WO1996038955A2 - Traffic monitoring and control in a switch - Google Patents
Traffic monitoring and control in a switch Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO1996038955A2 WO1996038955A2 PCT/EP1996/002335 EP9602335W WO9638955A2 WO 1996038955 A2 WO1996038955 A2 WO 1996038955A2 EP 9602335 W EP9602335 W EP 9602335W WO 9638955 A2 WO9638955 A2 WO 9638955A2
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- traffic
- network
- switch
- packet
- port
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L12/00—Data switching networks
- H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
- H04L12/46—Interconnection of networks
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
- H04L43/02—Capturing of monitoring data
- H04L43/022—Capturing of monitoring data by sampling
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L12/00—Data switching networks
- H04L12/02—Details
- H04L12/16—Arrangements for providing special services to substations
- H04L12/18—Arrangements for providing special services to substations for broadcast or conference, e.g. multicast
Definitions
- the present invention relates to computer networks and more particularly to etheraet, token ring and ATM networks.
- ethernet network systems it is known to provide management facilities which can accumulate traffic statistics from stores located at the individual ports. These statistics are required in order to efficiently manage the network. In many cases, the production of these statistics is deemed to be a long trend analysis lasting many hours or days in order for a network manager to take decisions regarding an appropriate layout of the network.
- the present invention provides a switch or bridge including a processor and a store which will be used to store data relating to traffic on a part of the network.
- a scheme to gather only extracts from the data and process it in real time which is more cost effective. Traffic will be sampled on a random or pseudo random basis and details of the traffic at that time stored in the store for analysis by a management entity.
- the advantage of this approach is that it has a low memory overhead and requires little increase in the number of circuits involved and consequently has little effect on the overall cost of the network.
- the sampling and storing can be done by the processor of a switch or bridge in the background e.g. by an interrupt routine.
- the facility can be programmed to capture data from any specified port or indeed any specified packet.
- FIG. 1 shows the form of a typical packet of information
- Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically a circuit layout for achieving the monitoring.
- a typical packet 10 of information on an ethernet network consists of a block of information 11 indicating the destination address of the packet of infoimation, a source address 12 indicating the device from which the information is derived, other control information 13, actual data 14 to be transmitted, and finally a block 15 indicating any errors which have occurred.
- the present invention provides a system for storing data relating to one or more of the destination address, source address, some of the control information and the errors in stores to allow analysis of traffic on the system.
- data relating to one or more of the destination address, source address, some of the control information and the errors in stores to allow analysis of traffic on the system.
- it is intended simply to sample the traffic and store only predetermined parts of the packet. We consider that this is best done on a random or pseudo random basis in order to avoid any possibility of missing cyclically repeating information.
- a switch or bridge 1 is represented as comprising a number of ports l...n, only two of which are shown. Data flow through the ports is controlled by a management entity 2.
- Each port is identical and includes a number of circuits including a port logic circuit 3, a data FIFO store 4 for data received by and transmitted by the port and a statistics memory section 5 which stores details of all packets generated by the device(s) (not shown) connected to the port.
- a pseudo random generator 20 which generates a sampling pulse.
- This sampling pulse operates a gating circuit 21 which feeds information from the next complete packet 22 of a stream of data on the data bus of the network after the timing pulse through an analysis and formatting circuit 23 into the additional memory 25 and then closes the gate at the end of that packet until such time as the next timing pulse is generated by the pseudo random timer.
- the pseudo-random generator 20 When the pseudo-random generator 20 generates a pulse, the data is examined for a data sequence indicating the start of a packet. Any data existing prior to such an indication is simply passed through.
- an extract of the packet is stored in a formatted fashion
- the sampler 22 is arranged to identify the start of the next complete packet after the generation of the psuedo-random timing pulse by the generator 20 and then only, extract those relevant portions of the packet. This is possible because the structure of an ethernet packet is such that the addressing and control blocks are of known size and in a known position in the packet. Once the start of a packet is detected it is simply a matter of control in order to capture the desired part.
- This technique it is possible to capture and store information from within the data section 14 of the packet simply by appropriate programming of the sampler 22.
- This low cost technique can be readily implemented and can be used, if necessary, to provide details of traffic which could be further utilized in order to adaptively control various parameters of the network and assist in debugging the network.
- networks are designed to allow a one-to-one communication between ports of the network to which the devices are attached, but it is often the case that one port wishes to broadcast the same message to all other ports within the network. While this is acceptable, one has to guard against the possibility of a so-called storm of such broadcast data occurring in view of the fact that this would normally jam buffer stores associated with each port and also with the fact that the whole network would be slowed down.
- the switch or bridge monitors traffic through it, certain parameters of the statistics related to the traffic through the bridge or switch can be utilised in order to detect the onset of a storm condition and takes action to control the level of such traffic within limits.
- each port has associated with it one bit which can be controlled in order to prevent a storm of multicast/broadcast data being forwarded to all the ports of the switch and jamming the system.
- the switch or bridge can simply identify from previous receptions of requests for multicasts or broadcasts that it will become overloaded and thus refuse to handle any further requests for multicasts or broadcasts until a suitable time.
- the network is an ethernet network comprising one or more switches or bridges each having a number of ports as well as a management entity for the switch or bridge.
- Each of the ports of a switch is known to the management entity of the switch and each port has storage and logic circuits.
- the logic circuits may be arranged to add to the port number a digital bit whose value can be altered in response to instructions from the management entity.
- the storage circuits may include stores for logging all traffic through the port including accurate statistics of all broadcast and/or multicast messages created by the device attached to the port.
- the management entity monitors traffic through all ports of the switch or bridge and compiles statistics relating to the traffic. Included in the statistics are the number of occasions multicast broadcast data is being supplied. On the basis of the statistics, the management entity makes a decision as to whether to permit a further multicast/broadcast data message to pass through the switch or bridge. If the management entity determines that a storm would result from a further multicast/ broadcast data message which would normally jam the FIFO's related with each port and also slow down the network, the management entity then changes the additional bit per port which directs any subsequent multicast/broadcast message to a non-existent port of the switch. In our system this is port 31.
- this system of diversion to a non-existent port is superior to that of simply turning off a port which is attempting to transmit a multicast/broadcast message or of detecting all broadcast or multicast traffic input through the port since the statistics relating to usage of the network are being maintained and consequently the management entity can detect when traffic on the network reduces to such a level that further multicast broadcast message can be accommodated. At that point, the additional bit per port can be changed back to permit multicast broadcast messages.
- This particular method permits unicast messages to be handled by the network as usual whether or not the storm protection mechanism is in operation.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GB9725284A GB2316589B (en) | 1995-05-31 | 1996-05-30 | Traffic monitoring and control in a switch |
AU59027/96A AU5902796A (en) | 1995-05-31 | 1996-05-30 | Traffic monitoring and control in a switch |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GBGB9510931.0A GB9510931D0 (en) | 1995-05-31 | 1995-05-31 | Traffic monitoring and control in a switch |
GB9510931.0 | 1995-05-31 |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO1996038955A2 true WO1996038955A2 (en) | 1996-12-05 |
WO1996038955A3 WO1996038955A3 (en) | 1997-01-30 |
Family
ID=10775242
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/EP1996/002335 WO1996038955A2 (en) | 1995-05-31 | 1996-05-30 | Traffic monitoring and control in a switch |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
AU (1) | AU5902796A (en) |
GB (2) | GB9510931D0 (en) |
WO (1) | WO1996038955A2 (en) |
Cited By (10)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
WO1998026541A1 (en) * | 1996-12-13 | 1998-06-18 | 3Com Corporation | Improved distributed remote monitoring (drmon) for networks |
GB2338147A (en) * | 1998-05-15 | 1999-12-08 | 3Com Technologies Ltd | Compution of traffic flow by scaling sample packet data |
US6009274A (en) * | 1996-12-13 | 1999-12-28 | 3Com Corporation | Method and apparatus for automatically updating software components on end systems over a network |
EP1017203A2 (en) * | 1998-12-28 | 2000-07-05 | Nortel Networks Corporation | Monitoring of Internet differentiated services for transactional applications |
US6108782A (en) * | 1996-12-13 | 2000-08-22 | 3Com Corporation | Distributed remote monitoring (dRMON) for networks |
DE10056417A1 (en) * | 2000-11-14 | 2002-05-23 | Traian Internet Products Ag | Data collection method for packet-oriented network, by transmitting data in format that cannot be evaluated by sniffers |
US6473400B1 (en) | 1998-05-15 | 2002-10-29 | 3Com Technologies | Computation of traffic flow by scaling sample packet data |
US6757742B1 (en) * | 2000-05-25 | 2004-06-29 | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. | Computer-based system for validating hash-based table lookup schemes in a network switch |
EP1764951A1 (en) | 2005-09-15 | 2007-03-21 | Alcatel | Statistical trace-based method, apparatus, node and system for real-time traffic classification |
CN100388716C (en) * | 2002-08-28 | 2008-05-14 | 华为技术有限公司 | Method of supressing flow of broadcasting message in bridged transmission process |
Families Citing this family (2)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
GB2333428B (en) * | 1997-11-28 | 2002-10-16 | 3Com Technologies Ltd | Congestion control in a management port |
GB2368228B (en) * | 2000-10-18 | 2003-07-23 | 3Com Corp | Network unit with address cache for frequently occuring network conversations |
Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP0477448A1 (en) * | 1990-09-28 | 1992-04-01 | Hewlett-Packard Company | Network monitoring device and system |
EP0542406A1 (en) * | 1991-11-14 | 1993-05-19 | Hewlett-Packard Company | System and method for estimating top contributors |
US5341363A (en) * | 1991-05-10 | 1994-08-23 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | Computer system capable of disconnecting itself from a lan |
US5343465A (en) * | 1993-06-11 | 1994-08-30 | Bell Communications Research, Inc. | Method and system for real-time burstiness analysis of network traffic |
Family Cites Families (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
JPH0481145A (en) * | 1990-07-24 | 1992-03-13 | Toshiba Corp | Bridge circuit |
-
1995
- 1995-05-31 GB GBGB9510931.0A patent/GB9510931D0/en active Pending
-
1996
- 1996-05-30 WO PCT/EP1996/002335 patent/WO1996038955A2/en active Application Filing
- 1996-05-30 GB GB9725284A patent/GB2316589B/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 1996-05-30 AU AU59027/96A patent/AU5902796A/en not_active Abandoned
Patent Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP0477448A1 (en) * | 1990-09-28 | 1992-04-01 | Hewlett-Packard Company | Network monitoring device and system |
US5341363A (en) * | 1991-05-10 | 1994-08-23 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | Computer system capable of disconnecting itself from a lan |
EP0542406A1 (en) * | 1991-11-14 | 1993-05-19 | Hewlett-Packard Company | System and method for estimating top contributors |
US5343465A (en) * | 1993-06-11 | 1994-08-30 | Bell Communications Research, Inc. | Method and system for real-time burstiness analysis of network traffic |
Non-Patent Citations (1)
Title |
---|
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 16, no. 300 (E-1227), 2 July 1992 & JP,A,04 081145 (TOSHIBA CORP), 13 March 1992, * |
Cited By (14)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US6108782A (en) * | 1996-12-13 | 2000-08-22 | 3Com Corporation | Distributed remote monitoring (dRMON) for networks |
GB2335124A (en) * | 1996-12-13 | 1999-09-08 | 3Com Corp | Improved distributed remote monitoring (DRMON) for networks |
WO1998026541A1 (en) * | 1996-12-13 | 1998-06-18 | 3Com Corporation | Improved distributed remote monitoring (drmon) for networks |
US6009274A (en) * | 1996-12-13 | 1999-12-28 | 3Com Corporation | Method and apparatus for automatically updating software components on end systems over a network |
GB2338147B (en) * | 1998-05-15 | 2000-05-17 | 3Com Technologies Ltd | Computation of traffic flow by scaling sample packet data |
GB2338147A (en) * | 1998-05-15 | 1999-12-08 | 3Com Technologies Ltd | Compution of traffic flow by scaling sample packet data |
US6473400B1 (en) | 1998-05-15 | 2002-10-29 | 3Com Technologies | Computation of traffic flow by scaling sample packet data |
EP1017203A2 (en) * | 1998-12-28 | 2000-07-05 | Nortel Networks Corporation | Monitoring of Internet differentiated services for transactional applications |
EP1017203A3 (en) * | 1998-12-28 | 2004-02-04 | Nortel Networks Limited | Monitoring of Internet differentiated services for transactional applications |
US6757742B1 (en) * | 2000-05-25 | 2004-06-29 | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. | Computer-based system for validating hash-based table lookup schemes in a network switch |
DE10056417A1 (en) * | 2000-11-14 | 2002-05-23 | Traian Internet Products Ag | Data collection method for packet-oriented network, by transmitting data in format that cannot be evaluated by sniffers |
CN100388716C (en) * | 2002-08-28 | 2008-05-14 | 华为技术有限公司 | Method of supressing flow of broadcasting message in bridged transmission process |
EP1764951A1 (en) | 2005-09-15 | 2007-03-21 | Alcatel | Statistical trace-based method, apparatus, node and system for real-time traffic classification |
US7782793B2 (en) | 2005-09-15 | 2010-08-24 | Alcatel Lucent | Statistical trace-based methods for real-time traffic classification |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
GB9725284D0 (en) | 1998-01-28 |
GB9510931D0 (en) | 1995-07-26 |
GB2316589A (en) | 1998-02-25 |
WO1996038955A3 (en) | 1997-01-30 |
AU5902796A (en) | 1996-12-18 |
GB2316589B (en) | 2000-03-15 |
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