Control plane integration with hardware switches
US10554484B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 26, 2015 |
| Grant date | Feb 4, 2020 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 23, 2037 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L41/0226
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Some embodiments provide a managed hardware forwarding element (MHFE) controller that serves as an intermediary between one or more central controllers in a central control plane (CCP) cluster and one or more third-party hardware devices (e.g., physical switches and routers, applicances such as firewalls, load balancers, etc.). The MHFE controller of some embodiments uses (i) a first protocol to communicate with the CCP cluster and (ii) a second protocol to communicate with the one or more third-party devices managed by the MHFE controller, thereby enabling the CCP cluster to distribute logical network configuration information to the physical workloads (e.g., third-party servers connected to a third-party Top of Rack (TOR) switch).
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.