In general, techniques are described for configuring and managing virtual networks. For example, a distributed virtual network controller is described that configures and manages an overlay network within a physical network formed by plurality of switches. A plurality of servers are interconnected by the switch fabric, each of the servers comprising an operating environment executing one or more virtual machines in communication via the overlay networks. The servers comprises a set of virtual switches that extends the overlay network as a virtual network to the operating environment of the virtual machines. The controller may instruct the servers and the virtual switches to perform various operations, such as determining a physical network path taken by packets of a network packet flow, determining latency through the network, re-routing traffic in the virtual network due to network events, replicating traffic for multicasting, providing multi-tenant services to support multiple virtual networks, monitoring and logging traffic characteristics within the virtual networks and other operations.

Physical path determination for virtual network packet flows

An apparatus comprising a service network and a plurality of Layer 2 networks at a plurality of different physical locations coupled to the service network via a plurality of edge nodes at the Layer 2 networks, wherein the edge nodes are configured to maintain a plurality of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of a plurality of hosts across the Layer 2 networks, and wherein the IP addresses of the hosts in each of the Layer 2 networks are mapped by the other Layer 2 networks to a Media Access Control (MAC) address of each of the edge nodes in the same Layer 2 networks of the hosts.

Virtual Layer 2 and Mechanism to Make it Scalable

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a port that couples to a server hosting a number of virtual machines. The switch also includes a set of virtual port grouping information and a virtual port grouping mechanism. During operation, the virtual port grouping mechanism determines whether a frame is traveling from a virtual port group to the same virtual port group. If the frame is not traveling to the same virtual port group, the virtual port grouping mechanism prevents the frame from being forwarded.

Virtual port grouping for virtual cluster switching

An apparatus comprising a plurality of district boundary bridges (DBBs) in a plurality of second network districts configured to couple to a plurality of core bridges in a core network district and to a plurality of end-stations in the second network districts via a plurality of intermediate switches in the second network districts; wherein the core bridges and the DBBs are aware of a plurality of Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of the DBBs but are not aware of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and MAC addresses of the end-stations, and wherein the IP addresses of the end-stations are mapped in a directory service (DS) in the core network district to the MAC addresses of the corresponding DBBs in the corresponding second network districts of the end-stations.

Delegate gateways and proxy for target hosts in large layer 2 and address resolution with duplicated internet protocol addresses

Techniques are provided to enable a switch in a layer-2 multipath network to determine connectivity of a path to a destination switch At a source switch, user flow parameters are determined for user flow packets to be transported in the layer-2 multipath network to a destination switch The sourced switch determines a number of hops from it to the destination switch based on the user flow parameters Timestamping is activated for time-to-live expiry packets received at the source switch and for time-to-live expiry packets received at the destination switch One or more probe packets having user flow parameters matching the user flow parameters of user flow packets are generated so that the probe packets use the same path taken by the user flow packets between the source switch and the destination switch In addition, a time-to-live value corresponding to the number of hops from the source switch to the destination switch is included in a hop count field of the one or more probe packets The time-to-live value distinguishes the one or more probe packets from user flow packets The one or more probe packets are sent in the layer-2 multipath network from the source switch to the destination switch Connectivity between the source switch and the destination switch is determined based on the one or more probe packets

Probing Specific Customer Flow in Layer-2 Multipath Networks

A network architecture provides Ethernet services over a Fibre Channel (FC) storage area network infrastructure. The fabric provides transparent bridging services to Ethernet end stations connected at the edge of the FC fabric via multi-protocol switches that support Ethernet over Fibre Channel (EoFC) technology. An Ethernet frame is received from a first Ethernet edge network by an ingress Ethernet port of a first virtual bridge and is encapsulated in a FC frame shell to form an EoFC frame. The EoFC frame is then transmitted out an egress FC port of the first virtual bridge and routed through the FC fabric using an FC routing protocol. When the encapsulated frame reaches an ingress FC port of a second virtual bridge, the EoFC frame is de-encapsulated to yield the original Ethernet frame, which is transmitted out an egress Ethernet port of the second virtual bridge into a second Ethernet edge network.

Ethernet over fibre channel

A system is provided for facilitating remote load balancing in a high-availability network During operation, the system receives a plurality of data frames destined for a destination device, wherein the destination device is coupled to a network via a trunk link, the trunk link coupling the destination device to at least two separate egress switching devices The system then forwards the data frames via at least two data paths, each of which leads to a respective egress switching device

Method and system for remote load balancing in high-availability networks

A switch that facilitates remote port mirroring is described. The switch can include an encapsulation mechanism and a forwarding mechanism. The encapsulation mechanism can be configured to encapsulate a copy of a first packet in a second packet, thereby preserving header information (e.g., a VLAN identifier and/or a TRILL header) of the first packet. The forwarding mechanism can be configured to forward the first packet using header information of the first packet, and forward the second packet using header information of the second packet. The second packet can be received at a destination switch which extracts the first packet from the second packet, and sends the first packet on a port which is coupled to a network analyzer.

Remote port mirroring

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a forwarding mechanism and a control mechanism. During operation, the forwarding mechanism forwards frames based on their Ethernet headers. The control mechanism operates the switch in conjunction with a separate physical switch as a single logical switch and assigns a virtual switch identifier to the logical switch, wherein the virtual switch identifier is associated with a link aggregation group.

Method and system for link aggregation across multiple switches

Systems and techniques for processing and forwarding packets are described. Some embodiments provide a system (e.g., a switch) which determines an internal virtual network identifier and/or an internal policy identifier for a packet based on a port on which the packet was received and/or one or more fields in the packet. The system can then process and forward the packet based on the internal virtual network identifier and/or internal policy identifier. In some embodiments, the system encapsulates the packet in a TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) packet by adding a TRILL header to the packet. In some embodiments, the scope of an internal virtual network identifier and/or an internal policy identifier may not extend beyond a switch or a module within a switch.

John Michael Terry

Papers

Ethernet over fibre channel

Method and system for remote load balancing in high-availability networks

Remote port mirroring

Method and system for link aggregation across multiple switches

Internal virtual network identifier and internal policy identifier