Barefoot Networks, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Remy Chang

Changhoon Kim

Anurag Agrawal

Michael Feng

Yi Li

Jeongkeun Lee

Patrick W Bosshart

Michael Gregory Ferrara

Jay Evan Scott Peterson

Georgios Nikolaidis

Joon-Myung Kang

Alain Loge

Ramkumar Krishnamoorthy

Yan Wang

Andre Lam

Ashkan Nikravesh

Some embodiments of the invention provide a network forwarding element that can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust its data message processing to stay within a desired operating temperature or power consumption range. In some embodiments, the network forwarding element includes (1) a data-plane forwarding circuit ('data plane') to process data tuples associated with data messages received by the IC, and (2) a control-plane circuit (“control plane”) for configuring the data plane forwarding circuit. The data plane includes several data processing stages to process the data tuples.

Dynamically reconfiguring data plane of forwarding element to account for power consumption

Some embodiments provide a method for an ingress packet processing pipeline of a network forwarding integrated circuit (IC). The ingress packet processing pipeline is for receiving packets from a port of the network forwarding IC and processing the packets to assign different packets to different queues of a traffic management unit of the network forwarding IC. The method receives state data from the traffic management unit. The method stores the state data in a stateful table. The method assigns a particular packet to a particular queue based on the state data received from the traffic management unit and stored in the stateful table.

Using stateful traffic management data to perform packet processing

Some embodiments of the invention provide a network forwarding element that can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust its data message processing to stay within a desired operating temperature or power consumption range. In some embodiments, the network forwarding element includes (1) a data-plane forwarding circuit ('data plane') to process data tuples associated with data messages received by the IC, and (2) a control-plane circuit (“control plane”) for configuring the data plane forwarding circuit. The data plane includes several data processing stages to process the data tuples. The data plane also includes an idle-signal injecting circuit that receives from the control plane configuration data that the control plane generates based on the IC's temperature. Based on the received configuration data, the idle-signal injecting circuit generates idle control signals for the data processing stages. Each stage that receives an idle control signal enters an idle state during which the majority of the components of that stage do not perform any operations, which reduces the power consumed and temperature generated by that stage during its idle state.

Some embodiments of the invention provide a network forwarding element that can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust its data message processing to stay within a desired operating temperature or power consumption range. In some embodiments, the network forwarding element includes (1) a data-plane forwarding circuit ('data plane') to process data tuples associated with data messages received by the IC, and (2) a control-plane circuit ('control plane') for configuring the data plane forwarding circuit. The data plane includes several data processing stages to process the data tuples. The data plane also includes an idle-signal injecting circuit that receives from the control plane configuration data that the control plane generates based on the IC's temperature. Based on the received configuration data, the idle-signal injecting circuit generates idle control signals for the data processing stages. Each stage that receives an idle control signal enters an idle state during which the majority of the components of that stage do not perform any operations, which reduces the power consumed and temperature generated by that stage during its idle state.

Embodiments described herein describe a network tester that is configured to perform packet modification at an egress pipeline of a programmable packet engine. A packet stream is received at an egress pipeline of an output port of the programmable packet engine, wherein the output port includes a packet modifier. Packets of the packet stream are modified at the packet modifier. The packet stream including modified packets is transmitted through an egress pipeline of the output port.

Network testing using a programmable packet engine

Some embodiments provide a network forwarding integrated circuit (IC) that includes at least one packet processing pipeline. The packet processing pipeline includes multiple match-action stages, at least one of which includes a stateful processing unit that operates at a line rate of the network forwarding IC. The stateful processing unit is configured to receive data stored in a memory location associated with a stateful table of the match-action stage. The data includes a set of values. The stateful processing unit is further configured to identify one of a maximum value and a minimum value from the set of values, and to output the identified value for use by a next match-action stage.

Stateful processing unit with min/max capability

Dynamically reconfiguring data plane of forwarding element to account for operating temperature

Dynamically reconfiguring data plane of forwarding element to adjust data plane throughput based on detected conditions

Some embodiments provide a method for a traffic management circuit of a data plane forwarding circuit. The traffic management circuit receives data messages from a set of ingress pipelines and provides the data messages to a set of egress pipelines. The method identifies a flow control event. The method provides metadata regarding the flow control event to a message generation circuit of the data plane forwarding circuit via a bus between the traffic management circuit and the message generation circuit.

Flow control visibility

Some embodiments provide a method for a traffic management unit of a network forwarding integrated circuit (IC). The traffic management unit includes multiple queues for storing packets. Each stored packet is (i) received by the traffic management unit from one of multiple ingress packet processing pipelines and (ii) for processing by an egress packet processing pipeline after being released from the queue storing the packet. The method determines that a particular one of the queues has crossed a threshold amount of stored packet data. The method provides queue state data including an identifier of the particular queue and a current amount of data stored in the particular queue to at least a subset of the multiple ingress pipelines. The ingress pipelines use the provided data to process subsequent packets.

Transmission of traffic management data to processing pipeline

Some embodiments provide a network forwarding integrated circuit (IC) including multiple configurable ingress pipelines, multiple configurable egress pipelines, a traffic management unit, and a statistics bus. The configurable ingress pipelines are for processing packets received from ports of the network forwarding IC. The configurable egress pipelines are for processing packets to be transmitted out the ports of the network forwarding IC. The traffic management unit includes multiple queues, each of which corresponds to one of the egress pipelines, and is for receiving a packet from an ingress pipeline and enqueuing the packet into one of the queues. The statistics bus connects the traffic management unit to at least a subset of the ingress pipelines, and is for providing the ingress pipelines with state information regarding the queues.

Growing community of inventors

Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Remy Chang