Network virtualization without gateway function
AssigneeForce10 Networks, Inc.
InventorsMohnish Anumala, Krishnamurthy Subramanian
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A local network, such as a data center, includes a plurality of servers each of which are linked to a network switch. Some of the plurality of servers are network virtualization capable and some are not. The network virtualization capable servers include functionality that encapsulates a data frame, generated by one network virtualization servers that is to be sent to another network virtualization capable server, with a network virtualization identity. In the event that a network virtualization server generates a data frame for transmission to a server that is not capable of network virtualization, the network virtualization capable server does not encapsulate the data frame with the network virtualization identity.
Claims16
A method of transmitting a data frame, comprising:
- providing a first server that is capable of network virtualization and that is linked through a local network to a second server that is capable of network virtualization and a third server that is not capable of network virtualization;
- receiving, by the first server from a first server virtual machine (VM) located on the first server, a data frame with a destination address;
- and
- in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a second server VM located on the second server that is capable of network virtualization, attaching a network virtualization header to the data frame and transmitting the data frame to the second server;
- and
- in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a third server VM located on the third server that is not capable of network virtualization, transmitting the data frame to the third server without attaching a network virtualization header to the data frame.
A method of operating a network virtualization capable server linked to a local network, comprising:
- associating a physical network address assigned to a network virtualization capable server with a plurality of virtual network addresses associated with virtual machines (VMs) located on the network virtualization capable server;
- associating a first virtual network segment identifier (VNSI) with at least one of the plurality of virtual network addresses associated with the network virtualization capable server;
- generating a data frame and determining a second VNSI that is associated with a destination virtual network address included in the data frame;
- and
- in response to determining that second VNSI is the same as the first VNSI, encapsulating the data frame with a network virtualization header and transmitting the data frame to the local network;
- and
- in response to determining that second VNSI is different than the first VNSI, transmitting the data frame to the local network without encapsulating the data frame with a network virtualization header.
A data frame transmission system, comprising:
- a first server including:
- a network interface connecting the first server to a local network;
- a non-transitory, computer readable memory for storing one or more binding tables and virtual machine to virtual network segment identity (VM-VNSI) association information;
- and
- a hypervisor configured to:
- manage the operation of a plurality of first server virtual machines located on the first server;
- determines a destination address from a data frame generated by one of a plurality of virtual machines;
- and
- in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a second server VM located on a second server on that is connected to the local network and that is capable of network virtualization, encapsulate the data frame with a network virtualization header and transmit the data frame to the second server;
- and
- in response to the destination address of the data frame indicating that the data frame is being sent to a third server VM located on a third server that is connected to the local network and that is not capable of network virtualization, transmit the data frame to the third server without encapsulating the data frame with a network virtualization header.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.