WAN optimizer for logical networks

• US 9,172,603 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2012
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Padmanabhan, Amar, Zhang, Ronghua, Thakkar, Pankaj, Koponen, Teemu, Casado, Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Kwang B
• Assistant Examiner(s): CASTANEYRA, RICARDO H
• Application Number:
  US13/678,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20130121209A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,076 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/401, 370/235, 370/252, 370/255, 370/236, 370/254, 370/230.1, 370/390, 370/315, 709/203, 709/247
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0889 Techniques to speed-up the configuration process
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/15 Interconnection of switching modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 : Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2503 : Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2517 : using port numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2521 : Translation architectures other than single NAT servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 : NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0218 : Distributed architectures, e.g. distributed firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 : based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a non-transitory machine readable medium of a controller of a network control system for configuring a wide area network (WAN) optimizer instance to implement a WAN optimizer for a logical network. The controller receives a configuration for the WAN optimizer to optimize network data from the logical network for transmission to another WAN optimizer. The controller identifies several other controllers in the network control system on which to implement the logical network. The controller distributes the configuration for implementation on the WAN optimizer.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium of a controller of a network control system, the non-transitory machine readable medium storing sets of instructions for:

receiving network configuration data that specifies a logical network comprising (i) a plurality of logical forwarding elements (LFEs) that logically connect a plurality of end machines to each other, the plurality of end machines residing on a plurality of host machines, wherein each of the host machines hosts a subset of the end machines and (ii) a logical wide area network (WAN) optimizer for optimizing network data transmitted out of the logical network, the network configuration data comprising a configuration for the logical WAN optimizer;

generating data for implementing the LFEs, the generated data for distribution to a plurality of additional network controllers in the network control system, each additional network controller for managing at least one managed forwarding element (MFE) that implements the LFEs to which the end machines residing on the same host machine as the MFE logically connect; and

distributing the configuration for the logical WAN optimizer to a particular network controller in the network control system that manages a WAN optimizer machine, wherein the WAN optimizer machine, based on the configuration for the logical WAN optimizer received from the particular network controller, instantiates a WAN optimizer instance to implement the logical WAN optimizer as one of a plurality of logical WAN optimizers implemented as WAN optimizer instances on the WAN optimizer machine, wherein each logical WAN optimizer instantiated on the WAN optimizer machine couples to a different logical network.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the logical WAN optimizer is a first WAN optimizer, wherein the configuration for the logical WAN optimizer is for optimizing the network data to be transmitted out of the logical network to a second WAN optimizer over a WAN.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the WAN optimizer instance sends the optimized network data to the logical network for the logical network to transmit the network data to the second WAN optimizer over the WAN.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the first WAN optimizer is located in a multi-tenant data center, wherein the second WAN optimizer is part of a private data center.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the network data is destined for a network host coupled to the second WAN optimizer.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration for the logical WAN optimizer specifies a manner of optimizing the network data that passes through the logical WAN optimizer.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the specified manner comprises a manner of compressing the network data that passes through the logical WAN optimizer.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the second WAN optimizer decompresses the network data that was compressed by the logical WAN optimizer.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the specified manner comprises a manner of performing data duplication on the network data.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the network data is transmitted out through the WAN optimizer instance irrespective of whether the network data is specified to be optimized by the WAN optimizer.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the configuration for the logical WAN optimizer comprises a set of policies for directing the network data through the logical network and to the logical WAN optimizer.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the WAN optimizer machine is implemented by an end machine of the logical network.

13. A method for configuring a logical wide area network (WAN) optimizer in a logical network comprising a plurality of logical forwarding elements (LFEs), the method comprising:

receiving a configuration for the logical WAN optimizer that specifies packet filtering rules for optimizing network data transmitted out of the logical network;

generating data for implementing the plurality of LFEs that logically connect a plurality of end machines to each other, the plurality of end machines residing on a plurality of host machines, wherein each of the host machines hosts a subset of the end machines, the generated data for distribution to a plurality of network controllers each of which manages at least one managed forwarding element that implements the logical forwarding elements to which the end machines residing on the same host machine as the managed forwarding element logically connect; and

distributing the configuration for the logical WAN optimizer to a particular network controller that manages a WAN optimizer machine, wherein the WAN optimizer machine, based on the configuration for the logical WAN optimizer received from the particular network controller, instantiates a WAN optimizer instance to implement the logical WAN optimizer as one of a plurality of logical WAN optimizers implemented as WAN optimizer instances on the WAN optimizer machine, wherein each logical WAN optimizer instantiated on the WAN optimizer machine couples to a different logical network.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the packet filtering rules comprise a source Internet Protocol (IP) subnet.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the packet filtering rules comprise a destination IP subnet.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the packet filtering rules comprise a set of ports.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the packet filtering rules comprise data to specify a type of tunnel to be used between the WAN optimizer machine and the managed forwarding elements for transmitting the network data.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the WAN optimizer machine is implemented by an end machine in the logical network.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the end machine is a virtual machine (VM), wherein the particular network controller distributes the configuration data to the VM through a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that is provided by the VM.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein each managed forwarding element is a software forwarding element operating on the host machine.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the managed forwarding element implements the LFEs, to which the end machines residing on the host logically connect, by converting the generated data received from the controller that manages the managed forwarding element to physical forwarding plane that specifies a set of forwarding rules for forwarding data packets between the end machines residing on the host.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the physical forwarding plane comprises a set of forwarding tables, wherein the managed forwarding element uses a table mapping engine to generate the set of forwarding tables.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the controller that manages the managed forwarding element is a controller computer separate from the host machine on which the managed forwarding element operates.