Application based data traffic routing using network tunneling

A system comprising:

• memory, of a first network gateway device configured to provide wireless access to network services;
• one or more processors of the first network gateway device;
• one or more network interfaces of the first network gateway device configured to receive, using the one or more processors, first data traffic from a client device as part of providing wireless access to the network services;
• a data traffic analysis engine, at the first network gateway device, configured to analyze the first data traffic to identify an application or an application type associated with the first data traffic;
• a data traffic routing engine, at the first network gateway device, configured to:
• identify, using the one or more processors, a set of tunnels established between the first network gateway device and a second network device that is a cloud-based virtual gateway (CVG);
• select from the set of tunnels one or more select tunnels for the first data traffic based on the application or the application type associated with the first data traffic according to a data traffic routing policy stored locally in the memory;
• a data traffic information engine, at the first network gateway device, configured to:
• tag using multiprotocol label switching tagging the first data traffic with a network flow tag associated with the application or the application type and used by the second network device to route return data traffic in response to the first data traffic through the one or more select tunnels back to the first network gateway device;
• generate application information associated with the first data traffic including the network flow tag;
• generate data traffic-to-tunnel information including an n-tuple of network flow information;
• send the application information and the data traffic-to-tunnel information from the first network gateway device to the second network device, wherein sending the application information to the second network device comprises sending application-to-tunnel binding information to the second network device;
• route the first data traffic from the first network gateway device to the second network device using the one or more select tunnels.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors of a first network gateway device configured to provide wireless access to network services;
• memory of the first network gateway device coupled to the one or more processors, the memory configured to implement one or more program instructions, the one or more program instructions configured to instruct the one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising:
• receiving, at the first network gateway device, first data traffic from a client device as part of providing wireless access to the network services;
• analyzing, at the first network gateway device, the first data traffic to identify an application or an application type associated with the first data traffic;
• identifying, at the first network gateway device, a set of tunnels established between the first network gateway device and a second network device that is a cloud-based virtual gateway (CVG);
• selecting, at the first network gateway device, from the set of tunnels one or more select tunnels for the first data traffic based on the application or the application type associated with the first data traffic according to a data traffic routing policy residing locally at the first network gateway device;
• tagging, at the first network gateway device using multiprotocol label switching tagging, the first data traffic with a network flow tag associated with the application or the application type and used by the second network device to route return data traffic in response to the first data traffic through the one or more select tunnels back to the first network gateway device;
• generating application information associated with the first data traffic including the network flow tag and data traffic-to-tunnel information including an n-tuple of network flow information;
• sending the application information and the data traffic-to-tunnel information from the first network gateway device to the second network device, wherein sending the application information to the second network device comprises sending application-to-tunnel binding information to the second network device;
• routing the first data traffic from the first network gateway device to the second network device using the one or more select tunnels.