Routing optimization for inter-cloud connectivity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10547540-B2
Application number	US-201514981436-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2015
Priority date	Aug 29, 2015
Publication date	Jan 28, 2020
Grant date	Jan 28, 2020

Abstract

A cloud computing system may include multiple cloud data centers. A gateway may establish connections between a cloud providers' multiple data centers using knowledge about the types of applications workloads executing within the cloud computing system, and may be further based on determines policies indicating priorities for routing traffic for the application workloads.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of providing connectivity between data centers in a cloud computing system, the method comprising:
using a first gateway of a first data center of the cloud computing system, determining a type of an application workload flow executing for a tenant from the first data center of the cloud computing system and a second data center of the cloud computing system;
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, determining a policy, which indicates an elevated or lowered priority over other workloads, for the application workload flow from the first data center and the second data center based on latency requirements associated with the type of the application workload flow, based on time of day and based on the tenant;
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, establishing a path-optimized connection through a wide area network (WAN) between a first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system and a second gateway of the second data center of the cloud computing system for the application workload flow executing in the first data center based on the determined policy by varying an IP flow tuple of a plurality of test packets across a set of IP flows at the first gateway; and
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, forwarding application packets of the application workload flow from the first gateway in the first data center of the cloud computing system to the second gateway in the second data center of the cloud computing system over the path-optimized connection.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the type of the application workload flow is a live virtual machine migration from a virtual machine executing in the first data center to the second data center, wherein the determined policy comprises an elevated priority of the application workload flow over other workloads.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the type of the application workload flow comprises at least one of a file transfer operation, a virtual private network connection, voice data, and video data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of establishing the path-optimized connection comprises:
probing the WAN with test packets to identify a plurality of paths between the first gateway and the second gateway; and
selecting an IP flow from the set of IP flows for the application.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the step of establishing the path-optimized connection comprises:
establishing a secure channel between the first gateway and the second gateway;
encapsulating WAN optimized application packets from a WAN optimizer within path-optimized packets according to the selected IP flow at the first gateway; and
encrypting the path-optimized packets for transmission over the secure channel.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed in a computing device, provide connectivity between data centers in a cloud computing system, by performing the steps of:
using a first gateway of a first data center of the cloud computing system, determining a type of an application workload flow executing for a tenant from the first data center of the cloud computing system and a second data center of the cloud computing system;
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, determining a policy, which indicates an elevated or lowered priority over other workloads, for the application workload flow from the first data center and the second data center based on latency requirements associated with the type of the application workload flow, based on time of day and based on the tenant;
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, establishing a path-optimized connection through a wide area network (WAN) between a first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system and a second gateway of the second data center of the cloud computing system for the application workload flow executing in the first data center based on the determined policy by varying an IP flow tuple of a plurality of test packets across a set of IP flows at the first gateway; and
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, forwarding application packets of the application workload flow from the first gateway in the first data center of the cloud computing system to the second gateway in the second data center of the cloud computing system over the path-optimized connection.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the type of the application workload flow is a live virtual machine migration from a virtual machine executing in the first data center to the second data center, wherein the determined policy comprises an elevated priority of the application workload flow over other workloads.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the type of the application workload flow comprises at least one of a file transfer operation, a virtual private network connection, voice data, and video data.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the step of establishing the path-optimized connection comprises:
probing the WAN with test packets to identify a plurality of paths between the first gateway and the second gateway; and
selecting an IP flow from the set of IP flows for the application.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the step of establishing the path-optimized connection comprises:
establishing a secure channel between the first gateway and the second gateway;
encapsulating WAN optimized application packets from a WAN optimizer within path-optimized packets according to the selected IP flow at the first gateway; and
encrypting the path-optimized packets for transmission over the secure channel.

11. A computer system for provide connectivity between data centers in a cloud computing system, the computer system comprising a system memory and a processor programmed to:
using a first gateway of a first data center of the cloud computing system, determine a type of an application workload flow executing for a tenant from the first data center of the cloud computing system and a second data center of the cloud computing system;
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, determine a policy, which indicates an elevated or lowered priority over other workloads, for the application workload flow from the first data center and the second data center based on latency requirements associated with the type of the application workload flow, based on time of day and based on the tenant;
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, establish a path-optimized connection through a wide area network (WAN) between a first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system and a second gateway of the second data center of the cloud computing system for the application workload flow executing in the first data center based on the determined policy by varying an IP flow tuple of a plurality of test packets across a set of IP flows at the first gateway; and
using the first gateway of the first data center of the cloud computing system, forward application packets of the application workload flow from the first gateway in the first data center of the cloud computing system to the second gateway in the second data center of the cloud computing system over the path-optimized connection.

12. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the typ

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Maskalik Serge
• Wu Weiqing
• Basak Debashis
• Thakkar Sachin
• Sequeira Allwyn

Classifications

• H04L67/06

  specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/1008 Primary

  based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload (monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30) · CPC title

• H04L63/166

  at the transport layer · CPC title

• H04L63/0272

  Virtual private networks · CPC title

• H04L61/2514

  between local and global IP addresses · CPC title