Network proxy for high-performance, low-power data center interconnect fabric

Abstract

A system and method are provided for network proxying. The network proxying may occur in a node of a fabric or across nodes in the fabric. In the network proxying, the node has a processor with a low power mode and the system remaps, by a management processor of the node, a port identifier for a processor that is in a low power mode to the management processor. The management processor then processes a plurality of packets that contain the port identifier for the processor that is in the low power mode to maintain a network presence of the node.

Description

FIELD

The disclosure relates generally to a switching fabric for a computer-based system.

BACKGROUND

With the continued growth of the internet, web-based companies and systems and the proliferation of computers, there are numerous data centers that house multiple server computers in a location that is temperature controlled and can be externally managed as is well known.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a classic data center network aggregation as is currently well known. FIG. 1A shows a diagrammatical view of a typical network data center architecture 100 wherein top level switches 101a-n are at the tops of racks 102a-n filled with blade servers 107a-n interspersed with local routers 103a-f. Additional storage routers and core switches. 105a-b and additional rack units 108a-n contain additional servers 104e-k and routers 106a-g FIG. 1b shows an exemplary physical view 110 of a system with peripheral servers 111a-bn arranged around edge router systems 112a-h, which are placed around centrally located core switching systems 113. Typically such an aggregation 110 has 1-Gb Ethernet from the rack servers to their top of rack switches, and often 10 Gb Ethernet ports to the edge and core routers.

However, what is needed is a system and method for packet switching functionality focused on network aggregation that reduces size and power requirements of typical systems while reducing cost all at the same time and it is to this end that the disclosure is directed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a typical data center system;

FIG. 2 is an overview of a network aggregation system;

FIG. 3 illustrates an overview of an exemplary data center in a rack system;

FIG. 4 illustrates a high-level topology of a network aggregating system;

FIG. 5A illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary switch of the network aggregation system;

FIG. 5B illustrates the MAC address encoding;

FIG. 6 illustrates a method for proxying using the switch;

FIG. 7A illustrates a method for proxy routing using a node range based node proxy; and

FIG. 7B illustrates a method for proxy routing using a routing table based node proxy.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ONE OR MORE EMBODIMENTS

The disclosure is particularly applicable to a network aggregation system and method as illustrated and described below and it is in this context that the disclosure will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that the system and method has greater utility since the system and method can be implemented using other elements and architectures that are within the scope of the disclosure and the disclosure is not limited to the illustrative embodiments described below.

The system and method also supports a routing using a tree-like or graph topology that supports multiple links per node, where each link is designated as an Up, Down, or Lateral link, or both, within the topology. In addition, each node in the system maybe be a combination computational/switch node, or just a switch node, and input/output (I/O) can reside on any node as described below in more detail. The system may also provide a system with a segmented Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) architecture which may have a method of re-purposing MAC IP addresses for inside MACs and outside MACs, and leveraging what would normally be the physical signaling for the MAC to feed into the switch. The system may also provide a method of non-spoofing communication, as well as a method of fault-resilient broadcasting, which may have a method of unicast misrouting for fault resilience. In the context of network security, a spoofing attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and thereby gaining an illegitimate advantage.

The system may also provide a rigorous security between the management processors, such that management processors can “trust” one another. In the example system shown in FIG. 5A (which is described below in more detail), there is a management processor within each SoC (the M3 microcontroller, block 906, FIG. 5A). The software running on the management processor is trusted because a) the vendor (in this case Calxeda, Inc.) has developed and verified the code, b) non-vendor code is not allowed to run on the processor. Maintaining a Trust relationship between the management processors allow them to communicate commands (e.g. reboot another node) or request sensitive information from another node without worrying that a user could spoof the request and gain access to information or control of the system.

The system may also provide a network proxy that has an integrated microcontroller in an always-on power domain within a system on a chip (SOC) that can take over network proxying for the larger onboard processor, and which may apply to a subtree. The system also provide a multi-domaining technique that can dramatically expand the size of an addressable fabric with only trivial changes to the Routing Header and the routing table.

FIG. 2 illustrates a network aggregation system 300. The network aggregation supports one or more high speed links 301 (thick lines), such as a 10-Gb/sec Ethernet communication, that connect an aggregation router 302 and one or more racks 303, such as three racks 303a-c as shown in FIG. 3. In a first rack 303a, the network aggregation system provides multiple high-speed 10 Gb paths, represented by thick lines, between one or more Calxeda computing unit 306a-d, such as server computers, on shelves within a rack. Further details of each Calxeda computing unit are described in more detail in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/256,723 filed on Oct. 30, 2009 and entitled “System and Method for Enhanced Communications in a Multi-Processor System of a Chip (SOC)” which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. An embedded switch 306a-d in the Calxeda computing units can replace a top-of-rack switch, thus saving a dramatic amount of power and cost, while still providing a 10 Gb Ethernet port to the aggregation router 302. The network aggregation system switching fabric can integrate traditional Ethernet (1 Gb or 10 Gb) into the XAUI fabric, and the Calxeda computing units can act as a top of rack switch for third-party Ethernet connected servers.

A middle rack 303b illustrates another configuration of a rack in the network aggregation system in which one or more Calxeda computing units 306e, f can integrate into existing data center racks that already contain a top-of-rack switch 308a. In this case, the IT group can continue to have their other computing units connected via 1 Gb Ethernet up to the existing top-of-rack switch and the internal Calxeda computing units can be interconnected via 10 Gb XAUI fabric and can connected up to the existing top-of-rack switch via either 1 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet interconnects as shown in FIG. 2. A third rack 303c illustrates a current way that data center racks are traditionally deployed. The lines from the switch 306g in the third rack 303c represent 1 Gb Ethernet. Thus, the current deployments of data center racks is traditionally 1 Gb Ethernet up to the top-of-rack switch 308b, and then 10 Gb (line 301) out from the top of rack switch to the aggregation router. Note that all servers are present in an unknown quantity, while they are pictured here in finite quantities for purposes of clarity and simplicity. Also, using the enhanced Calxeda servers, no additional routers are needed, as they operate their own XAUI switching fabric, discussed below.

FIG. 3 shows an overview of an exemplary “data center in a rack” 400 according to one embodiment of the system. The “data center in a rack” 400 may have 10-Gb Ethernet PHY 401a-n and 1-Gb private Ethernet PHY 402. Large computers (power servers) 403a-n support search; data mining; indexing; Apache Hadoop, a Java software framework; MapReduce, a software framework introduced by Google to support distributed computing on large data sets on clusters of computers; cloud applications; etc. Computers (servers) 404a-n with local flash and/or solid-state disk (SSD) support search, MySQL, CDN, software-as-a-service (SaaS), cloud applications, etc. A single, large, slow-speed fan 405 augments the convection cooling of the vertically mounted servers above it. Data center 400 has an array 406 of hard disks, e.g., in a Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) configuration, and, optionally, Calxeda computing units in a disk form factor (for example, the green boxes in arrays 406 and 407), optionally acting as disk controllers. Hard disk servers or Calxeda disk servers may be used for web servers, user applications, and cloud applications, etc. Also shown are an array 407 of storage servers and historic servers 408a, b (any size, any vendor) with standard Ethernet interfaces for legacy applications.

The data center in a rack 400 uses a proprietary system interconnect approach that dramatically reduces power and wires and enables heterogeneous systems, integrating existing Ethernet-based servers and enabling legacy applications. In one aspect, a complete server or storage server is put in a disk or SSD form factor, with 8-16 SATA interfaces with 4 ServerNodes™ and 8 PCIe x4 interfaces with 4 ServerNodes™. It supports disk and/or SSD+ServerNode™, using a proprietary board paired with a disk(s) and supporting Web server, user applications, cloud applications, disk caching, etc.

The Calxeda XAUI system interconnect reduces power, wires and the size of the rack. There is no need for high powered, expensive Ethernet switches and high-power Ethernet Phys on the individual servers. It dramatically reduces cables (cable complexity, costs, significant source of failures). It also enables a heterogeneous server mixture inside the rack, supporting any equipment that uses Ethernet or SATA or PCIe. It can be integrated into the system interconnect.

The herein presented aspects of a server-on-a-chip (SOC) with packet switch functionality are focused on network aggregation. The SOC is not a fully functionally equivalent to an industry-standard network switch, such as, for example, a Cisco switch or router. But for certain applications discussed throughout this document, it offers a better price/performance ratio as well as a power/performance ratio. It contains a layer 2 packet switch, with routing based on source/destination MAC addresses. It further supports virtual local area network (VLAN), with configurable VLAN filtering on domain incoming packets to minimize unnecessary traffic in a domain. The embedded MACs within the SOC do have complete VLAN support providing VLAN capability to the overall SOC without the embedded switch explicitly having VLAN support. It can also wake up the system by management processor notifying the management processor on link state transitions to reprogram routing configurations to route around faults. Such functionality does not require layer 3 (or above) processing (i.e., it is not a router). It also does not offer complete VLAN support, support for QoS/CoS, address learning, filtering, spanning tree protocol (STP), etc.

FIG. 4 shows a high-level topology 800 of the network system that illustrates XAUI connected SoC nodes connected by the switching fabric. The 10 Gb Ethernet ports Eth0801a and Eth1801b come from the top of the tree. Ovals 802a-n are Calxeda nodes that comprise both computational processors as well as the embedded switch. The nodes have five XAUI links connected to the internal switch. The switching layers use all five XAUI links for switching. Level 0 leaf nodes 802d, e (i.e., N0n nodes, or Nxy, where x=level and y=item number) only use one XAUI link to attach to the interconnect, leaving four high-speed ports that can be used as XAUI, 10 Gb Ethernet, PCIe, SATA, etc., for attachment to I/O. The vast majority of trees and fat trees have active nodes only as leaf nodes, and the other nodes are pure switching nodes. This approach makes routing much more straightforward. Topology 800 has the flexibility to permit every node to be a combination computational and switch node, or just a switch node. Most tree-type implementations have I/O on the leaf nodes, but topology 800 let the I/O be on any node. In general, placing the Ethernet at the top of the tree minimizes the average number of hops to the Ethernet.

In more detail, the ovals shown in the tree-oriented topology in FIG. 4 represent independent nodes within a computing cluster. FIG. 5A illustrates one example implementation of an individual node of the cluster. When looking at a conventional implementation of a topology e.g. in FIG. 4, usually computing nodes are found in the lower level leaf nodes (e.g. N00-N08), and the upper level nodes don't have computing elements but are just network switching elements (N10-N21). With the node architecture shown in FIG. 5A, the A9 Cores (905) may be optionally enabled, or could be just left powered-off. So the upper level switching nodes (N10-N21) in FIG. 4 can be used as pure switching elements (like traditional implementations), or we can power on the A9 Cores module and use them as complete nodes within the computing cluster.

The switch architecture calls for a routing frame to be prepended to the Ethernet frame. The switch operates only against fields within the routing frame, and does not inspect the Ethernet frame directly. FIG. 5a shows a block diagram of an exemplary switch 900 according to one aspect of the system and method disclosed herein. It has four areas of interest 910a-d. Area 910a corresponds to Ethernet packets between the CPUs and the inside MACs. Area 910b corresponds to Ethernet frames at the Ethernet physical interface at the inside MACs, that contains the preamble, start of frame, and inter-frame gap fields. Area 910c corresponds to Ethernet frames at the Ethernet physical interface at the outside MAC, that contains the preamble, start of frame, and inter-frame gap fields. Area 910d corresponds to Ethernet packets between the processor of Routing Header 901 and outside MAC 904. This segmented MAC architecture is asymmetric. The inside MACs have the Ethernet physical signaling interface into the Routing Header processor, and the outside MAC has an Ethernet packet interface into the Routing Header processor. Thus the MAC IP is re-purposed for inside MACs and outside MACs, and what would normally be the physical signaling for the MAC to feed into the switch is leveraged. MAC configuration is such that the operating system device drivers of A9 cores 905 manage and control inside Eth0 MAC 902 and inside ETH1 MAC 903. The device driver of management processor 906 manages and controls Inside Eth2 MAC 907. Outside Eth MAC 904 is not controlled by a device driver. MAC 904 is configured in Promiscuous mode to pass all frames without any filtering for network monitoring. Initialization of this MAC is coordinated between the hardware instantiation of the MAC and any other necessary management processor initialization. Outside Eth MAC 904 registers are visible only in the memory maps of the management processor 906. Interrupts for Outside Eth MAC 904 are routable only to the management processor 906. The XGMAC supports several interruptible events that the CPUs may want to monitor, including any change in XGMII link fault status, hot-plugging or removal of PHY, alive status or link status change, and any RMON counter reaching a value equal to the threshold register.

In some cases, there may be Preamble, Start of Frame, and Inter-Frame gap fields across XAUI, depending on the specific micro-architecture. The routing frame header processor may standardize these fields. The XAUI interface may need some or all of these fields. In this case, the Routing Header processor at area 910d needs to add these going into the switch, and to remove them leaving the switch. To reduce the number of bytes that need to be sent over XAUI, these three fields may be removed (if the XAUI interface allows it). In this case, the Routing Header processor at area 910b will need to strip these going into the switch, and add them back leaving the switch.

The routing frame header processor receives an Ethernet frame from a MAC, sending a routing frame to the switch. It also standardizes the preamble, start of frame, and inter-frame gap fields, prepends a Routing Header, and receives a routing frame from the switch, sending the Ethernet frame into a MAC. This processor then strips the Routing Header and standardizes the preamble, start of frame, and inter-frame gap fields. Note that all frames that are flowing within the fabric are routing frames, not Ethernet frames. The Ethernet frame/routing frame conversion is done only as the packet is entering or leaving the fabric via a MAC. Note also that the routing logic within the switch may change the value of fields within the routing frame. The Ethernet frame is never modified (except the adding/removing of the preamble, start of frame, and inter-frame gap fields).

The routing frame is composed of the routing frame header plus the core part of the Ethernet frame, and is structured as shown in Table 1, below:

TABLE 1
Routing
Frame
Header	Ethernet Frame Packet
RF Header	MAC	MAC	Ethertype/	Payload (data and	CRC32
	destination	Source	Length	padding)

The routing frame header consists of the fields shown in Table 2, below:

TABLE 2
	Width
Field	(Bits)	Notes
Domain ID	5	Domain ID associated with this packet, 0 indicates
		that no domain has been specified.
Mgmt Domain	1	Specifies that the packet is allowed on the private
		management domain.
Source Node	12	Source node ID
Source Port	2	0 = MAC0, 1 = MAC1, 2 = MAC_management
		processor, 3 = MAC_OUT
Dest Node ID	12	Destination node ID
Dest Port ID	2	0 = MAC0, 1 = MAC1,. 2 = MAC_management
		processor, 3 = MAC_OUT
Header Type	1	Header Type (0 = Routing Frame,
		1 = Control Frame)
RF Type	2	Routing Frame Type (0 = Unicast, 1 = Multicast,
		2 = Neighbor Multicast, 3 = Link Directed)
TTL	6	Time to Live - # of hops that this frame has
		existed, Switch will drop packet if the
		TTL threshold is exceeded (and notify
		management processor of exception).
Broadcast ID	5	Broadcast ID for this source node for
		this broadcast packet.
Checksum	32	Checksum of the frame header fields.

If a switch receives a packet that fails the checksum, the packet is dropped, a statistic counter is incremented, and the management processor is notified.

The routing frame processor differentiates between several destination MAC address encodings. As a reminder, MAC addresses are formatted as shown in FIG. 5b. The following table describes the usage of the 3 byte OUI and 3 byte NIC specific field within the MAC address. One of the novel aspects of the system and method disclosed herein is the use of additional address bits to encode an internal to external MAC mapping, as shown also in the Table 3, below, in the second entry under “Hits Node Local MAC Lookup CAM Entry”.

TABLE 3
MAC Address		3 bytes
Type	3 bytes OUI	NIC Specific	Operation
Arbitrary MAC	23 bits: Arbitrary	24 bits: Arbitrary	Packet unicast
Address	1 bit: Multicast		routed to
Misses MAC	bit not set		gateway
Lookup CAM	(OUI != Switch OUI)		node's Outlink
			port
Arbitrary MAC	23 bits: Arbitrary	22 bits: Arbitrary	Packet unicast
Address	1 bit: Multicast	2 bits.: Port ID	routed to
Hits Node	bit not set		Node ID
Local MAC	(OUI != Switch OUI)		obtained from
Lookup CAM			MAC Lookup
Entry			CAM and
			Port ID
			from MAC
			Address
Arbitrary MAC	23 bits: Arbitrary	24 bits: Arbitrary	Packet unicast
Address	1 bit: Multicast		routed to
Hits Non-Node	bit not set		Node ID
Local MAC	(OUI != Switch OUI)		and Port ID
Lookup CAM			obtained from
Entry			MAC Lookup
			CAM
Node Encoded	23 bits: Switch OUI	8 bits: Fabric ID	Packet unicast
Unicast	1 bit: Multicast	2 bits: Node	routed to
	bit not set	Encoded	Node ID
		Magic Number	and Port
		12 bits: Node ID	ID from
		2 bits: Port ID	MAC Address,
Link Encoded	23 bits: Switch OUI	8 bits: Fabric ID	Packet sent
Unicast	1 bit: Multicast	2 bits: Link	down
	bit not set	Encoded	specific Link
		Magic Number	Number and to
		9 bits: Reserved	Port ID from
		3 bits: Link	MAC Address.
		Number (0-4)
		2 bits; Port 1D
Multicast/	23 bits: Arbitrary	24 bits: Arbitrary	Packet
Broadcast	1 bit: Multicast		broadcast
	bit set		routed through
	(OUI !=Switch OUI)		fabric and
			gateways.
Neighbor	23 bits: Switch OUI	8 bits: Fabric ID	Packet sent
Multicast	1 bit: Multicast	2 bits: Neighbor	through all
	bit set	Multicast Magic	fabric
		Number	links to
		14 bits: Reserved	neighboring
			nodes and not
			rebroadcast to
			other nodes

Further, other novel aspects can be found in Table 3 under “Node Encoded Unicast” as well as “Link Encoded Unicast,” allowing one internal node or link to address all external MAC sections, and the “Neighbor Multicast” entry, allowing a multicast to neighboring nodes.

Note that the values Node Encoded Magic Number, Link Encoded Magic Number, and Neighbor Multicast Magic Number are constant identifiers used for uniquely identifying these MAC address types. The term “magic number” is a standard industry term for a constant numerical or text value used to identify a file format or protocol.

The header processor contains a MAC Lookup CAM (Content Addressable Memory), macAddrLookup, that maps from 6 byte MAC addresses to 12-bit Node IDs, as shown in Table 4, below.

TABLE 4
	MAC Lookup CAM Input	MAC Lookup CAM Output
	Node Local	MAC Address	Node ID	Port ID
	1 bit	6 bytes	12 bits	2 bits

The number of rows in this CAM is implementation dependent, but would be expected to be on the order of 256-1024 rows. The management processor initializes the CAM with Node ID mappings for all the nodes within the fabric. There are two types of rows, depending upon the setting of the Node Local bit for the row. The Node Local field allows a 4:1 compression of MAC addresses in the CAM for default MAC addresses, mapping all four MACs into a single row in the CAM table, which is Table 5, below.

TABLE 5
MAC
Address	Node
EntryType	Local	MAC Address	Port ID
Node Local	1	A Node Encoded Address refers	Taken from
		to a Calxeda assigned MAC address	low 2 bits of
		for a node. It encodes the port #	MAC
		(MAC0), MAC1, management	Address
		processor, Rsvd) into a 2-bit Port	Input
		ID in the lowest two bits of the
		NIC address field. Ignores low 2
		bits during match.
Arbitrary	0	Matches against all 6 bytes	Taken from
			CAM Output
			field

The arbitrary rows in the CAM allow mapping of the MAC address aliases to the nodes. Linux (and the MACs) allow the MAC addresses to be reassigned on a network interface (e.g., with ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:80:48:BA:D1:30). This is sometime used by virtualization/cloud computing to avoid needing to re-ARP after starting a session.

The switch architecture provides for a secondary MAC Lookup CAM that only stores the 3 bytes of the NIC Specific part of the MAC address for those addresses that match the Switch OUI. The availability of this local OUI CAM is determined by the implementation. See Table 6, below.

TABLE 6
	MAC Lookup CAM Input	MAC Lookup CAM Output
	MAC Address NIC Specific	Node ID	Port ID
	3 bytes	12 bits	2 bits

The maximum number of nodes limitation for three types of MAC address encodings may be evaluated as follows:

1. Default MAC Addressees—management processor sets Node Local mappings for each of the nodes in the fabric. There is one entry in the CAM for each node. Max # of nodes is controlled by maximum # of rows in the MAC Address Lookup CAM.

2. Node Encoded Addresses—All the MACs are reprogrammed to use Node Encoded Addresses. In this way the Node IDs are directly encoded into the MAC addresses. No entries in the MAC Lookup CAM are used. Max # of nodes is controlled by maximum # of rows in the Unicast lookup table (easier to make big compared to the Lookup CAM).

3. Arbitrary MAC Address Aliases—Takes a row in the CAM. As an example, a 512-row CAM could hold 256 nodes (Node local addresses)+1 MAC address alias per node.

Since the Lookup CAM is only accessed during Routing Header creation, the management processor actually only needs to populate a row if the MAC address within the fabric is being used as a source or destination MAC address within a packet. In other words, if two nodes never will talk to each other, a mapping row does not need to be created. But usually the management processor won't have that knowledge, so it's expected that mappings for all nodes are created in all nodes.

Table 7 defines how to set fields within the Routing Header for all the fields except for destination node and port.

TABLE 7
Field        Set To
Domain ID    Set to the macDomainID field for the MAC that the
             packet came from.
Mgmt         Set to the macMgmtDomain field for the MAC that
Domain       the packet came from.
Source Node  Source MAC Node ID
Source Port  Source MAC Port ED
Header Type  Set to 0 for normal Routing Frame
RF Type      Multicast it dstMAC multicast and not
             Neighbor Multicast format)
             Neighbor Multicast (if dstMAC multicast and
             is Neighbor Multicast format)
             Link Directed (is Link Encoded format)
             Unicast (if not one of the above)
TTL          0
Broadcast ID If dstM.Ac is unicast - Set to 0
             If dstMAC is multicast - Set to incranented local
             broadcast ID (bcastIDNext++ & 0xf)

Table 8 defines how to set destination node and port for addresses within the fabric:

TABLE 8
	Field: Destination	Field: Destination
Case	Node	Port
Node Encoded Dest Address	Dest Node	Dest Port
Link Encoded Dest Address	Encoded Link	Dest Port
Hits Lookup CAM (node local)	CAM Dest Node	Dest MAC
		(low 2 bits)
Hits Lookup CAM (not node local)	Cam Dest Node	CAM Dest Port

Table 9 defines how to set destination node and port for addresses outside the fabric:

TABLE 9
		Field:
		Dest-
		ination
Case	Field: Destination Node	Port
Came in an OUT	Drop packet, update statistics
Ethernet, but no	counter
secondary gateway
defined
Came in and OUT	secondaryEthGatewayNode[OUT]	OUT
Ethernet, and
secondary
gateway defined
From an Inside	Drop packet, update statistics
MAC, but no primary	counter, and notify management
gateway defined	processor
From and Inside MAC,	primaryEthGatewayNode[fromPort]	OUT
and primary
gateway defined

Additionally, the management processor software architecture of the system and method disclosed here currently depends on the ability of management processor nodes to “trust” each other. This more rigorous security on management processor to management processor communication is desirable, as well a better security on private management LANs across the fabric.

The multi-domain fabric architecture that has been described addresses the lack of VLAN support by creating secure “tunnels” and domains across the fabric, and it can interoperate with VLAN protected router ports on a 1:1 basis.

The approach to domain management in the system and method disclosed here is as follows: Support multiple domain IDs within the fabric. Allow each of the MACs within a node (management processor, MAC0, MAC1, Gateway) to be assigned to a domain ID individually (and tagged with domain 0 if not set). Allow each of the MACs within a node to have a bit indicating access to the management domain. The domain IDs associated with a MAC could only be assigned by the management processor, and could not be altered by the A9. For frames generated by MACs (both inside and outside), the routing frame processor would tag the routing frame with the domain ID and management domain state associated with that MAC. Domains would provide the effect of tunnels or VLANs, in that they keep packets (both unicast and multicast) within that domain, allowing MACs outside that domain to be able to neither sniff nor spoof those packets. Additionally, this approach would employ a five-bit domain ID. It would add options to control domain processing, such as, for example, a switch with a boolean per MAC that defines whether packets are delivered with non-defined (i.e., zero) domain ID, or a switch that has a boolean per MAC that defines whether packets are delivered with defined (non-zero) but non-matching domain IDs. A further option in the switch could turn off node encoded MAC addresses per MAC (eliminating another style of potential attack vector).

To keep management processor to management processor communication secure, the management domain bit on all management processor MACs could be marked. Generally, the management processor should route on domain 1 (by convention). Such a technique allows all the management processor's to tunnel packets on the management domain so that they cannot be inspected or spoofed by any other devices (inside or outside the fabric), on other VLANs or domains. Further, to provide a secure management LAN, a gateway MAC that has the management domain bit set could be assigned, keeping management packets private to the management processor domain. Additionally, the switch fabric could support “multi-tenant” within itself, by associating each gateway MAC with a separate domain. For example, each gateway MAC could connect to an individual port on an outside router, allowing that port to be optionally associated with a VLAN. As the packets come into the gateway, they are tagged with the domain ID, keeping that traffic private to the MACs associated with that domain across the fabric.

The switch supports a number of registers (aka CSRs, aka MMRs) to allow software or firmware to control the switch. The actual layout of these registers will be defined by the implementation. The fields listed in Table 10 are software read/write. All these registers need to have a mechanism to secure them from writing from the A9 (could be secure mode or on a management processor private bus).

TABLE 10
Switch Fields
Field	Size	Notes
Adaptive	1 bit	Adaptive unicast routing enabled
broadcastVec[ ]	Array [CHANS] × 8	Vector of ports to send broadcast
	bits	packets received from a particular
		Link or MAC.
		CHANS = 8. Array elements are
		MAC0, MAC1, management
		processor MAC, LINK0, LINK1,
linkDIR[ ]	Array [LINKS] × 2 bits	Specifies link direction for each link
		(0 = DOWN, 1 = LATERAL, 2 = UP,
		3 = Rsvd)
		LINKS = 5, Array elements are
		LINK0, LINK1, LINK2, LINK3,
		LINK4.
linkState	5 bits	Link state vector for each of the 5
		links. Bit set indicates that link is
		active (trained and linked).
linkType[ ]	Array [LINKS] × 2 bits	Specifies type of each link
		(0 = Fabric Link, 1 = MAC Link,
		2 = Reserved, 3 = Ethernet)
linkRate[ ]	Array [LINKS] × 3 bits	Specifies rate of each link
		(0 = 10G, 1 = 2.5G, 2 = 5.0G, 3 = 7.5G,
		4 = 1G, 5-7 = Reserved)
linkEnable[ ]	Array [LINKS] × 1 bits	Specifies whether the Link Channel
		is enabled or not.
macEnable[ ]	Array [MACS] × 1 bits	Specifies whether the MAC Channel
		is enabled or not.
macAddrLookup	Lookup CAM which is	MAC address lookup CAM to
	described elsewhere in	convert MAC addresses to Node
	the document	IDs.
macAcceptOtherDomain[ ]	Array [MACS] × 1 bits	Defines that the MAC accepts
		packets that are tagged with a non-
		zero, non-matching domain ID.
macAcceptZeroDomain[ ]	Array [MACS] × 1 bits	Defines that the MAC accepts
		packets that are not tagged with a
		domain (i.e. 0 domain)
macRxDomainID[ ]	Array [MACS] × 5 bits	Defines that the MAC can receive
		packets from this Domain. A value
		of 0 indicates that the received
		domain ID for that MAC has not
		been set.
macRxMgmtDomain[ ]	Array [MACS] × 1 bits	Defines that MAC may receive
		packets from the management
		domain.
macTxDomain[ ]	Array [MACS] × 5 bits	Defines the value that will be put in
		the Domain ID field of the Routing
		Header for packets sent from this
		MAC.
macTxMgmtDomain[ ]	Array [MACS] × 1 bits	Defines the value that will be put in
		the Management Domain field of the
		Routing Header for packets sent
		from this MAC.
maxTTL	6 bits	Maximum TTL count allowed in a
		Routing Header. Exceeding this
		number of hops causes the switch to
		drop the packet, update a statistic
		counter, and inform the management
		processor.
myNodeID	12 bits	Need not to be contiguous. Subtree's
		should ideally be numbered within a0
		range to facilitate subtree network
		proxying.
myOUI	3 bytes	3 upper bytes of MAC addresses in
		fabric. Should be the same for all
		nodes in the fabric.
nodeRangeHi	12 bits	Enabled with nodeRangeEnable.
		Specifics high node ID of node
		range match.
nodeRangeLo	12 bits	Enabled with nodeRangeEnable.
		Specifics low node ID of node range
		match.
nodeRangeEnable[ ]	Array [CHANS] × 1 bit	Enables the expanded Node ID
		matching of [nodeRangeLo,
		nodeRangeHi] for a particular
		channel. Used for Network Proxying
		through a subtree. When enabled, a
		packet will be routed into the node
		(rather than through the node) if
		either DstNode==myNodeID OR
		(nodeRangeLo <= DstNode <=
		nodeRangeHi)
flowControlTxEnable[ ]	Array [CHANS] × 1 bit	When enabled, the Link or MAC
		Channel will transmit flow control
		messages.
flowControlRxEnable[ ]	Array [CHANS] × 1 bit	When enabled, the Link or MAC
		Channel will receive flow control
		messages and stop transmission.
portRemap[ ]	Array [INT_PORTS] ×	Allow remapping of incoming
	2 bits	destination port IDs to the internal
		port where it'll be delievered. This
		register defaults to an equivalence
		remapping. An example of where
		this will get remapped is during
		Network Proxy where the
		management processor will remap
		MAC0 packets to be sent to the
		management processor.
		INT_PORTS = 4. Array elements are
		the Ports enumeration (managemtn
		processor, MAC0, MAC1, OUT).
		2 bits contents are the Port's
		enumeration.
portRemapEnable[ ]	Array [CHANS] × 1 bit	Enables port remapping for
		particular Link or MAC Channels.
primaryEthGatewayNode[ ]	Array [INT_PORTS] ×	Specifics Node ID of primary
	12-bit	Ethernet gateway for this node.
		Packets destined to node IDs that
		aren't within the fabric will get
		routed here.
promiscuousPortVec	4 bits	Can be configured for Promiscuous
		Mode allowing traffic on one or
		more links to be snooped by the
		management processor or A9s in
		order to collect trace data or to
		implement an Intruder Detection
		System (IDS). This causes all traffic
		passing through the switch to be
		copied to the internal ports defined
		by this port vector.
routeForeignMACsOut	1 bit	When enabled, a MAC address that
		does not contain a myOUI address,
		will not check the MAC lookup
		CAM, and will get treated as a MAC
		lookup CAM miss, thus getting
		routed to the gateway port. This
		saves latency in the common case of
		not populating the CAM with
		foreigh MAC aliases.
secondaryEthGatewayNode	12-bit	Specifics Node ID of secondary
		Ethernet gateway. Incoming (from
		OUT) packets routing through the
		fabric will be sent here.
unicastPortsFromOtherExt	1 bit	An incoming unicast from an
Gateways		external gateway will get the
		gateway node put into the source
		node field of the Routing Header.
		Upon reaching the destination node,
		this bit will be checked. When the
		bit is clear, the external gateway
		node must match the destination
		gateway node for it to be delivered
		to internal ports. This is to handle
		the case where the fabric is
		connected to an external learning
		switch that hasn't yet learned the
		mac/port relationship, and floods the
		unicast packet down multiple ports.
		This will prevent a fabric node from
		getting the unicast packet multiple
		times.
unicastRoute[ ]	Array [NODES] of 10	Link vector of unicast next route, 10
	bits	bits are made up of a 2-bit weight for
		each of 5 links.

The registers shown in Table 11 are contained within the Switch implementation, but need not be software accessible.

TABLE 11
Non-Software Accessible Switch Fields
Field	Size	Notes
bcastIDNext[ ]	Array [INT_PORTS] ×	Next broadcast sequence ID
	5 bits	to issue next. Hardware will
		increment this for each
		broadcast packet initiated by
		this node.
bcastIDSeen[ ]	Array	FIFO list of broadcast tags
	[BCAST_ID_LEN] of	seen by this node.
	5 bits.
bcastIDSeenNext	# bits to index into	Next array position into
	BCAST_ID_LEN	bcastIDSeen[ ]to insert a
		broadcast tag.

Note that software should be able to update the routing tables (unicastRoute) and the macAddrLookup CAM atomically with respect to active packet routing. One implementation will be to hold off routing access to these tables during an update operation.

Network Proxy

FIG. 6 illustrates a method for proxying using the switch described above. Unlike a client computer with an Ethernet controller, a node 1001 or 1002 in a fabric shown in FIG. 6 may operate as a proxy for a node or a whole subtree of other nodes (N01-N017, N10-N15 and N20-N23 for example as shown in FIG. 6) keeping network presence alive for a whole tree of nodes. In implementation, the proxying can be done by a MAC for other MACs on the same Node or can be done by the MAC(s) on one Node for a range of other Nodes. It is well known that a large amount of electricity is used by electronic devices that are on solely for the purpose of maintaining network connectivity while they might be asleep and the network proxy of the fabric reduces that energy consumption. In the switch fabric and fabric described above, the concept of network proxy is the ability of the main processors (FIG. 5A, 905) to maintain network presence while in a low-power sleep/hibernation state, and intelligently wake when further processing is required.

As is known, some protocols require a processor to be fully powered-up. Some examples are: 1) ARP packets—must respond because, if no response, then the processor becomes “unreachable”; 2) TCP SYN packets—must respond because, if no response, then an application is “unreachable”; 3) IGMP query packets—must respond because if no response, then multicast to the processor is lost; and 4) DHCP lease request—must generate because, if no lease request, then the processor will lose its IP address. Thus, when proxying, each incoming packet can be identified and then handled accordingly, as described below in more detail.

Node Proxy Use Sequence

A proxy use sequence for the node in FIG. 5A would be of the form:

Management processor maintains the IP to MAC address mappings for MAC0 and MAC1 on the node. This can be done via either explicit communication of these mappings from the main processor OS to the management processor, or can be done implicitly by having the management processor snoop local gratuitous ARP broadcasts.

The main processor coordinates with the management processor to go to a low power dormant state. During this transition, the management processor sets up the proxying in order to route MAC0 and MAC1 traffic to the management processor.

The management processor processes any incoming MAC0/MAC1 packets. There are 3 categories of processing:

Respond to some classes of transactions that require simple responses (e.g. ARP responses, NetBIOS datagrams and ICMP ping).

Dump and ignore some classes of packets, typically unicast or broadcast packets that are targeting other computers.

Decide that the main processor must be woken to process some classes of packets, such as TCP SYN packets. The management processor will wake the main processor, undo the Port ID remapping register, and re-send the packets back through the switch where they will get rerouted back to MAC0/1.

Keep Alive Messages

It is common in servers for there to be an ongoing set of messages between servers that fall into the category of keep alive messages.

A keep alive is a message sent by one device to another to check that the link between the two is operating, or to prevent this link from being broken. A keep alive signal is often sent at predefined intervals. After a signal is sent, if no reply is received the link is assumed to be down and future data will be routed via another path or to another node.

Variants of the keep alive messages are used to see not only whether a node is available, but also whether the OS or even an application running on the node is available.

One side effect of these keep alive messages targeting a node is that it may make it difficult for the node to transition to a deep power saving state because it keeps getting hit with these periodic messages to check availability. This is another class of message that can be handled with this network proxy technique and offload response of these keep alive messages to the management processor, allowing the main processors to stay in a deep power saving state (sleep, hibernate, or powered off).

Port Remapping Proxy

One MAC on a particular node can proxy for one or more other MACs on the same node by using Port Remapping Proxy. For example, if the processor 905 shown in FIG. 5A is going to be powered down, the management processor 906 can program the fabric switch to redirect any packets that are sent to processor 905 MACs to instead be sent to the management processor 906.

There is a Port Remapping (portRemap) field for each of the four MACs in the fabric switch that allows packets destined for a particular MAC to be routed to a another MAC instead. There is also a single bit Port Remapping Enable (portRemapEnable[ ]) field for each channel which determines whether the Port Remapping field should apply to packets received on this channel or not.

To begin proxying for another MAC, in one embodiment, the management processor 906 may first disable the MAC Channel FIFOs for the MAC that will be proxied for, any packets in the FIFOs should be allowed to drain first and then the MAC and DMA can be shutdown. Then, the Port Remapping fields can be used to indicate how the packets meant for the MAC that is being proxied for are to be redirected. Once these fields are programmed, any packets that are subsequently received that are destined for the MAC that is being proxied for on a Link or MAC Channel that has Port Remapping enabled would be redirected to the proxy MAC.

To end proxying for another MAC, the MAC Channel FIFOs should be first enabled and started, the MAC and DMA should be enabled and then the Port Remapping fields should be changed. Once the Port Remapping fields are changed, the MAC Channel will start receiving packets that were sent to it. For example, when the switch is to deliver a packet to an internal MAC0 port (e.g. FIG. 5A, 902), this Port Remapping CSR allows software to remap MAC0 to the management processor MAC (e.g. FIG. 5A, 907) and have the packet delivered to the management processor for Network Proxy processing. This remapping CSR could also be used to remap MAC1 traffic to MAC0, or MAC1 traffic to the management processor.

The Port Remapping Enable field allows some Link or MAC Channels to have packets received on those channels to be redirected based on the Port Remapping while other Link or MAC Channels the packets received will not be redirected based on Port Remapping. For example, enable Port Remapping for all channels except for the management processor MAC Channel, so that packets received on all channels except for the management processor MAC Channel that are destined for an internal MAC0 port (e.g. FIG. 5A, 902) be redirected to the management processor MAC (e.g. FIG. 5A, 907), but all packets received on the management processor MAC Channel be unaffected by Port Remapping. This allows the management processor MAC to send packets to the MAC0 port even when Port Remapping is enabled for MAC0 on all other Link and MAC Channels.

Node Range or Set Based Node Proxy

FIG. 7A illustrates a method 700 for proxy routing using a node range based or set based node proxy.

In the system, one Node can proxy for a set of other Nodes. This would be used when an entire branch of the Fabric is to be powered off. When one Node acts as the proxy for a range of Nodes, the MACs on the proxy Node represent the MACs for all of the Nodes in the range. In other words, if a packet is being sent to MAC1 on a Node that is being proxied for, the packet will be delivered to MAC1 on the proxy Node.

In the Routing process, the switch first looks at whether the Routing Header indicates the packet is a multicast packet or a unicast packet (702.) For unicast packets, the switch further looks at the Destination Node ID of the Routing Header to decide whether the packet is delivered to an internal port within the node, or gets routed to other XAUI connected nodes. This is done by first comparing the Destination Node ID (dstNode) in the Routing Header with myNodeID (704.)

If the Destination Node ID (dstNode) matches myNodeID, there is a myNodeID hit and the packet will be routed to an internal port. The switch must then determine the port to which the packet should be routed. To determine the port to which the packet should be routed, the switch checks if the Port Remap Proxy is enabled for the current channel, and whether the port identified by the Destination Port ID (dstPort) in the Routing Header is being remapped to another port (706.) If the dstPort does not match the portRemap[dstPort] then a Port Remap Proxy hit has occurred When a Port Remap Proxy hit occurs, the switch sends the packet to the port given by portRemap[dstPort] (710) and inserts the packet into the FIFO for rerouting (712) and the process is completed for that packet.

If the dstPort matches the portRemap[dstPort], then no proxy is occurring for that port and the switch sends the packet to the port given by dstPort (714) and inserts the packet into the FIFO for rerouting (712) and the process is completed for that packet.

In the Node Range Based Node Proxy embodiment, if the Destination Node ID (dstNode) does not match myNodeID, a Node Proxy Lookup is done (708) to check if the packet is destined for a Node for which the current Node is proxying. It requires checking whether Node Range Proxy is enabled for the current channel and whether the Destination Node ID (dstNode) in the Routing Header is within the Node ID range. The Node ID range causes the packet to be delivered to an internal port within the node if the following boolean equation is true:(nodeRangeEnable[chan]&&(nodeRangeLo<=Destination Node<=nodeRangeH−i))

This allows a node to proxy for a subtree of nodes whose Node IDs fall in a numerical range. This Node Proxy Lookup is done prior to the Routing Table lookup, so that the Routing Table memory access can be avoided if the Node Proxy Lookup hits.

If the Node Proxy hits, the packet will be routed to an internal port and the switch must then determine the port to which the packet should be routed. The processes to determine the port to which the packet should be routed 706, 714, 710, and 712 are the same as described above with reference to FIG. 7A and thus are not repeated herein.

If the Node Proxy Lookup fails, then the switch reads the unicast routing table entry based on the dstNode (716) and determines the link to route the packet to based on a routing algorithm and Routing Table entry (718), inserts the packet into the FIFO (712) and the process is completed for the packet.

Routing Table Based Node Proxy

FIG. 7B illustrates a method 750 for proxy routing using a routing table based node proxy that may be used in an alternative embodiment. In the alternate embodiment, there is an extra field in each entry of the Routing Table which determines for which Node IDs the current node is proxying. The Routing Table contains one entry per Node in the fabric and the index into the Routing Table is the Destination Node ID. In addition to the Routing Weightings for each Link, there is a single bit boolean that indicates whether the current Node is proxying for the node associated with the Routing Table entry. This boolean is called nodeProxyEnable. The unicast Routing Table definition is shown in Table 12.

TABLE 12
Unicast Routing Table Definitin for Routing Table Based Proxy
Field	Size	Notes
unicastRoute[NODES]	Array [NODES]	Link vector of unicast next
	of 11 bits	route, 10 bits is 2-bit weight
		field for each of 5 links, plus a
		1-bit nodeProxyEnable field
		for each entry.

In the method using the routing table, the processes 702-706 and 710-714 are the same as described above with reference to FIG. 7A and thus are not repeated herein. In the method, if the myNodeID is not hit, the switch reads the unicast routing table based on dstNode (752). The switch then determines if a Node Proxy hit has occurred using the nodeProxyEnable bit in the Routing Table using the following boolean equation:proxyEnable[chan]&&unicastRoute[dstNode][nodeProxyEnable]

If the above boolean equation is true, then a Node Proxy hit has occurred and the method proceeds to process 706 as described above. If the above boolean equation is false, then the switch determines which link to route the packet to based on a routing process and a Routing Table entry (756), inserts the packet into the FIFO (712) and the process is completed for the packet.

The Routing Table based Proxy embodiment differs from the Node Range based Proxy embodiment in that any node in the fabric can be proxied for regardless of the Node ID number while in the Node Range embodiment, the Node IDs that are to be proxied for must be in numerical order.

MAC Lookup CAM-Based Node Proxy

It is also possible to have one node proxy for another using the macAddrLookup mechanism described above. The MAC Lookup CAM takes a MAC address as input and returns a destination node and port. By changing the CAM to return a different node and port for a given MAC address, traffic destined for one system can be directed to another.

Specifically, when the system configures one server as a proxy for another, the management processors across the cluster need to change the MAC Lookup CAM on all of the nodes of a cluster to change the line for the MAC that is being shifted to point to the new destination server. As can be seen in Table 6 above, the required change is just to the Node ID field. Since all of the management processors are in contact with each other across the fabric, the change can be initiated by any node, but the CAM entry needs to be consistent across all nodes.

One benefit of this approach is that a set of MAC addresses can be shared across a set of nodes. When there is insufficient load to require all of the nodes, the MAC addresses can be consolidated across a subset of the nodes with the others powered off. When the load increases additional servers can be powered on and the shared set of MAC addresses redistributed to balance the load.

Wake-On-LAN Magic Packet

In a traditional desktop computer, the computer to be woken is shut down (sleeping, hibernating, or soft off; i.e., ACPI state G1 or G2), with power reserved for the network card, but not disconnected from its power source. The network card listens for a specific packet containing its MAC address, called the magic packet, broadcast on the broadcast address for that particular subnet (or an entire LAN, though this requires special hardware or configuration). The magic packet is sent on the data link or layer 2 in the OSI model and broadcast to all NICs within the network of the broadcast address; the IP-address (layer 3 in the OSI model) is not used. When the listening computer receives this packet, the network card checks the packet for the correct information. If the magic packet is valid, the network card takes the computer out of hibernation or standby, or starts it up.

The magic packet is a broadcast frame containing anywhere within its payload: 6 bytes of ones (resulting in hexadecimal FF FF FF FF FF FF), followed by sixteen repetitions of the target computer's MAC address. Since the magic packet is only scanned for the string above, and not actually parsed by a full protocol stack, it may be sent as a broadcast packet of any network- and transport-layer protocol. It is typically sent as a UDP datagram to port 0, 7 or 9, or, in former times, as an IPX packet.

Using the Network Proxy architecture just described, the management processor can support these Wake-On-LAN packets. It will get these broadcast packets, will know the MAC addresses for the other MACs on the node, and be able to wake up the main processor as appropriate. No further functionality is needed in the switch to support these Wake-on-LAN packets.

While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method comprising: associating a node with a node ID, wherein the node is connected to a plurality of nodes to form a switching fabric;setting up a node proxy component which indicates that the node ID is proxied to a proxy node, wherein the proxy node is configured to be a proxy for the node in response to the node being in a low power state; andreceiving, by the proxy node, traffic destined for the node via the node proxy component and in response to the node being in a low power state;wherein the node proxy component includes a routing table with a proxy field that determines if a node ID is being proxied to the proxy node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the proxy node is further configured to respond to an incoming packet, remapped to the proxy node, if required for a particular protocol.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the incoming packet is an ARP packet, a NetBIOS datagram, or an ICMP ping.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the incoming packet is a broadcast packet or a unicast packet.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the incoming packet is a TCP SYN packet or a magic packet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the proxy node is further configured to wake up a proxied node for an incoming packet that is to be processed by the proxied node.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the proxy node is further configured to: reset the proxy node component to cancel the proxy; andresend the incoming packet back to the proxied node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the proxy node is further configured to respond to a keep alive message.

9. An apparatus comprising: a node connected to a plurality of nodes to form a switching fabric, wherein the node is associated with a node ID in the switching fabric;a proxy node configured to be a proxy for the node in response to the node entering a low power state; anda node proxy component configured to indicate that the node ID is proxied to the proxy node;wherein the proxy node is further configured to receive traffic destined for the node via the node proxy component and in response to the node being in a low power state; andwherein the routing table proxy component includes a routing table with a proxy field configured to determine if a node ID is being proxied to the proxy node.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the proxy node is further configured to respond to an incoming packet, remapped to the proxy node, if required for a particular protocol.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the incoming packet is an ARP packet, a NetBIOS datagram, or an ICMP ping.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the incoming packet is a broadcast packet or a unicast packet.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the incoming packet is a TCP SYN packet or a magic packet.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the proxy node is further configured to wake up a proxied node for an incoming packet that is to be processed by the proxied node.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium on which is stored instructions, the instructions comprising: instructions to associate a node with a node ID, wherein the node is connected to a plurality of nodes to form a switching fabric;instructions to set up a node proxy component which indicates that the node ID is proxied to a proxy node, wherein the proxy node is configured to be a proxy for the node in response to the node being in a low power state; andinstructions to receive, by the proxy node, traffic destined for the node via the node proxy component and in response to the node being in a low power state;wherein the node proxy component includes a routing table with a proxy field that determines if a node ID is being proxied to the proxy node.