Systems and methods for hardware accelerated timer implementation for openflow protocol
US9571412B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 8, 2015 |
| Grant date | Feb 14, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 12, 2035 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L47/623
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A new approach is proposed to support a virtual network switch, which is a software implementation of a network switch utilizing hardware to accelerate implementation of timers of the virtual network switch under OpenFlow protocol. The approach utilizes a plurality of hardware-implemented timer blocks/rings, wherein each of the rings covers a specified time period and has a plurality of timer buckets each corresponding to an interval of expiration time of timers. When a new flow table entry is programmed at an OpenFlow agent of the virtual network switch, its associated timer entries are created and inserted into the corresponding timer bucket based on the expiration time of the timers. During operation, hardware of the virtual network switch traverses the timer rings for the timer bucket which time has expired, identifies timer entries in the expired timer bucket, interrupts CPU or provides a notification to the agent with necessary contextual information.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.