Genius provides components and framework for application co-existence. Following diagram gives an overview of how multiple applications/service based on genius components, can work together.
Genius addresses app co-existence issue based on following principles –
Genius Interface Manager (IFM) provides following main services --
Interface Manager allows creation of different granular logical ports/ interfaces for different type of network connections and logical ports, e.g. VLAN ports (classified with in-port+VLAN tag), tunnel (VxLAN & GRE) interfaces classified with ([DPN-id]+[in-port]+[vlan]+local-ip+ remote-ip).
Interface Manager provides Yang based API for creation/configuration of different type of interfaces. Each interface is created with a unique interface-name (e.g. UUID of a neutron port) and its classification parameters. Interface configuration also contains a ‘parent-ref’ parameter which defines the parent port/interface which feeds to the child interface. This way a hierarchy of interfaces can be created. IFM classification tables in data-plane also form similar hierarchy.
When the parent (openflow) port appears on the south-bound interface, Interface Manager accordingly programs corresponding IFM classifier tables and groups.
When a packet hits table 0, IFM classification rules in table 0 removes the encapsulation/tags and direct packets to appropriate next level of classification table. Once the packet is classified belonging to a particular Interface, corresponding data-plane-id is associated with the packet and the packet is sent to the service dispatcher table.
Service dispatcher table, depending upon the services bind to the interface, apply service specific parameters to the packet and dispatches the packet to appropriate service pipeline. If the packet is not consumed (either dropped or sent out) by the particular service, the service pipeline must send(resubmit) the packet back to the dispatcher table for other services for further processing.
First 24 bits of metadata is reserved by Interface Manager to carry the 21 bit data-plane-id (if-index) along with 3 bits service-index. Applications/ services must preserve these bits for use of interface manger when the packet is sent back to dispatcher table. If a particular service is sure of consuming the packet and packet is not required to be sent back to dispatcher table, in that case the service is allowed to make use of full 64 bits of the metadata.
Yang Data Model odl-interface.yang contains the interface configuration data-model.
An interface is created at MD-SAL Data Node Path /config/if:interfaces/interface, with following attributes -
Common attributes
parent-refs : used to specify references to parent interface/port feeding to this interface
Type specific attributes
Supported REST calls are GET, PUT, DELETE, POST
A normal L2 port (e.g. Neutron tap port) interface is created as an 'l2vlan' interface in 'transparent' mode. This type of interfce classifies packets passing through a particular L2 (OpenFlow) port. The base openflow port for this interface is configured port is interface can pass any L2 packet. In dataplane Packets for this interface are classified by matching of-port-id assigned to the port (as specified in parent-interface).
URL: /restconf/config/ietf-interfaces:interfaces
Sample JSON data
"interfaces": {
"interface": [
{
"name": "4158408c-942b-487c-9a03-0b603c39d3dd",
"type": "iana-if-type:l2vlan", <--- interface type 'l2vlan' for normal L2 port
"odl-interface:l2vlan-mode": "transparent", <--- 'transparent' VLAN port mode allows any (tagged, untagged) ethernet packet
"odl-interface:parent-interface": "tap4158408c-94", <--- port-name as it appears on southbound interface
"enabled": true
}
]
}
A VLAN interface is created as a 'l2vlan' interface in 'trunk-member' mode, by configuring a VLAN-Id and a particular L2 (vlan trunk) interface. Parent VLAN trunk interface is created in the same way as the 'transparent' interface as specified above. A 'trunk-member' interface defines a flow on a particular L2 port and having a particular VLAN tag. On ingress, after classification the VLAN tag is popped out and corresponding unique dataplane-id is associated with the packet, before delivering the packet to service processing. When a service module delivers the packet to this interface for egress, it pushes corresponding VLAN tag and sends the packet out of the parent L2 port.
URL: /restconf/config/ietf-interfaces:interfaces
Sample JSON data
"interfaces": {
"interface": [
{
"name": "4158408c-942b-487c-9a03-0b603c39d3dd:100",
"type": "iana-if-type:l2vlan",
"odl-interface:l2vlan-mode": "trunk-member", <--- for 'trunk-member', flow is classified with particular vlan-id on an l2 port
"odl-interface:parent-interface": "4158408c-942b-487c-9a03-0b603c39d3dd", <--- Parent 'trunk' iterface name
"odl-interface:vlan-id": "100",
"enabled": true
}
]
}
An overlay tunnel interface is created with type 'tunnel' and particular 'tunnel-interface-type'. Tunnel interfaces are created on a particular DPN with a pair of (local, remote) IP addresses. Currently supported tunnel interface types are VxLAN, GRE and MPLSoverGRE. overlay tunnel interfaces are based on tunnel interafces provided by OVS. Some of these interfaces are not yet available with standard OVS versions. However, there are OVS patches available add specific tunnel interface implementation in OVS. Following are tunnel types for which specific patches are available -
URL: /restconf/config/ietf-interfaces:interfaces
Sample JSON data
"interfaces": {
"interface": [
{
"name": "MGRE_TUNNEL:1",
"type": "iana-if-type:tunnel",
"odl-interface:tunnel-interface-type": "odl-interface:tunnel-type-mpls-over-gre",
"odl-interface:datapath-node-identifier": 156613701272907,
"odl-interface:tunnel-source": "11.0.0.43",
"odl-interface:tunnel-destination": "11.0.0.66",
"odl-interface:monitor-enabled": false,
"odl-interface:monitor-interval": 10000,
"enabled": true
}
]
}
After creation of interfaces, different applications can bind services to it. Different services can bind to interfaces on ingress at the packet pipeline ingress as well as at the pipeline egress, before sending the packet out to particular port/interface. To bind a service to an Interface, applications will use a Yang based service binding API provided by interface manager. Following are the service binding parameters –
[[File:interface_hierarchy.png]| align:right]
Service priority parameter is used to define the order in which the packet will be delivered to different services bind to the particular interface. Service priorities must be agreed upon by the participating applications to avoid conflict.
Depending upon the service-mode parameter service is applied to interface ingress on interface egress.
When a service is bind to an interface, Interface Manager programs the service dispatcher table with a rule to match on the interface data-plane-id and the service-index (based on priority) and the instruction-set provided by the service/application. Every time when the packet leaves the dispatcher table the service-index (in metadata) is incremented to match the next service rule when the packet is resubmitted back to dispatcher table. if the service-mode is ingress, ingress dispatcher is programmed or else if the service-mode-egress is configured egress-dispatcher table is programmed.
Yang Data Model odl-interface-service-bindings.yang contains the service binding configuration daatmodel.
An application can bind services to a particular interface by configuring MD-SAL data node at path /config/interface-service-binding. Binding services on interface allows particular service to pull traffic arriving on that interafce depending upon the a service priority. Service modules can specify openflow-rules to be applied on the packet belonging to the inetrface. Usually these rules include sending the packet to specific service table/pipeline. Service modules are responsible for sending the packet back (if not consumed) to service dispatcher table, for next service to process the packet.
URL:/restconf/config/interface-service-bindings:service-bindings/
Sample JSON data
"service-bindings": {
"services-info": [
{
"interface-name": "4152de47-29eb-4e95-8727-2939ac03ef84",
"bound-services": [
{
"service-name": "ELAN",
"service-type": "interface-service-bindings:service-type-flow-based"
"service-priority": 3,
"flow-priority": 5,
"flow-cookie": 134479872,
"instruction": [
{
"order": 2,
"go-to-table": {
"table_id": 50
}
},
{
"order": 1,
"write-metadata": {
"metadata": 83953188864,
"metadata-mask": 1099494850560
}
}
],
},
{
"service-name": "L3VPN",
"service-type": "interface-service-bindings:service-type-flow-based"
"service-priority": 2,
"flow-priority": 10,
"flow-cookie": 134217729,
"instruction": [
{
"order": 2,
"go-to-table": {
"table_id": 21
}
},
{
"order": 1,
"write-metadata": {
"metadata": 100,
"metadata-mask": 4294967295
}
}
],
}
]
}
]
}
Currently Interface Manager supports service binding on port ingress only. However, there are services that need packet processing on the egress, before sending the packet out to particular port/interface. To accommodate this, interface manager will be enhanced to support egress service binding also. This will be achieved by introducing a new “egress dispatcher table” at the egress of packet pipeline before the interface egress groups.
On different application request, Interface Manager returns the egress actions for interfaces. Service modules program use these actions to send the packet to particular interface. Generally, these egress actions include sending packet out to port or appropriate interface egress group. With the inclusion of the egress dispatcher table the egress actions for the services would be to
IFM shall add a default table entry for each interface which
On Egress Service binding, IFM shall add rules to Egress Dispatcher table with following parameters –
Egress Services will be responsible for sending packet back to Egress Dispatcher table, if the packet is not consumed (dropped/ send out). In this case the packet will hit the lowest priority default entry and the packet will be send out.
In addition to above defined configuration interfaces, IFM also provides several RPCs to access interface operational data and other helpful information. Interface Manger RPCs are defined in odl-interface-rpc.yang Following RPCs are available.
This RPC is used to retrieve dpid/switch hosting the root port from given interface name
rpc get-dpid-from-interface {
description "used to retrieve dpid from interface name";
input {
leaf intf-name {
type string;
}
}
output {
leaf dpid {
type uint64;
}
}
}
This RPC is used to retrieve south bound port attributes from the interface name.
rpc get-port-from-interface {
description "used to retrieve south bound port attributes from the interface name";
input {
leaf intf-name {
type string;
}
}
output {
leaf dpid {
type uint64;
}
leaf portno {
type uint32;
}
leaf portname {
type string;
}
}
}
This RPC is used to retrieve group actions to use from interface name.
rpc get-egress-actions-for-interface {
description "used to retrieve group actions to use from interface name";
input {
leaf intf-name {
type string;
mandatory true;
}
leaf tunnel-key {
description "It can be VNI for VxLAN tunnel ifaces, Gre Key for GRE tunnels, etc.";
type uint32;
mandatory false;
}
}
output {
uses action:action-list;
}
}
This RPC is used to retrieve flow instructions to use from interface name.
rpc get-egress-instructions-for-interface {
description "used to retrieve flow instructions to use from interface name";
input {
leaf intf-name {
type string;
mandatory true;
}
leaf tunnel-key {
description "It can be VNI for VxLAN tunnel ifaces, Gre Key for GRE tunnels, etc.";
type uint32;
mandatory false;
}
}
output {
uses offlow:instruction-list;
}
}
This RPC is used to get the local ip of the tunnel/trunk interface on a particular DPN
rpc get-endpoint-ip-for-dpn {
description "to get the local ip of the tunnel/trunk interface";
input {
leaf dpid {
type uint64;
}
}
output {
leaf-list local-ips {
type inet:ip-address;
}
}
}This RPC is used to get the type of the interface(vlan/vxlan or gre)
rpc get-interface-type {
description "to get the type of the interface(vlan/vxlan or gre)";
input {
leaf intf-name {
type string;
}
}
output {
leaf interface-type {
type identityref {
base if:interface-type;
}
}
}
}
This RPC is used to get the type of the tunnel interface(vxlan or gre).
rpc get-tunnel-type {
description "to get the type of the tunnel interface(vxlan or gre)";
input {
leaf intf-name {
type string;
}
}
output {
leaf tunnel-type {
type identityref {
base odlif:tunnel-type-base;
}
}
}
}
This RPC is used to get nodeconnector id associated with an interface.
rpc get-nodeconnector-id-from-interface {
description "to get nodeconnector id associated with an interface";
input {
leaf intf-name {
type string;
}
}
output {
leaf nodeconnector-id {
type inv:node-connector-id;
}
}
}
This RPC is used to get interface associated with an if-index (dataplane interface id)
rpc get-interface-from-if-index {
description "to get interface associated with an if-index";
input {
leaf if-index {
type int32;
}
}
output {
leaf interface-name {
type string;
}
}
}
This RPC is used to create the tunnel termination service table entries
rpc create-terminating-service-actions {
description "create the ingress terminating service table entries";
input {
leaf dpid {
type uint64;
}
leaf tunnel-key {
type uint64;
}
leaf interface-name {
type string;
}
uses offlow:instruction-list;
}
}
This RPC is used to remove the tunnel termination service table entries
rpc remove-terminating-service-actions {
description "remove the ingress terminating service table entries";
input {
leaf dpid {
type uint64;
}
leaf interface-name {
type string;
}
leaf tunnel-key {
type uint64;
}
}
}
Genius Id-Manager service provides interface to generate unique integer ID(s) for a particular key String, from a given pool of IDs with configured range. The key and generated ID mapping is persistent across cluster restarts.
Resource Sharing Framework is based on Genius ID-Manager service. ID-Manager service manages resource/ID pools and allocates unique range of integer IDs for specific string keys. These key and ID/range mappings are persisted across controller restarts. The idea for resource sharing is to have common resource pools, managed by ID-Manager and allow applications to dynamically allocate a range of resource IDs for their use. The resource manager component of the framework creates resource Id pools for of-tables, groups, meters etc. Further, different applications can request for a number of resource-IDs from these pools. Same range is always returned across controller restarts.
Resource pool config file contains available resource pool configs in a particular format which is understandable by the Resource Manager. Following is an example of Resource pool config file.
<poolName>, <id-start>, <id-end>
tableIdPool, 10, 254
GroupIdPool, 100, 1000
Pools should be created with resources available for dynamic allocations. Some of the resources are reserved for Genius Interface Manager, which manages port/interface ingress and egress functions and provides services to service modules.
Resource manager is a thin API wrapper layer on top of ID-Manager. It is responsible for creating different resource pools in ID-Manager, as specified in Resource pool config at the system startup. This is achieved using RPC provided by ID-Manager like following -
createIdPool{
input {
“pool-name” : “tableIdPool”,
“low” : “10”,
“high” : “220”
}
}Additionally it exposes following RPCs for resource allocation and release. Following RPCs are provided
AllocateIdRange
input {
“pool-name” : “tableIdPool”,
“key” : “app1.zone1.table1”,
“size” : “5” }
Returns --
output {
“id-list” : “100”, “101”, “102”, “103”, “104”
}
rpc releaseResource {
input {
leaf resource-type {
type identityref{
base resource-type-base;
}
}
leaf id-key {
type string;
}
}
}
rpc allocateResource {
input {
leaf resource-type {
type identityref{
base resource-type-base;
}
}
leaf id-key {
type string;
}
leaf size {
type uint32;
}
}
output {
leaf-list id-values{
type uint32;
ordered-by user;
}
}
}
rpc getAvailableResources{
input {
leaf resource-type {
type identityref{
base resource-type-base;
}
}
}
output{
leaf total-available-id-count {
type uint32;
}
}
}
rpc getResourcePool{
input{
leaf resource-type {
type identityref{
base resource-type-base;
}
}
}
output{
list available-ids{
uses available-resource-ids;
}
uses released-resource-ids;
}
}
grouping available-resource-ids {
leaf start {
type uint32;
}
leaf end {
type uint32;
}
}
grouping released-resource-ids {
list delayed-resource-entries {
uses idmgr:delayed-id-entry;
}
}ReleaseResource(poolName, key)