Patent · US Active

Physical path determination for virtual network packet flows

US9898317B2 · kind B2 · utility

107Cited by
33References
22Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 5, 2013
Grant dateFeb 20, 2018
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 20, 2033

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L61/103
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

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.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.