CN106603322B - A message sending and receiving method and network device - Google Patents

Abstract

A message sending and receiving method and network equipment are used for solving the technical problem of coarse granularity when a network is tested in performance at present. The message sending method comprises the following steps: the first network equipment receives a first message; the first network equipment encapsulates a VXLAN head and an outer layer IP head outside the first message to obtain a second message; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header is set to a first flag value, the first flag value is used to indicate that the time for the first network device to send the second packet is in a first time period, and the first time period is one of a plurality of statistical time periods during which the first network device performs statistics on the packet number of the service flow where the second packet is located; and the first network equipment sends the second message.

Description

A message sending and receiving method and network device

technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a message sending and receiving method and network equipment.

Background technique

Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (English: Virtual Extensible local area network, VXLAN) is an overlay (English: overlay) network technology that can be used to improve the scalability of large-scale cloud computing deployments. VXLAN technology uses the encapsulation technology similar to virtual local area network (VLAN), in the Open Systems Interconnection (English: Open Systems Interconnection, OSI) layer 4 User Datagram Protocol (English: UserDatagram Protocol, UDP) report In the text, a Layer 2 Ethernet frame based on media access control (English: media access control, MAC) is encapsulated with a specific destination UDP port number.

VXLAN has the following characteristics:

24-bit VXLAN Network Identifier (English: VXLAN Network Identifier, VNI), which can be used to indicate the independent VXLAN overlay network where the virtual machine (English: virtual machine, VM) in the communication system is located, located in different VXLAN overlay networks. Communication between virtual machines is not possible.

In a VXLAN network, each tenant can use their own services independently. In the process of using the service, it may involve testing the network performance, so as to determine how to use the service on the basis of knowing the performance of the current network.

Currently, when testing network performance, only the physical network can be tested. However, the network conditions of each tenant may be the same. It can be seen that the granularity of the performance test on the physical network is relatively coarse, and the obtained test results are not accurate enough.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a method for sending and receiving a message and a network device, which are used to solve the technical problem of relatively coarse granularity when performing performance testing on a network at present.

In a first aspect, a method for sending a message is provided, including:

the first network device receives the first packet;

The first network device encapsulates the VXLAN header and the outer IP header outside the first message to obtain the second message; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header is set as the first mark value, so The first tag value is used to indicate that the time when the first network device sends the second packet is in the first time period, and the first time period is the service flow where the first network device counts the second packet. One of multiple statistical periods for the number of packets;

The first network device sends the second packet.

The reserved bits in the VXLAN header are set to indicate which statistical period the second packet is sent in, so that the packets can be distinguished according to the reserved bits in the VXLAN header of the packets. When performing network performance measurement, the performance of the VXLAN network in different statistical periods can be tested, instead of only testing the physical network, which refines the test granularity of network performance.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

determining, by the first network device, the number of packets in the service flow where the second packet is sent within the first time period;

The first network device sends the determined number of sent packets to the control device.

To count the number of lost packets of the service flow in which the second packet is located in the first time period, the first network device may count the number of packets of the service flow in which the second packet is sent during the first time period, And send the counted number to the control device. In addition, the network device that receives the packets of the service flow in which the second packet is located may also send the number of packets of the service flow in which the second packet is received within the first period to the control device, so that the control device can calculate Obtain the number of lost packets in the first period of time in the service flow where the second packet is located.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

receiving, by the first network device, a third packet sent by the second network device; wherein, a reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third packet is set as a second flag value;

The first network device determines, according to the second tag value in the VXLAN header of the third packet, that the time when the second network device sends the third packet is in a second time period, and the second time period One of a plurality of statistical periods for the first network device to count the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is located.

For one service flow, the first network device may be the source device, and for another service flow, the first network device may also be the destination device. When the first network device acts as a destination device, it can receive packets sent by other source devices, and these packets may also contain measurement packets. The first network device determines the reserved bits in the VXLAN header of the received packets by determining Whether it is marked or not can determine which packets are measurement packets, that is, the marked packets are measurement packets, otherwise, they are ordinary packets.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

determining, by the first network device, the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period;

The first network device sends the determined number of received packets to the control device.

When the first network device is used as the destination device, it can start from receiving the packet of the service flow in which the first third packet is located, and count the service flow in which the third packet received in the second time period is located and has the same value as the third packet. In this way, the first network device can send the counted number to the control device. Similarly, the network device that sends the packets of the service flow in which the third packet is located can also send the number of the first network device to the control device. The number of packets of the service flow in which the third packet is located in a period of time is sent to the control device, so that the control device can calculate the number of lost packets of the service flow in which the third packet is located in the second period of time.

In a second aspect, a method for receiving a message is provided, including:

The first network device receives the third packet sent by the second network device; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third packet is set as the second flag value;

If the third packet is the first packet with the second tag value received by the first network device, the first network device determines the second network device according to the second tag value The time when the device sends the third packet is in a second period; the second period is one of multiple statistical periods in which the first network device counts the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is located;

The first network device starts timing from receiving the third packet to count the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period.

The first network device can determine which packets are measurement packets by determining whether the reserved bits in the VXLAN header of the received packets are marked, that is, the marked packets are measurement packets, otherwise they are ordinary packets. If the third packet is the first packet with the second tag value received by the first network device, the first network device determines that the time when the second network device sends the third packet is in the second In addition to the time period, the time can also be counted from the time when the third packet is received to count the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period, so that the control device can obtain the service where the third packet is located. The number of packets dropped by the flow during the second period.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, after the first network device starts timing from receiving the third packet, the method further includes:

receiving, by the first network device, a fourth packet sent by the second network device;

The first network device determines, according to the VXLAN header of the fourth packet, that the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the fourth packet is set as the second flag value;

The first network device adds 1 to the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period.

In this implementation manner, a method of counting the number of packets is provided, that is, each time the first network device receives a packet, it can determine whether the packet belongs to the service flow where the third packet is located and whether the packet belongs to the service flow of the third packet. Whether the text has a second tag value. If the first network device determines that the fourth packet belongs to the service flow where the third packet is located and has the second tag value, the first network device may count the third packet received within the second time period in the service flow where the third packet is located. The number of packets with the second tag value is incremented by 1.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes:

determining, by the first network device, the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period;

The first network device sends the determined number of received packets to the control device.

That is, the first network device may count the number of packets with the same label as the third packet in the service flow of the third packet received in the second time period, and the first network device may count the number obtained by sent to the control device, and similarly, the network device that sends the packets of the service flow in which the third packet is located may also send the number of packets of the service flow in which the third packet is located within the first period of time to the control device, Therefore, the control device can calculate and obtain the number of lost packets of the service flow in which the third packet is located in the second time period.

In a third aspect, a network device is provided, including a first interface, a forwarding chip, and a second interface; wherein the forwarding chip is used for:

receiving a first packet through the first interface;

A VXLAN header and an outer IP header are encapsulated outside the first packet to obtain a second packet; wherein the reserved bit in the VXLAN header is set as a first tag value, and the first tag value is When the time at which the network device is instructed to send the second packet is in a first period, the first period is in a plurality of statistical periods in which the network device counts the number of packets of the service flow in which the second packet is located one of;

The second packet is sent through the second interface.

With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the network device further includes a third interface; the forwarding chip is further configured to:

determining the number of packets in the service flow where the second packet is sent within the first time period;

The determined number of sent packets is sent to the control device through the third interface.

With reference to the third aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the forwarding chip is further used for:

Receive a third packet sent by the second network device through the second interface; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third packet is set as the second flag value;

According to the second tag value in the VXLAN header of the third packet, it is determined that the time when the second network device sends the third packet is in the second time period, and the second time period is the statistics of the network device One of multiple statistical periods for the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is located.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in the third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the forwarding chip is further used for:

determining the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period;

The determined number of received packets is sent to the control device through the second interface.

In a fourth aspect, a network device is provided, including an interface and a forwarding chip; wherein the forwarding chip is used for:

Receive a third packet sent by the second network device through the interface; the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third packet is set as the second flag value;

If the third packet is the first packet with the second tag value received by the network device, determining that the second network device sends the third packet according to the second tag value The time is in the second period; the second period is one of multiple statistical periods in which the network device counts the number of packets of the service flow where the third packet is located;

Timing starts from receiving the third packet to count the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the forwarding chip is further used for:

receiving, through the interface, a fourth packet sent by the second network device after timing from receiving the third packet;

It is determined according to the VXLAN header of the fourth packet that the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the fourth packet is set as the second flag value; the third packet to be received within the second time period Add 1 to the number of packets in the service flow where the text belongs.

With reference to the fourth aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in the second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the forwarding chip is further used for:

determining the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second time period;

The determined number of received packets is sent to the control device through the interface.

In a fifth aspect, a network device for sending a message is provided, the network device including a module for performing the method of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a network device for receiving a message is provided, the network device including a module for performing the method of the second aspect.

Description of drawings

In order to illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention more clearly, the following briefly introduces the accompanying drawings that need to be used in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the drawings introduced below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings can also be obtained from these drawings without any creative effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a VXLAN network in an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a flowchart of a method for sending a message in an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic structural diagram of a second packet in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a first network device in an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

Hereinafter, some terms in the present invention will be explained.

1) The network device may be a physical device in a network such as a switch (English: switch) or a router (English: router), or a virtual device in a network such as a virtual switch.

2) Control device. The control device can be an independent device, such as a server or a router, or a functional module located in other devices, such as a functional module located in a server or router, as long as The control device can communicate with the network device.

3) business flow. A set of characteristics is defined, and all packets that satisfy this set of characteristics belong to a service flow. For example, a tuple in the header of a packet can be used as a set of features, and packets with the same tuple value belong to the same service flow. For example, the characteristic tuple is a quintuple, and the quintuple may include: source Internet Protocol (English: Internet Protocol, IP) address, source port number, destination IP address, destination port number, and transport layer protocol type.

4) "Plural" means two or more.

First, the application scenarios of the present invention are introduced.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic diagram of a possible VXLAN network in an embodiment of the present invention. The VXLAN network in Figure 1 includes devices A to I, among which devices B to G are network devices, device A is a control device, and device H is a server connected to the network through device D. For example, device H runs a virtual machine VM1 , the device I is a server connected to the network through the device G, for example, a virtual machine VM2 runs in the device I. It can be seen from the connection relationship in FIG. 1 that the control device A can communicate with each of the network devices. Alternatively, the control device can also communicate with only some of the network devices.

For example, if the virtual machine VM1 wants to send the message 1 to the virtual machine VM2, the virtual machine VM1 sends the message 1 to the device D through the device H. After receiving the packet 1, device D determines the destination VXLAN gateway of the packet 1 according to the destination address and other information of the packet 1. For example, the destination VXLAN gateway of the packet 1 is device G, then the device D is the The VXLAN header and the outer IP header are added to the message 1 to obtain the message 2. The destination network device of the message 2 is the device G, and the device D sends the message 2 to the device G. When the packet 2 is sent to the device G, it will pass through other devices on the way, and these devices are called intermediate devices. After receiving the packet 2, the device G can remove the outer IP header and the VXLAN header of the packet 2 to obtain the packet 1, and send the packet 1 to the virtual machine VM2 in the device 1.

Embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 2 , an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for sending a message, and the method may be executed by a network device. For example, the network device may be device D or device G in FIG. 1 . For example, the network device is referred to as the first Network equipment. The flow of this method is described below.

Step 201: The first network device receives the first packet.

Step 202: The first network device encapsulates the VXLAN header and the outer IP header outside the first packet to obtain the second packet.

Step 203: The first network device sends the second packet.

The first network device receives a packet sent by the virtual machine, for example, the packet is called a first packet, the first packet has an IP header, and the destination address of the first packet is an address of another virtual machine. The virtual machine that sends the first packet is, for example, a terminal or a server connected to the first network device. The virtual machine that is to receive the first packet runs in a device such as a terminal or a server connected to the second network device. The second network device and the first network device are located in the same VXLAN network. For example, taking FIG. 1 as an example, the first network device is, for example, device D in FIG. 1 , and the network device (ie, the second network device) that provides services for the server running by the virtual machine that receives the first packet may be the device D in FIG. 1 . Device G, or the first network device is, for example, device G in FIG. 1 , and the second network device is, for example, device D in FIG. 1 .

For example, it can be determined that the first packet belongs to service flow 1 according to the packet header of the first packet.

After receiving the first packet, the first network device looks up a table (for example, a forwarding table or a flow table) to determine the address of the VXLAN gateway, and uses the address as the destination address of the outer IP header.

After determining the destination address of the second packet, the first network device encapsulates the outer VXLAN header outside the first packet, and re-encapsulates the outer IP header outside the outer VXLAN header, and the packet obtained after the encapsulation is completed is called Second message. The first network device may send the second packet according to the destination address of the second packet.

If the performance of the service flow in which the second packet is located is to be measured, the first network device may mark the second packet, for example, mark the second packet with the first mark value, then the first network device should Select one or more bits in the outer VXLAN header for marking.

For example, the first network device may mark the reserved bits in the outer VXLAN header (hereinafter referred to as the VXLAN header) of the second packet. There are 32 reserved bits in the VXLAN header. The first network device may mark all reserved bits in the VXLAN header, and may also mark some reserved bits in the VXLAN header, for example, may mark two reserved bits. The first network device may mark at least two bits in the reserved bits of the VXLAN header of the second packet. After the first network device marks at least two bits in the reserved bits of the VXLAN header of the second packet, the reserved bits of the VXLAN header of the second packet are set as the first mark value.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the mark refers to modifying the value of one or more bits in the VXLAN header to a value other than the default value, and the modified value is the mark value. For example, to mark a bit in the VXLAN header, the default value of this bit is 0, after marking this bit, the value of this bit is modified to 1. For example, the first network device may mark the first and second bits in the reserved bits of the VXLAN header of the second packet. The default values of the first and second bits are both 0, for example, and the mark value may be It is any one of 01, 10, and 11.

For example, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header is set as the first flag value, and the first flag value is used to indicate that the time when the first network device sends the second packet is in the first time period, and the first time period is for the first network device to count the second One of multiple statistical periods for the number of packets in the service flow where the packets are located.

The plurality of statistical periods may be consecutive periods, for example, the first period is 0s-10s, the second period is 10s-20s, the third period is 20s-30s, and so on. Of course, the duration of each statistical period may not be equal.

The second packet is a packet sent by the first network device after the first period of time. For example, the second packet may be any packet sent by the first network device within the first period and belonging to the service flow where the second packet is located. . The first flag value of the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the second packet may be used to indicate that the time when the first network device sends the second packet is in the first time period. If the performance of the service flow in which the second packet is located in the second time period is also to be measured, the packets belonging to the service flow in which the second packet is located in the second time period are marked. Similarly, the reserved bits of the VXLAN header of these packets can also be marked. The tag value set for the packets belonging to the service flow in which the second packet is located in the second time period needs to be different from the first tag value, so as to distinguish the packets in adjacent time periods. For example, the reserved bit of the message belonging to the service flow in which the second message is located in the two time periods may be set as the second flag value. For another example, if the performance of the service flow in which the second packet is located in the third time period is also to be measured, the packets belonging to the service flow in which the second packet is located in the third time period are marked. Similarly, the reserved bits of the VXLAN header of these packets can also be marked. The flag value set for the packets belonging to the service flow where the second packet is located in the third time period must be different from the second flag value, so as to distinguish the packets in adjacent time periods. The flag value set in the packet of the service flow may be the same as or different from the first flag value. That is, when setting the flag value, as long as the flag values of adjacent time periods are different, the flag values can be reused for non-adjacent time periods to reduce the complexity of the flag values.

For example, please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a schematic structural diagram of a second packet. The first packet (ie, the original packet in FIG. 3 ) includes an inner Ethernet header (English: inner Ethernet header) and a payload (English: payload). ). The second packet is obtained after the first packet is encapsulated with a VXLAN header (English: VXLAN header) and an outer UDP header (English: outer UDP header).

In Figure 3, the VXLAN header includes VXLAN flags (English: VXLAN Flags), VXLAN network identifier (English: VXLAN Network Identifier, VNI) and two reserved (English: Reserved) bits. The reserved bits are respectively referred to as the first-stage reserved bits (for example, the reserved bits of 24 bits in FIG. 3 ) and the second-stage reserved bits (for example, the reserved bits of 8 bits in FIG. 3 ).

VXLAN Flags occupies 8 bits. Among these 8 bits, the I bit (for example, the fourth bit from right to left in Figure 3) is 1 to indicate that the message is valid, and the remaining 7 bits are all R bits, which are reserved bits ( These reserved bits may not be reserved bits used for marking in this embodiment of the present invention), and are set to 0 by default.

The first reserved bit occupies 24 bits.

VNI occupies 24 bits. In a VXLAN network, each tenant can be identified by a unique VNI, or a tenant can be assigned multiple VNIs.

The second segment of reserved bits occupies 8 bits.

Both the first-segment reserved bits and the second-segment reserved bits in the VXLAN header of the second packet can be used for marking. The first network device may arbitrarily select at least two of them for marking.

Marking the reserved bits in the VXLAN header can be used to indicate two meanings: first, the packet is a measurement packet; second, the marked value corresponding to the reserved bit (for example, the first marked value) It is used to indicate the statistical period in which the packet is located, that is, used to indicate the statistical period in which the first network device sends the packet.

For example, the first network device chooses to mark the first and second bits of the first reserved bits in the VXLAN header of packet 1, for example, by modifying the values of these two bits from 00 to 01 , then the packet 1 belongs to the measurement packet, and the statistics period in which the packet 1 is located is the statistics period corresponding to the tag value of the VXLAN header, for example, the statistics period is the statistics period 1. For example, if the first network device modifies the value of the first and second bits in the first reserved bit in the VXLAN header of packet 2 from 00 to 10, then packet 2 is a measurement packet, and the The statistical period in which the text 2 is located is, for example, the statistical period 2, and the statistical period 2 is adjacent to the statistical period 1. For example, if the first network device modifies the value of the first and second bits in the first reserved bit in the VXLAN header of packet 3 from 00 to 01 or 11, packet 3 is a measurement packet. And the statistics period in which the packet 3 is located is, for example, the statistics period 3 , and the statistics period 3 is adjacent to the statistics period 2 .

Of course, the above-mentioned manners for indicating the statistics period are just examples, and in practical applications, other manners may also be used to indicate the statistics period by using the flag value of the reserved bits.

Marking the VXLAN header of the packet instead of the outer IP header can prevent incorrect marking of non-VXLAN packets.

Optionally, the method further includes:

The first network device determines the number of packets in the service flow where the second packet sent within the first period is located;

The first network device sends the determined number of sent packets to the control device.

To count the number of packets lost in the service flow where the second packet is located, the first network device can count the number of packets in the service flow where the second packet is sent during the first period, and count the obtained packets. The quantity is sent to the control device.

For example, if the destination address of the second packet is the address of the second network device, then, when the second network device receives the first packet of the service flow where the second packet is located, it will The mark value of the reserved bit (for example, the first mark value) can determine that the packet is a measurement packet, and can determine the statistical period in which the packet is located, for example, the first period, then the second network device receives the From the packets with the first tag value of the service flow in which the first second packet is located, start counting the number of packets with the first tag value in the service flow in which the second packet is located and received within the first period. In this way, the second network device can send the counted quantity to the control device.

The control device respectively receives the statistical quantities sent by the first network device and the second network device, where the first network device sends the packets with the first tag value of the service flow in which the second packet sent within the first time period is located The second network device sends the number of packets with the first tag value of the service flow in which the second packet received in the first time period is located, and the control device can obtain the first The number of lost packets of the service flow where the second packet is located in the first period (for example, the number of lost packets can be obtained by subtracting the number of packets received by the second network device from the number of packets sent by the first network device), Thus, the packet loss rate of the service flow in which the second packet is located in the first period of time can be obtained.

Optionally, the method further includes:

The first network device determines that the second packet is a packet for measuring the delay; wherein, the delay is the delay of the service flow in which the second packet is located within the first time period;

The first network device sends the time when the second message is sent to the control device.

For example, the source device of service flow 1 is the first network device, and the destination device is the second network device. The first network device and the second network device agree in advance to select the first sent packet in service flow 1 to measure the service The delay of stream 1 in the first period. For example, the first packet belonging to service flow 1 sent by the first network device in the first period is packet 1, then the first network device is marking packet 1 (for example, pre-processing the VXLAN header of packet 1). After the reserved bit is set to the mark value 1), the packet 2 is obtained, and the packet 2 is sent, and the method of marking the packet 1 refers to the above description. The first network device sends the time when the packet 2 is sent to the control device. The second network device may send the moment of receiving the first packet with the tag value 1 to the control device (the first packet with the tag value 1 received by the second network device may or may not be the packet 2 2). For example, the control device can obtain the time delay of service flow 1 in the first period by subtracting the time of sending the message sent by the first network device from the time of receiving the message sent by the second network device.

Optionally, the method further includes:

The first network device receives the third packet sent by the second network device; wherein a reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third packet is set with a flag value, where the flag value is used to instruct the second network device to send the third message The statistical period in which the time of the message is located. For example, if the marked value is the first marked value, it indicates that the statistical period in which the second network device sends the third packet is the first period. If the marked value is the first marked value If the flag value is two, it indicates that the statistical period in which the time when the second network device sends the third packet is the second period, and so on.

The first network device determines, according to the second tag value in the VXLAN header of the third packet, that the time when the second network device sends the third packet is in the second time period, and the second time period is for the first network device to count the services in which the third packet is located. One of multiple statistical periods for the number of packets in the flow.

That is, for one service flow, the first network device may be the source device, and for another service flow, the first network device may also be the destination device. When the first network device acts as a destination device, it can receive packets sent by other source devices, and these packets may also contain measurement packets. The first network device determines the reserved bits in the VXLAN header of the received packets by determining Whether it is marked or not can determine which packets are measurement packets, that is, the marked packets are measurement packets, otherwise, they are ordinary packets. The way of marking, and the information indicated by the reserved bits after the marking, etc., are described above.

In addition, if the third packet is the first packet with the second tag value received by the first network device, the first network device determines that the time when the second network device sends the third packet is within the In addition to the second period, timing may also be started from receiving the third packet, so as to count the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet received within the second period is located.

Optionally, after the first network device starts timing from receiving the third packet, the method further includes:

The first network device receives the fourth packet sent by the second network device;

The first network device determines, according to the VXLAN header of the fourth packet, that the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the fourth packet is set as the second flag value;

The first network device adds 1 to the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received within the second period.

That is, if the first network device wants to count the number of packets with the second tag value in the service flow in which the third packet received in the second time period is located, the first network device can count the number of packets with the second tag value each time it receives a packet. It is determined whether the packet belongs to the service flow where the third packet is located and whether the packet has the second tag value. For example, if the first network device determines that the fourth packet belongs to the service flow where the third packet is located and has the second tag value, then the first network device can count the service flow where the third packet received in the second time period is located. The number of packets in and with the second tag value is incremented by 1.

Optionally, the method further includes:

The first network device determines the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet received within the second time period is located;

The first network device sends the determined number of received packets to the control device.

That is, when the first network device is used as the destination device, when receiving the packet of the service flow where the first third packet is located, it can be determined that the packet is a measurement packet according to the VXLAN header of the packet, and it can be determined that the packet is a measurement packet. The statistics period in which the packet is located is determined to be, for example, the second period, and the first network device may start to count the third packets received in the second period from the packet of the service flow in which the first third packet is received. In this way, the first network device can send the counted number to the control device.

Similarly, for example, if the first network device is the destination device of the service flow where the third packet is located, and the second network device is the source device of the service flow where the third packet is located, the second network device can also count the second time period. In addition, the second network device may also send the counted number to the control device, which is not repeated here.

In addition, when the first network device is used as the destination device and the second network device is used as the source device, the delay of the service flow in which the third packet is located in the second time period can also be measured. The method of measuring the delay is the same as that described above. The method of measuring the delay of the service flow in which the second packet is located in the first time period is similar, and details are not repeated here.

In addition, as described above, the source device or destination device of the service flow can send statistics such as the number of sent and received packets to the control device. According to the description of Figure 1, the packets are transmitted in the VXLAN network during the transmission process. It may also pass through some intermediate devices (for example, in Figure 1, if device D is used as the source network device and device G is used as the destination network device, then device B and device C can be a group of intermediate devices, or in another path, device F and Device E can be a group of intermediate devices), in practical applications, these intermediate devices can also send information to the control device. For example, when device B acts as an intermediate device, it can also count packets with marked values sent in any statistical period , or count the number of packets with marked values received during any statistical period, and send the counted number to the control device to obtain the number of lost packets of the service flow in which the packet belongs during the statistical period, or For example, when device B acts as an intermediate device, it can also send the time of the packet with a certain tag value sent in any statistical period to the control device, or the time of the packet with a certain tag value received in any statistical period It is sent to the control device to obtain the delay of the service flow in which the packet belongs within the statistical period, and so on. For the statistical method and the sending method, please refer to the previous introduction. It is just that the intermediate device does not need to add the VXLAN header and the outer IP header to the packet, nor does it need to remove the VXLAN header and the outer IP header of the packet, and can forward the packet.

Whether the intermediate device also needs to send the information for measuring the performance of the service flow to the control device, and if necessary, which intermediate devices send the information for measuring the performance of the service flow to the control device, can be pre-specified. For example, you can It is pre-specified by the control device, or can be pre-specified by a protocol or the like.

The devices in the embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 4 , an embodiment of the present invention provides a network device, and the network device may be the first network device as described above. The first network device may include a first interface 401 , a forwarding chip 402 and a second interface 403 .

The first interface 401 may be used for the first network device to send and receive packets without VXLAN headers. For example, the first interface 401 may be considered as a user-facing interface.

The second interface 403 can be used by the first network device to receive the VXLAN header-encapsulated packets sent by other network devices, and can be used to send VXLAN header-encapsulated packets to other network devices. For example, the second interface 403 can be considered as An interface belonging to the VXLAN tunnel side.

Both the first interface 401 and the second interface 403 are network interfaces of a network device, and are respectively connected to different devices. The network interface can be a wired interface, a wireless interface, or a combination thereof. The wired interface can be, for example, an Ethernet interface. The Ethernet interface can be an optical interface, an electrical interface or a combination thereof. The wireless interface may be, for example, a wireless local area network (English: wireless local area network, abbreviation: WLAN) interface.

The forwarding chip 402 can be used to send and receive packets through the first interface 401 and the second interface 403 respectively, encapsulate the VXLAN header and the outer IP header on the packets received through the first interface 401, mark the VXLAN header, and collect statistics in any statistics. The number of packets with marked values sent within a period, the number of received packets with marked values in any statistical period, and so on. The forwarding chip 402 may be composed of an application-specific integrated circuit (English: application-specific integrated circuit, abbreviation: ASIC), a programmable logic device (English: programmable logic device, abbreviation: PLD), a network processor (English: network processor), and a multi-core central processing unit. A core or a combination thereof used to implement the forwarding plane in a central processing unit (English: central processing unit, CPU for short). The above-mentioned PLD may be a complex programmable logic device (English: complex programmable logic device, abbreviation: CPLD), a field programmable gate array (English: field-programmable gate array, abbreviation: FPGA), a general array logic (English: generic arraylogic , abbreviation: GAL) or any combination thereof.

Optionally, the second interface 403 may include one interface or multiple interfaces, then, sending and receiving packets through the second interface 403 may be sending and receiving packets through one interface or multiple interfaces included in the second interface 403 .

Optionally, the forwarding chip 402 can send information to the control device through the second interface 403, for example, the information sent by the forwarding chip 402 to the control device can be used to count the performance of a service flow in any statistical period, such as the number of lost packets, delay etc.

The interface for interacting with other network devices and the interface for interacting with the control device may use the same interface in the second interface 403 , or may use different interfaces included in the second interface 403 .

The shape and positional relationship of each interface in FIG. 4 is just an example, and in practical applications, the shape and deployment mode of the interface are obviously not limited to this.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the device in FIG. 4 corresponds to the method described in the flowchart in FIG. 3 . The work performed by each module in the device and the detailed description of the execution process can be referred to the method section, and details are not repeated.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the first network device encapsulates the VXLAN header for the first packet, it may mark the reserved bit in the VXLAN header, that is, set the reserved bit in the VXLAN header as the first mark value, the first mark The value can indicate which statistical period the first network device sends the second packet in. Then, different packets can be distinguished according to the reserved bits in the VXLAN header of the packet. Different packets are used to test the performance of different network segments in different statistical time periods, which refines the test granularity of network performance, improves the accuracy of network performance testing, and has higher value for test results.

In the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the unit or the unit is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be Incorporation may either be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. On the other hand, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, and may be in electrical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to implement the embodiments of the present invention.

Each functional unit in this embodiment of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may also be an independent physical module.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, all or part of the technical solutions of the present invention may be embodied in the form of software products, and the computer software products are stored in a storage medium and include several instructions to enable a computer device (which may be a personal computer, A server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor (English: processor) executes all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: Universal Serial Bus flash drive (English: Universal Serial Bus flash drive), mobile hard disk, read-only memory (English: read-only memory, ROM), random access memory (English: random-access memory) Various media that can store program codes, such as memory, RAM), magnetic disks or optical disks.

As described above, the above embodiments are only used to describe the technical solutions of the present invention in detail, but the descriptions of the above embodiments are only used to help understand the methods of the embodiments of the present invention, and should not be construed as limitations on the embodiments of the present invention. Changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art should all fall within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims (21)

1. A method for sending a message, comprising:

the first network equipment receives a first message; the first message comprises a message header used for determining the service flow where the first message is located;

the first network equipment encapsulates a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) head and an outer Internet Protocol (IP) head outside the first message to obtain a second message; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header is set to a first flag value, the first flag value is used to indicate that the time for the first network device to send the second packet is in a first time period, and the first time period is one of a plurality of statistical time periods during which the first network device performs statistics on the packet number of the service flow where the second packet is located;

and the first network equipment sends the second message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the first network equipment determines the number of the messages in the service flow where the second message is sent in the first time period;

and the first network equipment sends the determined number of sent messages to the control equipment.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the method further comprises:

the first network equipment receives a third message sent by second network equipment; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third message is set to a second flag value;

and the first network equipment determines that the time for sending the third message by the second network equipment is in a second time period according to the second mark value in the VXLAN head of the third message, wherein the second time period is one of a plurality of statistical time periods for the first network equipment to count the message quantity of the service flow where the third message is located.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises:

the first network device determines the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message is received in the second time period;

and the first network equipment sends the determined number of the received messages to the control equipment.

5. A method for receiving a message, comprising:

the first network equipment receives a third message sent by the second network equipment; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third message is set to a second flag value; the third message comprises a message header used for indicating the service flow where the third message is located;

if the third message is the first message with the second tag value received by the first network device, the first network device determines that the time for sending the third message by the second network device is in a second time period according to the second tag value; the second time interval is one of a plurality of statistical time intervals in which the first network device counts the number of messages of the service flow where the third message is located;

and the first network equipment starts timing from the reception of the third message so as to count the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message is received in the second time period.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein after the first network device begins timing from receiving the third packet, further comprising:

the first network equipment receives a fourth message sent by the second network equipment;

the first network device determines that a reserved bit in a VXLAN header of the fourth message is set as the second flag value according to the VXLAN header of the fourth message;

and the first network equipment adds 1 to the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message is received in the second time period.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, further comprising:

the first network device determines the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message is received in the second time period;

and the first network equipment sends the determined number of the received messages to the control equipment.

8. A network device is characterized by comprising a first interface, a forwarding chip and a second interface; wherein the forwarding chip is configured to:

receiving a first message through the first interface; the first message comprises a message header used for determining the service flow where the first message is located;

a virtual extensible local area network VXLAN head and an outer layer Internet Protocol (IP) head are packaged outside the first message to obtain a second message; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header is set to a first flag value, the first flag value is used to indicate that the time for the network device to send the second packet is in a first time period, and the first time period is one of a plurality of statistical time periods during which the network device performs statistics on the packet number of the service flow where the second packet is located;

and sending the second message through the second interface.

9. The network device of claim 8, wherein the network device further comprises a third interface; the forwarding chip is further configured to:

determining the number of the messages in the service flow where the second message is sent in the first time period;

and sending the determined number of sent messages to the control equipment through the third interface.

10. The network device of claim 8 or 9, wherein the forwarding chip is further to:

receiving a third message sent by second network equipment through the second interface; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third message is set to a second flag value;

and determining that the time for sending the third message by the second network device is in a second time period according to the second tag value in the VXLAN header of the third message, wherein the second time period is one of a plurality of statistical time periods for the network device to count the message quantity of the service flow where the third message is located.

11. The network device of claim 10, wherein the forwarding chip is further to:

determining the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message received in the second time period is located;

and sending the determined number of received messages to the control equipment through the second interface.

12. A network device is characterized by comprising an interface and a forwarding chip; wherein the forwarding chip is to:

receiving a third message sent by second network equipment through the interface; a reserved bit in a VXLAN (virtual extensible local area network) header of the third message is set as a second mark value; the third message comprises a message header used for indicating the service flow where the third message is located;

if the third message is the first message with the second mark value received by the network equipment, determining that the time for sending the third message by the second network equipment is in a second time period according to the second mark value; the second time interval is one of a plurality of statistical time intervals in which the network equipment counts the message quantity of the service flow where the third message is located;

and starting timing from the receiving of the third message so as to count the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message is received in the second time period.

13. The network device of claim 12, wherein the forwarding chip is further to:

after timing is started from the receiving of the third message, receiving a fourth message sent by the second network equipment through the interface;

determining that reserved bits in a VXLAN header of the fourth message are set to the second flag value according to the VXLAN header of the fourth message; and adding 1 to the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message is received in the second time period.

14. The network device of claim 12 or 13, wherein the forwarding chip is further to:

determining the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message received in the second time period is located;

and sending the determined number of received messages to the control equipment through the interface.

15. A network device, comprising:

the first receiving and sending module is used for receiving a first message; the first message comprises a message header used for determining the service flow where the first message is located;

the processing module is used for packaging a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) head and an outer Internet Protocol (IP) head outside the first message to obtain a second message; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header is set to a first flag value, the first flag value is used to indicate that the time for the network device to send the second packet is in a first time period, and the first time period is one of a plurality of statistical time periods during which the network device performs statistics on the packet number of the service flow where the second packet is located;

and the second receiving and sending module is used for sending the second message.

16. The network device of claim 15,

the processing module is further configured to: determining the number of the messages in the service flow where the second message is sent in the first time period;

the second transceiver module is further configured to: and sending the determined number of sent messages to the control equipment.

17. The network device of claim 15 or 16,

the first transceiver module is further configured to: receiving a third message sent by second network equipment; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the third message is set to a second flag value;

the processing module is further configured to: and determining that the time for sending the third message by the second network device is in a second time period according to the second tag value in the VXLAN header of the third message, wherein the second time period is one of a plurality of statistical time periods for the network device to count the message quantity of the service flow where the third message is located.

18. The network device of claim 17,

the processing module is further configured to: determining the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message received in the second time period is located;

the second transceiver module is configured to: and sending the determined number of received messages to the control equipment.

19. A network device, comprising:

the receiving and sending module is used for receiving a third message sent by the second network equipment; wherein, the reserved bit in the VXLAN header of the virtual extensible local area network of the third message is set to a second flag value; the third message comprises a message header used for indicating the service flow where the third message is located;

a processing module, configured to determine, according to the second flag value, that the time when the second network device sends the third packet is in a second time period if the third packet is the first packet that is received by the network device and has the second flag value; the second time interval is one of a plurality of statistical time intervals in which the network equipment counts the message quantity of the service flow where the third message is located;

the processing module is further configured to start timing from receiving the third packet, so as to count the number of packets in the service flow where the third packet is received in the second time period.

20. The network device of claim 19,

the transceiver module is further configured to: after the processing module starts timing from receiving the third message, receiving a fourth message sent by the second network device;

the processing module is further configured to: determining that reserved bits in a VXLAN header of the fourth message are set to the second flag value according to the VXLAN header of the fourth message;

the processing module is further configured to: and adding 1 to the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message is received in the second time period.

21. The network device of claim 19 or 20,

the processing module is further configured to: determining the number of the messages in the service flow where the third message received in the second time period is located;

the transceiver module is used for: and sending the determined number of received messages to the control equipment.

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