Virtual Machine-To-Port Peripheral Device Driver

• US 20170097842A1
• Filed: 12/30/2015
• Published: 04/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bugenhagen, Michael K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,078,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4072 Drivers or receivers G06F13/4086 takes precedence; for multistate logic circuits H03K19/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques might provide for implementing communications between two or more virtual machines (“VMs”) and client devices coupled to one or more ports. In some embodiments, an orchestration agent running on a host computing system might configure, using a VM-to-Port driver, a physical port of the host device to establish two or more virtual ports associated with the physical port, and might map, using the VM-to-Port driver, each of two or more VMs running on the host computing system with corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports. When a client device is communicatively coupled to the physical port, the orchestration agent might map, using the VM-to-Port driver, each of the two or more VMs with one or more functions of the client device via corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports associated with the physical port to which the client device is communicatively coupled.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

configuring, with an orchestration agent running on a host computing system of a host device and using a virtual-machine (“

VM”

)-to-port peripheral device driver, a physical port of the host device to establish two or more virtual ports that are associated with the physical port; and

mapping, with the orchestration agent and using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver, each of two or more VMs running on the host computing system with corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports associated with the physical port.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, when a client device is communicatively coupled to the physical port, mapping each of the two or more VMs with corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports associated with the physical port comprises mapping, with the orchestration agent and using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver, each of the two or more VMs with one or more functions of the client device via corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports associated with the physical port to which the client device is communicatively coupled.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more functions of the client device comprise at least one of an activation function, an operation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, or an operations, administration, and management (“

OAM”

) function.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the orchestration agent is an orchestrator in a host layer of the host computing system that controls the host computing system and enables peripheral device configuration for enabling the one or more functions of the client device to be mapped to each of the two or more VMs.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

allocating, with the orchestration agent, using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver, and to each of the two or more VMs, resource usage times for the client device that is communicatively coupled to the physical port.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein allocating to each of the two or more VMs resource usage times for the client device comprises scheduling, with the orchestration agent and using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver, time slices to each of the two or more VMs during which each VM can use resources associated with the client device that is communicatively coupled to the physical port.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the client device is a device selected from a group consisting of a small form factor pluggable (“

SFP”

) device, an enhanced SFP (“

SFP+”

) device, a compact SFP (“

CSFP”

) device, a gigabit interface converter (“

GBIC”

), and a universal serial bus (“

USB”

) pluggable device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the SFP device, the SFP+ device, or the CSFP device comprises at least one of a SFP network interface device (“

NID”

), a SFP router, a SFP modem, or a SFP wireless access point.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the USB pluggable device comprises one of a printer, a scanner, a combination printer/scanner device, an external hard drive, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a drawing interface device, or a mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the host device is a device selected from a group consisting of a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi device, a kernel-based virtual machine (“

KVM”

)-based host machine, an ESX-based host machine, and an ESXi-based host machine.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM-to-port peripheral device driver is a virtual network function (“

VNF”

).

12. A host device, comprising:

one or more physical ports;

a host computing system, comprising;

at least one processor;

at least one non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the host computing system to;

configure, using a virtual-machine (“

VM”

)-to-port peripheral device driver, at least one physical port of the one or more physical ports to establish two or more virtual ports that are associated with the at least one physical port; and

map, using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver, each of two or more VMs running on the host computing system with corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports associated with the at least one physical port.

13. The host device of claim 12, wherein, when a client device is communicatively coupled to a particular physical port of the at least one physical port, mapping each of the two or more VMs with corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports associated with the at least one physical port comprises mapping, using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver, each of the two or more VMs with one or more functions of the client device via corresponding each of the two or more virtual ports associated with the particular physical port to which the client device is communicatively coupled.

14. The host device of claim 13, wherein the one or more functions of the client device comprise at least one of an activation function, an operation function, a deletion function, a specialized function, or an operations, administration, and management (“

OAM”

) function.

15. The host device of claim 13, wherein the host computing system comprises an orchestrator in a host layer of the host computing system, and wherein the orchestrator controls the host computing system and enables peripheral device configuration for enabling the one or more functions of the client device to be mapped to each of the two or more VMs.

16. The host device of claim 13, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further causes the host computing system to:

allocate, using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver and to each of the two or more VMs, resource usage times for the client device that is communicatively coupled to the particular physical port.

17. The host device of claim 16, wherein allocating to each of the two or more VMs resource usage times for the client device comprises scheduling, using the VM-to-port peripheral device driver, time slices to each of the two or more VMs during which each VM can use resources associated with the client device that is communicatively coupled to the particular physical port.

18. The host device of claim 13, wherein the client device is a device selected from a group consisting of a small form factor pluggable (“

SFP”

) device, an enhanced SFP (“

SFP+”

) device, a compact SFP (“

CSFP”

) device, a gigabit interface converter (“

GBIC”

), and a universal serial bus (“

USB”

) pluggable device.

19. The host device of claim 18, wherein at least one of the SFP device, the SFP+ device, or the CSFP device comprises a SFP network interface device (“

NID”

), a SFP router, a SFP modem, or a SFP wireless access point.

20. The host device of claim 18, wherein the USB pluggable device comprises one of a printer, a scanner, a combination printer/scanner device, an external hard drive, a camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a drawing interface device, or a mobile device.

21. The host device of claim 12, wherein the host device is a device selected from a group consisting of a router, a switch, a network element, a demarcation device, a WiFi device, a kernel-based virtual machine (“

KVM”

)-based host machine, an ESX-based host machine, and an ESXi-based host machine.

22. The host device of claim 12, wherein the VM-to-port peripheral device driver is a virtual network function (“

VNF”

).