Managing network traffic in virtual switches based on logical port identifiers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12301479-B2
Application number	US-202418431813-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 2, 2024
Priority date	Jan 13, 2017
Publication date	May 13, 2025
Grant date	May 13, 2025

Abstract

Described herein are systems, methods, and software to enhance network traffic management. In one implementation, a first host identifies a packet to be transferred from a first virtual machine on the first host to a second virtual machine on a second host. In response to identifying the packet, the first host identifies a source logical port for the first virtual machine, and transferring a communication to the second host, wherein the communication encapsulates the data packet and the source logical port. Once the packet is received by the second host, the second host may use the source logical port to determine a forwarding action for the packet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a communication from a host, the communication comprising a first packet;
obtaining the first packet from the communication;
processing the first packet, the first packet comprising a source logical port identifier in a header for the first packet, the source logical port identifier uniquely identifying a source logical port for a sending virtual machine of the first packet, the source logical port corresponding to a logical network link between a virtual switch on the host and the sending virtual machine; and
determining a forwarding action for the first packet based at least on the source logical port identifier and a data plane forwarding configuration.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising decapsulating a second packet to obtain the first packet.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first packet comprises a transmission control protocol packet or a user datagram protocol packet.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the forwarding action comprises one of a block or a permit action.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second packet comprises a tunneling protocol packet.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the tunneling protocol comprises Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (GENEVE) protocol.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
maintaining the data plane forwarding configuration based on forwarding rules and logical port status information associated with virtual machines.

8. A computing apparatus comprising:
a storage system;
a network interface configured to receive a communication from a second host, the communication comprising a first packet;
a processing system coupled to a storage system and the network interface; and
program instructions stored on the storage system to operate a first host that, when executed by the processing system, direct the computing apparatus to:
obtain the first packet from the communication;
process the first packet, the first packet comprising a source logical port identifier in a header for the first packet, the source logical port identifier uniquely identifying a source logical port for a sending virtual machine of the first packet, the source logical port corresponding to a logical network link between a virtual switch on the host and the sending virtual machine; and
determine a forwarding action for the first packet based at least on the source logical port identifier and a data plane forwarding configuration.

9. The computing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the communication comprises a second packet, the first packet being encapsulated in the second packet.

10. The computing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first packet comprises a transmission control protocol packet or a user datagram protocol packet.

11. The computing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the forwarding action comprises one of a block or a permit action.

12. The computing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the second packet comprises a tunneling protocol packet.

13. The computing apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the tunneling protocol comprises Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (GENEVE) protocol.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions further direct the computing apparatus to:
maintain the data plane forwarding configuration based on forwarding rules and logical port status information associated with virtual machines.

15. A system comprising:
a first host; and
a second host configured to:
receive a communication from the first host, the communication comprising a first packet;
obtain the first packet from the communication;
process the first packet, the first packet comprising a source logical port identifier in a header for the first packet, the source logical port identifier uniquely identifying a source logical port for a sending virtual machine of the first packet, the source logical port corresponding to a logical network link between a virtual switch on the host and the sending virtual machine; and
determine a forwarding action for the first packet based at least on the source logical port identifier and a data plane forwarding configuration.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the communication comprises a second packet, the first packet being encapsulated in the second packet.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first packet comprises a transmission control protocol packet or a user datagram protocol packet.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the forwarding action comprises one of a block or a permit action.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the second packet comprises a tunneling protocol packet.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the tunneling protocol comprises Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (GENEVE) protocol.

Assignees

• VMware LLC

Inventors

• Jain Jayant
• Chandrashekhar Ganesan
• Sengupta Anirban
• Thakkar Pankaj
• Tessmer Alexander

Classifications

• H04L45/34

  Source routing · CPC title

• H04L45/38

  Flow based routing · CPC title

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L12/4633

  Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling · CPC title

• H04L41/0803

  Configuration setting · CPC title