System and method for identifying communication between virtual servers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9774473-B2
Application number	US-201615182090-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 14, 2016
Priority date	Sep 24, 2009
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

A server, includes a virtual machine identifier assigning section to assign an identifier of a virtual machine operating on the server; and a network interface to transmit a packet including a Layer 2 header information which includes the identifier of the virtual machine and a first packet field for a VLAN-Tag, wherein the network interface transmits the packet to a packet encapsulate section which encapsulates a second packet field including the Layer 2 header information with a virtual network identifier representing a virtual network to which the virtual machine belongs.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A server, comprising:
memory storing instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
identify an identifier of a virtual machine;
encapsulate, with a virtual network identifier representing a virtual network to which the virtual machine belongs, a frame containing layer 2 header information which includes the identifier of the virtual machine and a field for a virtual local area network tag (VLAN-Tag) of the frame; and
forward the encapsulated frame.

2. The server according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a second frame encapsulated by the virtual network identifier; and
decapsulate the received second frame by removing the virtual network identifier.

3. The server according to claim 1 , wherein the virtual network identifier represents a virtual tenant network in a multi-tenant network.

4. A network system comprising:
a switch apparatus configured to forward a frame; and
a server configured to manage a virtual machine,
wherein the server comprises:
memory storing instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
identify an identifier of the virtual machine;
encapsulate, with a virtual network identifier representing a virtual network to which the virtual machine belongs, a frame containing layer 2 header information which includes the identifier of the virtual machine and a field for a virtual local area network tag (VLAN-Tag) of the frame; and
forward the encapsulated frame.

5. The network system according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a second frame encapsulated by the virtual network identifier; and
decapsulate the received second frame by removing the virtual network identifier.

6. The network system according to claim 4 , wherein the virtual network identifier represents a virtual tenant network in a multi-tenant network.

7. A communication method, comprising:
identifying an identifier of a virtual machine operating on a server;
encapsulating, with a virtual network identifier representing a virtual network to which the virtual machine belongs, a frame containing layer 2 header information which includes the identifier of the virtual machine and a field for a virtual local area network tag (VLAN-Tag) of the frame; and
forwarding the encapsulated frame.

8. The communication method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving a second frame encapsulated by the virtual network identifier; and
decapsulating the received second frame by removing the virtual network identifier.

9. The communication method according to claim 7 , wherein the virtual network identifier represents a virtual tenant network in a multi-tenant network.

10. A network device, comprising:
memory storing instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a frame including layer 2 header information which includes an identifier of a virtual machine and a field for a virtual local area network tag (VLAN-Tag), wherein the virtual machine operates on a server;
encapsulate, with a virtual network identifier representing a virtual network to which the virtual machine belongs, the frame containing the layer 2 header information which includes the identifier of the virtual machine and the field for the VLAN-Tag; and
forward the encapsulated frame.

11. The network device according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a second frame encapsulated by the virtual network identifier; and
decapsulate the second frame by removing the virtual network identifier.

12. The network device according to claim 10 , wherein the virtual network identifier represents a virtual tenant network in a multi-tenant network.

Assignees

• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Iwata Atsushi
• Iijima Akio

Classifications

• H04L45/745

  Address table lookup; Address filtering · CPC title

• H04L61/256

  NAT traversal · CPC title

• H04L45/586

  of virtual routers · CPC title

• H04L69/22

  Parsing or analysis of headers · CPC title

• H04L61/2592

  using tunnelling or encapsulation · CPC title