Nicira, Inc.

Vmware, Inc.

W Andrew Lambeth

Teemu Koponen

Martin Casado

Pankaj Thakkar

Justin Pettit

Jesse Ernest Gross, Iv

Amar Padmanabhan

Jeremy Stribling

Jun Xiao

Keith Eric Amidon

Bruce Davie

Anupam Dalal

Alexander Yip

Borislav Deianov

Ronghua Zhang

Natasha Gude

Amit Vasant Patil

James Joseph Stabile

Prasad Sharad Dabak

Peter J Balland, Iii

Paul Ingram

Vasantha Kumar Dhanasekar

Ganesan Chandrashekhar

Igor Ganichev

Laxmikant Vithal Gunda

Jayant Jain

Sami Boutros

Mani Kancherla

Alan Shieh

Sachin Mohan Vaidya

Kausum Kumar

Farzad Ghannadian

Daniel J Wendlandt

Paul Fazzone

Tea Liukkonen-Olmiala

Kapil Goyal

Iii Balland Peter J

Peter J Iii Balland

Some embodiments provide a system that detects whether a data flow is an elephant flow; and if so, the system treats it differently than a mouse flow. The system of some embodiments detects an elephant flow by examining, among other items, the operations of a machine. In detecting, the system identifies an initiation of a new data flow associated with the machine. The new data flow can be an outbound data flow or an inbound data flow. The system then determines, based on the amount of data being sent or received, if the data flow is an elephant flow. The system of some embodiments identifies the initiation of a new data flow by intercepting a socket call or request to transfer a file.

Inspecting operations of a machine to detect elephant flows

Some embodiments provide a forwarding element that detects and handles elephant flows. In detecting, the forwarding element of some embodiments monitors statistics or measurements relating to a data flow. In handling, the forwarding element marks each packet associated with a detected elephant flow in some manner to differentiate it from a packet associated with a mouse flow. Alternatively, the forwarding element of break elephant flows into a number mouse flow by facilitating in sending packets associated with the detected elephant flow along different paths.

Detecting and handling large flows

Some embodiments of the invention provide a novel method of tunneling data packets. The method establishes a tunnel between a first forwarding element and a second forwarding element. For each data packet directed to the second forwarding element from the first forwarding element, the method encapsulates the data packet with a header that includes a tunnel option. The method then sends the data packet from the first forwarding element to the second forwarding element through the established tunnel. In some embodiments, the data packet is encapsulated using a protocol that is adapted to change with different control plane implementations and the implementations' varying needs for metadata.

Encapsulating data packets using an adaptive tunnelling protocol

A method for managing a managed forwarding element (MFE) that forwards data in a network. A network controller publishes, to the MFE, a first set of data for configuring the MFE to perform a set of forwarding operations. The network controller collects, from the MFE, a second set of data regarding current operational state of the MFE. The network controller identifies a difference between a desired operational state of the MFE maintained by the network controller and the collected current operational state of the MFE. Based on the identified difference, the network controller publishes a new third set of data for configuring the MFE to adjust the current operational state of the MFE to the desired state.

Distributed network control system with one master controller per logical datapath set

For a network control system that receives, from a user, logical datapath sets that logically express desired forwarding behaviors that are to be implemented by a set of managed switching elements, a controller for managing several managed switching elements that forward data in a network that includes the managed switching elements is described. The controller includes a set of modules for detecting a change in one or more managed switching elements and for updating logical datapath set based on the detected change. The logical datapath set is for subsequent translation into a set of physical forwarding behaviors of the managed switching elements.

Network control apparatus and method for populating logical datapath sets

Methods and systems for implementing private allocated networks in a virtual infrastructure are presented. One method operation creates virtual switches in one or more hosts in the virtual infrastructure. Each port in the virtual switches is associated with a private allocated network (PAN) from a group of possible PANs. In one embodiment, one or more PANs share the same physical media for data transmission. The intranet traffic within each PAN is not visible to nodes that are not connected to the each PAN. In another operation, the method defines addressing mode tables for the intranet traffic within each PAN. The entries in the addressing mode tables define addressing functions for routing the intranet traffic between the virtual switches, and different types of addressing functions are supported by the virtual switches.

Private allocated networks over shared communications infrastructure

Some embodiments provide a method for visualizing a realization status of configuration changes for a set of logical entities of a logical network. The method generates a first presentation of a list of logical entities and a realization status for each logical entity in the list, where the realization status indicates whether all configuration changes for the logical entity have been realized. In response to a selection of a particular logical entity in the displayed list for which at least one configuration change has not been realized, the method generates a second presentation comprising a view of pending configuration changes for the selected particular logical entity.

Visual tracking of logical network state

A method of implementing a logical switching element. The method generates data for programming a set of two or more physical forwarding elements to implement the logical switching element. The method uses a first controller to distribute at least a first portion of the generated data to a first plurality of physical forwarding elements in the set of physical forwarding elements. The first controller serves as the master controller for the first plurality of physical forwarding elements. The method uses a second controller to distribute at least a second portion of the generated data to a second plurality of physical forwarding elements in the set of physical forwarding elements. The second controller serves as the master controller for the second plurality of physical forwarding elements.

Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for managing logical forwarding elements (LFEs) implemented by multiple physical forwarding elements (PFEs) operating on multiple devices, each LFE including multiple logical ports. On a host computer executing a particular machine connected to the LFE and a PFE implementing the LFE, the method identifies an address discovery message associating a particular network address of the particular machine with another network address of the particular machine. The method identifies an LFE logical port associated with the particular machine, stores in an encapsulation header an identifier that identifies this port, and then forwards the encapsulated message to a set of one or more devices implementing the LFE for the devices to use in processing data messages associated with the particular machine.

Fast distribution of port identifiers for rule processing

Encapsulating data packets using an adaptive tunneling protocol

Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for implementing a logical network with one or more logical forwarding elements (LFEs), each with multiple logical ports. Each LFE in some embodiments is implemented by several physical forwarding elements (PFEs) operating on several devices. On a host computer executing a particular machine connected to a PFE implementing a particular LFE, the method identifies an address discovery message associating a particular network address (e.g., a layer 2 (L2) address or media access control (MAC) address) of the particular machine with a another network address (e.g., a layer 3 (L3) or an Internet Protocol (IP) address) of the particular machine. The method identifies an LFE logical port associated with the particular machine, stores in an encapsulation header an identifier that identifies this port, encapsulates the address discovery data message with this encapsulation header, and then forwards the encapsulated message to a set of one or more devices implementing the LFE. Each device in the set of devices extracts the logical port identifier from the encapsulation header and stores this logical port identifier for use in processing data messages associated with the particular machine.

Growing community of inventors

San Mateo, CA, United States of America

W Andrew Lambeth