Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

Timothy M Ireland

Mark A Parenti

Mathieu Riverin

Rajaseelan Manavalan

Uyen Chau

David C Fogaren, Jr

Marek Tomasz Telus

Simon McCormack

Richard Ings

One aspect of the instant application facilitates automatic policy engine selection. During operation, a system can monitor a network including a set of network devices. The system can receive, based on the monitoring, a set of attributes associated with the network. At least two network devices are equipped with a different policy enforcement engine for enforcing one or more given policy rules. The system can apply a unified policy model to determine, based on the set of attributes, an assignment of the one or more given policy rules to the first policy enforcement engine and the second policy enforcement engine for providing an optimized policy enforcement. The system may then select based on the assignment, one or both of the first policy enforcement engine and the second policy enforcement engine. The system may activate the selected one or both policy enforcement engines for enforcing the given policy rules.

Automatic policy engine selection

One aspect described in this application provides a unified policy broker. During operation, the system receives configuration information from the set of network devices. At least two network devices in the network can be equipped with a first and a second policy enforcement engine, respectively, for enforcing one or more given policy rules. The system can determine, based on the configuration information, a first and a second representation of the similar policy function corresponding to the first and the second policy enforcement engine, respectively. The system can apply a unified policy model to perform a first mapping from a unified representation of the similar policy function to the first and the second representation. The system can create a unified API based on the unified representation. The system applies, via a user interface, the unified API to configure the similar policy function across the first and the second policy enforcement engines.

Unified policy broker

A system to facilitate identification of intermediate switches within a network switching fabric is described. The system includes a processor and a machine readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to discover a host neighbor advertisement message received at a network virtualization infrastructure from an intermediary switch, receive a neighbor advertisement message from the intermediary switch via a top of rack (TOR) switch and identify a location of the intermediary switch within the network switching fabric based on the host neighbor advertisement message and the neighbor advertisement message.

Intermediate switch identification

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Westford, MA, United States of America

Timothy M Ireland