METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTED DYNAMIC NETWORK PROVISIONING

• US 20100165877A1
• Filed: 12/30/2008
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Shukla, Amit, Xu, Xiangwen
• Granted Patent: US 8,331,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a device identifier associated with a virtual resource, determining a configuration template identifier based on the device identifier, and selecting a configuration template from a library of configuration templates based on the configuration template identifier. The receiving, determining, and selecting are at a network device. The virtual resource is hosted by a host device. The device identifier is received from the host device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving at a network device a device identifier associated with a virtual resource from a host device, the virtual resource hosted by the host device;

determining at the network device a configuration template identifier based on the device identifier; and

selecting at the network device a configuration template from a library of configuration templates based on the configuration template identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes extracting the configuration template identifier from the device identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the device identifier includes a first portion and a second portion, the first portion being the configuration template identifier; and

the determining includes selecting the first portion of the device identifier as the configuration template identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes providing the device identifier to a mask module configured to produce the configuration template identifier based on a logical combination of the device identifier and a mask value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes accessing the configuration template identifier from a database based on the device identifier, the database including a plurality of configuration template identifiers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes accessing the configuration template identifier from a database based on a hash value, the hash value produced based on the device identifier and a hash function, the database including a plurality of configuration template identifiers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting includes searching a database based on the configuration template identifier, the database storing the library of configuration templates such that each configuration template from the library of configuration templates can be accessed based on a configuration template identifier associated with that configuration template.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the device identifier is a media access control address of the virtual resource including the configuration template identifier.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the device identifier is a first device identifier, and the virtual resource is a first virtual resource, the method further comprising:

receiving at the network device a second device identifier associated with a second virtual resource from the host device, the second virtual resource hosted by the second host device;

determining the configuration template identifier from the second device identifier; and

selecting the configuration template from the library of configuration templates based on the configuration template identifier.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising provisioning a virtual switch module in communication with the virtual resource at the host device based on the configuration template.

11. A method, comprising:

receiving a configuration template identifier, the configuration template identifier being associated with a configuration template having a network parameter;

producing a device identifier based on the configuration template identifier and a nonce; and

uniquely associating the device identifier with a virtual resource such that the virtual resource is identifiable based on the device identifier.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the device identifier is a first device identifier, the virtual resource is a first virtual resource, and the nonce is a first nonce, the method further comprising:

producing a second device identifier based on the configuration template identifier and a second nonce such that the configuration template identifier is encoded in the device identifier; and

uniquely associating the second device identifier with a second virtual resource.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the virtual resource is associated with a virtual local area network; and

the network parameter is a virtual local area network identifier of the virtual local area network.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the virtual resource includes a media access control address; and

the uniquely associating includes designating the device identifier as the media access control address of the virtual resource.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the producing is at least partially reversible such that the configuration template identifier can be extracted from the device identifier.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration template includes an access control list associated with access to the virtual resource over a communication network.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving a configuration template identifier associated with a configuration template;

generating a nonce;

producing a device identifier based on a combination of the configuration template identifier and the nonce; and

storing the device identifier as a medium access control address of the virtual resource.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the device identifier is configured to uniquely identify the virtual resource in a network, the network including a plurality of virtual resource in communication with a switch fabric via a first access switch and a second access switch.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the configuration template identifier is represented by a first bit vector;

the nonce is represented by a second bit vector; and

the producing includes logically combining the first bit vector and the second bit vector.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising storing the configuration template in a memory accessible to a network device.