Systems for and methods of network telemetry using a repurposed field
View Patent ↗A network device includes at least one port and a processor for use in a network for communicating a packet. The processor is configured to obtain a packet header for a packet and perform telemetry using postcard and/or passport approaches. The processor uses a repurposed field in the packet header to indicate telemetry is to be performed on the packet.
1. A network device, comprising:
at least one port; and
a processor configured to provide telemetry using a postcard approach and/or a passport approach, wherein the processor provides postcard type setting or passport type setting to indicate the postcard approach or the passport approach in a field used for fragmentation.
2. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the processor operates according to an Internet Protocol (IP)v4 communication scheme or IPV6 communication scheme.
3. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the field is a fragmentation offset field.
4. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the field is in a fragmentation header.
5. The network device of claim 4 , wherein the field is a reserve field.
6. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the telemetry is probe telemetry or in-band telemetry.
7. The network device of claim 1 , wherein a telemetry extension header information is provided in an identification field.
8. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the field comprises a fragmentation offset field and a no fragmentation bit is set in a flag field.
9. A method of performing telemetry in a network for communicating a packet, the method comprising:
obtaining a packet header; and
repurposing at least one field in the packet header to indicate the telemetry is to be performed on the packet, the telemetry being defined by telemetry information in a field or a header used for fragmentation information prior to repurposing, wherein a postcard type setting or passport type setting for the telemetry is provided in the field or header used for the fragmentation information to indicate a postcard approach or a passport approach for the telemetry.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the packet header is an Internet Protocol (IP)v4 header or IPv6 header.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the field comprises a fragmentation offset field.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein repurposing comprises providing a nonzero value in a fragmentation offset field and setting a flag to indicate do not fragment.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the field is a reserve field in a fragmentation header.
14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the at least one field comprises passport type information or postcard type information.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the passport type or postcard type information indicates the presence of In Flow Analyzer (IFA2.0) shim after a User Datagram Protocol/Transmission Control Protocol (UDP/TCP) header.
16. A processor for use in a network for communicating a packet, the processor being configured to obtain a packet header for the packet and perform telemetry using a postcard approach and/or a passport approach by using a repurposed field in the packet header to indicate the telemetry is to be performed on the packet, wherein a postcard type setting or passport type setting for the telemetry is provided in a field used for fragmentation to indicate the postcard approach or the passport approach.
17. The processor of claim 16 , wherein the telemetry is performed if a flag field in an Internet Protocol (IP) header that indicates the packet is not subject to fragmentation.
18. The processor of claim 17 , wherein the repurposed field comprises a fragment offset field in the IP header.
19. The processor of claim 17 , wherein the repurposed field is a reserve field in a fragmentation header.
20. The processor of claim 17 , wherein the repurposed field is a reserve field in an Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6) fragmentation header.