WO2023193432A1

WO2023193432A1 - Data forwarding method and related device

Info

Publication number: WO2023193432A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/130454
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王少岩; 郜忠华; 阮涵
Original assignee: 华为云计算技术有限公司
Priority date: 2022-04-06
Filing date: 2022-11-08
Publication date: 2023-10-12
Also published as: CN116938829A

Abstract

The present application provides a data forwarding method, which is executed by a computing device having a network card. The computing device deploys instances of a virtual gateway. The method comprises: a network card receives a forwarding table of a data flow provided by a virtual gateway, determines a forwarding path for an N-th data packet in the data flow by using the forwarding table, and forwards the N-th data packet on the basis of the forwarding path of the N-th data packet. According to the method, the CPU resource consumption of a gateway service is reduced by offloading computing resources consumed by the virtual gateway to the network card, so that the power consumption of the entire gateway service is reduced, the cost of gateway service is greatly reduced, and the service requirements are met. Moreover, according to the method, forwarding can be performed by means of network card hardware instead of gateway software, thereby improving the forwarding performance.

Description

A data forwarding method and related equipment

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office of China on April 6, 2022, with application number 202210356338.5 and the invention title "A data forwarding method and related equipment", the entire content of which is incorporated by reference. in this application.

Technical field

The present application relates to the field of computer network technology, and in particular to a data forwarding method, computing device, network card, computer-readable storage medium, and computer program product.

Background technique

In order to meet users' diverse needs for networks, virtualized networks emerged as the times require. Virtualized network refers to a network built through network virtualization technology, also called a virtual network. Among them, network virtualization is to transform a hardware-based network into a software-based network. Network virtualization allows network functions, hardware resources, and software resources to be delivered independent of hardware. For example, network virtualization can be used to consolidate many physical networks, or to further subdivide a physical network. In this way, the flexibility and reliability of services provided by service providers can be improved.

Various virtual gateway instances can be deployed in a virtualized network to meet the needs of different services. For example, instances of Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) gateways can be deployed in the virtualized network to expand the external service capabilities of the application system through traffic distribution and eliminate single points of failure to improve the availability of the application system. For another example, an instance of a Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway can be deployed in a virtualized network, such as an instance of a public network NAT gateway, thereby converting a private Internet Protocol (IP) address to a public network address. Network IP address, and use the public network IP address to securely access the public network or provide external services.

The services provided by the above virtual gateway can usually be carried through a gateway cluster. The gateway cluster can deploy software with corresponding functions to provide corresponding gateway services. In order to meet the large bandwidth and high-rate forwarding requirements of the network, software often uses a polling mechanism when implemented to keep the central processing unit (CPU) in full operation. This makes the gateway service consume a lot of power and the cost is relatively high.

Contents of the invention

This application provides a data forwarding method that reduces the CPU resource consumption of the gateway service by offloading the computing resources consumed by the virtual gateway to the network card, thereby reducing the power consumption of the entire gateway service and significantly reducing the cost of the gateway service. Meet business needs. Moreover, this method forwards data through network card hardware instead of through gateway software, which improves forwarding performance. This application also provides computing equipment, network cards, computer-readable storage media and computer program products corresponding to the above data forwarding method.

In the first aspect, this application provides a data forwarding method. The method is applied to a computing device having a network card that deploys an instance of the virtual gateway. Specifically, the network card receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway, and then uses the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, where N is greater than 1, and then the network card determines the forwarding path based on the Nth data packet in the data flow. A forwarding path for N data packets, forwarding the Nth data packet.

In this method, the virtual gateway offloads the consumed computing resources to the network card, reducing the CPU resource consumption of the gateway service, thereby reducing the power consumption of the entire gateway service, greatly reducing the cost of the gateway service, and meeting business needs. Moreover, this method forwards data through network card hardware instead of through gateway software, which improves forwarding performance.

In some possible implementations, the virtual gateway determines the forwarding path based on the first data packet in the data flow. In this way, subsequent data packets in the data flow can be forwarded directly by the network card based on the forwarding path, thus improving the forwarding efficiency and reducing the forwarding overhead.

In some possible implementations, the network card may process the Nth data packet and forward the processed Nth data packet. As a result, the network card replaces the virtual gateway to implement corresponding gateway services to meet business needs. Moreover, the network card does not need to report the data packets to the virtual gateway. After being processed by the virtual gateway, the processed data packets are sent to the network card and then forwarded by the network card, thus shortening the forwarding path and reducing forwarding overhead.

In some possible implementations, the network card can modify the source address of the Nth data packet to implement network address translation to meet the need to access the network through the public IP. The network card may also update the destination address of the Nth data packet according to the destination address of the forwarding path, specifically the modified destination address in the forwarding path, so as to meet the load balancing requirements.

In this method, the network card can implement the function of a virtual gateway such as a network address translation gateway or an elastic load balancing gateway based on the forwarding table, thereby meeting business needs, and processing through the network card has high processing efficiency.

In some possible implementations, the network card may receive the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway through an offload channel. Among them, the offload channel is a channel dedicated to offloading computing resources to the network card. The network card receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway through the offload channel, which can achieve data isolation and ensure security.

In some possible implementations, the network card deletes the forwarding table of the data flow. For example, the network card can delete the forwarding table of the data flow after the data flow is forwarded, thereby saving the storage space of the network card and reducing the storage overhead of the network card.

In some possible implementations, the virtual gateway may instruct the network card to delete the forwarding table of the data flow. For example, a virtual gateway can issue a delete command to instruct the network card to delete the forwarding table of the data flow. In this way, the network card can delete the forwarding table of the data flow in response to the deletion instruction, thereby saving the storage space of the network card and reducing the storage overhead of the network card.

In some possible implementations, the forwarding table includes a source address, a destination address, and a next hop address. In this way, the network card can match the meta information of the data packet, such as the source address and destination address of the data packet, with the entries in the forwarding table. When the meta information of the data packet hits the forwarding table, the network card can match it according to the entries in the forwarding table. The next hop address in the forwarding address. In this way, the forwarding path is shortened and the forwarding efficiency is improved.

Further, the forwarding table may also include a source port number and a destination port number. Correspondingly, the network card can match the meta-information of the data packet, such as the source address, destination address, source port number, destination port number of the data packet, with the entries in the forwarding table to determine the next hop address. The network card can then determine the next hop address as follows: One hop address for forwarding. In this way, the forwarding path is shortened and the forwarding efficiency is improved.

In some possible implementations, the network card queries the forwarding table according to the meta-information of the Nth data packet to obtain the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow. This forwarding path is a fast path, and the network card forwards data according to this fast path, which improves forwarding efficiency.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a computing device. The computing device has a network card, and the computing device deploys an instance of the virtual gateway. The network card is used to receive the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway, use the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, and forward based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet. For the Nth data packet, N is greater than 1.

In some possible implementations, virtual gateways are also used to:

The forwarding path is determined based on the first data packet in the data flow.

In some possible implementations, the network card is specifically used for:

Process the Nth data packet and forward the processed Nth data packet.

In some possible implementations, the network card is specifically used for:

Modify the source address of the Nth data packet; or,

The destination address of the Nth data packet is updated according to the destination address of the forwarding path.

In some possible implementations, the network card is specifically used for:

The network card receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway through an offload channel.

In some possible implementations, the network card is also used for:

Delete the forwarding table for the data flow.

In some possible implementations, the virtual gateway is also used to:

Instruct the network card to delete the forwarding table of the data flow.

In some possible implementations, the forwarding table includes a source address, a destination address, and a next hop address.

In some possible implementations, the network card is specifically used for:

Query the forwarding table according to the meta-information of the Nth data packet to obtain the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow.

In a third aspect, this application provides a network card. The network card may be a smart network card. The network card includes at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one processor and the at least one memory communicate with each other. The at least one processor is configured to execute instructions stored in the at least one memory, so that the network card performs steps performed by the network card in the data forwarding method in the first aspect or any implementation of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium in which instructions are stored, and the instructions instruct the computing device to execute the above-mentioned first aspect or any implementation of the first aspect. data forwarding method.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product containing instructions that, when run on a computing device or a cluster of computing devices, causes the computing device to execute the above-mentioned first aspect or any implementation of the first aspect. data forwarding method.

Based on the implementation methods provided in the above aspects, this application can also be further combined to provide more implementation methods.

Description of the drawings

In order to explain the technical methods of the embodiments of the present application more clearly, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below.

Figure 1 is a system architecture diagram of a data forwarding system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 2 is a system architecture diagram of another data forwarding system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 3 is an interactive flow chart of a data forwarding method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 4 is an interactive flow chart of a data forwarding method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 5 is a schematic flow chart of a data forwarding method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 6 is a hardware structure diagram of a network card provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

The terms "first" and "second" in the embodiments of this application are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features. Therefore, features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of these features.

First, some technical terms involved in the embodiments of this application are introduced.

Virtualized network refers to a network built through network virtualization technology, also called a virtual network. Among them, network virtualization is to transform a hardware-based network into a software-based network. Network virtualization allows network functions, hardware resources, and software resources to be delivered independent of hardware. For example, network virtualization can be used to consolidate many physical networks, or to further subdivide a physical network. In this way, the flexibility and reliability of services provided by service providers can be improved.

Gateway, also known as Internet connector and protocol converter, is usually a device that implements network interconnection above the network layer. A virtual gateway can be a gateway in a virtualized network. Virtual gateways can generally be used to interconnect two networks with different high-level protocols. The functions of the above virtual gateway can be realized through gateway software. Specifically, at least one gateway software can be deployed in the computer cluster to provide corresponding gateway services and implement corresponding gateway functions. The computer cluster where the above gateway software is deployed is also called a gateway cluster. Various virtual gateways, such as ELB gateways and NAT gateways, can be deployed in the gateway cluster of a virtualized network to meet the needs of different services.

Gateway software deployed in a gateway cluster usually uses a polling mechanism to meet the network's large bandwidth and high-rate forwarding requirements. Polling is specifically a way for the CPU to decide how to provide peripheral device services, also known as "Programmed I/O". Specifically, the CPU issues queries regularly, asking each peripheral device in sequence whether it needs its service. If it needs the service, it will provide the service. After the service is completed, it will ask the next peripheral device, and then the cycle will continue.

However, the above solution keeps the CPU in a fully operational state, which in turn results in high power consumption and high cost for the gateway service.

In view of this, embodiments of the present application provide a data forwarding method. The method can be performed by a computing device. The computing device has a network card. In addition, the computing device deploys an instance of a virtual gateway, such as an instance of an ELB gateway or an instance of a NAT gateway.

Specifically, the network card receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway (for example, a virtual gateway on one or more nodes in the gateway cluster), and uses the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, where, N is greater than 1, and then the network card forwards the Nth data packet based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet.

This method reduces the CPU resource consumption of the gateway service by offloading the computing resources consumed by the virtual gateway to the network card, thereby reducing the power consumption of the entire gateway service, greatly reducing the cost of the gateway service, and meeting business needs. Moreover, this method forwards data through network card hardware instead of through gateway software, which improves forwarding performance.

The virtual gateway in the embodiment of this application can be deployed in a physical resource pool or a virtual resource pool. The physical resource pool refers to the resource pool formed by physical machines (such as physical servers and other computing devices), and the virtual resource pool refers to the resource pool formed after virtualizing the physical machine and can be scheduled on demand. When the virtual gateway is deployed in a physical resource pool, the instance of the virtual gateway runs directly on the physical machine. When a virtual gateway is deployed in a virtual resource pool, the instance of the virtual gateway runs in a virtual machine on a physical machine.

In order to make the technical solution of the present application clearer and easier to understand, the computing device of the embodiment of the present application is introduced below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to the schematic architectural diagram of the computing device 10 shown in FIG. 1 , an instance of the virtual gateway 100 is deployed in the computing device 10 , and the computing device 10 also includes a network card 200 . In the example of Figure 1, an instance of the virtual gateway 100 is deployed in a physical resource pool. The instance of the virtual gateway 100 is specifically formed by directly deploying gateway software such as ELB APP or NAT APP on a physical machine in the physical resource pool.

In this embodiment, the virtual gateway 100 and the network card 200 can cooperate to complete the forwarding of the data flow. Specifically, the virtual gateway 100 can receive the first data packet of the data flow from the network card 200, determine the forwarding path of the data packet, and forward the first data packet according to the forwarding path. In addition, the network card 200 receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway 100, and the forwarding table includes the forwarding path of the data packets in the data flow. The network card 200 receives the Nth data packet of the data flow, N is greater than 1, and then can directly use the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, and forward the Nth data based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet. Bag.

Among them, the Nth data packet of the data flow is directly forwarded through the network card 200 hardware without the need to be forwarded through the virtual gateway 100 software, which has high forwarding efficiency. Therefore, the path through which the network card 200 forwards the data packet is also called a fast path. Correspondingly, the path along which the virtual gateway 100 forwards data packets is also called a slow path. In this way, the forwarding efficiency can be accelerated as much as possible and the forwarding performance can be improved.

Figure 1 illustrates an architecture of computing device 10. The embodiment of the present application also provides another architecture of the computing device 10. Under this architecture, instances of the virtual gateway 100 are deployed in the virtual resource pool, and realize data forwarding by cooperating with the network card 200. Another architecture of the computing device 10 is introduced below.

Referring to the schematic architectural diagram of the computing device 10 shown in FIG. 2 , the computing device 10 includes a virtual resource pool. The virtual resource pool is specifically a uniformly scheduleable resource pool formed by virtualizing physical resources such as a CPU. A virtual resource pool can contain one or more virtual machines. FIG. 2 illustrates that the computing device 10 includes multiple virtual machines. An instance of virtual gateway 100 may be deployed on a virtual machine of computing device 10 . For example, one virtual machine of the computing device 10 can run the ELB gateway software, ie, ELB APP, to deploy an instance of the ELB gateway, and another virtual machine can run the NAT gateway software, ie, NAT APP, to deploy an instance of the NAT gateway. In this way, virtual gateways 100 with different functions can be isolated to ensure security. In the example of FIG. 2 , computing device 10 has network card 200 . The network card 200 receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway 100, and then uses the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the above data flow. Then the network card 200 forwards the Nth data packet based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet. data packets.

For the specific implementation of forwarding the data stream by the computing device 10 shown in Figure 2, please refer to the relevant description of Figure 1, and will not be described again here.

The architecture of the computing device 10 has been introduced above. Next, the data forwarding method of the embodiment of the present application will be introduced with reference to the drawings.

Referring to the flow chart of the data forwarding method shown in Figure 3, the method is executed by the computing device 10. The computing device 10 deploys an instance of the virtual gateway 100, and the computing device 10 includes a network card 200. The method includes:

S302: The virtual gateway 100 receives the first data packet of the data flow from the network card 200.

Specifically, data flow is an abstraction of data that passes through the same network in the same time period and has certain common characteristics or attributes. For example, data packets accessing the same address during the same time period can be regarded as one data flow. The data stream may include multiple data packets, and the multiple data packets included in the data stream may be request data packets from the terminal, or response data packets from the back-end server. For example, in the scenario of accessing a web page, the data flow may include multiple Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request packets generated by the terminal in response to the web browsing operation triggered by the user, or the server may respond to the user's request Multiple response packets generated. Among them, the response data packet can carry multimedia information such as text or images, audio, and video.

In some embodiments, the network card 200 receives the data packets of the data flow sequentially and provides the first data packet of the data flow to the virtual gateway 100 . For example, the network card 200 may receive the request data packets sent by the terminal in sequence, and report the first request data packet to the virtual gateway 100, so that the virtual gateway 100 determines the forwarding path and forwards the request data packet. For another example, the network card 200 may receive the response data packets sent by the server in sequence, and report the first response data packet to the virtual gateway 100, so that the virtual gateway 100 determines the forwarding path and forwards the response data packet.

It should be noted that the above data packets are not limited to request data packets or response data packets between terminals and servers, but can also be instant messaging data packets transmitted between terminals and terminals, or business data transmitted between servers. Bag.

S304: The virtual gateway 100 determines the forwarding path based on the first data packet in the data flow.

S306: The virtual gateway 100 forwards the first data packet according to the forwarding path.

Specifically, the virtual gateway 100 can determine the forwarding path of the first data packet by CPU polling, and then forward the first data packet of the data flow according to the forwarding path. It should be noted that the virtual gateway 100 can be a gateway with specific functions. For example, the virtual gateway 100 can be an ELB gateway or a NAT gateway. The virtual gateway can also process the first data packet of the data flow, and then process it according to the The forwarding path forwards the first packet after processing.

In some possible implementations, the virtual gateway 100 is an ELB gateway. The virtual gateway 100 can determine a load balancing server from multiple load balancing servers, and then modify the destination address of the first data packet to the IP address of the load balancing server. , and determine the forwarding path to the load balancing server, and forward the modified first data packet according to the forwarding path.

In other possible implementations, the virtual gateway is a NAT gateway, and the virtual gateway 100 can modify the source address of the first data packet. For example, the source address of the first data packet can be modified to a public IP address. The virtual gateway 100 It is also possible to determine the forwarding path of the first data packet and then forward the modified first data packet along that forwarding path.

S308: The virtual gateway 100 provides the forwarding table of the data flow to the network card 200.

Each virtual gateway 100 has its own processing logic. For example, the ELB gateway can select a backend server for forwarding based on the accessed virtual network address (virtual Internet Protocol, VIP) and the configured load balancing algorithm. The virtual gateway 100 can generate a forwarding table (Forwarding Table) of the data flow based on the above processing logic.

The processing logic of the data stream may include matching logic. Furthermore, the processing logic of the data flow may also include action instructions. That is, the processing logic of the data flow may include matching logic and action instructions. Among them, the processing logic of the data flow can be expressed through the forwarding table.

The forwarding table includes the source address, destination address and next hop address. Furthermore, the forwarding table may also include the source port number and the destination port number. The above source address, destination address, source port number or destination port number can be used for and The meta-information of the data packet (such as a tuple including the source address and destination address of the data packet) is matched to determine the next hop address of the data packet. Further, the forwarding table may also include an action instruction for the data packet, so that the data packet is processed according to the action instruction and the processed data packet is forwarded.

Among them, the forwarding table can be further abstracted into a flow table. The so-called flow table is an abstraction of the data forwarding function of network equipment. In traditional network equipment, data forwarding by switches and routers relies on the Layer 2 Media Access Control (MAC) address forwarding table or Layer 3 IP address routing table saved in the device. The flow table used in this application is also In this way, the flow table integrates network configuration information at all levels in the network, so that richer rules can be used when forwarding data.

Specifically, the flow table is a collection of policy entries for data flows and is responsible for the search and forwarding of data packets. The flow table includes a series of flow entries. Flow table entries include source address, destination address and next hop address. In some embodiments, the flow entry may also include a source port number and a destination port number, so that accurate matching can be achieved. It should be noted that when the network card 200 supports large-scale masked fuzzy matching, the flow table entry may not include the above-mentioned source port number and destination port number. This can avoid expanding into precise flow tables, greatly reduce the number of flow tables for routing services, and support larger business scale.

In some embodiments, the flow entry may include a header field and an action table. The header fields and action tables are introduced in detail below.

The header field includes the source address (such as source IP) and destination address (such as destination IP). Further, the source address may also include a source MAC address. The destination address may also include the destination MAC address. In addition, the packet header field can also include the source port number and destination port number. The header field includes the identifier of the link layer, network layer or transport layer. Based on the above identifiers, fast matching of data packets can be achieved.

The action table is used to indicate how to handle matching packets after they are received. Each flow entry can correspond to zero to multiple actions. If no forwarding action is defined, packets matching the header field of the flow entry will be discarded by default. In addition, when the same flow entry includes multiple actions, the multiple actions can have different priorities.

The actions of flow table items can be divided into two categories: required actions and optional actions. Among them, necessary actions include forwarding to a physical port or a reserved port (such as ALL, CONTROLLER, TABLE, IN_PORT, ANY, LOCAL, NORMAL, FLOOD) and discarding. Optional actions include forward to virtual port, queue, or modify. Among them, queuing refers to forwarding data packets to the forwarding sequence corresponding to an egress port to facilitate the provision of quality of service (QOS) support. Modifications can include modifying the source MAC address, modifying the destination MAC address, modifying the source IP address, modifying the destination IP address, or modifying the IP ToS bit.

In some possible implementations, multiple instances of virtual gateways 100 can be deployed in the computing device 10. Correspondingly, the network card 200 in the computing device 10 can maintain a flow table for each virtual gateway 100 to store different virtual gateways 100 respectively. The processing logic of the gateway 100 for the data flow.

S310: The network card 200 receives the Nth data packet of the data stream.

Specifically, after receiving the first data packet of the data stream, the network card 200 can continue to receive the Nth request data packet of the data stream sent by the terminal, or continue to receive the Nth response data packet of the data stream sent by the server. Among them, N is greater than 1.

Similar to S302, the above-mentioned Nth data packet is not limited to the request data packet or response data packet between the terminal and the server. It can also be an instant messaging data packet transmitted between the terminal and the terminal, or between the server and the server. Business data package.

S312: The network card 200 queries the forwarding table according to the meta information of the Nth data packet, and obtains the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow.

Metainformation refers to the metadata of the data packet, and metadata is the data that describes the data. In this embodiment, the metainformation of the data packet may include one or more of the source address and destination address of the data packet. Further, the source information of the data packet may also include one or more of the source port number and destination port number of the data packet.

Specifically, the network card 200 can query the forwarding table or flow table carrying the processing logic according to the meta-information of the Nth data packet. When the meta-information hits the forwarding table or flow table, that is, the meta-information is consistent with the data in the forwarding table. When the entry in the forwarding table or the flow entry in the flow table matches, the network card 200 can determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet based on the entry in the forwarding table or the entry in the flow table. For example, the network card 200 can obtain the forwarding path of the Nth data packet according to the action table of the flow entry. The forwarding path may include the next hop address of the packet.

S314: The network card 200 forwards the Nth data packet based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet.

For the Nth data packet, the network card 200 can directly use the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow determined from the forwarding table to forward the Nth data packet without reporting it to the virtual gateway 100 for forwarding, realizing the hardware-based Data packets are forwarded in this way, which improves the forwarding performance.

Wherein, when the processing logic also includes an action instruction, the network card 200 may also, before forwarding the Nth data packet according to the forwarding path of the Nth data packet, process the Nth data according to the action instruction. The package performs the corresponding action. For example, for data packets that require load balancing, the action instruction can be to modify the destination address according to the forwarding path, such as modifying the destination IP. The network card 200 can modify the destination IP of the Nth data packet according to the action instruction, and then forward the modified packet according to the forwarding path. Nth data packet. For another example, for data packets that require network address translation, the action instruction may be to modify the source address, such as modifying the source IP. The network card 200 may modify the source IP of the Nth data packet according to the action instruction, and then forward the modified data according to the forwarding path. Bag.

In this embodiment, the Nth data packet in the data flow can first be transmitted from the source node (for example, a terminal) to the network card 200, and then the network card 200 directly determines the forwarding path by querying the forwarding table, and then forwards it to the destination according to the forwarding path. Node (e.g. server). Since the above forwarding process does not go through the virtual gateway 100, the turnaround time of the Nth data packet in the data flow in the network can be reduced and the forwarding performance can be improved.

In some possible implementations, the virtual gateway 100 can also issue a deletion instruction to instruct the network card 200 to delete the forwarding table of the data flow. The network card 200 may delete the forwarding table of the data flow in response to the deletion instruction issued by the virtual gateway 100 . When the forwarding table is abstracted into a flow table, the flow table items can also include counters, and the counters can count data packets in the data flow. The network card 200 can obtain the counter after receiving the delete instruction. When the count of data packets in the counter indicates that the data packet is the last data packet of the data flow, the network card 200 can delete the forwarding table after forwarding the data packet.

Based on the above description, embodiments of the present application provide a data forwarding method. In this method, the virtual gateway 100 can provide the forwarding table of the data flow to the network card 200, and the network card 200 can use the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, and forward the Nth data packet according to the forwarding path, so The computing resources consumed by the virtual gateway 100 are offloaded to the network card 200, which reduces the CPU resource consumption of the gateway service, thereby reducing the power consumption of the entire gateway service, greatly reducing the cost of the gateway service, and meeting business needs. Moreover, this method forwards data through network card hardware instead of through gateway software, which improves forwarding performance.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 illustrates that multiple data packets in the data flow are forwarded by the same computing device 10. In some possible implementations, multiple data packets in the data flow can also be forwarded by different computing devices 10. . For example, when the business scale expands, data packets in the data flow can be migrated from one computing device 10 to another computing device 10 . For convenience of description, in this embodiment of the present application, the computing device 10 before migration is called the first computing device, and the computing device 10 after migration is called the second computing device.

Referring to the flow chart of the data forwarding method shown in Figure 4, the method includes:

S402: The first computing device forwards the data packets to be processed in the data flow and the forwarding table of the data flow to the second computing device.

The data packet to be processed may be the Nth data packet in the data flow, and N is greater than 1. For example, the data stream may include 10 data packets, and the first computing device may, after processing the first 5 data packets in the data stream, forward the remaining 6 to 10 data packets to the second computing device, and the second computing device may The computing device continues processing.

In order to facilitate the second computing device to continue processing, the first computing device may also forward the forwarding table of the data flow to the second computing device. In this way, the second computing device can directly process the data packets to be processed in the data flow according to the forwarding table of the data flow, without having to report the data packets from the network card 200 of the second computing device to the virtual gateway 100, thereby improving the efficiency of the data flow. processing efficiency.

S404: The network card 200 of the second computing device uses the forwarding table of the data flow to determine the forwarding path of the above-mentioned data packet to be processed.

Specifically, the second computing device can query the forwarding table of the data flow according to the meta-information of the data packet to be processed, and obtain the forwarding path of the data packet to be processed in the data flow. The meta-information of the data packet may include the source address and destination address of the data packet. Furthermore, the meta-information of the data packet may also include the source port number and the destination port number. The second computing device can determine the entry matching the meta-information from the forwarding table based on the above-mentioned meta-information, thereby obtaining the forwarding path of the data packet to be processed. The forwarding path includes the next hop address of the pending packet.

S406: The network card 200 of the second computing device processes the data packet to be processed.

The forwarding table may also include an action indication, and the second computing device may process the data packet to be processed according to the action indication. For example, the network card 200 of the second computing device can modify the source address of the data packet to be processed to obtain the modified data packet to implement NAT. For another example, the network card 200 of the second computing device can modify the destination point of the data packet to be processed according to the destination address in the forwarding table, specifically the modified destination address, and obtain the processed data packet to achieve load balancing.

It should be noted that the above S406 is an optional step, and the above S406 may not be executed when performing the data forwarding method in the embodiment of the present application. For example, when the virtual gateway 100 of the second computing device is used to route data packets to be processed in the data flow, S406 may not be executed, but the data packets may be forwarded directly.

S408: The network card 200 of the second computing device forwards the processed data packet based on the forwarding path.

Specifically, the forwarding path may include the next hop address of the data packet to be processed. The network card 200 of the second computing device may forward the processed data packet to the device corresponding to the next hop address according to the next hop address of the data packet to be processed in the forwarding path. It should be noted that when the second computing device does not perform the above S406, the network card 200 of the second computing device may forward the data packets to be processed in the data flow based on the forwarding path.

The process of the data forwarding method in the embodiment of the present application is introduced above. In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solution of this application, an example is provided below in conjunction with the application scenario of the virtual resource pool.

Referring to the schematic flow chart of the data forwarding method shown in Figure 5, the method specifically includes the following steps:

In the first step, in response to the user's request to purchase the gateway service, the service management platform creates a virtual machine with corresponding specifications based on the user's request.

Specifically, the request to purchase the gateway service carries the specifications of the gateway service that the user requests to purchase. The specifications can include the CPU's architecture, frequency, and memory size. The request for the gateway service may also include the type of the gateway service, such as ELB or NAT. The service management platform can select nodes that match the above specifications according to the user's request, create a virtual machine, and deploy corresponding gateway software in the virtual machine, thereby realizing the functions of the virtual gateway 100 .

It should be noted that the service management platform can also create a virtual switch (vswitch) to realize the exchange of data packets between the gateway and the network card.

In this embodiment, the virtual gateway 100 deployed in the virtual machine can issue operator instructions to the network card through the offload engine, and the network card 200 can create a flow table corresponding to the virtual gateway 100. For the same virtual gateway 100, the network card 200 creates a flow table. The flow table is specifically an initialized flow table.

In the second step, when a data packet (for example, the first packet of the data flow) arrives at the virtual gateway 100, the virtual gateway 100 can process the data packet according to the corresponding processing logic and forward the processed data packet. The virtual gateway 100 The processing logic can also be delivered to the network card 200 through the gateway offload channel.

As shown in Figure 5, the first packet of the data flow can be forwarded through the virtual gateway 100, the virtual switch, and the network card 200. Specifically, after the first packet of the data flow reaches the network card 200, the network card 200 transmits the first packet of the data flow to the virtual switch through the data channel between the network card 200 and the virtual switch, and then the virtual switch reports the first packet of the data flow to the virtual switch. The gateway 100 and the virtual gateway 100 can determine the forwarding path through CPU polling, and forward the first packet of the data flow according to the forwarding path. When forwarding the first packet of the data flow, it is usually first delivered to the virtual switch based on the channel between the virtual gateway 100 and the virtual switch, and then the virtual switch passes it through the channel between the virtual switch and the network card 200. It is sent to the network card 200, and the network card 200 forwards the first packet to the next hop.

The virtual gateway 100 can learn the processing logic from the forwarding process of the first packet of the data flow, and deliver the processing logic to the network card 200, so that the network card 200 can update the flow table according to the processing logic. Among them, the network card 200 can update the gateway flow table (the flow table used to implement gateway services) according to the processing logic.

In this embodiment, the gateway offload channel is a channel between the virtual gateway 100 and the network card 200 for offloading the computing resources of the virtual gateway 100 . The virtual gateway 100 and the network card 200 have physical functions (physical functions, pf), and each physical function can be extended to a virtual function (virtual function, vf). Each vf is usually attached to a pf. The gateway offloading channel in this embodiment may be a channel formed based on the vf of the virtual gateway 100 and the vf of the network card 200. In other possible implementations of the embodiment of this application, the gateway offloading channel can also reuse other existing channels, which is not limited in this embodiment.

It should be noted that since the virtual gateway 100 is deployed in a virtual machine, the virtual gateway 100 can also learn the downstream (receive, RX) flow table and the upstream (transmit, TX) flow table, and pass the RX flow table and TX flow table through the virtual machine. The machine offload channel is delivered to the network card 200. In this way, the network card 200 can process the data packet according to the RX flow table and the TX flow table, thereby reducing the overhead between the network card 200 and the virtual switch.

In the third step, when subsequent data packets (such as the non-first packet of the data flow) arrive at the network card 200, the network card 200 queries the flow table and modifies the data packet according to the Action in the flow table. After the modification is completed, the network card 200 directly Send the modified data packet.

As shown in Figure 5, when the non-first packet of the data flow reaches the network card 200, the network card 200 does not need to report the data packet, but directly queries the flow table based on the meta-information of the data packet, for example, querying the RX flow table/TX flow table , and the gateway flow table of the corresponding virtual gateway 100 to obtain the processing logic. When the processing logic includes an action (Action) instruction, the network card 200 can modify the data packet according to the Action and directly send the modified data packet outward.

Step 4: In response to the user's request to delete the purchased gateway service, the virtual gateway 100 in the virtual machine issues a deletion instruction to the network card 200 through the offloading engine, and the network card 200 deletes the operator and flow table according to the deletion instruction.

Specifically, when the network card 200 receives the delete instruction, it can determine whether the currently processed data packet is the last data packet according to the counter in the flow table entry. If so, after all the data packets of the data flow are forwarded, the corresponding calculated data packet is deleted. sub and flow tables.

It should be noted that the network card 200 can identify the last data packet through the counter, and after the last data packet is forwarded, deleting the corresponding operator and flow table is only an implementation method of deleting the operator and flow table according to the deletion instruction. , In other possible implementations of the embodiment of this application, the network card 200 can also set the expected transmission completion time, and delete the corresponding operator and flow table after the expected transmission completion time arrives.

Based on the above description, embodiments of the present application provide a data forwarding method. On the one hand, this method learns processing logic from some data packets of the data flow, such as the first packet, and delivers the processing logic to the network card 200, thereby offloading part of the computing resources consumed by the virtual gateway 100 to the network card 200, saving the cost of gateway services. CPU resource occupation and power consumption, through network card hardware forwarding, can achieve performance that exceeds gateway software forwarding. On the other hand, since the network card 200 has a higher single-stream forwarding capability, it can solve the problem of limited CPU single-core capabilities, resulting in the inability to cope with elephant flows (continuous flows that transmit large amounts of data through network links, such as those generated by data migration). data flow) problem. In addition, in this method, non-first packets can be forwarded directly by the network card 200 without software processing, which greatly reduces the overhead of the virtualization layer.

Based on the data forwarding method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the embodiment of the present application also provides a computing device 10 as described above. The computing device 10 provided by the embodiment of the present application will be introduced below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to the schematic structural diagram of the computing device 10 shown in Figure 1 or Figure 2, the computing device 10 includes a virtual gateway 100 and a network card 200;

The virtual gateway 100 is used to provide a forwarding table of data flows to the network card 200;

The network card 200 is configured to use the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, and forward the Nth data packet based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet.

In some possible implementations, the virtual gateway 100 is also used for:

In some possible implementations, the network card 200 is specifically used for:

Process the Nth data packet and forward the processed Nth data packet.

Modify the source address of the Nth data packet; or,

In some possible implementations, the network card 200 is also used for:

Delete the forwarding table for the data flow.

In some possible implementations, the virtual gateway 100 is also used to:

Instruct the network card to delete the forwarding table of the data flow.

The computing device 10 according to the embodiment of the present application may correspond to performing the method described in the embodiment of the present application, and the above and other operations and/or functions of various components of the computing device 10 (such as the virtual gateway 100 or the network card 200) are respectively for The corresponding processes for implementing each method in the embodiments shown in Figures 3 and 4 will not be described again for the sake of simplicity.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a network card 200. The network card 200 may be a smart network card, and is used to process data packets in the data flow based on the processing logic provided by the virtual gateway 100 . The network card 200 may be used to perform the method steps performed by the network card 200 in the computing device 10 as shown in FIG. 1 or 2 .

Figure 6 provides a schematic structural diagram of a network card 200. As shown in Figure 6, the network card 200 includes a bus 601, a processor 602, a communication interface 603 and a memory 604. The processor 602, the memory 604 and the communication interface 603 communicate through the bus 601.

The bus 601 may be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The bus can be divided into address bus, data bus, control bus, etc. For ease of presentation, only one thick line is used in Figure 6, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

The processor 602 can be a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a microprocessor (MP) or a digital signal processor (DSP). any one or more of them.

The communication interface 603 is used for communicating with the outside. For example, the communication interface 603 is used to receive the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway 100, or forward the Nth data packet based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet, and so on.

Memory 604 may include volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM). Memory 604 may also include non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (solid state drive) , SSD).

Computer readable instructions are stored in the memory 604, and the processor 602 executes the computer readable instructions, so that the network card 200 performs the steps performed by the network card 200 in the aforementioned data forwarding method (or implements the functions of the aforementioned network card 200).

An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computing device can store or a data storage device such as a data center that contains one or more available media. The available media may be magnetic media (eg, floppy disk, hard disk, tape), optical media (eg, DVD), or semiconductor media (eg, solid state drive), etc. The computer-readable storage medium includes instructions that instruct the computing device 10 to perform the above-described data forwarding method.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on the computing device 10, the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are generated in whole or in part. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, e.g., the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website, computing device, or data center to Transmission to another website site, computing device or data center by wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer program product may be a software installation package. If it is necessary to use any of the foregoing data forwarding methods, the computer program product may be downloaded and executed on the computing device.

The descriptions of the processes or structures corresponding to each of the above drawings have different emphasis. For parts that are not described in detail in a certain process or structure, please refer to the relevant descriptions of other processes or structures.

Claims

A data forwarding method, characterized in that it is applied to a computing device with a network card, and the computing device deploys an instance of the virtual gateway; the method includes:

The network card receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway;

The network card uses the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, where N is greater than 1;

The network card forwards the Nth data packet based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet.
The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method includes:

The virtual gateway determines the forwarding path based on the first data packet in the data flow.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that forwarding the Nth data packet includes:

Process the Nth data packet and forward the processed Nth data packet.
The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the processing of the Nth data packet includes:

Modify the source address of the Nth data packet; or,

The destination address of the Nth data packet is updated according to the destination address of the forwarding path.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the network card receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway, including:

The network card receives the forwarding table of the data flow provided by the virtual gateway through an offload channel.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the method further includes:

The network card deletes the forwarding table of the data flow.
The method of claim 6, further comprising:

The virtual gateway instructs the network card to delete the forwarding table of the data flow.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the forwarding table includes a source address, a destination address and a next hop address.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the network card uses the forwarding table to determine the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, including:

The network card queries the forwarding table according to the meta-information of the Nth data packet to obtain the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow.
A computing device, characterized in that the computing device has a network card, the computing device deploys an instance of the virtual gateway; the network card is used to receive a forwarding table of a data flow provided by the virtual gateway, using the The forwarding table determines the forwarding path of the Nth data packet in the data flow, and forwards the Nth data packet based on the forwarding path of the Nth data packet, where N is greater than 1.
A network card, characterized in that the network card has a processor and a memory;

The processor executes the computer program of the memory, so that the network card executes the method described in any one of claims 1 to 9.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized by comprising computer-readable instructions; the computer-readable instructions are used to implement the method described in any one of claims 1 to 9.
A computer program product, characterized by comprising computer readable instructions; the computer readable instructions are used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.