CN109150729B

CN109150729B - Data forwarding control method, device, system, medium and computing equipment

Info

Publication number: CN109150729B
Application number: CN201710508460.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李振强
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Priority date: 2017-06-28
Filing date: 2017-06-28
Publication date: 2021-11-19
Anticipated expiration: 2037-06-28
Also published as: CN109150729A

Abstract

The invention discloses a data forwarding control method, a data forwarding control device, a data forwarding control medium and computing equipment, which are used for automatically configuring periodic network actions or behaviors, ensuring the execution accuracy of the periodic network actions and saving the resource overhead of each network element in a network. The data forwarding control method comprises the following steps: receiving a flow table configuration message, wherein the flow table configuration message carries configuration information executed by a periodic network action; and generating a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information and periodically executing.

Description

Data forwarding control method, device, system, medium and computing equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of computer network communication technologies, and in particular, to a data forwarding control method, apparatus, system, medium, and computing device.

Background

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the embodiments of the invention that are recited in the claims. The description herein is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

The OpenFlow network is composed of an OpenFlow Switch (OpenFlow Switch) and a Controller (Controller). The OpenFlow switch forwards a data layer; the Controller performs centralized control on the network to realize the function of the control layer. As shown in fig. 1, it is a schematic structural diagram of an OpenFlow network.

The OpenFlow switch is provided with a FlowTable (flow table), the FlowTable is only forwarded according to the flow table, and the generation, maintenance and issuing of the FlowTable are realized by an external Controller. The FlowTable herein does not merely refer to IP (Internet Protocol) quintuple (IP source address, IP destination address, Protocol number, source port, and destination port), and the openflow1.0 specification defines 10 keys (ten tuples) including an input port, a MAC (Media Access Control) source address, a MAC destination address, an ethernet type, a VLAN ID (Virtual Local Area Network identification), an IP source address, an IP destination address, an IP port, a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) source port, and a TCP destination port. Each keyword in the FlowTable can be wildcarded, and an operator of the network can decide which granularity of flow is used, for example, the operator only needs to perform routing according to a destination IP, so that only an IP destination address field in the FlowTable is valid, and the others are wildcarded.

In the OpenFlow network, some network actions need to be executed periodically, for example, DSCP of video traffic needs to be set to a high priority every night at 7: 00-10: 00, so as to ensure the viewing experience of a user; or No. 15/month 2: 00-6: 00 requires reserving extra bandwidth for backup traffic; or important holidays each year require major safeguards for certain special websites or traffic, etc.

Manual configuration of network devices to implement such periodic actions is currently required, and due to the large number of devices in the network, the manual configuration method is very labor intensive and prone to errors. Moreover, because there is no mechanism for transmitting the periodic network action or behavior in the prior art, the controller needs to issue one instruction when the periodic network action starts and issue another instruction when the periodic network action ends, and the number of issued instructions is large, especially when the period is short and the frequency is high, such as once per minute and once for 5 seconds. Thus, the number of instructions interacting between the controller and the switch is very large, increasing the resource overhead of the switch and the controller.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a data forwarding control method, apparatus, medium, and computing device, which are used to automatically configure a periodic network action or behavior, ensure accuracy of execution of the periodic network action, and save resource overhead of each network element in a network.

The first data forwarding control method provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps:

receiving a flow table configuration message, wherein the flow table configuration message carries configuration information executed by a periodic network action;

and generating a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information and periodically executing.

Preferably, the configuration information comprises at least one of: the frequency of execution of the periodic network action, the start execution time and duration of the network action within each period.

Preferably, the generated flow table is executed according to the following flow:

determining all time points meeting the conditions according to the execution frequency of the periodic network action and the starting execution time of the network action in each period;

and when each determined time point arrives, executing the network action within the corresponding time length according to the duration.

Preferably, the FLOW table configuration message includes an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message.

Preferably, the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a message field indicating a frequency of the periodic network action execution, a start execution time and a duration of the network action in each period.

A first data forwarding control apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present invention includes:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a flow table configuration message, where the flow table configuration message carries configuration information for periodic network action execution;

the flow table generating unit is used for generating a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information;

and an execution unit for periodically executing the generated flow table.

Preferably, the execution unit is specifically configured to determine all time points satisfying the condition according to the frequency of the periodic network action execution and the start execution time of the network action in each period; and when each determined time point arrives, executing the network action within the corresponding time length according to the duration.

The second data forwarding control method provided by the embodiment of the present invention includes:

obtaining configuration information of periodic network action execution;

generating a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information;

and sending the generated flow table configuration message to an opposite terminal network element.

Preferably, the obtaining configuration information of the periodic network action execution specifically includes:

acquiring configuration information of manually configured periodic network action execution; or

And according to the obtained network information and/or flow information, determining configuration information of the periodic network action execution by using a preset algorithm.

A second data forwarding control apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present invention includes:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain configuration information of the periodic network action execution;

the generating unit is used for generating a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information;

and the sending unit is used for sending the generated flow table configuration message to the opposite terminal network element.

Preferably, the obtaining unit is specifically configured to obtain configuration information executed by a manually configured periodic network action; or the configuration information of the periodic network action execution determined by the preset algorithm is used according to the obtained network information and/or flow information.

The embodiment of the invention provides a data forwarding control system, which comprises a first network element and a second network element, wherein:

the first network element is used for acquiring configuration information executed by the periodic network action; generating a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information; sending the generated flow table configuration message to the second network element, wherein the flow table configuration message carries configuration information executed by the periodic network action;

and the second network element is used for generating a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information of the periodic network action execution contained in the received flow table configuration message and executing the flow table periodically.

Preferably, the second network element is specifically configured to determine, according to the frequency of the periodic network action execution and the start execution time of the network action in each period, all time points that satisfy the condition; and when each determined time point arrives, executing the network action within the corresponding time length according to the duration.

Preferably, the first network element is specifically configured to acquire configuration information executed by a manually configured periodic network action; or the configuration information of the periodic network action execution determined by the preset algorithm is used according to the obtained network information and/or flow information.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a computing device, including at least one processing unit and at least one storage unit, where the storage unit stores a program code, and when the program code is executed by the processing unit, the processing unit is caused to execute any of the steps of the data forwarding control method.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, which includes program code for causing a computing device to execute any of the steps of the data forwarding control method described above when the program code runs on the computing device.

According to the data forwarding control method, the device, the system, the medium and the computing equipment provided by the embodiment of the invention, the flow table executed by the periodic network action is generated by the corresponding network element according to the configuration information by carrying the configuration information executed by the periodic network action in the flow table configuration message, and the corresponding network action is executed according to the generated flow table, so that the automatic configuration of the periodic network action or behavior is realized, and the execution accuracy of the periodic network action is ensured; moreover, because frequent instruction interaction is not needed between the two network elements, the resource overhead of each network element in the network is saved.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention and not to limit the invention. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network structure of an openflow network in the prior art;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart illustrating an implementation of a first data forwarding control method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a header of an OpenFlow message according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic format diagram of an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message in the openflow1.3 version according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a Match information Match structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a matching domain structure of an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating setting of newly added matching items according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a structure corresponding to a network action according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram corresponding to the OFP _ Action _ Header in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10a is a diagram illustrating the format of an IP address matching field according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10b is a schematic diagram of a matching structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic flow chart illustrating an implementation of a first data forwarding control method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12a is a schematic structural diagram of a first data forwarding control device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12b is a schematic structural diagram of a second data forwarding control device in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a data forwarding control system in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of another data forwarding control apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The inventor finds that for the network action needing to be periodically specified in the openflow network, the network equipment needs to be manually configured to implement the periodic action, and the manual configuration method is huge in workload and easy to make mistakes due to the large number of the equipment in the network. Moreover, because there is no mechanism for transmitting the periodic network action or behavior in the prior art, the controller needs to issue one instruction when the periodic network action starts and issue another instruction when the periodic network action ends, and the number of issued instructions is large, especially when the period is short and the frequency is high, such as once per minute and once for 5 seconds. Thus, the number of instructions interacting between the controller and the switch is very large, increasing the resource overhead of the switch and the controller.

In view of this, in order to achieve the purposes of automatically configuring a periodic network action or behavior, ensuring the execution accuracy of the periodic network action, and saving the resource overhead of each network element in a network, embodiments of the present invention provide a data forwarding control method, apparatus, medium, and computing device, where an openflow message is extended or newly added, and the extended or newly added openflow message includes configuration information of the periodically executed network action, so that a receiving network element can generate a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information of the periodic network action, and periodically execute a corresponding network action according to the generated flow table.

The data forwarding control method provided by the embodiment of the present invention may be, but is not limited to, applied to an openflow network, and in the openflow network, the first network element may be, but is not limited to, a controller, and the second network element may be, but is not limited to, a switch. For convenience of description, the following takes as an example that the data forwarding control method provided by the embodiment of the present invention is applied to an openflow network, and the method does not limit the present invention.

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings of the specification, it being understood that the preferred embodiments described herein are merely for illustrating and explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention, and that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present invention may be combined with each other without conflict.

As shown in fig. 2, which is a schematic diagram of an implementation flow of a data forwarding control method provided in an embodiment of the present invention, the method may include the following steps:

s21, receiving a flow table configuration message, wherein the flow table configuration message carries configuration information executed by the periodic network action.

In specific implementation, the FLOW table configuration message may be a newly added openflow message, or may be implemented by expanding an existing openflow message, for example, an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message. Wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: the frequency of execution of the periodic network action, the start execution time and duration of the network action within each period. The executed frequencies include, but are not limited to, the following: every second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, etc.

Taking the FLOW table configuration message as an extended OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message as an example, the extended OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a message field for indicating the frequency of the periodic network action execution, the start execution time of the network action in each period, and the duration.

And S22, generating a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information and periodically executing.

All OpenFlow messages have a common header as shown in figure 3. Different types of messages may carry parameters of different structures. The messages defined IN OpenFlow currently include OFPT _ HELLO, OFPT _ featurejrequest, OFPT _ PACKET _ IN, OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD, OFPT _ roll _ REQUEST, and the like. Wherein the controller configures the switch FLOW table using the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message. As shown in fig. 4, it is a format of the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message in the openflow1.3 version.

The OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message comprises a match part and an action part, wherein the match part is used for describing matching information of the FLOW table, and the action part is used for describing an action or action to be taken on the FLOW matched with the matching information.

Through the Flow-Mod message, the operation of adding, deleting, changing and setting and the like can be carried out on the Flow table item. The OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message of OpenFlow1.3 can be divided into five types according to different operation commands, as shown in table 1:

TABLE 1

Name (R)	Numerical value	Content providing method and apparatus
			OFPFC_ADD
	0	Adding new flow entries
			OFPFC_MODIFY	1	Altering settings of matching flow entries
OFPFC_MODIFY_STRICT	2	Changing only the setting of the completely matched flow entry
			OFPFC_DELETE	3	Deleting matching flow entries
OFPFC_DELETE_STRICT	4	Deleting only perfectly matched flow entries

The Match information Match structure is a variable-length structure body, as shown in fig. 5. When the controller issues the message, only the needed matching item is needed to be contained, and the unnecessary matching item is not needed to be contained in the message body, thereby saving unnecessary expenses. The Match structure comprises a plurality of flow Match field structures, and flow tables with different scopes can be obtained by setting the content in the Match structure.

In addition, the design of the matching field of the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is as shown in fig. 6. Wherein the value of OXM _ class is fixed to 0x 8000; OXM _ field represents a specific match, such as source mac, vlan, etc.; OXM _ length represents the length of this OXM TLV value, in bytes; the M field indicates whether the OXM TLV contains a mask, the length of the mask is the same as the length of the value in the OXM TLV, a bit of 1 in the mask indicates that the bit corresponding to the matching item in the packet must be the same as the bit corresponding to the value to be matched, and a bit of 0 in the mask indicates that the value of the bit corresponding to the matching item in the packet is not limited. If the mask is included, the matching of the packet will become a bit-wise AND operation of the sum mask, and the result will be compared with the value of the OXM TLV. If the delivered message does not contain a mask, the message is required to be completely matched with the value of the OXM TLV.

Based on this, in the embodiment of the present invention, the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is extended, and the field value of the new matching entry OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD may be a preset value, which is assumed to be 68. The length of the matching item is indefinite, the first part is a 6-bit matching item, the 6 bits are in mutual exclusion relationship, and only one bit is set every time, as shown in fig. 7.

Wherein a Y-position bit (i.e., the bit is 1) indicates that an action is performed once per year, an MO-position bit (i.e., the bit is 1) indicates that an action is performed once per month, a W-position bit (i.e., the bit is 1) indicates that an action is performed once per week, a D-position bit (i.e., the bit is 1) indicates that an action is performed once per day, an H-position bit (i.e., the bit is 1) indicates that an action is performed once per hour, and an MI-position bit (i.e., the bit is 1) indicates that an action is performed once per minute. In addition, N2 4-byte integers are also required, wherein N is greater than or equal to 1. The first 4-byte integer in the 2 4-byte integers represents the time of starting the action, the meaning of the first 4-byte integer is related to the action period, and the first 4-byte integer represents how many seconds from the beginning of the action period, the action is started to be executed; the second 4-byte integer represents how long an action is performed each time, in seconds. When N is greater than 1, it means that two time periods within one action cycle need to perform the same action. For example, the action execution period is 7: 00-9: 00 and 17: 00-19: 00 per day, where N is 2.

Specifically, the cycle start point represents:

when the Y position is set, the cycle starting point represents how many seconds later the action starts to be executed from zero-minute zero second of zero point of 1 month and 1 day of each year;

when the MO bit is set, the cycle start point represents how many seconds later the action starts to be executed from zero-minute zero-second of zero point of 1 day of each month;

when the W bit is set, the cycle starting point represents how many seconds are elapsed from zero-point zero-minute zero second of each day of the week before the action is started;

when the D bit is set, the cycle starting point represents how many seconds later the action starts to be executed from zero-point zero-minute zero second every day;

when the H bit is set, the cycle start point represents how many seconds later the action starts to be executed from zero minute and zero second every time;

when the MI bit is set, the beginning of the cycle indicates how many seconds from zero seconds per minute the action begins to execute.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after receiving an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message sent by a controller, an exchange enumerates all time points meeting conditions according to a start time and a duration in a configuration message carried in the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, and after forwarding a packet to the exchange, the exchange matches data according to the enumerated time points. Based on this, the data forwarding control method provided in the embodiment of the present invention may further include the following steps: determining all time points meeting conditions according to the execution frequency of the periodic network action and the starting execution time of the network action in each period; and when each determined time point arrives, executing the network action within the corresponding time length according to the duration. Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a structure corresponding to a network operation according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a structure corresponding to an OFP _ Action _ Header (periodically executed network Action Header).

For better understanding of the embodiment of the present invention, the following description will be made by taking an example of discarding packets having a source IP of 10.0.0.1 at 19:00 to 22:00 per day. In specific implementation, a user performs application setting through an application layer of an SDN (Software defined Network) architecture, and the setting content is to discard a data packet with a source IP of 10.0.0.1 at 19:00-22:00 every day. After the controller obtains the application information through the northbound interface, an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is generated, and a specific format of the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is shown in fig. 10a and 10b, where fig. 10a shows a format schematic diagram of an IP address matching domain, and fig. 10b shows a schematic diagram of a matching structure (periodic forwarding). The switch generates a corresponding FLOW table according to the received OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, and then discards the data packet meeting the conditions at 19:00-22:00 every day according to the generated FLOW table.

It should be noted that, for convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present invention, a format of an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message in the OpenFlow1.3 version is taken as an example for description, and in a specific implementation, the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message extension method provided in the embodiment of the present invention may be applied to OpenFlow message formats of other versions.

According to the data forwarding control method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the configuration information executed by the periodic network action is carried in the flow table configuration message, so that the switch can generate the flow table executed by the periodic action according to the configuration information and execute the corresponding network action according to the generated flow table, thereby realizing the automatic configuration of the periodic network action or behavior and ensuring the execution accuracy of the periodic network action; moreover, because frequent instruction interaction is not needed between the controller and the switch, the resource overhead of the controller and the switch is saved.

Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a data forwarding control method implemented by a controller side, as shown in fig. 11, the method may include the following steps:

and S111, obtaining configuration information of the periodic network action execution.

In specific implementation, configuration information of periodic network action execution may be obtained according to configuration of a user, or it may be determined that some network actions need periodic execution according to analysis of collected data, and the like, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. Based on this, in step S11, it may be performed in any of the following ways:

the method comprises the steps of acquiring configuration information executed by a manually configured periodic network action.

And secondly, determining configuration information of the periodic network action execution by using a preset algorithm according to the obtained network information and/or flow information.

Wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: the frequency of execution of the periodic network action, the start execution time and duration of the network action within each period.

And S112, generating a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information.

Optionally, the FLOW table configuration message comprises an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message. By extending the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, it contains configuration information for periodic network action execution. Namely, the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a message field for indicating the frequency of the periodic network action execution, the start execution time and the duration of the network action in each period.

And S113, sending the generated flow table configuration message to an opposite terminal network element.

In specific implementation, the opposite-end network element that needs to send the flow table configuration message may be determined according to any one of the following methods: the first method is to send the generated flow table configuration message to an opposite terminal network element configured by a user. In this embodiment, it is necessary to send the flow table configuration information to those network elements, which are pre-configured by the user. And secondly, determining an opposite-end network element needing to send the flow configuration information by using a preset algorithm according to the obtained network information and/or the flow information.

Based on the same inventive concept, embodiments of the present invention further provide a data forwarding control apparatus, system, medium, and computing device, and because the principle of solving the problem of the apparatus, system, and device is similar to that of the data forwarding control method, the implementation of the apparatus, system, and device may refer to the implementation of the method, and repeated details are omitted.

As shown in fig. 12a, which is a schematic structural diagram of a first data forwarding control apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present invention, including:

a receiving unit 121, configured to receive a flow table configuration message, where the flow table configuration message carries configuration information executed by a periodic network action;

a flow table generating unit 122, configured to generate a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information;

and an execution unit 123 configured to execute the generated flow table.

As shown in fig. 12b, which is a schematic structural diagram of a second data forwarding control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, the second data forwarding control apparatus may include:

an obtaining unit 1211 configured to obtain configuration information of the periodic network action execution;

a generating unit 1212, configured to generate a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information;

a sending unit 1213, configured to send the generated flow table configuration message to the peer network element.

For convenience of description, the above parts are separately described as modules (or units) according to functional division. Of course, the functionality of the various modules (or units) may be implemented in the same or in multiple pieces of software or hardware in practicing the invention.

As shown in fig. 13, which is a schematic structural diagram of a data forwarding control system provided in an embodiment of the present invention, including a first network element 131 and at least one second network element 132, where:

the first network element 131 is configured to obtain configuration information of periodic network action execution; generating a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information; sending the generated flow table configuration message to the second network element 132, where the flow table configuration message carries configuration information for periodic network action execution;

the second network element 132 is configured to generate a corresponding flow table according to the received flow table configuration message, and periodically execute a periodic network action included in the flow table configuration message.

Preferably, the second network element 132 is specifically configured to determine all time points meeting the condition according to the frequency of the periodic network action execution and the starting execution time of the network action in each period; and when each determined time point arrives, executing the network action within the corresponding time length according to the duration.

Having described the data transfer control method and apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a data transfer control apparatus according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described next.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or program product. Thus, various aspects of the invention may be embodied in the form of: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

In some possible embodiments, a data forwarding control apparatus according to the present invention may include at least one processing unit, and at least one storage unit. Wherein the storage unit stores program code that, when executed by the processing unit, causes the processing unit to perform the steps in the data forwarding control method according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in this specification. For example, the processing unit may execute step S21 shown in fig. 2, and receive a flow table configuration message sent by the first network element, where the flow table configuration message carries configuration information for periodic network action execution; step S22, generating a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information and periodically executing; alternatively, the processing unit may perform step S111 as shown in fig. 11, obtaining configuration information of periodic network action execution; step S112, generating a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information; and step S113, sending the generated flow table configuration message to the opposite terminal network element.

The data transfer control device 140 according to this embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 14. The data forwarding control device 140 shown in fig. 14 is only an example, and should not bring any limitation to the functions and the scope of use of the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 14, the data forwarding control apparatus 140 is in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of the data forwarding control device 140 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 141, the at least one memory unit 142, and a bus 143 that couples various system components (including the memory unit 142 and the processing unit 141).

Bus 143 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or first element of a memory, a peripheral bus, a processor, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The storage unit 142 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as Random Access Memory (RAM)1421 and/or cache memory 1422, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 1423.

The memory unit 142 can also include a program/utility 1425 having a set (at least one) of program modules 1424, such program modules 1424 include, but are not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which, or some combination thereof, may comprise an implementation of a network environment.

The data forwarding control apparatus 140 may also communicate with one or more external devices 144 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the data forwarding control apparatus 140, and/or with any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the data forwarding control apparatus 140 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may be through an input/output (I/O) interface 145. Also, the data forwarding control device 140 may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the internet) via the network adapter 146. As shown, the network adapter 146 communicates with the other modules of the data forwarding control device 140 over a bus 143. It should be understood that although not shown in the figures, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in conjunction with the data forwarding control device 140, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, among others.

In some possible embodiments, the aspects of the data forwarding control method provided by the present invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product, which includes program code for causing a computer device to execute the steps in the user attribute information mining method according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in this specification when the program product runs on the computer device, for example, the computer device may execute step S21 shown in fig. 2, receive a flow table configuration message, where the flow table configuration message carries configuration information for periodic network action execution; step S22, generating a corresponding flow table according to the configuration information and periodically executing; alternatively, the processing unit may perform step S111 as shown in fig. 11, obtaining configuration information of periodic network action execution; step S112, generating a flow table configuration message according to the configuration information; and step S113, sending the generated flow table configuration message to the opposite terminal network element.

The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. A readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

A program product for data forwarding control according to an embodiment of the present invention may employ a portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) and include program code, and may be run on a server device. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited in this regard and, in the present document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of a remote computing device, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device over any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., over the internet using an internet service provider).

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several units or sub-units of the data forwarding control arrangement are mentioned, this division is only not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functions of two or more of the devices described above may be embodied in one device, according to embodiments of the invention. Conversely, the features and functions of one apparatus described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of apparatuses.

Moreover, while the operations of the method of the invention are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that the operations must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the illustrated operations must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions.

While the spirit and principles of the invention have been described with reference to several particular embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, nor is the division of aspects, which is for convenience only as the features in such aspects may not be combined to benefit. The invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A data forwarding control method, comprising:

receiving a FLOW table configuration message, wherein the FLOW table configuration message carries configuration information of periodic network action execution, the FLOW table configuration message comprises an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, and the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message comprises a message field used for indicating the frequency of the periodic network action execution, the starting execution time and the duration of the network action in each period; the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is an extended OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, where the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a newly added matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, a cycle of executing the network action is set by setting bits included in the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD further includes N integers of two preset numbers of bytes, a first integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the start execution time, a second integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the duration, and N represents a number of time PERIODs for executing the same network action in one cycle;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: the frequency of execution of the periodic network action, the start execution time and duration of the network action within each period.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating of the flow table is performed according to the following flow:

determining all time points meeting conditions according to the execution frequency of the periodic network action and the starting execution time of the network action in each period;

4. A data transfer control apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a FLOW table configuration message, where the FLOW table configuration message carries configuration information of periodic network action execution, the FLOW table configuration message includes an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, and the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a message field used to indicate a frequency of periodic network action execution, a start execution time of the network action in each period, and a duration; the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is an extended OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, where the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a newly added matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, a cycle of executing the network action is set by setting bits included in the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD further includes N integers of two preset numbers of bytes, a first integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the start execution time, a second integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the duration, and N represents a number of time PERIODs for executing the same network action in one cycle;

and an execution unit for periodically executing the generated flow table.

5. A data forwarding control method, comprising:

obtaining configuration information of periodic network action execution;

generating a FLOW table configuration message according to the configuration information, wherein the FLOW table configuration message comprises an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, and the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message comprises a message field used for indicating the frequency of the execution of the periodic network action, the starting execution time and the duration of the network action in each period; the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is an extended OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, where the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a newly added matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, a cycle of executing the network action is set by setting bits included in the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD further includes N integers of two preset numbers of bytes, a first integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the start execution time, a second integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the duration, and N represents a number of time PERIODs for executing the same network action in one cycle;

and sending the generated flow table configuration message to an opposite terminal network element so that the opposite terminal network element generates a corresponding flow table according to the configuration message and periodically executes the flow table.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: the frequency of execution of the periodic network action, the start execution time and duration of the network action within each period.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining configuration information for periodic network action execution specifically comprises:

8. A data transfer control apparatus, comprising:

a generating unit, configured to generate a FLOW table configuration message according to the configuration information, where the FLOW table configuration message includes an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, and the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a message field used to indicate a frequency of periodic network action execution, a start execution time and a duration of the network action in each period; the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is an extended OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, where the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a newly added matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, a cycle of executing the network action is set by setting bits included in the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD further includes N integers of two preset numbers of bytes, a first integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the start execution time, a second integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the duration, and N represents a number of time PERIODs for executing the same network action in one cycle;

and the sending unit is used for sending the generated flow table configuration message to an opposite terminal network element so that the opposite terminal network element generates a corresponding flow table according to the configuration message and executes the flow table periodically.

9. A data forwarding control system comprising a first network element and a second network element, wherein:

the first network element is used for obtaining configuration information executed by the periodic network action; generating a FLOW table configuration message according to the configuration information, wherein the FLOW table configuration message comprises an OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, and the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message comprises a message field used for indicating the frequency of the execution of the periodic network action, the starting execution time and the duration of the network action in each period; sending the generated flow table configuration message to the second network element; the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message is an extended OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message, where the OFPT _ FLOW _ MOD message includes a newly added matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, a cycle of executing the network action is set by setting bits included in the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD, the matching item OFPXMT _ OFB _ PERIOD further includes N integers of two preset numbers of bytes, a first integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the start execution time, a second integer of the two preset numbers of bytes is used for setting the duration, and N represents a number of time PERIODs for executing the same network action in one cycle;

and the second network element is used for generating a corresponding flow table according to the received flow table configuration message and periodically executing the periodic network action contained in the flow table configuration message.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: the frequency of execution of the periodic network action, the start execution time and duration of the network action within each period.

11. The system of claim 10,

the second network element is specifically configured to determine, according to the frequency of the periodic network action execution and the start execution time of the network action in each period, all time points that satisfy a condition; and when each determined time point arrives, executing the network action within the corresponding time length according to the duration.

12. The system of claim 9,

the first network element is specifically configured to acquire configuration information executed by a manually configured periodic network action; or the configuration information of the periodic network action execution determined by the preset algorithm is used according to the obtained network information and/or flow information.

13. A computing device comprising at least one processing unit and at least one memory unit, wherein the memory unit stores program code that, when executed by the processing unit, causes the processing unit to perform the steps of the method of any of claims 1-3 or 5-7.

14. A storage medium readable by a computing device, comprising program code for causing a computing device to perform the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 3 or 5 to 7 when the program code is run on the computing device.