second set of flow processing units (FPUs). The packet is forwarded to a first FPU of the first set. Based on a flow table associated with the first FPU, it is determined whether the packet is to be forwarded to a network device or an output port. The packet is received from the network device at a second FPU of the second set. Based on a flow table associated with the second FPU, it is determined whether to execute one or more instructions to forward the packet to the input or output port, or to drop or default forward the packet to the input or output port.

Packet routing using a software-defined networking (SDN) switch

Systems and methods for scalable SDN devices having ports/network interfaces mapped to cardinal flow processing (CFP) units are provided. According to one embodiment, an incoming packet is received, at a software-defined networking (SDN) switch. An ingress port on which the incoming packet was received is determined. A cardinal direction to which the ingress port is mapped is determined. Based on the determined cardinal direction, the SDN switch identifies a cardinal flow processing (CFP) unit within the SDN switch with which the determined cardinal direction is associated. The SDN switch then causes the incoming packet to be processed by the identified CFP unit.

Cardinality based packet processing in software-defined networking (SDN) switches

A method for balancing load among firewall security devices (FSDs) is provided. According to one embodiment, imminent shutdown of a first cluster unit of an HA cluster of FSDs is gracefully handled by a switching device. A load balancing (LB) table, forming associations between hash values output by the LB function and corresponding ports of the switching device to which the cluster units are coupled, is maintained. The first cluster unit is coupled to a first port. Responsive to imminent shutdown of the first cluster unit: (i) a second cluster unit, coupled to a second port, is selected to perform security services on traffic sessions handled by the first cluster unit; and (ii) the LB table is updated by replacing reference(s) to the first port with reference(s) to the second port. Security services for subsequently received network traffic associated with the traffic sessions is performed by the second cluster unit.

A method for balancing load among firewall security devices in a network is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a switch causes firewall security devices (FSDs) of a cluster to enter into a load balancing mode. Responsive to receiving a heartbeat signal from an FSD, information regarding the FSD and the port on which the heartbeat signal was received are added to a table maintained by the switch that maps outputs of a load balancing function to ports of the switch. A received packet is forwarded to an FSD of the cluster by: (i) extracting a configurable number of bit values from a configurable set of bit positions within the packet; (ii) determining the output of the load balancing function; (iii) identifying the port to which the FSD is coupled based on the output and the table; and (iv) transmitting the packet to the FSD via the identified port.

A method for balancing load among firewall security devices in a network is disclosed. Firewall security devices are arranged in multiple clusters. A switching device is configured with the firewall security devices by communicating control messages and heartbeat signals. Information regarding the configured firewall security devices is then included in a load balancing table. A load balancing function is configured for enabling the distribution of data traffic received by the switching device. A received data packet by the switching device is forwarded to one of the firewall security devices in a cluster based on the load balancing function, the load balancing table and the address contained in the data packet.

Growing community of inventors

Herndon, VA, United States of America

Edward Lopez