Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited

Brocade Communication Systems LLC

Phanidhar Koganti

Suresh Vobbilisetty

Shunjia Yu

Mythilikanth Raman

Anoop Ghanwani

Dilip Chatwani

Rajiv Krishnamurthy

Shiv Haris

Nagarajan Venkatesan

John Michael Terry

Jesse Willeke

Vardarajan Venkatesh

Pankaj K Jha

Vidyasagara Reddy Guntaka

Somesh Gupta

Arun Mahajan

Venkata R K Addanki

Mary Manohar

Raju Shekarappa

Mahesh K Pujara

Surya Parkash Varanasi

Senthilkumar Narayanasamy

Daniel Ji Yong Park Chung

Surya Prakash Varanasi

Pankaj Srivastava

Wing Cheung

Joseph Juh-En Cheng

Chi Lung Chong

Glenn Wenig

Rajnish Gupta

David Alan Peterson

Huan Song

Amit Kumar Ray

Amit K Ray

Jesse B Willeke

Vidyasagara R Guntaka

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch system. The switch includes a port that couples to a server hosting a number of virtual machines. The switch also includes a link tracking module. During operation, the link tracking module determines that reachability to at least one end host coupled to a virtual cluster switch of which the switch is a member is disrupted. The link tracking module then determines that at least one virtual machine coupled to the port is affected by the disrupted reachability, and communicates to the server hosting the affected virtual machine about the disrupted reachability.

Advanced link tracking for virtual cluster switching

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch that is a member of a fabric switch. The switch includes a keepalive response module that identifies a keepalive response packet that does not correspond to any keepalive packet previously transmitted by the switch. The switch also includes a switch identifier extraction module that extracts a switch identifier from a payload of the keepalive response packet, where the switch identifier corresponds to another member switch in the fabric switch. The switch further includes a forwarding module that constructs a packet that includes the payload and is destined to the other member switch.

Virtual extensible LAN tunnel keepalives

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch in a network of interconnected switches. The switch includes a storage device, a hardware management apparatus, and a layer-2 management apparatus. The storage device stores a forwarding table, which includes an entry comprising a MAC address and an egress port for the MAC address. The hardware management apparatus determines whether a destination MAC address of a frame is present in a hardware table in memory of the switch. The layer-2 management apparatus, in response to a determination that the destination MAC address is not present in the hardware table, looks up a first entry comprising the destination MAC address in the forwarding table, and creates a second entry comprising the destination MAC address in the hardware table based on the first entry.

Progressive MAC address learning

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a logical channel apparatus and a tunnel apparatus. The logical channel apparatus associates a logical channel identifier of a logical channel with the switch and assigns an Internet Protocol (IP) address as switch identifier of the switch. The logical channel includes a plurality of member switches and the switch is a member switch of the logical channel. The IP address uniquely identifies the switch in the logical channel. The tunnel apparatus establishes a tunnel with a remote switch in the logical channel. An inter-switch packet from the switch is encapsulated in a tunnel header associated with the tunnel.

IP-based interconnection of switches with a logical chassis

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch is configurable to be a member of a first fabric switch. The switch includes a link aggregation module. During operation, the link aggregation module marks an ingress-switch field of a frame with a virtual switch identifier. This virtual switch identifier is associated with the switch and a second switch, which is a member of a second fabric switch, and is from a range of identifier associated with the first fabric switch and the second fabric switch. Each of the first fabric switch and the second fabric switch is operable to accommodate a plurality of switches and operate as a single switch.

Virtual link aggregations across multiple fabric switches

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch in a network of interconnected switches. The switch includes a network extension module, which maintains a mapping between a first virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier and a first global VLAN identifier of a network extension group. The network extension group is represented by a range of global VLAN identifiers for a tenant. A global VLAN identifier is persistent in a respective switch of the network and represents a virtual forwarding domain in the network. During operation, the network extension module includes the global VLAN identifier in a packet belonging to the first VLAN.

Network extension groups of global VLANs in a fabric switch

Systems and techniques for processing and/or forwarding packets are described. An ingress switch can use a QoS mapping mechanism to map a first set of Quality of Service (QoS) bits in a packet received from a customer to a second set of QoS bits for use in a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) packet which encapsulates the packet. The first set of QoS bits can be different from the second set of QoS bits. The TRILL packet can be processed and/or forwarded in the network based on the second set of QoS bits. At the egress switch, the TRILL packet can be decapsulated and the original packet with the original QoS bits (or QoS bits that are different from the original QoS bits) can be forwarded to the customer's network. In this manner, some embodiments of the present invention can preserve the QoS bits across a TRILL network.

Preserving quality of service across trill networks

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a port to couple to a second switch. The switch also includes a control mechanism configured to maintain a set of configuration information for a virtual cluster switch which includes a number of member switches. The set of configuration information includes global configuration information for the virtual cluster switch and switch-specific configuration information for one or more member switches. In addition, the set of configuration information is replicated and stored at each member switch.

Distributed configuration management for virtual cluster switching

A novel fabric switch is provided. The switch includes a tunnel management apparatus that maintains a local inter-switch tunnel and an inter-fabric tunnel. The local inter-switch tunnel facilitates communication to a switch in a local fabric switch. The inter-fabric tunnel facilitates communication to a remote fabric switch. The switch further includes a packet header management apparatus that decapsulates a packet received from the local inter-switch tunnel and encapsulates the packet with a new tunnel header for transmission over the inter-fabric tunnel.

Interconnection of switches based on hierarchical overlay tunneling

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a tunnel management module, a packet processor, and a forwarding module. The tunnel management module operates the switch as a tunnel gateway capable of terminating an overlay tunnel. During operation, the packet processor, which is coupled to the tunnel management module, identifies in a data packet a virtual Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with a virtual tunnel gateway. This virtual tunnel gateway is associated with the switch and the data packet is associated with the overlay tunnel. The forwarding module determines an output port for an inner packet in the data packet based on a destination address of the inner packet.

Overlay tunnel in a fabric switch

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch that facilitates name services in a virtual cluster switch. The switch includes a name service database indicating at least one media access control (MAC) address learned at a second switch. The switch also includes a control mechanism. During operation, the control mechanism distributes information on a locally learned MAC address to the second switch. In addition, the control mechanism receives information on a MAC address learned at the second switch.

Name services for virtual cluster switching

Methods and techniques for flooding packets on a per-virtual-network basis are described. Some embodiments provide a method (e.g., a switch) which determines an internal virtual network identifier based on one or more fields in a packet's header. Next, the method performs a forwarding lookup operation based on the internal virtual network identifier. If the forwarding lookup operation succeeds, the method can process and forward the packet accordingly. However, if the forwarding lookup operation fails, the method can determine a set of egress ports based on the internal virtual network identifier. Next, for each egress port in the set of egress ports, the method can flood the packet if a virtual network identifier in the packet's header is associated with the egress port. Flooding packets on a per-virtual-network basis can substantially reduce the amount of resources required to flood the packet when a forwarding lookup operation fails.

Flooding packets on a per-virtual-network basis

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Phanidhar Koganti