WO2008003218A1 - Method, apparatus and system for information transmitting between devices in ethernet - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for information transmitting between devices in Ethernet comprises steps of: encapsulating transmitting indication of relevant information into source MAC address segment of data frame; the relevant information relating to payload of the data frame; sending the relevant information according to the transmitting indication. An apparatus and system for information transmitting are also provided. This invention enables sending and receiving relevant information of payload of the data frame according to the transmitting indication between two devices, can be used for transmitting various information relating to payload of data frame, and increases information amount carried by Ethernet data frame in most cases.

Description

 Information transmission method, device and system between devices in Ethernet

 This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 200610061442.2, entitled "Information Transmission Method and System between Devices in Ethernet", which was submitted to the Chinese Patent Office on June 30, 2006. The citations are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical equipment

 The present invention relates to an Ethernet information transmission technology, and in particular, to an information transmission method, apparatus, and system between devices in an Ethernet.

Background technique

 In Ethernet information transmission, data frames need to be transmitted from one device to another. When transmitting the data content itself, it is necessary to carry some relevant control information or information processed by the previous device.

 Taking the analysis of data in the network as an example, the general networking structure firstly decomposes the traffic of the backbone link into a granularity suitable for the processing of the background device host through the pre-device, and then forwards it to the background device for data analysis and data recording. Processing, as shown in Figure 1, Figure 2. The front-end devices are now more and more powerful, and the applications they support are increasingly rich and diverse, such as the ability to de-tag and hash the multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) data frames, and the network protocol version 6- 4 (IP6to4) technology to tunnel forwarding, etc. These technologies enable the background device to easily analyze the information inside the virtual private network (VPN), but these technologies bring convenience to the application and also bring some problems, that is, data original information. Loss, the loss of the original data will lead to different private network address overlap and other issues, so it is necessary to decapsulate the original information as part of the data frame to the background processor; and some users care about the data The original port received by the frame and hopefully can be passed to the background device in some way to facilitate the background device classification processing.

 In addition, there are powerful hardware and software support on the front-end devices, such as tri-state content addressing registers.

(TCAM) enters the square control list (ACL) to find the match, uses the content search chip to perform the full name and Chinese search query, etc. These special hardware are often not available in the background device, in order to make full use of the processing power of the front device, If the background device can obtain the pre-processing result, it can greatly reduce the processing pressure, that is, together with the pre-device, as a whole solution to analyze and process the data frame. This also requires the front-end device to pass the processing result to the background device in some way.

However, how the above pre-processing results, MPLS labels, etc. are transmitted and loaded with the data frame Row association, there is no solution in the prior art.

Summary of the invention

 The embodiments of the present invention mainly provide a method, device and system for transmitting information between devices in an Ethernet (Ethernet), which can transmit information associated with a data frame payload between devices.

 In order to achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting information between devices in an Ethernet, the method comprising the steps of:

 The source medium access control MAC address field of the data frame encapsulates a transmission indication of the association information; the association information is associated with the payload of the data frame;

 Transmitting the association information according to the transmission indication.

 An embodiment of the present invention provides another method for transmitting information between devices in an Ethernet, and the method includes the following steps:

 And transmitting, in the source MAC address field of the received data frame, a transmission indication of the association information; the association information has an association relationship with a payload of the data frame;

 Obtain the associated information according to the transmission indication.

 An embodiment of the present invention provides an information transmission apparatus in an Ethernet, including:

 An encapsulating module, configured to encapsulate, in a MAC address field of the data frame, a transmission indication of the association information; the association information is associated with a payload of the data frame;

 And a sending module, configured to send the association information according to the transmission indication.

 An embodiment of the present invention further provides an information transmission apparatus in another Ethernet, including: a receiving module, configured to receive a data frame;

 And a decapsulation module, configured to parse the transmission indication of the association information from the source MAC address field of the received data frame, and obtain the association information according to the transmission indication; the association information has an association relationship with the payload of the data frame.

 An embodiment of the present invention further provides an information transmission system in an Ethernet, including:

 a first device, configured to encapsulate, in a source MAC address field of the data frame, a transmission indication of the association information, and send the association information according to the transmission indication; the association information has an association relationship with a payload of the data frame;

And a second device, configured to parse the transmission indication of the association information in the source MAC address field of the received data frame, and obtain the association information according to the transmission indication. The embodiment of the present invention may carry an association information transmission indication by using a source MAC address of the data frame, and send or receive the association information according to the transmission indication. In this way, the receiving end can obtain the associated information of a certain data frame payload according to the transmission indication. The embodiments of the present invention can be used to transmit various information related to a data frame payload. In most cases, the amount of information that can be carried by an Ethernet data frame can be increased, and the embodiment of the present invention does not substantially conflict with other protocols.

DRAWINGS

 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network connection between Ethernet devices transmitting data frames;

 2 is a schematic diagram of another network connection between Ethernet devices transmitting data frames;

 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment of an information transmission method between devices in an Ethernet according to the present invention; and FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of an information transmission system in an Ethernet according to the present invention.

detailed description

 In the embodiment of the present invention, when a data frame is transmitted between devices in the Ethernet, the transmission indication of the associated information is carried in the source MAC address field of the data frame for transmission. The first device and the second device in the embodiment of the present invention refer to a device having a function of transmitting and receiving an Ethernet data frame, such as a switch or a router, and the first device may encapsulate the transmission indication into a data frame source MAC address field, After receiving the device, the second device can read the transmission indication. The first device and the second device may be directly connected, or may be indirectly connected through other network devices, and the two devices are connected at the link layer.

 FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment of an information transmission method between devices in an Ethernet according to the present invention, which includes the following steps:

 As shown in the figure, step S11 is performed to encapsulate the information about the information that needs to be sent into the source MAC address field of the data frame, and the source MAC address field no longer carries the source MAC address. The information that needs to be sent is the associated information, which is associated with the payload of a certain data frame, and the related information includes the transmission indication of the associated information.

A possible processing manner in this embodiment is: the information related to the processing of the data in the first device is also encapsulated into the source MAC address field, and the payload field portion of the data frame still encapsulates the data processed by the first device. . The prior art is: the data processed by the first device is encapsulated in the payload field portion of the data frame, and the source MAC address field encapsulates the MAC address of the source device. Therefore, in this embodiment, an Ethernet data frame can simultaneously contain the processed result of the data, and the specific processing type, process, parameters, and the like that the data passes through. In fact, the source MAC address field The content that can be carried can be various. In addition to the foregoing processing information, the pre-processing result of the first device may be carried, and the first device receives the original port of the data frame, and even the data that needs to be carried in the data frame payload field. The other specific information carried in the source MAC address field is not related to the focus of the embodiment of the present invention, and is not described here.

 The information about the information that the first device actually needs to be sent is the content that is actually encapsulated into the source MAC address field, and is related to the information that the first device actually needs to send, and the related information may directly include the information that needs to be sent, but is not limited thereto. . Since the source MAC address field has only 48 bits of capacity and needs to encapsulate the transmission indication, when the information that needs to be sent is too much and exceeds the capacity limit, it cannot be directly sent. In this case, the information that needs to be sent can be The other data frame is sent separately, or is sent in the manner of establishing an extended header at the head or the tail of the data frame, and the source MAC address field indicates the transmission mode and/or its serial number of the information actually needed to be transmitted. Relevant information to correlate the information that actually needs to be sent with the data frame payload portion.

 In addition, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to carrying only IP packets, but can carry all data frames transmitted based on Ethernet, due to technologies such as ATMoE (Asynchronous Transfer Mode based on Ethernet).

 Next, in step S12, the first device sends the encapsulated data frame, and the source MAC address field of the data frame carries related information that needs to be sent. As mentioned above, the related information may contain the information itself that needs to be sent, because the number of bits in the source MAC address field is limited or other reasons, and the transmission indication may be the transmission mode, serial number, etc. of the information that needs to be sent. The first device is, for example, a front device in the background art.

 Then, in step S13, the second device receives the encapsulated data frame, and the data frame transmission and reception technologies are well known to those skilled in the art, and therefore are not described herein again. In this embodiment, the second device is, for example, a background device in the background art, and has the capability of receiving data frames.

 Finally, in step S14, the second device obtains information about the information that the device actually needs to send from the source MAC address field of the received Ethernet data frame, parses the transmission indication therefrom, and obtains the actual transmission according to the transmission indication. information.

The second device can obtain the information that needs to be actually transmitted according to the related information. The content of the source MAC address field encapsulated into the data frame according to step S11 is different: when the related information of the package includes the information itself that the first device actually needs to send, the content of the field is read to obtain the actual needs of the first device. The information sent; when the information that the first device actually needs to send is too long or for other reasons, the information that the first device actually needs to send is not encapsulated into the data frame source MAC address field, the second device according to the transmission indication Differently, the header is extended from the header or the tail of the data frame, or the information actually needed to be transmitted by the first device is obtained from other associated data frames.

 Because the switch and other devices need to automatically forward the data frame, the source of the data frame is automatically learned.

The MAC address is recorded in the MAC address entry, and the source MAC address field in the data frame of the embodiment of the present invention no longer carries the source MAC address and instead carries the information that the first device actually needs to send.

If the MAC address is overlapped, the source MAC address of the switch is incorrect. In addition, the MAC address entry is not enough for the switch to learn. The first position of the contents of the source MAC address field is 1. After the first bit of the content of the source MAC address field is set to 1, the data frame is judged by the switch as a multicast or broadcast frame. In addition, the length of the associated information and the length of the data frame can be used to determine the data frame and its associated information. The transmission mode, and the corresponding transmission indication is encapsulated in the source MAC address field. At this time, the transmission indication needs to be distinguished by a certain bit, so that different data frames can transmit related information in different manners.

 In the following embodiment, three bits are reserved in the highest byte to indicate the type of the transmission indication. The following is an example of the control information of the data frame payload, and the source MAC address field is specifically described as follows: 000 Reserved;

 001 indicates that the data frame source MAC address field directly carries the control information that the first device actually needs to send, for example, carried in the lower 5 bytes of the source MAC address field;

 010 indicates that the source MAC address field of the data frame does not carry control information, and a dedicated extension header exists in the data frame header to carry the control information that the first device actually needs to send. The format definition of the extension header can be determined according to actual needs, for example, the first byte can be used to define version number information and length information;

011 indicates that the source MAC address field of the data frame does not carry control information, and a dedicated extension header exists at the end of the data frame to carry control information that the first device actually needs to send. The format definition of the extension header can be determined according to actual needs, for example, the first byte can be used to define the version number information and the length. Degree information

 100 indicates that the frame is a control information frame, that is, the frame is loaded with information actually needed to be sent, and the transmission indication further includes a sequence number that can associate the information actually transmitted by the frame with a certain payload information frame. The serial number can be placed in the lower 32 bits of the source MAC address;

 101 indicates that the source MAC address field of the data frame does not carry control information, but carries the sequence number, and the information that the first device actually needs to send is separately sent in another data frame, and the other data frame is controlled by the transmission indication type 100. Information frame, and has the same serial number. The data frame is a payload information frame. The source MAC address field of the data frame includes a sequence number that can associate the control information frame with the payload information frame. The sequence number can be placed in a field of 32 bits lower than the source MAC address.

 Other reserved. The data frame transmission process on a device is as follows:

 If (control information <= 5 bytes)

 {

 Send in 001 mode

 }

 Else if (expanded message payload <=1500 bytes)

 {

 Send in 010 mode package

 }

 Else

 {

 Take serial number

 The transmission control information is encapsulated in the 100 mode, and the serial number is filled in the source MAC address field. The transmission data information is encapsulated in the 101 mode, and the serial number is filled in the source MAC address information.

 }

When the control information to be transmitted is less than 5 bytes (40 bits), the data frame format of 001 can be used, and the packet format is not extended. In this case, the impact on the application and the device is minimal. Interest transfer and processing are also most efficient, and the second device can read control information directly from the source MAC address field of the received data frame.

 When a large amount of control information needs to be carried (greater than 5 bytes), the above also defines two single packet extension modes and one multi-packet extension mode. The single-packet extension mode is mainly used when no fragmentation is required, that is, when the length of the extended control information and the original data frame length do not exceed the Ethernet MTU (maximum transmission unit), the control information and the payload can be carried in a single packet. Information to address efficiency and synchronization issues. When the packet length needs to be fragmented after the extension, the embodiment of the present invention uses a method of separately transmitting the control information and the payload information to solve the fragmentation problem of the non-IP packet. After the second device receives the data frame in the format of 010 or 011, the second device can read the control information from the head or the tail of the data frame; when the second device receives the data frame in the format of 100 or 101, Indicates that the frame is a control information frame or a payload information frame, and the second device reads the sequence number from the source MAC address field of the frame, and associates the frame with the payload information frame or the control information frame having the same sequence number by using the sequence number. Get up to get the associated control information and load information.

 Referring to FIG. 4, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an information transmission system between devices in an Ethernet, including a first device 410 and a second device 420. The first device 410 is configured to carry, in the source media access control MAC address field of the data frame, a transmission indication of the information that needs to be sent, and send, according to the transmission indication, the information that needs to be sent in association with the data frame; The second device 420 is configured to receive the data frame, and read the transmission indication from the source media access control MAC address field of the data frame, and obtain the association information according to the transmission indication. The first and second devices are directly connected or connected through other network devices, and are connected at the link layer.

The first device 410 includes a package module 412 and a sending module 413, where the encapsulating module 412 is configured to encapsulate, in a source media access control MAC address field of the data frame, a transmission indication that actually needs to send information, where the sending module 413 is used. The information that needs to be sent is sent according to the transmission indication. The first device 410 may further include a transmission indication module 411, determining the transmission indication according to the association information and the length of the data frame, and outputting the transmission indication to the encapsulation module 412. For example, when the length of the association information is not greater than the first threshold, determining that the transmission indication is the first type, indicating that the association information is in the source MAC address field in the data frame, where the first threshold is less than the length of the source MAC address field; When the sum of the lengths of the information and the data frame does not exceed the second value, the transmission indication is determined to be the second type or the third type, respectively indicating the header extension header or the tail extension header of the associated information in the data frame, wherein the second wide Value Not exceeding the MTU of the Ethernet; when the sum of the association information and the length of the data frame exceeds the second threshold, determining that the transmission indication is the fourth type and specifying the sequence number, indicating that the association information is sent in the control information frame having the same sequence number The control information frame is loaded with associated information.

 The second device 420 includes a receiving module 422 and a decapsulating module 421, where the receiving module 422 is configured to receive a data frame sent by the first device 410, and the decapsulating module 421 is configured to receive the data frame received by the receiving module 422. Decapsulation, parsing the transmission indication of the associated information from the source MAC address field of the data frame, to transmit the information actually required to be transmitted by the indication. For example, when the transmission indication is the first type, the association information is parsed in the source MAC address field of the received data frame; when the transmission indication is the second type, the association information is parsed in the header extension header of the received t data frame; When the transmission indication is the third type, the extension header parses the association information at the tail of the received data frame; when the transmission indication is the fourth type, the sequence number is obtained in the source MAC address field of the received data frame, and the reception transmission indication is A frame having the same sequence number is searched for in the five types of control information frames, and the payload of the control information frame is associated information.

 In this embodiment, the encapsulating module 412 may also encapsulate the processing related information of the data in the source device into the source MAC address field, and the payload field portion of the data frame still encapsulates the data processed by the first device. . Therefore, in this embodiment, an Ethernet data frame can simultaneously contain the processed result of the data, and the specific processing type, process, parameters and the like through which the data passes. In fact, the content carried by the source MAC address field may be various. In addition to the foregoing processing information, the pre-processing result of the first device may be carried, and the first device receives the original port of the data frame, and even the data frame payload field. The data that needs to be carried. The other specific information carried in the source MAC address field is not related to the focus of the embodiment of the present invention, and is not described here.

The information about the information that the first device actually needs to send is the content that the encapsulating module 412 actually encapsulates into the source MAC address field, which is related to the information that the first device actually needs to send, but does not necessarily include the information that the first device actually needs to send. The related information may directly include information actually needed to be transmitted, but is not limited thereto. Since the source MAC address field has only 48 bits of capacity and needs to encapsulate the transmission indication, when the actual information needs to be sent too much and exceeds a certain capacity limit, it cannot be directly sent. In this case, the information that needs to be sent can be actually sent. Sending separately in another data frame, or transmitting in the manner of establishing an extended header at the head or the tail of the data frame, and transmitting in the source MAC address field indicating the manner in which the information actually needs to be transmitted and/or its sequence Number The information, so that the decapsulation module 421 decapsulates the data frame, can associate the information that needs to be sent with the data frame payload portion.

 Moreover, the transmission mode of the data frame and its associated information may be determined according to the length of the associated information and the length of the data frame, and the corresponding transmission indication is encapsulated in the source MAC address field. At this time, the transmission indication can be distinguished by a certain bit, so that different data frames can transmit related information in different manners.

 The device automatically learns the source MAC address of the data frame and records the MAC address entry, and the source MAC address in the data frame of the information transmission system between the devices in the Ethernet of the present invention is required for the device to correctly forward the data frame. The address field no longer carries the source MAC address and instead carries the information about the information that the first device actually needs to send. Therefore, in order to prevent the switch from learning as the source MAC address, it overlaps with the real source MAC address, causing the switch to learn the source MAC address error, and also avoiding the switch to learn the MAC address every time a switch receives a data frame. The entry is not enough. In the embodiment of the present invention, the first position of the content of the source MAC address field in the frame may be 1 when the data frame is transmitted. After the first bit of the content of the source MAC address field is set to 1, the data frame is judged by the switch as a multicast or broadcast frame, and the source MAC address is not learned and the address is recorded into the MAC address entry.

 In the embodiment of the present invention, the information transmission method, device and system between devices in the Ethernet may carry the transmission indication of the associated information through the source MAC address of the data frame, and send or receive the associated information according to the transmission indication. In the embodiment of the present invention, by changing the purpose of the source MAC address field of the data frame, the sum of the associated information and the original data frame length does not exceed the MTU, and the payload and associated information can be transmitted in the data frame at the same time, thereby improving the Ethernet data frame. The amount of information that can be carried, and the embodiment of the present invention does not substantially conflict with other protocols.

 It should be noted that the above embodiments are merely illustrative of the technical solutions of the present invention and are not intended to be limiting; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art The specific embodiments of the present invention are modified or equivalently replaced with the technical features of the present invention, and should be included in the scope of the technical solutions claimed in the present invention.

Claims

Rights request  1. A method for transmitting information between devices in an Ethernet, characterized in that:  The source medium access control MAC address field of the data frame encapsulates a transmission indication of the association information; the association information is associated with the payload of the data frame;  Transmitting the association information according to the transmission indication.  2. The information transmission method according to claim 1, wherein: said transmission indication indicates a location of the association information in the data frame;  The sending the association information according to the transmission indication is specifically:  Transmitting the association information by transmitting a location indicated by the indication in the data frame;  Send the encapsulated data frame.  The information transmission method according to claim 2, wherein: the transmission indication comprises a first type, a second type, or a third type, respectively indicating that the location of the associated information in the data frame is a source MAC address field, Head extension head and tail extension header.  The information transmission method according to claim 3, wherein the method further comprises: determining that the transmission indication is the first type when the length of the association information is not greater than the first threshold; Less than the length of the source MAC address field;  Determining that the transmission indication is the second type or the third type when the sum of the association information and the length of the data frame payload does not exceed the second threshold; the second threshold does not exceed the maximum transmission unit of the Ethernet The information transmission method according to claim 1, wherein: the transmission indication is a fourth type and a sequence number, indicating that the association information is transmitted in a control information frame having the same sequence number; The associated information is a payload;  The sending the association information according to the transmission indication is specifically:  Encapsulating a transmission indication in a source MAC address field of the control information frame; the transmission indication includes a fifth type and the sequence number, indicating that the frame is a control information frame;  Send the encapsulated control information frame. The information transmission method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises: determining that the transmission indication is the fourth type when the sum of the length of the association information and the length of the data frame exceeds a second threshold The second threshold does not exceed the maximum transmission unit MTU of the Ethernet. 7. The information transmission method according to claim 1, wherein: the highest bit of the source MAC address field of the data frame is 1.  8. A method for transmitting information between devices in an Ethernet, characterized in that:  And transmitting, in the source MAC address field of the received data frame, a transmission indication of the association information; the association information has an association relationship with a payload of the data frame;  Obtain the associated information according to the transmission indication.  9. The information transmission method according to claim 8, wherein: the transmission indication indicates a location of the association information in the data frame;  The transmission indication includes a first type, a second type, or a third type, respectively indicating that the location of the associated information in the data frame is a source MAC address field, a header extension header, and a tail extension header.  The information transmission method according to claim 8, wherein: the transmission indication is a fourth type and a sequence number, indicating that the association information is in a control information frame with the payload, and the transmission indication of the control information frame Including the same serial number;  The obtaining the association information according to the transmission indication is specifically: receiving the transmission indication as the fifth type and the sequence number: according to the frame, the payload is the corresponding association information.  11. The information transmission method according to claim 6, wherein: the highest bit of the source MAC address field of the data frame is 1.  12. An information transmission device in an Ethernet, comprising:  An encapsulating module, configured to encapsulate, in a MAC address field of the data frame, a transmission indication of the association information; the association information is associated with a payload of the data frame;  And a sending module, configured to send the association information according to the transmission indication.  13. The information transmission apparatus according to claim 12, wherein: the apparatus further comprises a transmission indication module, configured to determine a transmission indication according to the association information and the length of the data frame.  14. The information transmission apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the determining the transmission indication according to the association information comprises:  When the length of the association information is not greater than the first threshold, determining that the transmission indication is the first type, indicating that the associated information is in the source MAC address field in the data frame; the first threshold is smaller than the length of the source MAC address field; Determining the transmission finger when the sum of the association information and the length of the data frame does not exceed the second threshold Shown as a second type or a third type, respectively indicating a header extension header or a tail extension header of the associated information in the data frame; the second threshold does not exceed the maximum transmission unit MTU of the Ethernet;  When the sum of the association information and the length of the data frame exceeds a second threshold, determining that the transmission indication is the fourth type and specifying the sequence number, indicating that the association information is sent in a control information frame having the same sequence number; Information frames are loaded with associated information.  An information transmission device in an Ethernet, comprising:  a receiving module, configured to receive a data frame;  And a decapsulation module, configured to parse the transmission indication of the association information from the source MAC address field of the received data frame, and obtain the association information according to the transmission indication; the association information has an association relationship with the payload of the data frame.  The information transmission device according to claim 15, wherein the obtaining the information according to the transmission indication Jf: the information comprises:  When the transmission indication is the first type, the associated information is parsed in the source MAC address field of the data frame.  When the transmission indication is the second type, the header extension header parses the association information in the header of the data frame; when the transmission indication is the third type, the extension header parses the association information at the tail of the data frame; when the transmission indication When it is the fourth type, the sequence number of the transmission indication is obtained; the association information is parsed in the payload of the data frame indicating the fifth type and having the same sequence number.  17. An information transmission system in an Ethernet, comprising:  a first device, configured to encapsulate, in a source MAC address field of the data frame, a transmission indication of the association information, and send the association information according to the transmission indication; the association information has an association relationship with a payload of the data volume;  And a second device, configured to parse the transmission indication of the association information in the source MAC address field of the received data frame, and obtain the association information according to the transmission indication.  18. The information transmission system according to claim 17, wherein: the first device and the second device are in communication at a link layer.