System and method of a data processing pipeline with policy based routing
A method and apparatus of a network element that processes data by a network element with a data processing pipeline is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the network element receives network data and performs a policy-based routing lookup using one or more characteristics of the network data to retrieve a next hop identifier. In addition, the network element generates a key for the next hop identifier and performs a longest prefix match lookup to retrieve a forwarding result. The network element further determines a next hop interface based on the forwarding result.
1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to process data by a network element with a data processing pipeline, the method comprising:
receiving network data;
performing a policy-based routing lookup using one or more characteristics of the network data to retrieve a next hop identifier;
generating a key for the next hop identifier;
performing a longest prefix match lookup to retrieve a forwarding result using the key; and
determining a next hop interface based on the forwarding result.
2. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
forwarding the network data using the next hop interface.
3. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more characteristics is selected from the group consisting of a received port identifier, source address, destination address, Internet Protocol, Layer 4 port, application identifier, packet attribute, and type of service identifier.
4. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the key is generated from an address indicator and next hop identifier.
5. The machine-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the address indicator is a multicast address indicator.
6. The machine-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the key is a 32-bit multicast prefix.
7. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the key does not overlap with other routes stored in a longest prefix match lookup table.
8. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the next hop identifier is a policy map identifier that identifies which policy map is used for this network data.
9. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the next hop interface is derived by applying at least one of Quality of Service and Access Control List policies.
10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to program a longest prefix match lookup table with a data processing pipeline, the method comprising:
receiving a policy-based routing forwarding information;
storing a policy-based routing entry in a policy-based routing lookup table based on the policy-based routing forwarding information;
generating a key associated with the policy-based routing entry; and
storing a longest prefix match entry in a longest prefix match based on the key, wherein the longest prefix match entry includes a forwarding result.
11. A method to process data by a network element with a data processing pipeline, the method comprising:
receiving network data;
performing a policy-based routing lookup using one or more characteristics of the network data to retrieve a next hop identifier;
generating a key for the next hop identifier;
performing a longest prefix match lookup to retrieve a forwarding result using the key; and
determining a next hop interface based on the forwarding result.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
forwarding the network data using the next hop interface.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein each of the one or more characteristics is selected from the group consisting of a received port identifier, source address, destination address, Internet Protocol, Layer 4 port, application identifier, packet attribute, and type of service identifier.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the key is generated from an address indicator and next hop identifier.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the address indicator is a multicast address indicator.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the key is a 32-bit multicast prefix.
17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the key does not overlap with other routes stored in a longest prefix match lookup table.
18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the next hop identifier is a policy map identifier that identifies which policy map is used for this network data.
19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the next hop interface is derived by applying at least one of Quality of Service and Access Control List policies.
20. A method to program a longest prefix match lookup table with a data processing pipeline, the method comprising:
receiving a policy-based routing forwarding information;
storing a policy-based routing entry in a policy-based routing lookup table based on the policy-based routing forwarding information;
generating a key associated with the policy-based routing entry; and
storing a longest prefix match entry in a longest prefix match based on the key, wherein the longest prefix match entry includes a forwarding result.