Cisco Technology, Inc.

Christopher C Marino

Patrick A Amor

Juergen Brendel

Pritesh Kothari

A virtual network is overlaid upon physical networks. The virtual network is a layer-2 network that expands an organization's LAN using virtual MAC addresses. A VN device driver shim intercepts LAN packets and their virtual MAC and IP addresses and encapsulates them with physical packets. As new nodes are created, a VN switch table is expanded so that all nodes on the virtual network can reach the new node. A copy of the VN switch table is stored on each node by a virtual network management daemon on the node. A VN configuration controller in a central server updates the VN switch tables. Organizations can expand their virtual network as nodes are created at remote cloud computing providers without action by the staff at the cloud computing provider. Hybrid cloud virtual networks include on-premises physical and virtual-machine nodes, and off-premises guest nodes and instances.

User-configured on-demand virtual layer-2 network for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) on a hybrid cloud network

A layer-3 virtual router connects two or more virtual networks. Virtual networks are overlaid upon physical networks. Each virtual network (VN) is a layer-2 network that appears to expand an organization's LAN using virtual MAC addresses. The network stack forms a virtual-network packet with a virtual gateway MAC address of the virtual router to reach a remote virtual network. A VN device driver shim intercepts packets and their virtual MAC and IP addresses and encapsulates them with physical packets sent over the Internet. A VN switch table is expanded to include entries for nodes on the remote virtual network so that all nodes on both virtual networks are accessible. A copy of the VN switch table is stored on each node by a virtual network management daemon on the node. A Time-To-Live field in the virtual-network packet is decremented for each virtual hop and a checksum recalculated.

Fully distributed routing over a user-configured on-demand virtual network for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) on hybrid cloud networks

A virtual network is overlaid upon physical networks. The virtual network is a layer-2 network that appears to expand an organization's LAN using virtual MAC addresses. A VN device driver shim intercepts LAN packets and their virtual MAC and IP addresses and encapsulates them with physical packets that can be routed over the Internet. As new nodes are created, a VN switch table is expanded so that all nodes on the virtual network can reach the new node. A copy of the VN switch table is stored on each node by a virtual network management daemon on the node. A VN configuration controller in a central server updates the VN switch tables. Organizations can expand their virtual network as nodes are created at remote cloud computing providers without action by the staff at the cloud computing provider. Hybrid cloud virtual networks include on-premises physical and virtual-machine nodes, and off-premises guest nodes and instances.

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Mill Valley, CA, United States of America

Christopher C Marino