Patents by Inventor Alan Shieh

Alan Shieh has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11012292
    Abstract: A network control system that achieves high availability for forwarding state computation within a controller cluster by replicating different levels of table state between controllers of the controller cluster. To build a highly available controller cluster, the tables for storing the forwarding state are replicated across the controllers. In order to reduce network traffic between the controllers, fewer tables are replicated to slave controllers, which then recompute the forwarding state of the master controller in order to have a replicate copy of the master controller's forwarding state for possible failover. In other embodiments, more tables are replicated to minimize the recomputations and processor load on the slave controller. The network control system of some embodiments performs continuous snapshotting to minimize downtime associated with reaching a fixed point and replicating the state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Alan Shieh, Igor Ganichev
  • Publication number: 20190173744
    Abstract: A network control system that achieves high availability for forwarding state computation within a controller cluster by replicating different levels of table state between controllers of the controller cluster. To build a highly available controller cluster, the tables for storing the forwarding state are replicated across the controllers. In order to reduce network traffic between the controllers, fewer tables are replicated to slave controllers, which then recompute the forwarding state of the master controller in order to have a replicate copy of the master controller's forwarding state for possible failover. In other embodiments, more tables are replicated to minimize the recomputations and processor load on the slave controller. The network control system of some embodiments performs continuous snapshotting to minimize downtime associated with reaching a fixed point and replicating the state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2019
    Publication date: June 6, 2019
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Alan Shieh, Igor Ganichev
  • Patent number: 10218564
    Abstract: A network control system that achieves high availability for forwarding state computation within a controller cluster by replicating different levels of table state between controllers of the controller cluster. To build a highly available controller cluster, the tables for storing the forwarding state are replicated across the controllers. In order to reduce network traffic between the controllers, fewer tables are replicated to slave controllers, which then recompute the forwarding state of the master controller in order to have a replicate copy of the master controller's forwarding state for possible failover. In other embodiments, more tables are replicated to minimize the recomputations and processor load on the slave controller. The network control system of some embodiments performs continuous snapshotting to minimize downtime associated with reaching a fixed point and replicating the state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Alan Shieh, Igor Ganichev
  • Patent number: 9450873
    Abstract: Traffic in a cloud is controlled by the nodes participating in the cloud. Tenants of the cloud each have a ratio. On any given node, a current transmission rate of the node is allocated among the tenants of the node, or more specifically, their execution units (e.g., virtual machines) on the node. Thus each tenant receives a predefined portion of the transmission capacity of the node. The transmission capacity can vary as conditions on the network change. For example, if congestion occurs, the transmission capacity may be decreased. Nonetheless, each tenant receives, according to its ratio, a same relative portion of the overall transmission capacity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Albert Greenberg, Alan Shieh, Srikanth Kandula, Changhoon Kim
  • Patent number: 9432252
    Abstract: A network control system that achieves high availability for forwarding state computation within a controller cluster by replicating different levels of table state between controllers of the controller cluster. To build a highly available controller cluster, the tables for storing the forwarding state are replicated across the controllers. In order to take responsibility for a slice, the slave controller of some embodiments performs merging of replicated state on a slice-by-slice basis. The merging is performed in a manner to prevent disruptions to the network state while the slave controller is updated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Alan Shieh, Igor Ganichev
  • Patent number: 9407566
    Abstract: For a controller of a distributed network control system comprising several controllers for managing forwarding elements that forward data in a network, a method for managing the forwarding elements is described. The method changes a set of data tuples stored in a relational database of the first controller that stores data tuples containing data for managing a set of forwarding elements. The method sends the changed data tuples to at least one of other controllers of the network control system. The other controller receiving the changed data tuples processes the changed data tuples and sends the processed data tuples to at least one of the managed forwarding elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Pankaj Thakkar, Amar Padmanabhan, Alan Shieh, Ronghua Zhang
  • Patent number: 9288104
    Abstract: A network control system for generating physical control plane data for managing first and second managed forwarding elements that implement forwarding operations associated with a first logical datapath set is described. The system includes (1) a first controller for converting logical control plane data for the first logical datapath set to universal physical control plane (UPCP) data, (2) a second controller for converting UPCP data to customized physical control plane (CPCP) data for the first managed forwarding element but not the second managed forwarding element, and (3) a third controller for receiving UPCP data generated by the first controller instance, identifying the second controller as the controller instance responsible for generating the CPCP data for the first managed forward element, and supplying the received UPCP data to the second controller. Each controller includes a network information base (NIB) storage for exchanging data with another controller instance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Pankaj Thakkar, Natasha Gude, W. Andrew Lambeth, Amar Padmanabhan, Alan Shieh, Jeremy Stribling, Alexander Yip, Ronghua Zhang, Martin Casado
  • Patent number: 9137107
    Abstract: Some embodiments provide a network control system for generating physical control plane data for managing first and second managed forwarding elements that implement forwarding operations associated with a first logical datapath set. The system includes a first controller instance for converting logical control plane data for the first logical datapath set to universal physical control plane (UPCP) data. The system includes a second controller instance for converting UPCP data to customized physical control plane (CPCP) data for the first managed forwarding element but not the second managed forwarding element. Each controller instance includes a network information base (NIB) storage for storing data and exchanging data with the other controller instance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Pankaj Thakkar, Natasha Gude, W. Andrew Lambeth, Amar Padmanabhan, Alan Shieh, Jeremy Stribling, Alexander Yip, Ronghua Zhang, Martin Casado
  • Publication number: 20150009800
    Abstract: A network control system that achieves high availability for forwarding state computation within a controller cluster by replicating different levels of table state between controllers of the controller cluster. To build a highly available controller cluster, the tables for storing the forwarding state are replicated across the controllers. In order to take responsibility for a slice, the slave controller of some embodiments performs merging of replicated state on a slice-by-slice basis. The merging is performed in a manner to prevent disruptions to the network state while the slave controller is updated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Publication date: January 8, 2015
    Applicant: Nicira, Inc.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Alan Shieh, Igor Ganichev
  • Publication number: 20150009804
    Abstract: A network control system that achieves high availability for forwarding state computation within a controller cluster by replicating different levels of table state between controllers of the controller cluster. To build a highly available controller cluster, the tables for storing the forwarding state are replicated across the controllers. In order to reduce network traffic between the controllers, fewer tables are replicated to slave controllers, which then recompute the forwarding state of the master controller in order to have a replicate copy of the master controller's forwarding state for possible failover. In other embodiments, more tables are replicated to minimize the recomputations and processor load on the slave controller. The network control system of some embodiments performs continuous snapshotting to minimize downtime associated with reaching a fixed point and replicating the state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Publication date: January 8, 2015
    Applicant: Nicira, Inc.
    Inventors: Teemu Koponen, Alan Shieh, Igor Ganichev
  • Publication number: 20130003538
    Abstract: Traffic in a cloud is controlled by the nodes participating in the cloud. Tenants of the cloud each have a ratio. On any given node, a current transmission rate of the node is allocated among the tenants of the node, or more specifically, their execution units (e.g., virtual machines) on the node. Thus each tenant receives a predefined portion of the transmission capacity of the node. The transmission capacity can vary as conditions on the network change. For example, if congestion occurs, the transmission capacity may be decreased. Nonetheless, each tenant receives, according to its ratio, a same relative portion of the overall transmission capacity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2011
    Publication date: January 3, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Albert Greenberg, Alan Shieh, Srikanth Kandula, Changhoon Kim