Gigamon Inc.

Anil Rao

Introduced here are network visibility appliances capable of implementing a distributed deduplication scheme by routing traffic amongst multiple instances of a deduplication program. Data traffic can be forwarded to a pool of multiple network visibility appliances that collectively ensure no duplicate copies of data packets exist in the data traffic. The network visibility appliances can route the traffic to different instances of the deduplication program so that duplicate copies of a data packet are guaranteed to arrive at the same instance of the deduplication program, regardless of which network visibility appliance(s) initially received the duplicate copies of the data packet.

Distributed packet deduplication

With exponential growth in virtualized traffic within physical data centers, many end users (e.g., individuals and enterprises) have begun moving work processes and data to cloud computing platforms. A visibility platform can be used to monitor virtualized traffic traversing a cloud computing platform, such as Amazon Web Services, VMware, or OpenStack. But it can be difficult to manage how the visibility platform handles incoming virtualized traffic. Introduced here, therefore, are graphs that visually represent the network fabric of a visibility platform. When the network fabric of the visibility platform is represented as a graph, an end user can easily modify the network fabric, for example, by adding, removing, or modifying nodes that represent network objects, adding, removing, or modifying connections between pairs of nodes that represent traffic flows between pairs of network objects, etc.

Graph-based network fabric for a network visibility appliance

A visibility platform can be used to monitor traffic traversing private cloud infrastructures and/or public cloud infrastructures. In some instances, the traffic is provided to a set of network services that are accessible to the visibility platform. These network services can be provisioned in a serial or parallel fashion. Network service chaining can be used to ensure that traffic streams skip unnecessary network services and receive only those network services that are needed. For example, an email service chain can include virus, spam, and phishing detection, while a video streaming service chain can include traffic shaping policies to satisfy quality of service (QoS) guarantees. When the visibility platform is represented as a graph that makes use of action sets, network service chains can be readily created or destroyed on demand.

Dynamic service chaining and late binding

Introduced here are network visibility platforms having total processing capacity that can be dynamically varied in response to determining how much network traffic is currently under consideration. A visibility platform can include one or more network appliances, each of which includes at least one instance of an application configured to process data packets. Rather than forward all traffic to a single application instance for processing, the traffic can instead be distributed amongst a pool of application instances to collectively ensure that no data packets are dropped due to over-congestion. Moreover, the visibility platform can be designed such that application instances are elastically added/removed, as necessary, based on the volume of traffic currently under consideration.

Elastic modification of application instances in a network visibility infrastructure

Disclosed is a technique for providing packet filter maps with high branching factors in a system for managing network traffic in a visibility fabric. A high branching factor enables a map to branch out more than two ways. High branching factors can be realized by allowing a map to be affiliated with more than one action set. For example, each rule of the map may be affiliated with a unique action set that is executed only when the corresponding rule is satisfied.

Maps having a high branching factor

An apparatus for a network includes: a processing unit having a filter generation module configured for: receiving an indication that a packet matches a user-defined filter; and creating one or more derivative filters based at least in part on the received indication, wherein a first derivative filter of the one or more derivative filters provides a finer grade of filtration compared to the user-defined filter; and a non-transitory medium configured for storing the one or more derivative filters.

In-fabric traffic analysis

With exponential growth in virtualized traffic within physical data centers, many end users (e.g., individuals and enterprises) have begun moving work processes and data to cloud computing platforms. However, accessing virtualized traffic traversing the cloud computing platforms for application, network, and security analysis is a challenge. Introduced here, therefore, are visibility platforms for monitoring virtualized traffic traversing a cloud computing platform, such as Amazon Web Services, VMware, and OpenStack. A visibility platform can be integrated into a cloud computing platform to provide a coherent view of virtualized traffic in motion across the cloud computing platform for a given end user. Said another way, a visibility platform can intelligently select, filter, and forward virtualized traffic belonging to an end user to a monitoring infrastructure, thereby eliminating traffic blind spots.

Network visibility appliances for cloud computing architectures

Improved network visibility may be achieved by deriving network traffic information from numerous visibility platforms that are communicatively coupled to one another. In some embodiments, an end user interacts with a distributed visibility fabric via a user interface, which can include a high-level representation of each visibility platform. The end user can then map the network objects of each visibility platform onto a series of network visibility appliances. This technique allows certain network objects (e.g., maps) to be intelligently distributed amongst the series of network visibility appliances.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Anil Rao