Software FIB ARP FEC encoding
Described herein are various embodiments of a network element to process routing entries in a forwarding information base (FIB) for hosts that are directly attached to a multi-layer network element to encode address resolution protocol (ARP) data into forwarding equivalence class (FEC) entries for the directly attached hosts. One embodiment provides for a network element comprising a control plane including a forwarding agent and a data plane coupled to the control plane. The data plane can include a forwarding engine to forward a unit of network data from an ingress interface to an egress interface. The forwarding agent can be configured to program the forwarding engine with a forwarding information base having data-link layer forwarding data encoded into a network-layer forwarding entry.
1. A network device, comprising:
a memory; and
a processing device coupled to the memory, the processing device to:
program a forwarding engine of a data plane with forwarding information, wherein the forwarding information comprises:
a forwarding information base comprising a plurality of forwarding entries; and
a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) table comprising a plurality of FEC entries, wherein:
data link layer forwarding data is encoded into the FEC entries;
each forwarding entry in the forwarding information base is associated with a corresponding FEC entry; and
each FEC comprises an identifier for a virtual network.
2. The network device of claim 1 , wherein each forwarding entry comprises:
an Internet Protocol (IP) prefix; and
a route type associated with the IP prefix.
3. The network device of claim 2 , wherein each forwarding entry associates a respective prefix with the corresponding FEC entry.
4. The network device of claim 2 , wherein each forwarding entry further comprises:
an identifier for the corresponding FEC entry.
5. The network device of claim 2 , wherein:
the route type comprises an attached route type;
the attached route type is for a host that is coupled to a port of the network device.
6. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the FEC includes a single FEC entry per virtual network.
7. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the data link layer forwarding data is derived from an address resolution protocol table.
8. The network device of claim 1 , wherein each FEC entry is further associated with a media access control (MAC) address and a physical port.
9. The network device as in claim 6 , wherein to program the forwarding engine of the data plane with the forwarding information, the processing device is further to:
derive an IP address based on an IP prefix;
derive an Ethernet address from the IP address and a virtual network identifier;
derive a physical port from the virtual network identifier and the Ethernet address.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one FEC entry is associated with multiple forwarding entries.
11. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the memory and the processing device are included in a control plane of the network device.
12. The network device of claim 1 , wherein the forwarding engine is to forward a unit of network data based on the forwarding information base and the FEC table.
13. A method, comprising:
programing a forwarding engine of a data plane with forwarding information, wherein the forwarding information comprises:
a forwarding information base comprising a plurality of forwarding entries;
and a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) table comprising a plurality of FEC entries, wherein:
data link layer forwarding data is encoded into the FEC entries;
each forwarding entry in the forwarding information base is associated with a corresponding FEC entry; and
each FEC entry comprises an identifier for a virtual network; and
forwarding network data based on the forwarding information.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein each forwarding entry comprises:
an Internet Protocol (IP) prefix; and
a route type associated with the IP prefix.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein each forwarding entry associates a respective prefix with the corresponding FEC entry.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein each forwarding entry further comprises:
an identifier for the corresponding FEC entry.
17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the FEC includes a single FEC entry per virtual network.
18. The method of claim 13 , wherein each FEC entry is further associated with a media access control (MAC) address and a physical port.
19. The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one FEC entry is associated with multiple forwarding entries.
20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to process control plane data in a network element, the method comprising:
programing a forwarding engine of a data plane with forwarding information, wherein the forwarding information comprises:
a forwarding information base comprising a plurality of forwarding entries;
and a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) table comprising a plurality of FEC entries, wherein:
data link layer forwarding data is encoded into the FEC entries;
each forwarding entry in the forwarding information base is associated with a corresponding FEC entry; and
each FEC entry comprises an identifier for a virtual network; and
forwarding network data based on the forwarding information.