CN110855568B

CN110855568B - Message forwarding method and system

Info

Publication number: CN110855568B
Application number: CN201911161831.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘伟; 赵刚刚; 姜先绪
Original assignee: Maipu Communication Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Maipu Communication Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-11-22
Filing date: 2019-11-22
Publication date: 2022-02-22
Anticipated expiration: 2039-11-22
Also published as: CN110855568A

Abstract

The application provides a message forwarding method and a message forwarding system, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: a first processor receives a first message sent by a first switching chip; searching a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the first message, and determining forwarding path information of the first message from the routing forwarding table entry; and encapsulating the forwarding path information in the first message, generating a second message and sending the second message to the first switching chip, and sending the second message to the switch card by the first switching chip. According to the scheme, the HiGig interface is configured between the exchange chip and the processor, so that the message forwarding between the cards uses a HiGig protocol, the soft forwarding of the processor and the hard forwarding of the exchange chip can share one forwarding channel, namely, the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding are realized through the channel between the exchange chip and the exchange card, so that only one type of exchange card is needed in the system to meet the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding of the message, and the system cost can be effectively reduced.

Description

Message forwarding method and system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and a system for forwarding a packet.

Background

With the continuous development of the digital communication field, a core router of a data center is gradually updated from an original box-type device to a multi-board frame-type device, and at present, the multi-board frame-type device is divided into three types, one is a pure software forwarding device, the other is a pure hardware forwarding device, and the third is a device with software forwarding and hardware forwarding.

Data cross-card transmission among the line cards is achieved through the switching matrixes in the multi-board card frame type equipment, and due to the fact that a hard cross-card forwarding protocol is different from a software forwarding cross-card protocol, the third equipment needs two switching matrixes to achieve respective cross-card forwarding respectively, namely the software forwarding of the third equipment needs to achieve forwarding through a soft-forward switching matrix, the hardware forwarding of the third equipment needs to achieve forwarding through a hardware switching matrix, and for the third equipment, two types of switching matrixes need to be configured to meet the data forwarding requirement, and therefore the system cost is high.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the embodiments of the present application is to provide a method and a system for forwarding a packet, so as to solve the problem of high system cost in the prior art.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a packet forwarding method, which is applied to a packet forwarding system, where the packet forwarding system includes an exchange card and a sending-end line card including a first processor and a first exchange chip, where the first processor is connected to the first exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface, and the method includes:

the first processor receives a first message sent by the first switch chip, wherein the first message is generated after the first switch chip obtains an original message and performs HiGig packaging on the original message according to forwarding information of the original message when a corresponding forwarding table entry is not found according to the forwarding information of the original message;

the first processor searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the first message, and determines forwarding path information of the first message from the routing forwarding table entry;

and the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message, generates a second message and sends the second message to the first switching chip, so that the first switching chip sends the second message to the switch card according to the forwarding path information.

In the implementation process, a HiGig interface is configured between a first exchange chip and a first processor in a line card at a sending end, so that messages between cards are forwarded by using a HiGig protocol, and soft forwarding messages are sent to the first exchange chip for forwarding after being subjected to table lookup by the first processor, so that the soft forwarding of the first processor and the hard forwarding of the first exchange chip can share one forwarding channel, namely the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding are realized through the channel between the first exchange chip and an exchange card, so that only one type of exchange card is needed in a system to meet the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding of the messages, and the system cost can be effectively reduced.

Optionally, the forwarding path information includes an identifier of a line card at a receiving end, and after the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message, generates a second message and sends the second message to the first switch chip, the method further includes:

the first switching chip receives the second message and acquires the identification of the line card of the receiving end from the second message;

the first exchange chip searches a preconfigured interface relation table according to the identification of the receiving end line card and acquires a target HiGig interface corresponding to the identification of the receiving end line card, wherein the interface relation table stores the corresponding relation between the identification of each receiving end line card and each HiGig interface on the first exchange chip;

and the first exchange chip sends the second message to the exchange card through the destination output HiGig interface.

In the implementation process, the first switch chip may obtain the output interface of the packet by looking up the interface relationship table, so that the packet may be accurately forwarded according to the forwarding path information of the packet.

Optionally, the first processor is configured with a first HiGig interface and a second HiGig interface, where the first HiGig interface is configured to receive a first packet sent by the first switch chip, and the second HiGig interface is configured to receive a soft-to-cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card; before the first processor receives the first packet sent by the first switch chip, the method further includes:

and the first switching chip performs HiGig packaging on the first HiGig interface in the original message to generate the first message and sends the first message to the first processor.

In the implementation process, the first processor is configured with two HiGig interfaces, which can be used to distinguish the soft forwarding messages received in the card from the soft forwarding messages sent by other line cards.

Optionally, the forwarding path information includes a third HiGig interface of a second processor in a line card at a receiving end, where the third HiGig interface is configured to receive a soft-to-cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card, and the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first packet, generates a second packet, and sends the second packet to the first switch chip, where the method includes:

and the first processor encapsulates the third HiGig interface in the first message, generates a second message and sends the second message to the first exchange chip.

In the implementation process, the third HiGig interface of the second processor is encapsulated in the message, so that the second processor can distinguish the received message as a soft cross-card conversion message sent by the external line card through the third HiGig interface.

Optionally, the packet forwarding system further includes the receiving-end line card, where the receiving-end line card includes a second processor and a second switching chip, the second processor is connected to the second switching chip through a physical HiGig interface, the first processor encapsulates the third HiGig interface in the first packet, generates a second packet, and sends the second packet to the first switching chip, and the method further includes:

the second exchange chip receives a second message sent by the exchange card and determines that a destination outlet of the second message is the third HiGig interface;

the second switching chip sends the second message to the second processor;

the second processor receives the second message, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the second message, and determines forwarding path information of the second message from the routing forwarding table entry;

the second processor determines that a destination outlet of the second message is an interface on the second switching chip according to the forwarding path information, encapsulates the forwarding path information in the second message, generates a third message and sends the third message to the second switching chip;

and the second switching chip forwards the third message according to the forwarding path information.

In the implementation process, when the line card at the receiving end includes the second processor, the received soft switch cross-card message is sent to the second processor through the second exchange chip for forwarding, so that forwarding of the soft switch cross-card message is implemented.

Optionally, the message forwarding system further includes a receiving end line card, where the receiving end line card includes a second processor, the second processor is connected to an exchange card through a physical HiGig interface, the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message, generates a second message, and sends the second message to the first exchange chip, and the method further includes:

the second processor receives a second message sent by the switch card, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the second message, and determines forwarding path information of the second message from the routing forwarding table entry;

and the second processor forwards the second message according to the forwarding path information.

In the implementation process, when the line card at the receiving end only comprises the second processor, the second processor is connected with the switch card through the HiGig interface to adapt to one type of switch card, and then the soft-to-cross card message can be directly received through the second processor and then forwarded.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a packet forwarding method, which is applied to a packet forwarding system, where the system includes an exchange card and a sending-end line card including a first processor, where the first processor is connected to the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface, and the method includes:

the first processor receives an original message, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table item from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the original message, and determines forwarding path information of the original message from the routing forwarding table item;

the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the original message to generate a first message;

and the first processor sends the first message to the switch card so that the switch card forwards the first message.

In the implementation process, when the line card at the sending end only comprises the first processor, the first processor is connected with the switch card through the HiGig interface, so that the first processor can adapt to hard-to-transfer card switching, and the forwarding of the soft-to-cross card message is realized.

Optionally, the forwarding path information includes a third HiGig interface of a second processor in a line card at a receiving end, where the third HiGig interface is configured to receive a soft forwarding cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card, and the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the original packet to generate a first packet, including:

and the first processor encapsulates the third HiGig interface in the original message to generate a first message.

Optionally, the message forwarding system further includes the receiving end line card, where the receiving end line card includes a second processor and a second switch chip, the second processor is connected to the second switch chip through a physical HiGig interface, and the first processor sends the first message to the switch card, so that after the switch card forwards the first message, the method further includes:

the second switch chip receives a first message sent by the switch card and determines that a destination outlet of the first message is the third HiGig interface;

the second exchange chip sends the first message to the second processor;

the second processor receives the first message, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the first message, and determines forwarding path information of the first message from the routing forwarding table entry;

the second processor determines that a destination outlet of the second message is an interface on the second switching chip according to the forwarding path information, encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message, generates a second message and sends the second message to the second switching chip;

and the second switching chip forwards the second message according to the forwarding path information.

Optionally, the message forwarding system further includes a receiving end line card, where the receiving end line card includes a second processor, the second processor is connected to the switch card through a physical HiGig interface, and the first processor sends the first message to the switch card, so that after the switch card forwards the first message, the method further includes:

the second processor receives a first message sent by the switch card, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the first message, and determines forwarding path information of the first message from the routing forwarding table entry;

and the second processor forwards the first message according to the forwarding path information.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a packet forwarding method, which is applied to a receiving-end line card, where the receiving-end line card includes a second processor and a second switching chip, and the second processor is connected to the second switching chip through a physical HiGig interface, and the method includes:

the second exchange chip receives a second message sent by the exchange card;

the second switching chip sends the second message to the second processor when determining that the second message is a cross-card soft switching message;

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a packet forwarding system, where the packet forwarding system includes a sending-end line card, an exchange card, and a receiving-end line card, where the sending-end line card includes a first processor and a first exchange chip, the first processor is connected to the first exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface, and the receiving-end line card includes a second processor and a second exchange chip, and the second processor is connected to the second exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface;

the first switch chip is used for receiving an original message, searching a corresponding forwarding table item according to forwarding information of the original message, and generating a first message after HiGig packaging is carried out on the original message when the corresponding forwarding table item is not searched, and sending the first message to the first processor;

the first processor is configured to receive the first packet, search a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the first packet, and determine forwarding path information of the first packet from the routing forwarding table entry;

the first processor is further configured to encapsulate the forwarding path information in the first message, generate a second message, and send the second message to the first switch chip;

the first switch chip is used for forwarding the second message to the switch card;

the switch card is used for forwarding the second message to the second switch chip;

the second switch chip is configured to send the second packet to the second processor;

the second processor is configured to receive the second packet, find a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the second packet, and determine forwarding path information of the second packet from the routing forwarding table entry;

the second processor is configured to determine, according to the forwarding path information, that a destination outlet of the second packet is an interface on the second switch chip, encapsulate the forwarding path information in the second packet, generate a third packet, and send the third packet to the second switch chip;

and the second switching chip is used for forwarding the third message according to the forwarding path information.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a packet forwarding system, where the packet forwarding system includes a sending-end line card, an exchange card, and a receiving-end line card, the sending-end line card includes a first processor and a first exchange chip, the first processor is connected to the first exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface, the receiving-end line card includes a second processor, and the second processor is connected to the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface;

the switch card is used for forwarding the second message to the second processor;

the second processor is configured to receive a second message sent by the switch card, search a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the second message, and determine forwarding path information of the second message from the routing forwarding table entry;

and the second processor is used for forwarding the second message according to the forwarding path information.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a packet forwarding system, where the packet forwarding system includes a sending-end line card, an exchange card, and a receiving-end line card, the sending-end line card includes a first processor, the first processor is connected to the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface, the receiving-end line card includes a second processor and a second exchange chip, and the second processor is connected to the second exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface;

the first processor is configured to receive an original message, search a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the original message, and determine forwarding path information of the original message from the routing forwarding table entry;

the first processor is configured to encapsulate the forwarding path information in the original message to generate a first message;

the first processor is configured to send the first packet to the switch card;

the switch card is used for forwarding the first message to the second switch chip;

the second switch chip is used for sending the first message to the second processor;

the second processor is configured to receive the first packet, find a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the first packet, and determine forwarding path information of the first packet from the routing forwarding table entry;

the second processor is configured to determine, according to the forwarding path information, that a destination outlet of the second packet is an interface on the second switch chip, encapsulate the forwarding path information in the first packet, generate a second packet, and send the second packet to the second switch chip;

and the second switching chip is used for forwarding the second message according to the forwarding path information.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a packet forwarding system, where the packet forwarding system includes a sending-end line card, an exchange card, and a receiving-end line card, where the sending-end line card includes a first processor, the first processor is connected to the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface, and the receiving-end line card includes a second processor, and the second processor is connected to the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface;

the first processor is configured to send the first packet to the switch card;

the switch card is used for forwarding the first message to the second processor;

the second processor is configured to receive a first message sent by the switch card, search a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the first message, and determine forwarding path information of the first message from the routing forwarding table entry;

and the second processor is used for forwarding the first message according to the forwarding path information.

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

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are required to be used in the embodiments of the present application will be briefly described below, it should be understood that the following drawings only illustrate some embodiments of the present application and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope, and that those skilled in the art can also obtain other related drawings based on the drawings without inventive efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a packet forwarding system according to a comparative embodiment;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a first packet forwarding system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a message forwarding method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a first packet forwarding system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is another schematic structural diagram of a first packet forwarding system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of another packet forwarding method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a second packet forwarding system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is another schematic structural diagram of a second packet forwarding system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a forwarding system formed by various types of line cards according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. The components of the embodiments of the present application, generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, can be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present application, presented in the accompanying drawings, is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed application, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the present application without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a message forwarding system 10 according to a comparative embodiment, in order to reduce the management complexity, the internal part of the current network device (such as a router) can perform data forwarding through a board card, for example, in fig. 1, the router is formed by two line cards LPU-a12 and LPU-B18, and two switch cards SFU-a14 and SFU-a16, which are cascaded, the switch cards are divided into hard handover switch cards and soft handover switch cards, the soft forwarding of the message is forwarded through a soft handover cross-card channel between the line cards and the soft handover switch cards, for example, the soft forwarding channel of the line card LPU-a12 is a connection channel between the processor of the line card LPU-a12 and the soft handover switch card SFU-a14, the soft forwarding cross card channel uses a standard ethernet interface, and the cross card protocol may be a self-defined cross card protocol, supporting unicast and multicast; the hard forwarding of the packet is forwarded through a hard-to-cross card channel between the line card 12 and the hard-to-forward switch card 16, for example, the hard forwarding channel of the line card LPU-a12 is a connection channel between the switch chip of the line card LPU-a12 and the hard-to-forward switch card SFU-B16, and the hard-to-cross card channel uses a stacking protocol supported by a switch chip vendor, such as the boitong HiGig protocol, which supports unicast, multicast and broadcast.

In the existing communication system, the soft-to-cross-card protocol and the hard-to-cross-card protocol between the line cards are different, so that a cross-card exchange channel cannot be shared, two types of exchange cards are needed to respectively realize cross-card forwarding, and the system cost is high.

The above prior art solutions have shortcomings which are the results of practical and careful study of the inventor, and therefore, the discovery process of the above problems and the solutions proposed by the following embodiments of the present invention to the above problems should be the contribution of the inventor to the present invention in the course of the present invention.

Therefore, in order to solve the above technical problem, the present application provides a message forwarding method, which can implement hard forwarding and soft forwarding of a message by using one switch card.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a message forwarding system 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, where the message forwarding system 100 includes a sending-end line card 110, a switch card 120, and a receiving-end line card 130, the sending-end line card 110 includes a first processor 112 and a first switch chip 114, the first processor 112 and the first switch chip 114 are connected through a HiGig interface (not shown), the sending-end line card 110 and the switch card 120 are also connected through a HiGig interface, and the switch card 120 and the receiving-end line card 130 are also connected through a HiGig interface.

The receiving-end line card 130 may also include a processor and/or a switch chip, and when the receiving-end line card 130 includes a processor and a switch chip, the processor and the switch chip are also connected through a HiGig interface, and the switch chip and the switch card are also connected through a HiGig interface.

The HiGig interface is an interface defined by a HiGig protocol, the HiGig protocol is a multi-chip intercommunication protocol, the HiGig protocol comprises HiGig and HiGig +, the HiGig works in a 10Gpbs mode, and the HiGig + works in a12 Gpbs mode.

In the message forwarding system 100, there may be a plurality of sending-end line cards 110 and a plurality of receiving-end line cards 130, and of course, there may also be a plurality of switch cards 120, and the message forwarding between the line cards is performed through the switch cards 120.

It should be noted that the switch card 120 in the message forwarding system 100 is a hard-to-forward switch card, that is, the switch card 120 only provides a data interaction channel with the first switch chip 114 and does not provide a data interaction channel with the first processor 112, so that the soft forwarding message of the first processor 112 is also transmitted through the data interaction channel between the first switch chip 114 and the switch card 120, compared with the comparative embodiment, the message forwarding system 100 in the present application only needs to provide one type of switch card 120 to implement soft forwarding and hard forwarding of the message, which reduces the hardware design cost of the message forwarding system and facilitates management and maintenance of the system.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a flowchart of a first message forwarding method provided in the embodiment of the present application, where the method is applied to the message forwarding system shown in fig. 2, where a line card at a sending end includes a first processor 112 and a first switching chip 114, and the method includes the following steps:

step S110: and the first processor receives a first message sent by the first switching chip.

Since the first processor 112 and the first switch chip 114 are connected through the HiGig interface, data interaction between the first processor 112 and the first switch chip 114 can be performed through the HiGig interface, that is, the first switch chip 114 sends the first packet to the first processor 112 through the corresponding HiGig interface, and the first processor 112 also receives the first packet through the corresponding HiGig interface.

Since the sending-end line card 110 is configured with the first processor 112 and the first switch chip 114, the sending-end line card 110 can perform hard forwarding and soft forwarding of the message, that is, the first switch chip 114 implements the hard forwarding of the message, and the first processor 112 implements the soft forwarding of the message. The forwarding table entry in the first switch chip 114 is issued by the first processor 112, so that corresponding routing forwarding tables are stored in both the first switch chip 114 and the first processor 112, the message is preferentially hard-forwarded through the first switch chip 114, and when the first switch chip 114 cannot find the corresponding forwarding table entry, the first processor 112 performs soft-forwarding, so that forwarding resources of the first processor 112 can be saved, and the first processor 112 can have more resources to process other matters.

The first switch chip 114 of the sending-end line card 110 may receive an original message that needs to be forwarded across cards from an external device, and the first switch chip 114 stores a corresponding routing forwarding table, so that the first switch chip 114 acquires corresponding forwarding information from the original message after receiving the original message to be forwarded, and then searches the routing forwarding table stored therein according to the forwarding information, that is, searches whether there is a forwarding table entry matching the forwarding information, if there is a matching routing forwarding table entry, the first switch chip 114 may directly forward the original message to the switch card 120 according to forwarding path information in the forwarding table entry, and if there is no matching forwarding table entry found, it indicates that the original message needs to be soft-forwarded by the first processor 112, the first switch chip 114 may perform HiGig encapsulation on the original message (i.e., encapsulate the message according to a HiGig protocol) and then generate a first message, the first message is sent to the first processor 112.

The forwarding information of the packet may refer to a destination IP address and/or Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) information carried in the packet, and the like, after the first switch chip 114 obtains the original packet, the original packet may be analyzed to obtain the forwarding information carried in the original packet, and then a table may be looked up according to the forwarding information, for example, whether a forwarding table item matching the destination IP address exists in a routing forwarding table according to the destination IP address carried in the original packet, that is, whether the forwarding table item including the destination IP address exists in the routing forwarding table. When the corresponding forwarding table entry is not found, it indicates that the first switch chip 114 cannot perform hard forwarding on the original message, and needs to perform soft forwarding by the first processor 112, and then the first switch chip may perform HiGig encapsulation on the original message to generate a first message, and then send the first message to the first processor 112.

It should be noted that when the first switch chip 114 searches for the forwarding table entry, it searches for a corresponding routing forwarding table, that is, it searches for a routing forwarding table that includes a destination IP address carried by the message, and when the first switch chip 114 cannot find the corresponding routing forwarding table, the message hits a default table entry, where the default table entry is used to send the message to the table entry of the first processor 112, so that the first switch chip 114 can package the message and send the message to the first processor 112.

During encapsulation, a HiGig encapsulation header is added to the original packet, that is, a HiGig encapsulation header is added to a frame header of the original packet, where the HiGig encapsulation header carries information such as a packet type, interface information of a HiGig interface on the first switching chip 114, and an identifier of the first switching chip 114.

Step S120: and the first processor searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to the forwarding information carried by the first message, and determines forwarding path information of the first message from the routing forwarding table entry.

After obtaining the first packet sent by the first switch chip 114, the first processor 112 decapsulates the first packet according to the HiGig protocol, so as to obtain the forwarding information carried by the first packet. The first processor 112 also stores a corresponding routing forwarding table, so the first processor 112 may search a routing forwarding table entry matching the forwarding information from the stored routing forwarding table according to the forwarding information, and then determine forwarding path information of the first packet from the routing forwarding table entry.

The forwarding path information may include an identifier of the receiving end line card 130 to which the first packet needs to be forwarded, a destination port of the receiving end line card 130, a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the receiving end line card 130, and so on, so as to determine a destination to which the first packet is forwarded.

Step S130: and the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message, generates a second message and sends the second message to the first switching chip, so that the first switching chip sends the second message to the switch card according to the forwarding path information.

Since the interface between the first processor 112 and the first switch chip 114 is the HiGig interface, the packet passing through the HiGig interface is subjected to the HiGig encapsulation, and therefore, in this embodiment of the application, regardless of the packet forwarded from the first processor 112 to the first switch chip 114 or the packet forwarded by the first switch chip 114 to the first processor 112, the subsequent processing action of the packet is performed after the encapsulation of the HiGig header is added or removed at the HiGig interface.

After obtaining the forwarding path information of the first packet, the first processor 112 encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first packet according to the HiGig protocol to generate a second packet, and since the first processor 112 cannot directly perform soft forwarding on the first packet, the generated second packet needs to be sent to the first switch chip 114, and the first switch chip 114 sends the second packet to the switch card 120 according to the forwarding path information.

Certainly, the first switch chip 114 may decapsulate the second packet after receiving the second packet, then obtain forwarding path information of the second packet from the decapsulation, and then perform HiGig encapsulation on the second packet and send the second packet to the switch card 120, at this time, when the first switch chip 114 encapsulates the first packet, the first switch chip 114 may encapsulate interface information of an outgoing interface of the packet in the packet, and then send the packet to the switch card 120 according to the corresponding forwarding path information, when the switch card 120 forwards the second packet to the receiving-end line card 130, the packet is forwarded according to forwarding logic of the switch card 120, for example, after the switch card 120 obtains the second packet, the forwarding path information is obtained from the second packet, and then the packet is forwarded.

In the implementation process, a HiGig interface is configured between the first switch chip 114 and the first processor 112 in the line card, so that the inter-card message forwarding all uses a HiGig protocol, and the soft forwarding message of the first processor 112 is sent to the first switch chip 114 for forwarding after being subjected to table lookup by the first processor 112, so that the soft forwarding of the first processor 112 and the hard forwarding of the first switch chip 114 can share one forwarding channel, that is, the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding are implemented through the channel between the first switch chip 114 and the switch card 120, so that only one type of switch card 120 is needed in the system to meet the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding of the message, and the system cost can be effectively reduced.

As an example, since the first switch chip 114 is typically configured with multiple HiGig interfaces, one of the HiGig interfaces is connected to the switch card 120, the other HiGig interfaces are connected to the first processor 112, or other switch cards 120 or other devices, i.e., each HiGig interface may have a different device attached, therefore, in order for the first switch chip 114 to forward the message from the correct HiGig interface to the switch card 120, the first switch chip 114 is also configured with a corresponding interface relation table, the interface relationship table contains the corresponding relationship between the identification (i.e. MOD ID) of the receiving end line card 130 and the HiGig interface on the first switching chip 114, that is, the interface relationship table stores the corresponding relationship between the identifier of each receiving-end line card 130 and each output HiGig interface on the first switching chip 114, for example, the second packet needs to be forwarded to the receiving-end line card 130, the first switching chip 114 may look up the HiGig interface corresponding to the identification of the receiver line card 130 in the interface relationship table.

Thus, the forwarding path information may further include an identifier of the receiving end line card 130, when receiving the second packet, the first switch chip 114 obtains the identifier of the receiving end line card 130 from the second packet after decapsulating the second packet, then searches the preconfigured interface relationship table according to the identifier of the receiving end line card 130, obtains a destination output HiGig interface corresponding to the identifier of the receiving end line card 130, and then the first switch chip 114 sends the second packet to the switch card 120 through the destination output HiGig interface.

In the implementation process, the first switch chip 114 may obtain the outgoing interface of the packet by looking up the interface relationship table, so that the packet may be accurately forwarded according to the forwarding path information of the packet.

In addition, since the sending-end line card 110 may also serve as a receiving-end line card when receiving a packet forwarded by another line card, the first processor 112 of the sending-end line card 110 may receive a forwarding packet sent by another line card, and may also receive a forwarding packet sent to another line card by the first switching chip 114, in order to distinguish two different packets, the first processor 112 may configure two HiGig interfaces, including a first HiGig interface and a second HiGig interface, where the first HiGig interface is used to receive the first packet sent by the first switching chip 114, and the second HiGig interface is used to receive a soft forwarding cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card.

It is understood that the first processor 112 is connected to the first switch chip 114 through the first HiGig interface, and the first switch chip 114 may encapsulate the first HiGig interface in the original message before sending the first message to the first processor 112, and then send the generated first message to the first processor 112, that is, send the first message to the first processor 112 through the first HiGig interface, and send the second message sent by the first processor 112 to the first switch chip 114 through the first HiGig interface. After receiving the first message, the first processor 112 decapsulates the first message, removes the HiGig encapsulation header, obtains a destination interface in the HiGig header as the first HiGig interface, searches for corresponding forwarding path information, and encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message.

If the sending-end line card 110 is used as the receiving-end line card 130 to receive the message sent by another line card, the first switching chip 114 receives the message forwarded by the switch card 120, and then sends the message to the second HiGig interface of the first processor 112, the first processor 112 receives the message from the second HiGig interface and then searches for the corresponding outgoing interface, packages the message and sends the message to the first switching chip 114 through the second HiGig interface, and the first switching chip 114 sends the message out from the corresponding outgoing interface.

As an example, in order to know the source of a packet when a subsequent device obtains the packet, the first processor 112 may encapsulate, in the process of encapsulating a first packet into a second packet, forwarding path information of the packet, interface information of the first HiGig interface, and an identifier of the first processor 112 in the first packet, and then send the generated second packet to the first switch chip 114.

The first switch chip 114 forwards the second packet to the switch card 120, and the switch card forwards the second packet to the receiving end line card 130 corresponding to the identifier of the receiving end line card encapsulated in the second packet according to the HiGig protocol and the correspondence table between the preconfigured interface and the receiving end line card.

In addition, if the receiving-end line card 130 includes a second processor, the second processor also needs to configure two HiGig interfaces, for example, the second processor includes a third HiGig interface, the third HiGig interface is used to receive a soft forwarding cross-card forwarding message sent by another line card, before the first processor 112 sends the second message to the first switching chip 114, the third HiGig interface may be further encapsulated in the first message, and then the generated second message is sent to the second switching chip 114, so that the receiving-end line card 130 may know that the message is sent to the second processor for soft forwarding when receiving the message.

As shown in fig. 4, the receiving-side line card 130 includes a second processor 132 and a second switch chip 134, the second processor 132 and the second switch chip 134 are connected through a physical HiGig interface, and the second switch chip 134 is also connected to the switch card 120 through a HiGig interface.

After the switch card 120 forwards the second packet to the receiving-end line card 130, the second switch chip 134 of the receiving-end line card 130 receives the second packet first, the second switch chip 134 parses the second packet to obtain a packet containing the identifier of the second processor 132 in the receiving-end line card 130 and a third HiGig interface with a destination outlet of the second processor 132, determines that the second packet is a cross-card soft forwarding packet, encapsulates the second packet and sends the encapsulated packet to the second processor 132 of the receiving-end line card 130, when the second processor 132 determines that the destination interface in the HiGig encapsulation header is the third HiGig interface, removes the HiGig header, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the second packet, determines forwarding path information of the second packet from the routing forwarding table entry, and determines that the destination outlet of the second packet is an interface on the second switch chip 134 from the forwarding path information, the forwarding path information is encapsulated in the second message, a third message is generated and sent to the second switching chip 134, and then the second switching chip 134 forwards the third message from the corresponding interface of the local terminal according to the forwarding path information.

The second processor 132 determines the exit information of the second packet according to the forwarding path information, and if the destination exit of the second packet is an interface directly connected to the second processor, directly forwards the second packet from the directly connected interface. If the destination outlet of the second message is an outlet directly connected to the second switch chip 134, the second processor 132 encapsulates the destination outlet of the second message in the second message to generate a third message, and sends the third message to the second switch chip 134, and the second switch chip 134 forwards the third message.

In this way, soft forwarding of the soft forwarding cross-card packet may be implemented by the second processor 132 in the receiving side line card 130.

As shown in fig. 5, the receiving side line card 130 may only include the second processor 132, the second processor 132 is connected to the switch card 120 through a physical HiGig interface, and when the sending side line card 110 encapsulates the first packet, the sending side line card 110 may also encapsulate an identifier of the processor in the receiving side line card 130 in the first packet, and then send the first packet to the first switch chip 114 of the sending side line card 110, and the first switch chip 114 sends the first packet to the receiving side line card 130 through the switch card 120.

After receiving the second packet sent by the switch card 120, the second processor 132 of the receiving-end line card 130 determines that a destination interface in the second packet is a third HiGig interface, removes the HiGig encapsulation header, finds a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the second packet, determines forwarding path information of the second packet from the routing forwarding table entry, where the forwarding path information includes a destination exit of the second packet, and then sends the second packet from the destination exit of the local end.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a flowchart of another message forwarding method according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method is also applied to another message forwarding system 200 shown in fig. 7 or fig. 8, where the message forwarding system 200 includes a switch card 220 and a sending-end line card 210 including a first processor 212, and the first processor 212 is connected to the switch card 220 through a physical HiGig interface. The method comprises the following steps:

step S210: the first processor receives an original message, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the original message, and determines forwarding path information of the original message from the routing forwarding table entry.

Step S220: and the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the original message to generate a first message.

Step S230: and the first processor sends the first message to the switch card so that the switch card forwards the first message.

The sending-end line card 210 only includes the first processor 212, and after the first processor 212 receives the original packet from the direct connection interface, the forwarding path information is searched for to obtain a destination outlet of the first packet, then the forwarding path information is encapsulated in the original packet to generate a second packet, the second packet is forwarded to the switch card 220, and the switch card 220 forwards the second packet to the receiving-end line card 230 according to the HiGig protocol and the correspondence table between the preconfigured interface and the receiving-end line card.

The forwarding path information includes a third HiGig interface of the second processor 232 in the receiving end line card 230, where the third HiGig interface is used to receive a soft forwarding cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card. When encapsulating the original message, the first processor 212 encapsulates the third HiGig interface in the original message.

If the receiving-end line card 230 includes the second processor 232 and the second switching chip 234, the second processor 232 is connected to the second switching chip 234 through the physical HiGig interface, and after the first packet is received by the switch card 220, the first packet is forwarded to the second switching chip 234 of the receiving-end line card 230 according to the HiGig protocol and the correspondence table between the preconfigured interface and the receiving-end line card.

The second switching chip 234 receives the first packet and determines that the destination outlet of the first packet is the third HiGig interface, and then the second switching chip 234 forwards the first packet to the second processor 232 according to the HiGig protocol and the correspondence table between the preconfigured interface and the receiving end line card. When receiving the first packet, the second processor 232 finds a corresponding routing forwarding entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried in the first packet, and then determines forwarding path information of the first packet from the routing forwarding entry.

The forwarding path information includes a destination exit of the first packet, and if the destination exit of the first packet is an interface directly connected to the second processor 232, the first packet is directly forwarded from the corresponding destination exit. If the destination outlet of the first message is an interface directly connected to the second switch chip 234, the second processor 232 encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message to generate a second message, and sends the second message to the second switch chip 234, so that the second switch chip 234 can obtain the destination outlet from the first message, and then forwards the second message from the destination outlet.

As shown in fig. 8, if the receiving-end line card 230 includes only the second processor 232, the second processor 232 is connected to the switch card 220 through a physical HiGig interface, the switch card 220 sends the first packet to the second processor 232 according to the HiGig protocol and the corresponding relationship table between the preconfigured interface and the receiving-end line card, after receiving the first packet sent by the switch card, the second processor 232 determines that the destination interface in the HiGig header of the first packet is the third HiGig interface, removes the HiGig header, searches a corresponding routing forwarding table entry from a pre-stored routing forwarding table according to forwarding information carried by the first packet, and determines forwarding path information of the first packet from the routing forwarding table entry. And obtaining a destination outlet of the first message from the forwarding path information, and then forwarding the first message from the destination outlet according to the forwarding path information.

The above system may be as shown in fig. 9, where data forwarding between various types of line cards is shown in fig. 9.

Each line card can be used as a sending end line card or a receiving end line card, and if the line card LPU-a310 is used as a sending end line card, the line card includes a processor and a switching chip, and the receiving end line card can be a line card LPU-B330, a line card LPU-C340 and a line card LPU-D350, but the above embodiment describes a process in which the line card LPU-a310 forwards a message to the line card LPU-B330, the line card LPU-C340 or the line card LPU-D350, and a process in which the line card LPU-C340 sends a message to other line cards LPU-D350 and LPU-B330.

In addition, multicast messages can be forwarded between the line cards, that is, the original messages can be multicast messages, but the multicast messages can only be forwarded in a soft mode, that is, when an exchange chip of a line card at a receiving end obtains the multicast messages, the messages can be directly packaged and then sent to a processor, the processor of the line card at the receiving end performs table look-up forwarding through software, when the processor finds that the multicast messages need to be sent to a plurality of line cards, an output interface of the line cards and an identifier of each line card are packaged in the messages and then sent to the exchange chip, the exchange chip sends the messages to the exchange card according to the output interface of the exchange chip, and the exchange card forwards the messages to each line card.

Therefore, the processor is connected with the exchange chip through the HiGig interface, so that the soft-to-cross-card message of the processor can be forwarded from the exchange chip, the unification of a soft-to-channel and a hard-to-channel is realized, the software and hardware cost of the system is greatly reduced, the internal communication bandwidth of the exchange chip and the processor in the line card is improved, the structural complexity of the system is reduced, and the maintainability and the expandability of the product are better.

To sum up, the embodiments of the present application provide a method and a system for forwarding a packet, where a HiGig interface is configured between a first switch chip and a first processor in a line card at a sending end, so that the inter-card packet forwarding all uses a HiGig protocol, and a soft forwarding packet is looked up by the first processor and then forwarded to the first switch chip, so that the soft forwarding of the first processor and the hard forwarding of the first switch chip can share a forwarding channel, that is, the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding can be implemented through a channel between the first switch chip and a switch card, so that only one type of switch card is needed in the system to satisfy the soft forwarding and the hard forwarding of the packet, and the system cost can be effectively reduced.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. The above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and there may be other divisions when actually implemented, and for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units through some communication interfaces, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

In addition, units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

Furthermore, the functional modules in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated together to form an independent part, or each module may exist separately, or two or more modules may be integrated to form an independent part.

In this document, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.

The above description is only an example of the present application and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present application shall be included in the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A message forwarding method is applied to a message forwarding system, the message forwarding system includes a switch card and a sending end line card including a first processor and a first switch chip, the first processor is connected with the first switch chip through a physical HiGig interface, and the method includes:

the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message, generates a second message and sends the second message to the first switch chip, so that the first switch chip sends the second message to the switch card according to the forwarding path information;

the HiGig protocol is used between the first processor and the first exchange chip, between the first exchange chip and the exchange card and between the exchange card and a receiving end line card;

the switch card is a hard-to-transfer switch card, and the switch card only provides a data interaction channel with the first switch chip and does not provide a data interaction channel with the first processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding path information includes an identifier of a receiving line card, wherein the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first packet, and wherein after generating a second packet and sending the second packet to the first switch chip, the method further comprises:

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first processor is configured with a first HiGig interface and a second HiGig interface, the first HiGig interface is configured to receive the first packet sent by the first switch chip, and the second HiGig interface is configured to receive a soft-to-cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card; before the first processor receives the first packet sent by the first switch chip, the method further includes:

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the forwarding path information includes a third HiGig interface of a second processor in a line card at a receiving end, the third HiGig interface is configured to receive a soft forwarding cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card, and the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first packet, generates a second packet, and sends the second packet to the first switch chip, including:

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the packet forwarding system further includes the receiving line card, the receiving line card includes a second processor and a second switch chip, the second processor and the second switch chip are connected through a physical HiGig interface, the first processor encapsulates the third HiGig interface in the first packet, and after generating a second packet and sending the second packet to the first switch chip, the method further includes:

the second switching chip sends the second message to the second processor;

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the packet forwarding system further comprises a receiving-end line card, the receiving-end line card comprises a second processor, the second processor is configured to connect to a switch card through a physical HiGig interface, the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first packet, and after generating a second packet and sending the second packet to the first switch chip, the method further comprises:

7. A message forwarding method is characterized in that the method is applied to a message forwarding system, the system comprises a switch card and a sending end line card comprising a first processor, the first processor is connected with the switch card through a physical HiGig interface, and the method comprises the following steps:

the first processor sends the first message to the switch card so that the switch card forwards the first message;

the first processor and the switch card and the receiving end line card use HiGig protocol; the exchange card is a hard-to-transfer exchange card.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the forwarding path information includes a third HiGig interface of a second processor in a line card at a receiving end, the third HiGig interface is configured to receive a soft forwarding cross-card forwarding packet sent by another line card, and the first processor encapsulates the forwarding path information in the original packet to generate a first packet, including:

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the packet forwarding system further includes the receiving-end line card, the receiving-end line card includes a second processor and a second switch chip, the second processor and the second switch chip are connected through a physical HiGig interface, and after the first processor sends the first packet to the switch card so that the switch card forwards the first packet, the method further includes:

the second exchange chip sends the first message to the second processor;

the second processor determines that a destination outlet of the first message is an interface on the second switching chip according to the forwarding path information, encapsulates the forwarding path information in the first message, generates a second message and sends the second message to the second switching chip;

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the packet forwarding system further comprises a receiver line card, wherein the receiver line card comprises a second processor, the second processor is connected to the switch card through a physical HiGig interface, and the first processor sends the first packet to the switch card, so that after the switch card forwards the first packet, the method further comprises:

11. A message forwarding system is characterized by comprising a sending end line card, an exchange card and a receiving end line card, wherein the sending end line card comprises a first processor and a first exchange chip, the first processor is connected with the first exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface, the receiving end line card comprises a second processor and a second exchange chip, and the second processor is connected with the second exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface;

the second switching chip is used for forwarding the third message according to the forwarding path information;

the HiGig protocol is used between the first processor and the first exchange chip, between the first exchange chip and the exchange card and between the exchange card and the second exchange chip;

12. A message forwarding system is characterized by comprising a sending end line card, an exchange card and a receiving end line card, wherein the sending end line card comprises a first processor and a first exchange chip, the first processor is connected with the first exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface, the receiving end line card comprises a second processor, and the second processor is connected with the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface;

the second processor is configured to forward the second packet according to the forwarding path information;

the HiGig protocol is used between the first processor and the first exchange chip, between the first exchange chip and the exchange card and between the exchange card and the second processor;

13. A message forwarding system is characterized by comprising a sending end line card, an exchange card and a receiving end line card, wherein the sending end line card comprises a first processor, the first processor is connected with the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface, the receiving end line card comprises a second processor and a second exchange chip, and the second processor is connected with the second exchange chip through a physical HiGig interface;

the first processor is configured to send the first packet to the switch card;

the second processor is configured to determine, according to the forwarding path information, that a destination outlet of the first packet is an interface on the second switch chip, encapsulate the forwarding path information in the first packet, generate a second packet, and send the second packet to the second switch chip;

the second switching chip is used for forwarding the second message according to the forwarding path information;

the first processor and the switch card and the second switch chip use HiGig protocol;

the switch card is a hard-to-transfer switch card and provides a data interaction channel with the first processor.

14. A message forwarding system is characterized by comprising a sending end line card, an exchange card and a receiving end line card, wherein the sending end line card comprises a first processor, the first processor is connected with the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface, the receiving end line card comprises a second processor, and the second processor is connected with the exchange card through a physical HiGig interface;

the first processor is configured to send the first packet to the switch card;

the second processor is used for forwarding the first message according to the forwarding path information;

the HiGig protocol is used between the first processor and the switch card and between the switch card and the second processor;