ENTERPRISE NETWORK SERVICES OVER DISTRIBUTED CLOUDS

• US 20130305344A1
• Filed: 05/14/2012
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent India Limited (Nokia Corporation), Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Koppol, Pramod V., Alicherry, Mansoor
• Application Number:
  US13/471,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20130305344A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks

Abstract

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: determining that a new virtual gateway location should be created; selecting a data center of a plurality of data centers to host the new virtual gateway location; and establishing a virtual gateway at the selected data center, wherein the virtual gateway is configured to provide at least one device with connectivity to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and connectivity to the Internet.

Claims

1. A method performed by a cloud controller for providing a network service, the method comprising:

determining that a new virtual gateway location should be created;

selecting a data center of a plurality of data centers to host the new virtual gateway location; and

establishing a virtual gateway at the selected data center, wherein the virtual gateway is configured to provide at least one device with connectivity to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and connectivity to the Internet.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a virtual remote access gateway at the selected data center, wherein the virtual remote access gateway is configured to provide a device outside the VPN with access to the VPN.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a virtual firewall at the selected data center, wherein the virtual firewall is configured to filter traffic associated with the virtual gateway.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining that a new virtual gateway location should be created comprises receiving an instruction to create a new virtual gateway location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining that a new virtual gateway location should be created comprises:

receiving, from an enterprise server, a virtual site policy, wherein the virtual site policy includes criteria for determining when a new virtual gateway location should be created; and

determining that the criteria have been met by the current state of the Virtual Private Network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one device includes customer premise equipment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a data center of a plurality of data centers to host the new virtual gateway location is performed based on the geographic distance between the data center and the at least one device.

8. A method performed by at least one cloud device for providing a network service, the method comprising:

hosting a gateway virtual machine, wherein the gateway virtual machine performs the steps of;

receiving, via an interface of the at least one cloud device, a first packet to be forwarded;

extracting a destination address from the packet;

determining whether the destination address corresponds to a remote enterprise site or a device on the Internet;

transmitting the first packet to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) router based on a correspondence between the destination address and a remote enterprise site; and

transmitting the first packet to a border gateway based on a correspondence between the destination address.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the gateway virtual machine receives the first packet from a customer premise equipment device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one cloud device further hosts a remote access gateway virtual machine that performs the steps of:

receiving a second packet from the Border Gateway; and

forwarding the second packet to a device connected to the VPN.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one cloud device further hosts a firewall virtual machine that filters packets associated with the gateway virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of transmitting the first packet to a border gateway comprises performing network address translation (NAT).

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising advertising, by the gateway virtual machine to the border gateway, a route to a device from which the first packet originated.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the VPN router and the border gateway are virtual machines hosted by the at least one cloud device.

15. A cloud controller for providing a network service, the cloud controller comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively connected to the memory configured to;

determine that a new virtual gateway location should be created,

select a data center of a plurality of data centers to host the new virtual gateway location, and

establish a virtual gateway at the selected data center, wherein the virtual gateway is configured to provide at least one device with connectivity to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and connectivity to the Internet.

16. The cloud controller of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to establish a virtual remote access gateway at the selected data center, wherein the virtual remote access gateway is configured to provide a device outside the VPN with access to the VPN.

17. The cloud controller of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to establish a virtual firewall at the selected data center, wherein the virtual firewall is configured to filter traffic associated with the virtual gateway.

18. The cloud controller of claim 15, wherein, in determining that a new virtual gateway location should be created, the processor is configured to:

receive, from an enterprise server, a virtual site policy, wherein the virtual site policy includes criteria for determining when a new virtual gateway location should be created; and

determine that the criteria have been met by the current state of the Virtual Private Network.

19. The cloud controller of claim 15, wherein the at least one device includes customer premise equipment.

20. The cloud controller of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to perform the selection of a data center of a plurality of data centers to host the new virtual gateway location based on the geographic distance between the data center and the at least one device.