Hypervisor independent network virtualization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9264352-B2
Application number	US-201314066492-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2013
Priority date	Jun 20, 2012
Publication date	Feb 16, 2016
Grant date	Feb 16, 2016

Abstract

A method includes receiving a packet having a VLAN ID at a first physical overlay switch located at an edge of an IP network, encapsulating the packet with an overlay header, and tunneling the encapsulated packet to a second physical overlay switch via IP network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing a virtual overlay network, the method comprising:
receiving 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;
encapsulating the packet with an overlay header using the first physical overlay switch; and
tunneling the encapsulated packet to a second physical overlay switch via the IP network in response to a determination that 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,
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.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second packet having a second VLAN ID at the first physical overlay switch directly from the first virtual switch;
encapsulating the second packet with an overlay header using the first physical overlay switch; and
sending the encapsulated second packet via Layer-2 operation in response to a determination that the source of the packet is connected to a same switch as the destination of the packet.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first hypervisor is of a different type than the second hypervisor.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
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 having the second VLAN ID directly to the first virtual switch operating in the first hypervisor domain.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 , further comprising:
the first physical overlay switch using the second overlay header to create the second VLAN ID.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first physical overlay switch and the second physical overlay switch are top of rack switches, embedded blade switches, or a combination thereof.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the encapsulated packet is sent via Layer-3 operations through the tunnel to the second physical overlay switch.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the source of the packet is a first virtual machine (VM) operating in the first hypervisor domain.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising the first physical overlay switch creating the overlay header based at least partially on the VLAN ID.

10. A method for providing a virtual overlay network, the method comprising:
receiving a first packet having a first virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (ID) directly from a first virtual switch operating in a first hypervisor domain using a first physical overlay switch located at an edge of an internet protocol (IP) network;
encapsulating the first packet with an overlay header;
tunneling the first encapsulated packet via Layer-3 operations across the IP network to a second physical overlay switch in response to a determination that 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 or more second virtual switches operating in a second hypervisor domain;
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 having the second VLAN ID directly to the first 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.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the first physical overlay switch is a top of rack switch or an embedded blade switch.

12. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the first hypervisor is of a different type than the second hypervisor.

13. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the source of the packet is a first virtual machine (VM) operating in the first hypervisor domain.

14. The method as recited in claim 10 , further comprising the first physical overlay switch creating the second VLAN ID based at least partially on the second overlay header.

15. The method as recited in claim 10 , further comprising the first physical overlay switch creating the overlay header based at least partially on the VLAN ID.

16. A method, comprising:
a first virtual switch sending a first packet having a first virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (ID) directly to a first physical overlay switch located at an edge of an internet protocol (IP) network, the first virtual switch operating in a first hypervisor domain;
the first virtual switch receiving a second packet having a second VLAN ID from the first physical overlay switch;
the first virtual switch removing the second VLAN ID from the second packet; and
the first virtual switch switching the second packet to a destination port designated in the second packet,
wherein the first hypervisor domain is associated with a first hypervisor that is unable to communicate with a second hypervisor associated with a second hypervisor domain.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 , further comprising
the first virtual switch receiving the first packet from a first source device connected to the first virtual switch;
the first virtual switch encapsulating the first packet with the first VLAN ID; and
the first virtual switch sending the first packet having the first VLAN ID to the first physical overlay switch.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Benny Stephan
• Kidambi Jayakrishna
• Pandey Vijoy A

Classifications

• H04L45/64 Primary

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L45/04

  Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing · CPC title

• H04L12/4645

  Details on frame tagging (routing of packets H04L45/00; support for virtual LAN H04L49/354) · CPC title

• H04L12/4633 Primary

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

• H04L49/70

  Virtual switches · CPC title