Research And Implementation Of Function Layer In Forces Router

The router based on ForCES (Forwarding and Control ElementSeparation) meets the open, flexible and programmable demands of thenext generation networks. It is one important trend of the next generationrouters. Our research team is key participants in the ForCES work andauthors of the ForCES protocol, and now is developing router prototypebased on ForCES architecture.This paper studies the design and implementation of Function Layerwhich is one important layer in architecture of ForCES router. FunctionLayer is responsible for the abstraction of behavior and action to thelower entity, and then it exists as a layer to directly control lower hardware's operation. The paper researches the modules in Function Layerand some key techniques of implementation, such as: (1) use native XMLdatabase to implement of storage and operation to LFB class and instance;(2) design the path-function prototype library of LFB's attrib-utes/capabilities/events in FE; (3) design the processing mechanism to LFB events and implement it via callback mode. Finally, we do somefunctionality testing on ForCES router prototype, including LFB capabili-ties reporting and topology displaying, LFB attributes querying and con-figuring, LFB event subscribing and reporting, routing redirection proc-essing etc.The experiment shows that the ForCES router is well supported inthe implementation of the function layer, hence, shows the feasibility ofForCES architecture and ForCES protocol. It is expected the imple-mentation introduced in this paper can contribute to IETF ForCES workfor its progress.