CN114143142A

CN114143142A - Message transmission method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114143142A
Application number: CN202010910288.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨振兴; 戴巧初; 张耀坤
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-02
Filing date: 2020-09-02
Publication date: 2022-03-04
Anticipated expiration: 2040-09-02
Also published as: WO2022048381A1; CN114143142B

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a message transmission method and a message transmission device, and particularly relates to a method for a first network device to acquire identification information for indicating a tunnel corresponding to a forwarding message in advance before forwarding the message. The first network equipment transmits a message including identification information to the second network equipment by using the first tunnel, when the second network equipment receives the message, the second network equipment determines a second tunnel used for transmitting the message to the third network equipment according to the identification information in the message, and the second network equipment transmits the message to the third network equipment by using the second tunnel. Therefore, according to the message transmission method provided by the embodiment of the application, the tunnels used for forwarding the messages are indicated by sending the messages including the identification information between the network devices, so that when any network device receives the messages, the tunnels used for forwarding can be determined according to the identification information in the messages, and the network fragmentation function can be used in the whole network.

Description

Message transmission method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for transmitting a packet.

Background

Under 5G network application, the network fragmentation technology provides isolated network environments for different application scenes, so that different application scenes can customize functions and characteristics according to requirements of the application scenes. In practical applications, a network device serving as a head node may specify that a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service is to be transmitted to a next network device through a flexible Ethernet (flex e) interface.

At present, a large number of Hierarchical VPN (HVPN) and radio access network IP (IPRAN) networks in the Seamless scenario exist, and the IPRAN network mainly includes a plurality of segment networks such as an access layer, a convergence layer, and a core layer. If the network fragmentation function is used, the network fragmentation function can only be used in each segment of network, but cannot be used in the whole network, and the application of the network fragmentation function is limited. For example, as shown in fig. 1, the IPRAN network includes a base station side gateway (CSG), an aggregation layer gateway (ASG), and a Radio Service Gateway (RSG), and the CSG can specify an interface corresponding to which tunnel the VPN service arrives at the ASG, but cannot specify an interface corresponding to which tunnel the next ASG arrives at the RSG. The ASG may therefore forward the packet through any tunnel, and the tunnel may not have the network fragmentation resource required for forwarding the packet, thereby causing the quality of service of packet transmission to be difficult to guarantee.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a message transmission method and a message transmission device, which can realize the network fragmentation function used in the whole network under the condition of not modifying the existing network.

In a first aspect of the embodiments of the present application, a method for packet transmission is provided, where the method may include: the first network equipment acquires identification information, and the identification information is used for indicating a tunnel corresponding to the forwarding message. The first network device may send a packet including the identification information to the second network device by using the first tunnel, so that after receiving the packet, the second network device may determine, according to the identification information in the packet, a second tunnel for forwarding the packet to the third network device. The second network device may send the packet to the third network device using the second tunnel. In this embodiment, for any network device on the end-to-end transmission path, when a certain service traffic needs to be transmitted, for a network device that receives the service traffic, it may obtain identification information used to indicate a tunnel to which the service traffic is forwarded, and send a packet including the identification information to a next-hop network device, so that the next-hop network device may determine, according to the identification information, a tunnel to be used for forwarding the packet, where the tunnel satisfies network fragmentation resources required for forwarding the packet, and further forward the packet by using the tunnel, thereby ensuring the quality of packet transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the first network device may determine the first tunnel before sending the packet to the second network device by using the first tunnel. The manner in which the first network device determines the first tunnel may include the following two ways: in one aspect, the first network device determines the first tunnel based on the identification information. That is, after acquiring the identification information, the first network device may determine the first tunnel according to the identification information. Alternatively, the first network device determines the first tunnel according to the virtual private network identifier. That is, after receiving the packet, the first network device may determine the virtual private network to which the packet belongs, and further determine the tunnel configured to forward the virtual private network as the first tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, when the first network device determines the first tunnel according to the identification information, the first network device may determine the first tunnel according to the identification information and the stored correspondence table. The corresponding relation table comprises corresponding relations between the identification information and the first tunnel. That is, the first network device may pre-store the correspondence between the identification information and the first tunnel, and after the first network device acquires the identification information, the first tunnel corresponding to the identification information may be determined according to the identification information and the correspondence.

In a possible implementation manner, when the first network device is a head node, the first network device may obtain the identification information according to the local configuration information, or obtain the identification information from a next hop network device (e.g., a second network device). When the first network device is an intermediate forwarding node, the first network device may determine the identification information according to related information in a packet received from a previous-hop network device (e.g., a fourth network device).

In a possible implementation manner, when the first network device acquires the identification information from the second network device, a specific implementation may be that the first network device acquires available resource information from the second network device, where the available resource information is used to indicate available resources of each tunnel corresponding to the second network device. And the first network equipment determines identification information corresponding to a second tunnel according to the available resource information, wherein the second tunnel meets the resource required by forwarding the message. That is, when the first network device can obtain the available resources of each tunnel corresponding to the second network device, it can determine the tunnel satisfying the packet forwarding requirement as the second tunnel, and obtain the identification information corresponding to the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, when the first network device determines the identification information according to the related information in the message received from the fourth network device, two implementation manners may be specifically included, where one implementation manner is that the first network device receives a message sent by the fourth network device, where the message includes identification information before updating, and the identification information before updating enables the fourth network device to determine the third tunnel. And the first network equipment acquires the identification information according to the identification information before updating. That is, the first network device determines the updated identification information from the identification information before the update. Specifically, the first network device may determine, according to the identifier information before updating, available resource information that a tunnel corresponding to the identifier information before updating possesses, and then determine, according to the available resource information, to forward the tunnel corresponding to the packet, and further obtain the identifier information corresponding to the tunnel. In another embodiment, the first network device receives a message sent by the fourth network device, where the message includes identification information.

In a possible implementation manner, in order to facilitate that the network device can quickly recognize that the message includes information for indicating a tunnel, the identification information may include a first identifier and a second identifier, where the first identifier is used to indicate that the message includes the second identifier, and the second identifier is used to indicate a tunnel corresponding to the forwarded message. That is, after receiving the packet, any network device obtains the first identifier and the second identifier by analyzing the packet.

In a possible implementation manner, when a forwarding network device exists between the first network device and the second network device, the first network device transparently transmits to the second network device through the forwarding network device by using the first tunnel. That is, the forwarding network device does not parse the packet, and directly forwards the packet.

In a possible implementation manner, when the first network device sends the packet to the second network device by using the first tunnel, the first network device actually sends the packet to the second network device through the output port corresponding to the first tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the tunnel type corresponding to the first tunnel and the tunnel type corresponding to the second tunnel may be the same, such as both SR-TE tunnels, or may be different, such as the first tunnel is an SR-TE tunnel and the second tunnel is an RSVP-TE tunnel.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a message transmission method, where the method includes: the second network device receives a message sent by the first network device, wherein the message comprises identification information, and the identification information is used for indicating a tunnel used for forwarding the message. And the second network equipment determines a second tunnel according to the identification information and sends a message to the third network equipment by using the second tunnel. And the second network equipment and the third network equipment are end equipment of the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the second network device, the second tunnel according to the identification information includes: and the second network equipment determines a second tunnel according to the identification information and a stored corresponding relation table, wherein the corresponding relation table comprises the corresponding relation between the identification information and the second tunnel. That is, the second network device may pre-store the correspondence between the identification information and the second tunnel, and after the second network device acquires the identification information, the second tunnel corresponding to the identification information may be determined according to the identification information and the correspondence.

In a possible implementation manner, the second network device sends the message to the third network device by using the second tunnel, specifically, the second network device determines updated identification information according to the identification information in the message, where the updated identification information is used to determine a tunnel used for indicating to forward the message; and the second network equipment sends a message to the third network equipment by using the second tunnel, wherein the message comprises the updated identification information. That is, before the second network device forwards the packet to the third network device, in order to enable the third network device to recognize the identification information in the packet, the updated identification information may be obtained according to the current identification information, and the updated identification information is added to the packet, so as to forward the packet including the updated identification information to the third network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the identification information includes a first identification and a second identification, where the first identification is used to indicate that the packet includes the second identification, and the second identification is used to indicate a tunnel used for forwarding the packet.

In a possible implementation manner, when a forwarding network device exists between the second network device and the third network device, the sending, by the second network device, the packet to the third network device by using the second tunnel includes: and the second network equipment utilizes the second tunnel to transmit to the third network equipment through the forwarding network equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending, by the second network device, the packet to the third network device by using the second tunnel includes: and the second network device sends the message to the third network device by using the output port corresponding to the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, a tunnel type corresponding to the second tunnel is different from a tunnel type of a first tunnel, and the first tunnel is a tunnel between the first network device and the second network device.

In a third aspect, a message transmission system is provided, where the system includes: a first network device and a second network device.

The first network device is configured to obtain identification information, where the identification information is used to indicate a tunnel corresponding to the forwarding packet.

For a specific implementation of the first network device obtaining the identification information, reference may be made to the related description of the first aspect.

The first network device is further configured to send a packet including the identification information to the second network device by using a first tunnel, where the first network device and the second network device are end devices of the first tunnel.

For specific implementation of the first network device determining the first tunnel and forwarding the packet using the first tunnel, reference may be made to the related description of the first aspect.

And the second network device is configured to determine a second tunnel according to the identification information in the message, and forward the message to a third network device by using the second tunnel, where the second network device and the third network device are end devices of the second tunnel.

For a specific implementation of the second network device determining the second tunnel and forwarding the packet using the second tunnel, reference may be made to the related description of the second aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a packet transmission apparatus is provided, where the apparatus includes: an obtaining unit, configured to obtain identification information, where the identification information is used to indicate a tunnel corresponding to a forwarding packet; a sending unit, configured to send a packet including the identification information to a second network device by using a first tunnel, so that the second network device determines, according to the identification information in the packet, a second tunnel used for forwarding the packet to a third network device, where the first network device and the second network device are end devices of the first tunnel, and the second network device and the third network device are end devices of the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, before the first network device sends the packet to the second network device by using the first tunnel, the apparatus further includes: a determining unit, configured to determine, before executing the sending unit, a first tunnel according to the identification information; or, determining the first tunnel according to the virtual private network identification.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the first tunnel according to the identification information and a stored correspondence table, where the correspondence table includes a correspondence between the identification information and the first tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the identification information is obtained by the first network device according to local configuration information, or the identification information is obtained by the first network device from the second network device, or the identification information is determined by the first network device according to related information in the message received from a fourth network device, and the first network device and the fourth network device are end devices of a third tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the obtaining unit is specifically configured to obtain available resource information from the second network device; and determining the identification information corresponding to the second tunnel according to the available resource information, wherein the second tunnel meets the resource required for forwarding the message.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining unit is specifically configured to receive the message sent by the fourth network device, where the message includes identification information before updating, and the identification information before updating enables the fourth network device to determine the third tunnel; acquiring the identification information according to the identification information before updating; or, receiving the message sent by the fourth network device, where the message includes the identification information.

In a possible implementation manner, the identifier information includes a first identifier and a second identifier, where the first identifier is used to indicate that the packet includes the second identifier, and the second identifier is used to indicate to forward a tunnel corresponding to the packet.

In a possible implementation manner, when a forwarding network device exists between the packet transmission apparatus and the second network device, the sending unit is specifically configured to transparently transmit the packet to the second network device through the forwarding network device by using the first tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit is specifically configured to send a packet to the second network device through an egress port corresponding to the first tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the tunnel type corresponding to the first tunnel is different from the tunnel type corresponding to the second tunnel.

In a fifth aspect, a message transmission apparatus is provided, where the apparatus includes: a receiving unit, configured to receive a packet sent by a first network device, where the packet includes identification information, and the identification information is used to indicate a tunnel used for forwarding the packet; a determining unit, configured to determine a second tunnel according to the identification information; a sending unit, configured to send the packet to a third network device by using the second tunnel, where the second network device and the third network device are end devices of the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the second tunnel according to the identification information and a stored correspondence table, where the correspondence table includes a correspondence between the identification information and the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit is specifically configured to determine updated identification information according to the identification information, where the updated identification information is used to determine a tunnel used for indicating to forward the packet; and sending the message to a third network device by using the second tunnel, wherein the message comprises the updated identification information.

In a possible implementation manner, the identifier information includes a first identifier and a second identifier, where the first identifier is used to indicate that the packet includes the second identifier, and the second identifier is used to indicate a tunnel used for forwarding the packet.

In a possible implementation manner, when a forwarding network device exists between the packet transmission apparatus and the third network device, the sending unit is specifically configured to transparently transmit the packet to the third network device through the forwarding network device by using the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit is specifically configured to send the packet to the third network device through an egress port corresponding to the second tunnel.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a communication device, the device comprising: a processor and a memory; the memory to store instructions; the processor is configured to execute the instructions in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the method of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first or second aspect above.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, before forwarding the message, the first network device acquires the identification information for indicating the tunnel corresponding to the forwarded message in advance. The first network device sends a message including identification information to the second network device by using the first tunnel, when the second network device receives the message, the second network device can determine a second tunnel used for forwarding the message to the third network device according to the identification information in the message, and the second network device forwards the message to the third network device by using the second tunnel. The first network device and the second network device are end devices of a first tunnel, and the second network device and the third network device are end devices of a second tunnel. Therefore, according to the message transmission method provided by the embodiment of the application, the network devices indicate the tunnel used for forwarding the message by sending the message including the identification information, so that when any network device serving as a tunnel end device on an end-to-end path receives the message, the tunnel used for forwarding can be determined according to the identification information in the message, and the network fragmentation function can be used in the whole network.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments described in the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of a scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 4a is a schematic diagram of a message structure provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4b is a schematic diagram of another message structure provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of another message transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a structural diagram of a message transmission apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a structural diagram of another message transmission apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a network device structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a diagram of another network device structure according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make those skilled in the art better understand the solution of the present invention, the technical solution in the embodiment of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiment of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiment is only a part of the embodiment of the present invention, and not all embodiments.

In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, a network element related to the embodiments of the present application will be described below.

And the base station side gateway CSG is used for accessing various service messages of the base station and forwarding the service messages to the convergence layer after processing.

And the convergence layer gateway ASG is used for converging the service message processed by the base station side gateway and forwarding the service message.

The radio service side gateway RSG is connected to a base station controller (RNC) and is configured to receive a packet forwarded by the convergence layer gateway.

A tunnel refers to a forwarding path between two network devices, allowing traffic packets to be transmitted over it. In the scenario described in the embodiment of the present application, a network device may include multiple tunnels, where the multiple tunnels respectively correspond to multiple egress ports on the network device. Different tunnels may correspond to different network fragmentation resources, respectively. In a specific implementation, the tunnel may be divided into different tunnel types according to a protocol used for establishing the tunnel, for example, a multi-protocol label switching traffic engineering (MPLS TE) tunnel, a segment routing traffic engineering (SR-TE) tunnel, a resource reservation protocol (RSVP-TE) tunnel based on traffic engineering extension, and the tunnel type is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Referring to an application scenario diagram shown in fig. 2, in the network system, 6 network devices are taken as an example for explanation. Specifically, the network device CSG, the network device ASG1, the network device ASG2, the forwarding network device P, the network device RSG1, and the network device RSG2 are included. A tunnel may exist between the CSG and the ASG1, and both are end devices of the tunnel. Similarly, a tunnel may exist between the CSG and the ASG2, and both are end devices of the tunnel, a tunnel may exist between the ASG2 and the RSG2, and both are end devices of the tunnel, and a tunnel may exist between the RSG2 and the RSG1, and both are end devices of the tunnel. The first network device may be any other network device except the forwarding network device P. Each network device may be an independent network device, or may be a functional module with a message forwarding capability in a certain network device. For ease of understanding, each network device will be described as an independent network device. Each network device may also be referred to as a node, and is a device having a message forwarding function in a network system, and for example, may be a router, a switch, a repeater, or a Label Switching Router (LSR). It should be noted that the solid line in fig. 2 is used to indicate that a transmission path exists between two adjacent end network devices, and the dotted line indicates a tunnel that can be used when a packet is forwarded between two adjacent end network devices. As an example, the tunnel may refer to a tunnel from CSG to ASG1 or to ASG2, or may refer to a tunnel used when a packet is forwarded between ASG1 to ASG2, ASG2 to RSG2, or RSG2 to RSG 1. A tunnel between any two adjacent end network devices may be referred to as a segmented tunnel, as opposed to an end-to-end tunnel used for transmitting packets over the entire network or a relatively large network. For the CSG-to-RSG 1 end-to-end tunnel shown in fig. 2, the tunnel between the two end devices CSG-to-ASG 2 is a segmented tunnel. Each segmented tunnel corresponds to an output port of the segmented tunnel sending end device. Each of the sender devices may have a plurality of egress ports thereon that respectively correspond to the plurality of tunnels. One or more tunnels may exist between any two adjacent end network devices, and when one of the end network devices sends a message to the other end network device, one or more of the tunnels may be selected as a forwarding tunnel for message forwarding. For example, in fig. 2, two tunnels exist between the CSG and the ASG2, that is, tunnel 1 and tunnel 2, respectively, one type of traffic packet may be forwarded to the ASG2 by using tunnel 1, and the other type of traffic packet may be forwarded to the ASG2 by using tunnel 2.

In this application scenario, the forwarding path from the CSG to the RSG1 may be CSG-ASG1-ASG2-P-RSG2-RSG1, or CSG-ASG2-P-RSG2-RSG1, and for convenience of understanding, the following description will take CSG-ASG2-P-RSG2-RSG1 as an example. In this embodiment, CSG is the head node 201, ASG2 and RSG2 are intermediate nodes, referred to as the first node 202 and the second node 203, respectively, and RSG1 is the tail node 204.

For the head node, in one possible scenario, it may be the node that generated the message, i.e., the head node may be the node indicated by the source address in the message. In this case, the head node is the first node on the end-to-end transmission path of the packet, and the head node adds the identification information when generating the packet.

In another possible situation, the source node on the end-to-end transmission path of the packet is another node, and the head node is connected to the source node, and after the head node receives the packet sent by the source node, the head node adds identification information for indicating a tunnel corresponding to the forwarding of the packet to the packet. In this case, the head node may be a first tunnel end device on the end-to-end transmission path, may also be a tunnel end device that has the capability of acquiring and adding the identification information and adds the identification information to the packet, or may be a tunnel end device that needs to acquire and add the identification information to the packet in the first end-to-end transmission path, and the like.

For the tail node, in one possible scenario, it may be the node indicated by the destination address in the message; another case is a node connected to a node indicated by the destination address; in another situation, the device may also be a receiving end device of a last segmented tunnel on the end-to-end transmission path, or, although not the receiving end device of the last segmented tunnel, the device may determine, according to the identification information in the message, a receiving end device corresponding to a sending end device of the tunnel egress port for the last receiving end device, such as a network device on the domain boundary.

The intermediate node is an end device corresponding to the tunnel between the head node and the tail node when the message is forwarded.

For convenience of understanding, the following description will be made with reference to the network system structure shown in fig. 2 as an example, specifically, a CSG-ASG2-P-RSG2-RSG1 is taken as an example, and fig. 3 is a flowchart of a message transmission method provided in this embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 3, including:

s301: head node 201 acquires the identification information.

In this embodiment, the head node 201 first obtains identification information for indicating a tunnel corresponding to the message to be forwarded, and may add the obtained identification information to the message to be forwarded. The head node 201 may be, for example, the CSG shown in fig. 2.

The identification information obtained by the head node 201 may have a plurality of implementation manners, one of which is that the head node 201 may obtain the identification information from local configuration information, the local configuration information may be manually configured in the head node 201 for a service packet that is required to be sent by a user, or may be read by the head node from configuration information that is locally stored in advance, and the head node 201 may determine the identification information corresponding to a forwarded packet according to a resource required by the packet that is required to be sent and a correspondence between a resource that is provided in a tunnel and the identification information stored in the configuration information table.

For another example, the head node 201 obtains identification information from the first intermediate node 202, specifically, the head node 201 obtains available resource information from the first intermediate node 202, where the available resource information is used to indicate available resources, specifically, available network fragmentation resources, corresponding to each of multiple tunnels existing from the first intermediate node 202 to the second intermediate node 203; head node 201 determines, according to the available resource information, identification information corresponding to the second tunnel, where the second tunnel satisfies resources required for forwarding the packet. That is, the head node 201 obtains resources of all or part of tunnels between the first intermediate node 202 and the second intermediate node 203 from the first intermediate node 202, and the head node 201 determines a tunnel that satisfies resources required for forwarding a packet, that is, a second tunnel, according to the resources of all or part of tunnels, and determines identification information corresponding to the second tunnel. The fragmentation resources of each tunnel may be bandwidth, time slot, qos queue, port, and the like. The message may belong to a certain traffic flow. The resources required for forwarding the message can be determined according to the service type of the message, and the service type can include video, audio, text or the like, and can also be determined according to the user to which the message belongs.

Still another alternative is that head node 201 determines the added identification information according to the related information in the message received from the previous-hop network device, where head node 201 and the previous-hop network device may be end devices of a tunnel, that is, the previous-hop network device forwards the message to head node 201 by using the tunnel, or the previous-hop network device is a non-tunnel end device. Specifically, head node 201 receives a message sent by a previous hop network device, where the message includes identification information before updating, and the identification information before updating enables the previous hop network device to determine a tunnel used for forwarding the message to head node 201; head node 201 acquires the identification information from the identification information before the update. Specifically, the head node 201 may determine, according to the identification information before updating, a resource required for forwarding the packet, and determine, according to the required resource and resources possessed by each tunnel in the first intermediate node 202, a tunnel that meets the requirement, so as to obtain the identification information corresponding to the tunnel that meets the requirement. Or, head node 201 receives a message sent by the previous-hop network device, where the message includes indication information indicating that head node 201 adds the identification information. Wherein the identification information causes the first intermediate node 202 to determine the second tunnel.

S302: head node 201 sends a message including identification information to first intermediate node 202 using the first tunnel.

After adding the acquired identification information to the packet, the head node 201 forwards the packet to the first intermediate node 202 by using the first tunnel. The first tunnel may be obtained by, for example, determining, by head node 201, the first tunnel according to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) identifier, where the VPN identifier is used to uniquely identify a certain VPN instance. That is, when the head node 201 receives a packet to be forwarded, it may obtain a corresponding virtual network identifier according to a virtual private network to which the packet belongs, and further determine a tunnel used when forwarding the virtual private network packet according to the virtual network identifier. For example, the head node 201 corresponds to 3 virtual private networks, which are respectively VPN1, VPN2, and VPN3, where tunnel 1 is used to forward traffic packets of VPN1, and tunnel 2 is used to forward traffic packets of VPN2 and VPN 3. When the packet received by the head node 201 belongs to the VPN1, tunnel 1 is determined according to the VPN1, so that the packet is forwarded to the first node 202 by using tunnel 1.

Alternatively, head node 201 determines the first tunnel based on the identification information. That is, after acquiring the identification information, the head node 201 may determine, according to the identification information, a first tunnel used for forwarding the packet to the first node 202. Specifically, head node 201 determines the first tunnel according to the identification information and a stored correspondence table, where the correspondence table includes a correspondence between the identification information and the first tunnel. That is, the head node 201 searches for a tunnel corresponding to the identification information, that is, a first tunnel, according to the acquired identification information and a correspondence table stored in advance. The correspondence table may be a correspondence table of a direct relationship between the identification information and the tunnel information (e.g., a tunnel exit port), that is, the content in the identification information is directly used as an index to determine the corresponding tunnel information; or an indirect relationship correspondence table, for example, the identification information is used to indicate a required network fragmentation resource condition, and the head node 201 searches and determines tunnel information that can provide the resource according to the required network fragmentation resource condition.

When head node 201 configures the two strategies for determining the first tunnel at the same time, if the first tunnel determined by head node 201 using the virtual network identifier and the first tunnel determined by using the identifier information are the same tunnel, head node 201 forwards the packet to first node 202 using the first tunnel. If the first tunnel determined by head node 201 using the virtual network identifier and the first tunnel determined by using the identifier information are different tunnels, head node 201 may determine, according to a pre-configured priority, a tunnel used for forwarding a packet. For example, if the priority of the tunnel determined by the virtual network identifier is higher than the priority of the tunnel determined by the identifier information, the head node 201 forwards the packet to the first node 202 by using the first tunnel determined by the virtual network identifier.

It should be noted that the resource required by the tunnel to satisfy the forwarding of the packet refers to the resource required by the egress port corresponding to the tunnel to satisfy the forwarding of the packet, that is, the head node 201 forwards the packet to the first node 202 by using the egress port corresponding to the first tunnel.

In this embodiment, the network system structure shown in fig. 2 is taken as an example for explanation, and in an actual application scenario, the head node 201 and the first intermediate node 202 may be directly connected, or may be connected through any multiple forwarding network devices existing between the two nodes. When the head node 201 sends a packet to the first intermediate node 202 by using the first tunnel, each intermediate forwarding network device may implement only a forwarding function, and pass the packet through to the first intermediate node 202 without analyzing the identification information in the packet.

S303: the first intermediate node 202 determines the second tunnel according to the identification information in the message.

In this embodiment, after the first intermediate node 202 receives the packet sent by the head node 201 through the ingress port corresponding to the first tunnel, the identification information is obtained from the packet, so as to determine the second tunnel according to the identification information in the packet. The first intermediate node 202 determines the specific implementation of the second tunnel according to the identification information, which may refer to the implementation of determining the first tunnel by the head node 201 in S302. The first intermediate node 202 may be, for example, ASG1 or ASG 2.

It can be understood that both the head node 201 and the first intermediate node 202 may determine the tunnel according to the identification information, and the identification information according to the head node 201 and the first intermediate node may be the same identification information or different identification information. When the head node 201 and the first intermediate node 202 determine the tunnel by using the same identification information, after the head node 201 acquires the identification information, the acquired identification information may be directly added to the packet and sent to the first intermediate node 202. Further, although the same identification information may be used by the head node 201 and the first intermediate node 202 to determine the tunnel, the same identification information may correspond to different tunnels at different nodes. For example, the same identification information used by the head node 201 and the first intermediate node 202 is 100, where the identification information 100 is used to indicate a bandwidth of 1G, and in the head node 201, if the bandwidth corresponding to the tunnel 1 is 1G, the identification information corresponds to the tunnel 1; in the first intermediate node 202, if the bandwidth corresponding to tunnel 2 is 1G, the identification information corresponds to tunnel 2. When the minimum requirement of network fragmentation for forwarding a packet is 1G bandwidth, the bandwidth resources provided by tunnel 1 and tunnel 2 may be 1G, or may be greater than 1G, and the bandwidths provided by tunnel 1 and tunnel 2 may be the same or different. When the head node 201 and the first intermediate node 202 determine the tunnel by using different identification information, before forwarding the packet to the first intermediate node 202, the head node 201 determines updated identification information according to the acquired identification information, where the updated identification information is used for enabling the first intermediate node 202 to determine the tunnel used for forwarding the packet. That is, the identification information included in the message is updated identification information, and the first intermediate node 202 determines the second tunnel using the updated identification information. For example, in the head node 201, the identification information 100 is used to indicate a 1G bandwidth, and the bandwidth corresponding to the tunnel 1 is 1G, then the identification information 100 corresponds to the tunnel 1, that is, the identification information 100 is used to indicate that the head node 201 determines that the tunnel 1 carries the network fragmentation resource of the 1G bandwidth; in the first intermediate node 202, the identification information 200 is used to indicate a 1G bandwidth, and when the head node 201 sends a packet to the first intermediate node 202, the identification information 100 is replaced with the identification information 200, so that the first intermediate node 202 can determine, according to the identified identification information 200, a tunnel of the 1G bandwidth that is required to be used for forwarding the packet.

As a possible implementation manner, the identifier information in this embodiment may include a first identifier and a second identifier, where the first identifier is used to indicate that the packet includes the second identifier, and the second identifier is used to indicate that a tunnel corresponding to the packet is forwarded. For a node receiving a message including identification information, the node can quickly determine that the message also includes a second identification by identifying the first identification, so as to determine a tunnel corresponding to forwarding the message by using the second identification.

In this embodiment, the specific expression form of the identification information may be a point tag, where the first identification is an outer layer tag of the point tag, and the second identification is an inner layer tag of the point tag. Specifically, for example, an MPLS-TE tunnel is constructed in a VPN network, after the head node 201 receives a packet, the point label is encapsulated between a VPN label and an MPLS label of the packet, an outer layer label of the point label may be set to a first label value, for example, 6 or 12, and an inner layer label is set to a second label value (set according to actual requirements). The packet format shown in fig. 4a includes an IP header, Time To Live (TTL) 255 of label information MPLS of the VPN (where 255 indicates a default value), an outer label MPLS (6) TTL 0 of the Point label, an inner label Point _ MPLS TTL 255 of the Point label, and label information MPLS TTL 255 of the MPLS. When the first intermediate node 202 receives the packet sent by the head node 201 through the first tunnel, it determines that the point label exists by analyzing the packet and the outer layer label value of the point label is equal to the first label value, and then analyzes the inner layer label and determines the second tunnel through the inner layer label value.

It should be noted that the first tunnel and the second tunnel may be the same type of tunnel, for example, both SR-TE tunnels, or different types of tunnels, for example, the first tunnel is an SR-TE tunnel, and the second tunnel is an RSVP-TE tunnel.

In S302 and S303, the CSG shown in fig. 2 is used as the head node 201, and a packet carrying the identification information is directly sent to the ASG2 serving as the first intermediate node 202 through the first tunnel. In other possible cases, the CSG may also send a message carrying the identification information to the ASG1, and then the ASG1 passes the message through to the ASG 2. When ASG1 and ASG2 are also connected through a tunnel, ASG1 may transparently transmit the packet through the tunnel, or, if a network segment is also deployed between ASG1 and ASG2, the CSG sends the packet carrying the identification information to ASG1, which may also be analyzed by ASG1 in some cases, so that ASG1 determines the tunnel used when forwarding the packet to ASG2 according to the identification information obtained after the analysis, and the tunnel determined by ASG1 has a network segment resource required for forwarding the packet.

S304: the first intermediate node 202 forwards the packet to the second intermediate node 203 using the second tunnel.

When the first intermediate node 202 determines that the second tunnel corresponding to the packet is forwarded to the second intermediate node 203, the first intermediate node 202 forwards the packet to the second intermediate node 203 by using the second tunnel, where the packet includes the identification information. Specifically, when the first intermediate node 202 and the second intermediate node 203 are different in identification information for indicating tunnels to which the message is forwarded, before the first intermediate node 202 forwards the message to the second intermediate node 203, the first intermediate node 202 determines updated identification information according to the identification information in the message received from the head node 201, where the updated identification information enables the second intermediate node 203 to determine the tunnel used for forwarding the message; the first intermediate node 202 sends a packet including the updated identification information to the second intermediate node 203 using the second tunnel. Specifically, the first intermediate node 202 sends a packet including the updated identification information to the second intermediate node 203 through the egress port corresponding to the second tunnel. The second intermediate node 203 may be, for example, the RSG2 shown in fig. 2.

It should be noted that, in order to embody the continuity of message transmission, in the embodiment of the present application, both the message sent by the head node 201 to the first intermediate node 202 and the message sent by the first intermediate node 202 to the second intermediate node 203 are referred to as messages, but it can be understood that there may be a difference between the message sent by the head node 201 to the first intermediate node 202 and the message sent by the first intermediate node 202 to the second intermediate node 203 in an actual application scenario. For example, there may be a difference between the time-to-live TTL and the next-hop node, that is, the first intermediate node 202 may actually be an updated packet with some necessary information modified when forwarding the packet of the head node 201 to the second intermediate node 203. The message sent by the head node 201 and the updated message sent by the first intermediate node 202 may carry the same payload (payload) and identification information for indicating a tunnel with corresponding available resources. The message sent by the second intermediate node 203 to the tail node 204 is also similar in meaning, and may be substantially an updated message.

In a practical application scenario, there may be any number of forwarding network devices between the first intermediate node 202 and the second intermediate node 203, such as the P device shown in fig. 2. When the first intermediate node 202 sends the packet to the second intermediate node 203 using the second tunnel, each intermediate forwarding network device may only implement the forwarding function, and pass the packet through to the second intermediate node 203 without parsing and identifying the packet.

S305: the second intermediate node 203 determines the third tunnel according to the identification information in the message.

When the second intermediate node 203 receives the message sent by the first intermediate node 202 through the ingress port corresponding to the second tunnel, the identification information is obtained from the message, so as to determine the third tunnel according to the identification information in the message. The specific implementation of the second intermediate node 203 determining the third tunnel according to the identification information may refer to the implementation of the first intermediate node 202 determining the second tunnel in S303.

The second tunnel and the third tunnel may be the same type of tunnel, for example, both SR-TE tunnels, or different types of tunnels, for example, the first tunnel is an SR-TE tunnel, and the second tunnel is an RSVP-TE tunnel.

S306: the second intermediate node 203 forwards the packet to the tail node 204 using the third tunnel.

When the second intermediate node 203 determines that the third tunnel corresponding to the packet is forwarded to the tail node 204, the second intermediate node 203 forwards the packet to the tail node 204 by using the third tunnel, where the packet includes the identification information. A specific implementation that the second intermediate node 203 forwards the packet to the tail node 204 by using the third tunnel may refer to S303, which is not described herein again in this embodiment. The tail node 203 may be, for example, RSG1 in fig. 2.

In this embodiment, after receiving the packet forwarded by the second intermediate node 203, the tail node 204 may perform different processing in different application scenarios. The method specifically comprises the following operations:

in one case, the tail node 204 does not forward the packet after it has received it. For example, when tail node 204 is the destination node of the packet, tail node 204 may only receive the packet without forwarding, and need not determine a forwarding tunnel according to the identification information.

For another situation, for example, when the destination node is a user equipment connected to the tail node 204, the tail node 204 pops up the identification information in the message after determining the tunnel according to the identification information, and forwards the message not including the identification information to the user equipment. When the identification information is carried in the extension header of the packet, the pop-up operation may be to pop up the entire extension header. For example, the message structure diagram after popping up shown in fig. 4 b.

In another case, when the next node connected to the tail node 204 and the tail node 204 belong to different network domains, the different network domains may set different identification information to indicate the tunnel, i.e., in this case, the tail node 204 is a tail node defined within the scope of the current network domain. In order to ensure that the next hop node can identify the identification information in the message, after receiving the message forwarded by the second intermediate node 203, the tail node 204 obtains the corresponding identification information used in another network domain according to the identification information used in the current network domain carried in the message, and the corresponding identification information used in the another network domain may become updated identification information. That is, the identification information before update is applied to the network domains to which the head node 201, the first intermediate node 202, the second intermediate node 203, and the tail node 204 belong, and the identification information after update is applied to the network domain to which the next hop node belongs. The tail node 204 replaces the identification information in the message with the updated identification information, and sends the message carrying the updated identification information to the next hop node, thereby ensuring that the next hop node can identify the updated identification information in the message and completing the corresponding forwarding resource reservation. Or, the next hop node outside the network domain does not need to perform the operation of determining the tunnel according to the identification information, and the tail node 204 may also not add new identification information after stripping the identification information in the message, but forward the message that does not include the identification information to the next hop node outside the domain. The network domain may be an Autonomous System (AS) domain, an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) domain, or an administrative domain. The administrative domain may include, for example, a plurality of AS domains that are collectively managed by the controller.

S304 and S305 have RSG2 as the second intermediate node 203, and RSG1 as the tail node 204 as an example. It can be understood that, in an actual application scenario, network fragments may not be deployed between RSG1 and RSG2 as nodes of the same type, but packet forwarding is directly completed according to a packet transmission path. In such a case, the pop operation of the identification information may be performed at RSG2, and the identification information for determining the tunnel may no longer be included in the message forwarded by RSG2 to RSG1, even though in some cases, RSG2 may still forward the message to RSG1 by means of the tunnel. In other cases, there may be a case where one or more intermediate nodes between head node 201 and tail node 204 as tunnel end devices do not support or enable the function of selecting a tunnel based on the identification information, in which case the one or more intermediate nodes may forward the packet only according to conventional mechanisms.

It is understood that the above scenario is merely an example, and the processing operation performed by the tail node 204 on the packet may be determined in conjunction with a specific application scenario. The tunnel end node for forwarding the message can indicate an output port corresponding to the next tunnel segment used for forwarding the message for the end node on the other side of the tunnel by adding the identification information in the message, and the next tunnel segment has a network fragment resource capable of bearing the message forwarding, so that the message can be guaranteed to be forwarded by using the required available resource on a transmission path all the time, and the network service quality is improved.

To further facilitate understanding of the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 5, which is a flowchart of another message transmission method provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 5, the method may include:

s501: the first network device obtains identification information.

In this embodiment, the first network device may be the head node, the intermediate node, or the tail node described in the foregoing embodiments.

When the first network device is a head node, the first network device may obtain the identification information according to the local configuration information or obtain the identification information from the second network device, and specifically, the first network device obtains the available resource information from the second network device; and the first network equipment determines the identification information corresponding to the second tunnel according to the available resource information. The second tunnel satisfies resources required for forwarding the packet, and specific implementation may refer to S301.

When the first network device is an intermediate node or a tail node, the first network device is determined according to the relevant information in the packet sent from the previous-hop network device (fourth network device). And the first network equipment and the fourth network equipment are end equipment of the third tunnel. Specifically, the first network device receives a message sent by the fourth network device, where the message includes identification information before updating, and the identification information before updating enables the fourth network device to determine a third tunnel; and the first network equipment acquires the identification information according to the identification information before updating. In this implementation manner, the identification information obtained by the first network device according to the identification information before updating may be applied to the second network device, so that the second network device determines the second tunnel according to the identification information. See S302 for a specific implementation.

The representation form of the identification information may be that the identification information includes a first identification and a second identification, the first identification is used to indicate that the packet includes the second identification, and the second identification is used to indicate that the tunnel corresponding to the packet is forwarded. Specifically, the first identifier and the second identifier are expressed in the form that, when the identifier information is a point tag, the first identifier information is an outer layer tag of the point tag, and the second identifier is an inner layer tag of the point tag. Specifically, see S303.

S502: the first network equipment sends a message including the identification information to the second network equipment by using the first tunnel.

In this embodiment, the determining, by the first network device, a specific implementation manner of the first tunnel may include: one is determined from the identification information. Specifically, the first network device determines the first tunnel according to the identification information and a stored correspondence table, where the correspondence table includes a correspondence between the identification information and the first tunnel. The other is determined based on the virtual private network identity. See fig. S302 for both implementations described above.

In this embodiment, when the first network device is the head node 201, the implementation that the first network device sends the packet to the second network device may refer to S302. When the first network device is an intermediate node, the implementation that the first network device sends the packet to the second network device may refer to S304 and S306.

It should be noted that, when an intermediate forwarding network device exists between the first network device and the second network device, the first network device may use the first tunnel to pass through to the second network device through the intermediate forwarding network device. That is, the forwarding network device does not analyze and identify the forwarded packet, and directly transmits the forwarded packet to the second network device. Specifically, when the first network device transmits a packet using the first tunnel, the first network device actually sends the packet to the second network device using the egress port corresponding to the first tunnel.

S503: and the second network equipment determines a second tunnel for forwarding to the third network equipment according to the identification information in the message.

In this embodiment, when the second network device receives a message including the identification information sent by the first network device, the second network device may determine, according to the identification information in the message, a second tunnel to be forwarded to the third network device. The determining, by the second network device, the second tunnel according to the identification information in the message may include: the second network device determines the second tunnel according to the identification information and the stored correspondence table, where the correspondence table includes a correspondence between the identification information and the second tunnel, and the specific implementation of S303 and S305 may be referred to. The tunnel types of the first tunnel and the second tunnel may be the same or different, which may specifically be referred to as S303.

S504: and the second network equipment forwards the message comprising the identification information to the third network equipment by using the second tunnel.

In this embodiment, after the second network device determines the second tunnel, the second tunnel may be used to forward the packet including the identification information to the third network device. Specifically, when the second network device sends a message to the third network device by using the second tunnel, the second network device may determine updated identification information according to the identification information when receiving the message, where the updated identification information is used to determine the tunnel used for indicating to forward the message; and the second network equipment sends the message to the third network equipment by using the second tunnel, wherein the message comprises the updated identification information. See S304 for a specific implementation.

Specifically, when the second network device is the tail node, the specific implementation after receiving the packet may refer to the related description of S306, and this embodiment is not described herein again. When the second network device and the third network device indicate the tunnel by using different identification information, and the second network device forwards the message to the third network device by using the second tunnel, the second network device determines updated identification information according to the identification information of the received message, wherein the updated identification information is used for the third network device to determine the tunnel used for forwarding the message. And the second network equipment replaces the identification information in the message with the updated identification information and sends the message comprising the updated identification information to the third network equipment by using the second tunnel.

Based on the foregoing method embodiments, the present application provides a message transmission apparatus, which will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 6, which is a schematic structural diagram of a message transmission apparatus provided in this embodiment of the present application, the apparatus 600 can be applied to a first network device to execute the function of the first network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and the apparatus 600 may include: an acquisition unit 601 and a transmission unit 602.

The obtaining unit 601 is configured to obtain identification information, where the identification information is used to indicate a tunnel corresponding to a forwarding packet.

When the first network device applied by the apparatus 600 is the head node 201, the specific implementation of the obtaining unit 601 to obtain the identification information may refer to S301 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3. When the first network device applied by the first network device is the first intermediate node 202, the second intermediate node 203, or the tail node 204, the obtaining unit 601 may obtain the identification information from the packet, which may be specifically referred to as S303 and S305.

A sending unit 602, configured to send a packet including the identification information to the second network device by using the first tunnel, so that the second network device determines, according to the identification information in the packet, a second tunnel used for forwarding the packet to the third network device. The first network device and the second network device applied by the apparatus 600 are end devices of a first tunnel, and the second network device and the third network device are end devices of a second tunnel.

For a specific implementation of the sending unit 602, see S302.

In one possible implementation, the apparatus may further include:

a determining unit, configured to determine, before executing the sending unit, a first tunnel according to the identification information; or, determining the first tunnel according to the virtual private network identification.

Wherein, the determining unit determines the specific implementation of the first tunnel in S302.

The step of determining, by the determining unit, the specific implementation of the first tunnel according to the identification information and the correspondence table may be referred to as S302.

In a possible implementation manner, the identification information is obtained by the obtaining unit according to the local configuration information, or the identification information is obtained by the obtaining unit from the second network device, or the identification information is determined by the obtaining unit according to the related information in the message received from the fourth network device, where the network device and the fourth network device applied by the apparatus 600 are end devices of the third tunnel.

When the network device applied by apparatus 600 is head node 201, the obtaining unit obtains the identification information according to the local configuration information, or obtains the identification information from the next hop network device. When the network device is the first intermediate node 202, the second intermediate node 203, or the tail node 204, the obtaining unit may obtain from a packet sent by the network device of the previous hop. The specific implementation of the above-mentioned obtaining of the identification information can be seen in S301.

In a possible implementation manner, the obtaining unit is specifically configured to obtain the available resource information from the second network device; and determining the identification information corresponding to a second tunnel according to the available resource information, wherein the second tunnel meets the resource required for forwarding the message.

The step S301 may be seen in that the obtaining unit determines, according to the available resource information obtained from the second network device, a specific implementation of the identification information corresponding to the second tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining unit is specifically configured to receive a message sent by a fourth network device, where the message includes identification information before updating, and the identification information before updating enables the fourth network device to determine the third tunnel; acquiring identification information according to the identification information before updating; or receiving a message sent by a fourth network device, where the message includes the identification information.

See S301 for a specific implementation in which the determining unit obtains the identification information according to the identification information before updating.

In a possible implementation manner, the identification information includes a first identification and a second identification, the first identification is used to indicate that the packet includes the second identification, and the second identification is used to indicate a tunnel corresponding to the forwarding packet.

For a concrete expression of the identification information, see S303.

When there is a forwarding network device between the network device applied by the apparatus 600 and the second network device, the sending unit uses the first tunnel to pass the packet through the forwarding network device to the second network device, and the forwarding network device does not parse and identify the packet. See S302 for a specific implementation.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit is specifically configured to send the packet to the second network device through the egress port corresponding to the first tunnel.

For the implementation that the sending unit sends the packet to the second network device through the egress port corresponding to the first tunnel, see S302.

In one possible implementation, the tunnel type corresponding to the first tunnel is different from the tunnel type corresponding to the second tunnel.

See S303 for the type of the tunnel corresponding to each of the first tunnel and the second tunnel.

For specific executable functions and implementations of the message transmission apparatus 600, reference may be made to corresponding descriptions about the first network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 or fig. 5, which are not described herein again.

Referring to fig. 7, which is a schematic structural diagram of a message transmission apparatus provided in this embodiment, the apparatus 700 can be applied to a second network device to execute the function of the second network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, where the apparatus 700 may include: a receiving unit 701, a determining unit 702, and a transmitting unit 703.

A receiving unit 701, configured to receive a message sent by a first network device, where the message includes identification information, and the identification information is used to indicate a tunnel used for forwarding the message.

The network device applied by the apparatus 700 may be the first intermediate node 202, the second intermediate node 203, or the tail node 204, and for specific implementation of the receiving unit 701 for receiving the packet, see S302, S304, and S306.

A determining unit 702, configured to determine the second tunnel according to the identification information.

Wherein, the determining unit 702 determines the specific implementation of the second tunnel according to the identification information, which may be referred to as S302, S303, or S305.

A sending unit 703 is configured to send a packet to a third network device by using a second tunnel, where the network device and the third network device applied by the apparatus 700 are end devices of the second tunnel.

The implementation that the sending unit 703 sends the packet to the third network device by using the second tunnel may refer to S304 and S306.

For the determining unit to determine the specific implementation of the second tunnel according to the identification information and the correspondence table, see S302, S303, or S305.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit is specifically configured to determine updated identification information according to the identification information, where the updated identification information is used to determine a tunnel used for indicating to forward a packet; and sending a message to the third network equipment by using the second tunnel, wherein the message comprises the updated identification information.

For specific implementation of determining updated identification information by the sending unit, see S303 and S304.

For a concrete expression of the identification information, see S303.

When there is a forwarding network device between the network device applied by the apparatus 700 and the third network device, the forwarding network device transparently transmits the received packet to the third network device. See S302, S304, or S306 for specific implementations.

For a specific implementation that the sending unit sends the packet through the egress port corresponding to the second tunnel, see S304 and S306.

In a possible implementation manner, the tunnel type corresponding to the second tunnel is different from the tunnel type of the first tunnel, where the first tunnel is a tunnel between the first network device and the packet transmission apparatus.

Wherein, the definition of the tunnel type of the first tunnel and the second tunnel can be seen in S303 and S305.

For specific executable functions and implementations of the message transmission apparatus 700, reference may be made to corresponding descriptions about the first network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 or fig. 5, which are not described herein again.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the network device may be, for example, a first network device or a second network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 or fig. 5, or may also be implemented by a device of the message transmission apparatus 600 or apparatus 700 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6.

Referring to fig. 8, a network device 800 includes: a processor 810, a communication interface 820, and a memory 830. The number of the processors 810 in the message forwarding device 800 may be one or more, and fig. 8 illustrates one processor as an example. In the embodiment of the present application, the processor 810, the communication interface 820 and the memory 830 may be connected by a bus system or other means, wherein fig. 8 is exemplified by the connection via the bus system 840.

The processor 810 may be a CPU, an NP, or a combination of a CPU and an NP. The processor 810 may further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a General Array Logic (GAL), or any combination thereof.

When the network device includes head node 201, processor 810 may perform related functions of obtaining identification information and determining a tunnel and the like according to the identification information in the above-described method embodiments. When the network device is the first intermediate node 202, the second intermediate node 203, or the end node 204, the processor 810 may perform the related functions of determining a tunnel and the like according to the identification information in the above method example.

The communication interface 820 is used for receiving and transmitting messages, and particularly, the communication interface 820 may include a receiving interface and a transmitting interface. The receiving interface may be configured to receive a message, and the sending interface may be configured to send a message. The number of the communication interfaces 820 may be one or more.

Memory 830 may include volatile memory (RAM), such as random-access memory (RAM); the memory 830 may also include a non-volatile memory (SSD), such as a flash memory (flash memory), a hard disk (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD); memory 830 may also comprise a combination of the above types of memory. The memory 830 may store the aforementioned correspondence between the identification information and the tunnel, for example.

Optionally, memory 830 stores an operating system and programs, executable modules or data structures, or subsets thereof or extensions thereof, wherein the programs may include various operating instructions for performing various operations. The operating system may include various system programs for implementing various basic services and for handling hardware-based tasks. The processor 810 can read the program in the memory 830 to implement the message transmission method provided by the embodiment of the present application.

The memory 830 may be a storage device in the network device 800, or may be a storage device independent from the network device 800.

The bus system 840 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus system 840 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and so on. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 8, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another network device 900 provided in this embodiment, where the network device 900 may be implemented as the first network device or the second network device in the foregoing embodiments, or the message transmission apparatus 600 or the apparatus 700 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6.

The network device 900 includes: a main control board 910 and an interface board 930.

The main control board 910 is also called a Main Processing Unit (MPU) or a route processor card (route processor card), and the main control board 910 controls and manages each component in the network device 900, including routing computation, device management, device maintenance, and protocol processing functions. The main control board 910 includes: a central processing unit 911 and a memory 912.

The interface board 930 is also called a Line Processing Unit (LPU), a line card (line card), or a service board. The interface board 930 is used to provide various service interfaces and implement packet forwarding. The service interfaces include, but are not limited to, Ethernet interfaces, such as Flexible Ethernet services interfaces (FlexE Ethernet Clients), POS (Packet over SONET/SDH) interfaces, and the like. The interface board 930 includes: a central processor 931, a network processor 932, a forwarding table entry memory 934, and a Physical Interface Card (PIC) 933.

The central processor 931 on the interface board 930 is used for controlling and managing the interface board 930 and communicating with the central processor 911 on the main control board 910.

The network processor 932 is configured to implement forwarding processing of the packet. The network processor 932 may take the form of a forwarding chip. Specifically, the processing of the uplink packet includes: processing a message input interface and searching a forwarding table; and (3) downlink message processing: forwarding table lookups, and the like.

The physical interface card 933 is used to implement the interfacing function of the physical layer, from which the original traffic enters the interface board 930, and the processed message is sent out from the physical interface card 933. Physical interface card 933 includes at least one physical interface, also known as physical port, physical interface card 933 corresponding to FlexE physical interface 204 in system architecture 200. The physical interface card 933, also called a daughter card, may be installed on the interface board 930 and is responsible for converting the optical-electrical signal into a message, performing validity check on the message, and forwarding the message to the network processor 932 for processing. In some embodiments, the central processor 931 of the interface board 903 may also perform the functions of the network processor 932, such as implementing software forwarding based on a general purpose CPU, so that the network processor 932 is not required in the physical interface card 933.

Optionally, the network device 900 includes a plurality of interface boards, for example, the network device 900 further includes an interface board 940, and the interface board 940 includes: central processor 941, network processor 942, forwarding entry store 944, and physical interface cards 943.

Optionally, network device 900 further includes a switch board 920. The switch board 920 may also be called a Switch Fabric Unit (SFU). In the case of a network device having a plurality of interface boards 930, the switch board 920 is used to complete data exchange between the interface boards. For example, interface board 930 and interface board 940 may communicate via switch board 920.

The master control board 910 and the interface board 930 are coupled. For example. The main control board 910, the interface board 930, the interface board 940, and the switch board 920 are connected to the system backplane through the system bus to implement intercommunication. In a possible implementation manner, an inter-process communication protocol (IPC) channel is established between the main control board 910 and the interface board 930, and the main control board 910 and the interface board 930 communicate with each other through the IPC channel.

Logically, network device 900 includes a control plane including main control panel 910 and central processor 931 and a forwarding plane including various components that perform forwarding, such as forwarding table entry memory 934, physical interface card 933, and network processor 932. The control plane executes functions of a router, generating a forwarding table, processing signaling and protocol messages, configuring and maintaining the state of the equipment, and the like, issues the generated forwarding table to the forwarding plane, and in the forwarding plane, the network processor 932 looks up the table of the messages received by the physical interface card 933 based on the forwarding table issued by the control plane and forwards the messages. The forwarding table issued by the control plane may be stored in the forwarding table entry storage 934. In some embodiments, the control plane and the forwarding plane may be completely separate and not on the same device.

If network device 900 is configured as a first network device, central processor 911 may obtain identification information; a first tunnel is determined. Network processor 932 may trigger physical interface card 933 to send a packet including identification information to a second network device according to the determined first tunnel.

If network device 900 is configured as a second network device, central processor 911 may determine a second tunnel based on the identification information in the message. Network processor 932 may trigger physical interface card 933 to send the packet to the third network device according to the determined second tunnel.

It should be understood that the sending unit 602 and the like in the message transmission apparatus 600 may correspond to the physical interface card 933 or the physical interface card 943 in the network device 900; the acquisition unit 601, the determination unit, and the like in the message transmission apparatus 600 may correspond to the central processor 911 or the central processor 931 in the network device 900.

The receiving unit 701, the sending unit 703, and the like in the message transmission apparatus 700 may correspond to the physical interface card 933 or the physical interface card 943 in the network device 900; the determination unit 702 or the like in the message transmission apparatus 700 may correspond to the central processor 911 or the central processor 931 in the network device 900.

It should be understood that the operations on the interface board 940 in the embodiment of the present application are the same as the operations on the interface board 930, and therefore, for brevity, detailed descriptions are omitted. It should be understood that the network device 900 of this embodiment may correspond to the first network device or the second network device in the foregoing respective method embodiments, and the main control board 910, the interface board 930, and/or the interface board 940 in the network device 900 may implement the functions and/or the various steps implemented by the first network device or the second network device in the foregoing respective method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, no repeated description is provided here.

It should be understood that the main control board may have one or more blocks, and when there are more blocks, the main control board may include an active main control board and a standby main control board. The interface board may have one or more blocks, and the stronger the data processing capability of the network device, the more interface boards are provided. There may also be one or more physical interface cards on an interface board. The exchange network board may not have one or more blocks, and when there are more blocks, the load sharing redundancy backup can be realized together. Under the centralized forwarding architecture, the network device does not need a switching network board, and the interface board undertakes the processing function of the service data of the whole system. Under the distributed forwarding architecture, the network device can have at least one switching network board, and the data exchange among a plurality of interface boards is realized through the switching network board, so that the high-capacity data exchange and processing capacity is provided. Therefore, the data access and processing capabilities of network devices in a distributed architecture are greater than those of devices in a centralized architecture. Optionally, the form of the network device may also be only one board card, that is, there is no switching network board, and the functions of the interface board and the main control board are integrated on the one board card, at this time, the central processing unit on the interface board and the central processing unit on the main control board may be combined into one central processing unit on the one board card to perform the function after the two are superimposed, and the data switching and processing capability of the device in this form is low (for example, network devices such as a low-end switch or a router, etc.). Which architecture is specifically adopted depends on the specific networking deployment scenario.

In some possible embodiments, the first network device or the second network device may be implemented as a virtualized device. For example, the virtualized device may be a Virtual Machine (VM) running a program for sending messages, and the VM is deployed on a hardware device (e.g., a physical server). A virtual machine refers to a complete computer system with complete hardware system functionality, which is emulated by software, running in a completely isolated environment. The virtual machine may be configured as the first network device or the second network device. For example, the first Network device or the second Network device may be implemented based on a common physical server in combination with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology. The first network device or the second network device is a virtual host, a virtual router, or a virtual switch. Through reading the present application, a person skilled in the art may combine the NFV technology to virtually generate a first network device or a second network device having the above functions on a general physical server, and details are not described here.

It should be understood that the network devices in the above various product forms respectively have any functions of the first network device or the second network device in the above method embodiments, and details are not described here.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip, which comprises a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used for receiving the instruction and transmitting the instruction to the processor; a processor, which may be a specific implementation form of the message transmission apparatus 600 shown in fig. 6, for example, may be configured to execute the message transmission method described above. Wherein the processor is coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the system-on-chip to implement the method of any of the above method embodiments.

Optionally, the system on a chip may have one or more processors. The processor may be implemented by hardware or by software. When implemented in hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

Optionally, the memory in the system-on-chip may also be one or more. The memory may be integrated with the processor or may be separate from the processor, which is not limited in this application. For example, the memory may be a non-transitory processor, such as a read only memory ROM, which may be integrated with the processor on the same chip or separately disposed on different chips, and the type of the memory and the arrangement of the memory and the processor are not particularly limited in this application.

The system-on-chip may be, for example, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a digital signal processing circuit (DSP), a Microcontroller (MCU), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or other integrated chips.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, which includes instructions or a computer program, and when the computer-readable storage medium runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the message transmission method provided in the foregoing embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product containing instructions or a computer program, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute the message transmission method provided in the above embodiments.

The terms "first," "second," "third," "fourth," and the like in the description and in the claims of the present application and in the drawings described above, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It will be appreciated that the data so used may be interchanged under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and for example, a division of a unit is only a logical division, and an actual implementation may have another division, 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 through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

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.

In addition, each service unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a hardware form, and can also be realized in a software service unit form.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software business unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be substantially implemented or contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method of the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that, in one or more of the examples described above, the services described in this disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the services may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

The above embodiments are intended to explain the objects, aspects and advantages of the present invention in further detail, and it should be understood that the above embodiments are merely illustrative of the present invention.

The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, and not to limit the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for packet transmission, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that first network equipment obtains identification information, and the identification information is used for indicating a tunnel corresponding to a forwarding message;

the first network device sends a message including the identification information to a second network device by using a first tunnel, so that the second network device determines a second tunnel for forwarding the message to a third network device according to the identification information in the message, wherein the first network device and the second network device are end devices of the first tunnel, and the second network device and the third network device are end devices of the second tunnel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the first network device sends the packet to the second network device using the first tunnel, the method further comprises:

the first network equipment determines a first tunnel according to the identification information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the first network equipment determines a first tunnel according to the virtual private network identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first network device determining the first tunnel according to the identification information comprises:

and the first network equipment determines a first tunnel according to the identification information and a stored corresponding relation table, wherein the corresponding relation table comprises the corresponding relation between the identification information and the first tunnel.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the identification information is obtained by the first network device according to local configuration information, or the identification information is obtained by the first network device from the second network device, or the identification information is determined by the first network device according to related information in the message received from a fourth network device, and the first network device and the fourth network device are end devices of a third tunnel.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the identification information is obtained by the first network device from the second network device, and comprises:

the first network equipment acquires available resource information from the second network equipment;

and the first network equipment determines the identification information corresponding to the second tunnel according to the available resource information, wherein the second tunnel meets the resource required for forwarding the message.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining, by the first network device, the identification information according to the related information in the message received from a fourth network device comprises:

the first network device receives the message sent by the fourth network device, where the message includes identification information before updating, the identification information before updating enables the fourth network device to determine the third tunnel, and the first network device obtains the identification information according to the identification information before updating; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the first network equipment receives the message sent by the fourth network equipment, wherein the message comprises the identification information.

7. The method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the identification information includes a first identification and a second identification, the first identification is used to indicate that the packet includes the second identification, and the second identification is used to indicate a tunnel corresponding to forwarding the packet.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein when there is a forwarding network device between the first network device and the second network device, the first network device sends a packet including the identification information to the second network device by using a first tunnel, including:

and the first network equipment utilizes the first tunnel to transmit to the second network equipment through the forwarding network equipment.

9. The method according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the first network device sends the packet including the identification information to the second network device using the first tunnel, comprising:

and the first network equipment sends a message to the second network equipment by using the output port corresponding to the first tunnel.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the tunnel type corresponding to the first tunnel and the tunnel type corresponding to the second tunnel are different.

11. A method for packet transmission, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a second network device receives a message sent by a first network device, wherein the message comprises identification information, and the identification information is used for indicating a tunnel used for forwarding the message;

the second network equipment determines a second tunnel according to the identification information;

and the second network equipment sends the message to third network equipment by using the second tunnel, wherein the second network equipment and the third network equipment are end equipment of the second tunnel.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second network device determines the second tunnel according to the identification information, comprising:

and the second network equipment determines a second tunnel according to the identification information and a stored corresponding relation table, wherein the corresponding relation table comprises the corresponding relation between the identification information and the second tunnel.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the sending, by the second network device, the packet to a third network device by using the second tunnel comprises:

the second network equipment determines updated identification information according to the identification information, wherein the updated identification information is used for determining a tunnel used for indicating to forward the message;

and the second network equipment sends the message to third network equipment by using the second tunnel, wherein the message comprises the updated identification information.

14. The method according to any of claims 11-13, wherein the identification information comprises a first identification and a second identification, the first identification indicating that the packet comprises the second identification, and the second identification indicating a tunnel used for forwarding the packet.

15. The method according to any of claims 11-14, wherein when there is a forwarding network device between the second network device and the third network device, the second network device sends the packet to the third network device using the second tunnel, including:

and the second network equipment utilizes the second tunnel to transmit to the third network equipment through the forwarding network equipment.

16. The method according to any of claims 11-15, wherein the second network device sending the packet to a third network device using the second tunnel comprises:

and the second network device sends the message to the third network device by using the output port corresponding to the second tunnel.

17. The method of any of claims 11-16, wherein the second tunnel corresponds to a different tunnel type than a first tunnel, and wherein the first tunnel is a tunnel between the first network device and the second network device.

18. A message transmission system, the system comprising: a first network device and a second network device;

the first network device is configured to obtain identification information, where the identification information is used to indicate a tunnel corresponding to a forwarding packet;

the first network device is further configured to send a packet including the identification information to the second network device by using a first tunnel, where the first network device and the second network device are end devices of the first tunnel;

19. A communication device, the device comprising: a processor and a memory;

the memory to store instructions;

the processor, configured to execute the instructions in the memory, to cause the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims 1-17.

20. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1-17 above.