Address management in an overlay network environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10834047-B2
Application number	US-201816140290-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2018
Priority date	Jan 22, 2013
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to overlay network address management. One embodiment includes an overlay gateway including an overlay network manager associated with a physical network. The overlay network manager prevents duplicate address assignment for overlay domains having a first sharing status and performs address translation for overlay domains having a second sharing status. Address translation is avoided for overlay domains having the first sharing status.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising a computer processor, a computer-readable hardware storage medium, and program code embodied with the computer-readable hardware storage medium for execution by the computer processor to implement a method comprising:
at an overlay network manager:
managing a plurality of address spaces utilizing a table, wherein the table indicates, for a first address space of the plurality of address spaces, a first domain associated with a first overlay network the first address space is shared in and a second domain associated with a second overlay network the first address space is not shared in; and
in response to a first assignment in the first domain of a first address in the first address space, detecting whether there is a duplicate assignment in a physical network based on the table, wherein the first domain shares the first address space with the physical network, and the first assignment is denied in response to detecting the duplicate assignment.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first assignment comprises a tenant in the first domain assigning the first address in the first address space.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the physical network interconnects the first domain and the second domain.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the first assignment is denied in response to detecting the duplicate assignment in the physical network.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the first assignment is validated in response to detecting no duplicate assignment in the physical network.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
at the overlay network manager:
in response to a second assignment in the second domain of a second address in the first address space, validating the second assignment, wherein the second assignment comprises a tenant in the second domain assigning the second address in the first address space.

7. A method comprising:
at an overlay network manager:
managing a plurality of address spaces utilizing a table, wherein the table indicates, for a first address space of the plurality of address spaces, a first domain associated with a first overlay network the first address space is shared in and a second domain associated with a second overlay network the first address space is not shared in; and
in response to a first assignment in the first domain of a first address in the first address space, detecting whether there is a duplicate assignment in a physical network based on the table, wherein the first domain shares the first address space with the physical network, and first assignment is denied in response to detecting the duplicate assignment.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the first assignment comprises a tenant in the first domain assigning the first address in the first address space.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the physical network interconnects the first domain and the second domain.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first assignment is denied in response to detecting the duplicate assignment in the physical network.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first assignment is validated in response to detecting no duplicate assignment in the physical network.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
at the overlay network manager:
in response to a second assignment in the second domain of a second address in the first address space, validating the second assignment, wherein the second assignment comprises a tenant in the second domain assigning the second address in the first address space.

13. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable hardware storage device having program code embodied therewith, the program code being executable by a computer to implement a method comprising:
at an overlay network manager:
managing a plurality of address spaces utilizing a table, wherein the table indicates, for a first address space of the plurality of address spaces, a first domain associated with a first overlay network the first address space is shared in and a second domain associated with a second overlay network the first address space is not shared in; and
in response to a first assignment in the first domain of a first address in the first address space, detecting whether there is a duplicate assignment in a physical network based on the table, wherein the first domain shares the first address space with the physical network, and the first assignment is denied in response to detecting the duplicate assignment.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the first assignment comprises a tenant in the first domain assigning the first address in the first address space.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises:
at the overlay network manager:

in response to a second assignment in the second domain of a second address in the first address space, validating the second assignment, wherein the second assignment comprises a tenant in the second domain assigning the second address in the first address space.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the physical network interconnects the first domain and the second domain.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the first assignment is denied in response to detecting the duplicate assignment in the physical network.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the first assignment is validated in response to detecting no duplicate assignment in the physical network.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Benny Stephan
• Biswas Amitabha
• Kidambi Jayakrishna

Classifications

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L61/2535 Primary

  Multiple local networks, e.g. resolving potential IP address conflicts · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/5046 Primary

  Resolving address allocation conflicts; Testing of addresses (testing when self-assigning an address H04L61/5092) · CPC title

• H04L61/103

  across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP] · CPC title