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US 8,942,237 B2Granted
Hypervisor independent network virtualization
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsStephan Benny, Jayakrishna Kidambi, Vijoy A. Pandey
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a first physical overlay switch located at an edge of an IP network includes logic adapted for: receiving a packet having a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (ID) from a virtual switch, encapsulating the packet with an overlay header, tunneling the encapsulated packet via the IP network to a second physical overlay switch, receiving a second encapsulated packet having a second overlay header from the second physical overlay switch, de-encapsulating the second encapsulated packet to create a second packet having a second VLAN ID, and sending the second packet to the virtual switch.
Claims18
A system, comprising:
- a first physical overlay switch located at an edge of an internet protocol (IP) network, the first physical overlay switch comprising a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor to:
- receive a packet having a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (ID) directly from a virtual switch operating in a first hypervisor domain;
- encapsulate the packet with an overlay header;
- send the encapsulated packet via a tunnel through the IP network to a second physical overlay switch when a source of the packet is physically separated from a destination of the packet by the IP network, the second physical overlay switch being connected to a second virtual switch operating in a second hypervisor domain;
- send the encapsulated packet via Layer-2 operation when the source of the packet is connected to a same device as the destination of the packet;
- receive a second encapsulated packet having a second overlay header from the second physical overlay switch;
- de-encapsulate the second encapsulated packet to create a second packet having a second VLAN ID;
- and
- send the second packet having the second VLAN ID directly to the virtual switch operating in the first hypervisor domain,
- wherein the first hypervisor domain is associated with a first hypervisor that is unable to communicate with a second hypervisor associated with the second hypervisor domain, and
- wherein the first hypervisor is of a different type than the second hypervisor.
8 more elements
A computer program product for providing a virtual overlay network, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
- computer readable program code configured to receive a packet having a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (ID) at a first physical overlay switch located at an edge of an internet protocol (IP) network directly from a first virtual switch operating in a first hypervisor domain;
- computer readable program code configured to encapsulate the packet with an overlay header using the first physical overlay switch;
- computer readable program code configured to tunnel the encapsulated packet to a second physical overlay switch via the IP network when a source of the packet is physically separated from a destination of the packet by the IP network, the second physical overlay switch being connected to a second virtual switch operating in a second hypervisor domain;
- and
- computer readable program code configured to send the encapsulated packet via Layer-2 operation when the source of the packet is connected to a same switch as the destination of the packet,
- wherein the first hypervisor domain is associated with a first hypervisor that is unable to communicate with a second hypervisor associated with the second hypervisor domain, and
- wherein the first hypervisor is of a different type than the second hypervisor.
4 more elements
A system, comprising:
- a first physical overlay switch located at an edge of an internet protocol (IP) network, the first physical overlay switch coupled to one or more first virtual switches operating in a first hypervisor domain:
- and
- a second physical overlay switch located at the edge of the IP network, the second physical overlay switch coupled to one or more second virtual switches operating in a second hypervisor domain,
- wherein the first physical overlay switch comprises a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor to:
- receive a first packet having a first virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (ID) directly from one of the one or more first virtual switches;
- encapsulate the first packet with an overlay header;
- tunnel the first encapsulated packet via Layer-3 operations across the IP network to the second physical overlay switch when a source of the packet is physically separated from a destination of the packet by the IP network, the second physical overlay switch being connected to one of the one or more second virtual switches;
- receive a second encapsulated packet having a second overlay header from the second physical overlay switch;
- de-encapsulate the second encapsulated packet to create a second packet having a second VLAN ID;
- and
- send the second packet having the second VLAN ID directly to one of the one or more first virtual switches operating in the first hypervisor domain,
- wherein the second physical overlay switch comprises a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor to:
- receive the second packet having the second VLAN ID directly from one of the one or more second virtual switches operating in the second hypervisor domain;
- encapsulate the second packet with a second overlay header;
- tunnel the second encapsulated packet via the IP network to the first physical overlay switch;
- receive the first encapsulated packet having the first overlay header from the first physical overlay switch;
- de-encapsulate the first encapsulated packet to create the first packet having the first VLAN ID;
- and
- send the first packet having the first VLAN ID to one of the one or more second virtual switches,
- wherein the first hypervisor domain is associated with a first hypervisor that is unable to communicate with a second hypervisor associated with the second hypervisor domain, and
- wherein the first hypervisor is of a different type than the second hypervisor.
18 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.