Vmware, Inc.

Nicira, Inc.

Alcatel Lucent

Stephen Tan

Rahul Mishra

Senthilkumar Karunakaran

Akhila Naveen

Sami Boutros

Chidambareswaran Raman

Subin Cyriac Mathew

Kantesh Mundaragi

Meenakshi Sundaram Selvaraj

Raju Koganty

Pierluigi Rolando

Jayant Jain

Xinhua Hong

Kai-Wei Fan

Anil Lohiya

Vijayalaxmi Basavaraj

Haihua Luo

Satyam Sinha

Abhishek Mishra

Praveen Vasant Muley

Tiberiu Grigoriu

Benjamin David Washam

Sumedh Saurav

Bassem M Abdouni

Boovaraghavan Ranganathan

Praveen Muley

Benjamin Washam

Some embodiments of the invention provide novel methods for providing transparent services for multicast data messages traversing a network edge device operating at a boundary between two networks. The method analyzes data messages received at the network edge device to determine whether they require a service provided at the boundary and whether they are unicast or multicast (including broadcast). The method modifies a multicast destination media access control (MAC) address of a multicast data message requiring a service to be a unicast destination MAC address and provides, without processing by a standard routing function, the modified data message directly to an interface associated with a service node that provides the particular service required by the data message. The method receives the serviced data message, restores the multicast destination MAC address, and forwards the serviced data message to a set of destinations associated with the multicast destination address.

Service insertion for multicast traffic at boundary

A method for offloading multicast replication from multiple tiers of edge nodes implemented by multiple host machines to a physical switch is provided. Each of the multiple host machines implements a provider edge node and a tenant edge node. One host machine among the multiple host machines receives a packet having an overlay multicast group identifier. The host machine maps the overlay multicast group identifier to an underlay multicast group identifier. The host machine encapsulates the packet with an encapsulation header that includes the underlay multicast group identifier to create an encapsulated packet. The host machine forwards the encapsulated packet to a physical switch of the network segment. The physical switch forwards copies of the encapsulated packet to tenant edge nodes at one or more ports that are determined to be interested in the underlay multicast group identifier.

Scalable overlay multicast routing in multi-tier edge gateways

In an embodiment, a method for a VRF and multi-service insertion on edge gateways is described. In an embodiment, the method comprises obtaining a rule configuration. Based on, at least in part, the rule configuration, a rule table is created. The rule table comprises rule data records, wherein a rule data record comprises packet attributes and a redirection identifier. A policy configuration comprising policy records is obtained. Each policy record comprises a redirection identifier, a next_hop, and an address pair for interfaces. A mapping between VRF identifiers and address pairs is generated. Based on, at least in part, the mapping and the policy configuration, a policy table is generated. The policy table comprises table records, wherein a table record comprises a redirection identifier, a next_hop, and an address pair. The rule and policy tables are used to redirect a packet from an edge gateway to a service virtual machine.

Multi-VRF and multi-service insertion on edge gateway virtual machines

A method of transmitting multicast traffic to workloads of tenants communicating over overlay networks provisioned on top of a physical network includes the steps of: detecting the multicast traffic; determining that the multicast traffic is bound for workloads of a first tenant and workloads of a second tenant; encapsulating one instance of the multicast traffic using a Layer 2 (L2) over Layer 3 (L3) encapsulation protocol to generate encapsulated traffic, wherein the encapsulated traffic includes an identifier of a first backplane network corresponding to the first tenant and an identifier of a second backplane network corresponding to the second tenant in a header portion of each packet of the encapsulated traffic; and transmitting, to a first host computing device, the encapsulated traffic with the identifiers of the first and second overlay networks.

Multicast routing through multi-tier edge gateways

A network system that uses a cluster of edge nodes to send and receive multicast traffic is provided. The network system is a network virtualization environment that includes one or more distributed routers, each distributed router implemented by virtualization software running on one or more host machines. The network system also includes a cluster of edge nodes for sending data from the one or more distributed routers to one or more uplink/upstream physical routers outside of a datacenter and for receiving data from the physical routers to the distributed routers. One of the edge nodes is a designated edge node that queries for membership information for one or more multicast groups to be received by at least two edge nodes of the cluster of edge nodes. The cluster of edge nodes forwards multicast traffic to and from the distributed routers according to the received membership information.

Active-active support of multicast streams in virtualized environment

The disclosure provides an approach for reducing congestion within a network, the network comprising a plurality of subnets, the plurality of subnets comprising a plurality of host machines and a plurality of virtual computing instances (VCIs) running on the plurality of host machines. Embodiments include receiving, by an edge services gateway (ESG) of a first subnet of the plurality of subnets, membership information for a group identifying a subset of the plurality of host machines. Embodiments include receiving a multicast packet directed to the group and selecting from the plurality of host machines, a replicator host machine for the multicast packet. Embodiments include sending, to the replicator host machine, the multicast packet along with metadata indicating that the replicator host machine is to replicate the multicast packet to remaining host machines of the subset of the plurality of host machines identified in the membership information for the group.

Scalable overlay multicast routing

Some embodiments provide a method for detecting a failure of a layer 2 (L2) bump-in-the-wire service at a device. In some embodiments, the device sends heartbeat signals to a second device connected to L2 service nodes in order to detect failure of the L2 service (e.g., a failure of all the service nodes). In some embodiments, the heartbeat signals are unidirectional heartbeat signals (e.g., a unidirectional bidirectional-forwarding-detection (BFD) session) sent from each device to the other. The heartbeat signals, in some embodiments, use a broadcast MAC address in order to reach the current active L2 service node in the case of a failover (i.e., an active service node failing and a standby service node becoming the new active service node). The unidirectional heartbeat signals are also used, in some embodiments, to decrease the time between a failover and data messages being forwarded to the new active service node.

Detecting failure of layer 2 service using broadcast messages

A method for providing two-channel-based high-availability in a cluster of nodes is disclosed. In an embodiment, a method comprises: initiating, by a local control plane executing on a first node, a first state for an underlay control channel and a second state for a management control channel; detecting a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) control packet from a second node; determining whether the BFD control packet has been received from the underlay control channel; in response to determining that the BFD control packet was received from the underlay control channel: parsing the BFD control packet to extract a first diagnostic code; updating the first state with the first diagnostic code; determining whether both the first state and the second state indicate a need to switch services configured on the second node; in response to the determining, initiating a switchover of services configured on the second node.

Two-channel-based high-availability

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Stephen Tan