Mechanism to implement VCN network virtualization in a rack-based switch

A system comprising:

• a first host machine instantiating a first virtual machine (“VM”);
• and
• a first network virtualization Top of Rack (“ToR”) switch comprising:
• a peripheral component interconnect express (“PCIe”) switch coupled to a plurality of host-side Ethernet ports;
• a virtualization device communicatingly coupled to the PCIe switch, the virtualization device comprising a plurality of virtualization functions;
• and
• a switching ASIC coupled to the virtualization device and to a network-side Ethernet port;
• wherein the first network virtualization ToR is configured to:
• receive a communication from the first virtual machine;
• form the communication into an Internet Protocol (“IP”) packet with the first virtualization function of the virtualization device, wherein the first virtualization function is assigned to the first virtual machine;
• and
• send the IP packet to a second VM with the switching ASIC.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors of a network virtualization Top of Rack (“ToR”) switch, the network virtualization TOR switch comprising:

• a peripheral component interconnect express (“PCIe”) switch coupled to a plurality of host-side Ethernet ports;
• a virtualization device communicatingly coupled to the PCIe switch, the virtualization device comprising a plurality of virtualization functions;
• and a switching ASIC coupled to the virtualization device and to a network-side Ethernet port, the plurality of instructions when executed by the one or more processors of the network virtualization TOR switch cause the one or more processors of the network virtualization ToR switch to:
• receive a communication from a first virtual machine (“VM”) instantiated on a first host machine;
• form the communication into an Internet Protocol (“IP”) packet with the first virtualization function of the virtualization device of the network virtualization ToR switch, wherein the first virtualization function is assigned to the first virtual machine;
• and
• send the IP packet to a second VM with the switching ASIC of the network virtualization ToR switch.