System and method for performing a service discovery for virtual networks

• US 9,264,313 B1
• Filed: 10/31/2013
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Manuguri, Subrahmanyam, Sengupta, Anirban, Khan, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong, Frank
• Application Number:
  US14/069,299
• Time in Patent Office: 838 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/00 Reducing energy consumption in communication networks

Abstract

A system and method for performing a service discovery on a distributed computer system includes obtaining information of a service that is provided by a host computer in the distributed computer system and embedding the information into a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) data frame to be transmitted from the host computer to another component of the distributed computer system.

Claims

1. A method for performing a service discovery for a distributed computer system, the method comprising:

obtaining information of a service that is provided by a host computer in the distributed computer system;

embedding the information into a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) data frame to be transmitted from the host computer to another component of the distributed computer system;

intercepting the LLDP data frame at a network device; and

at the network device, decoding the LLDP data frame and embedding the information into a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) data frame.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is provided by a client running on the host computer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the client includes a virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the information describes a virtual application service that is provided by the client running on the host computer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the virtual application service is a virtual proxy service or a virtual networking service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein embedding the information into the LLDP data frame comprises embedding the information into the LLDP data frame as a set of Type-Length-Values (TLVs).

7. The method of claim 6, wherein embedding the information into the LLDP data frame comprises embedding the set of TLVs into a payload section of the LLDP data frame.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of TLVs comprises a TLV type section, a TLV information string length section and a TLV information string.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decoding the LLDP data frame to locate the information; and

populating a database of a second host computer in the distributed computer system with the information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

exchanging the LLDP data frame between the host computer and a second host computer in the distributed computer system over an L2 network; and

at the second host computer, decoding the LLDP data frame to locate the information and populating a database of the second host computer with the information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device is situated between an L2 network and an L3 network.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing program instructions for performing a service discovery on a distributed computer system, wherein execution of the program instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

obtaining information of a service that is provided by a host computer in the distributed computer system;

embedding the information into a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) data frame to be transmitted from the host computer to another component of the distributed computer system;

intercepting the LLDP data frame at a network device; and

at the network device, decoding the LLDP data frame and embedding the information into a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) data frame.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the network device is situated between an L2 network and an L3 network.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the service is provided by a virtual machine running on the host computer, and wherein the information describes a virtual application service that is provided by the client running on the host computer.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein embedding the information into the LLDP data frame comprises embedding the information into a payload section of the LLDP data frame as a set of Type-Length-Values (TLVs).

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the steps further comprise:

decoding the LLDP data frame to locate the information; and

populating a database of a second host computer in the distributed computer system with the information.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the steps further comprise:

exchanging the LLDP data frame between the host computer and a second host computer in the distributed computer system over an L2 network; and

at the second host computer, decoding the LLDP data frame to locate the information and populating a database of the second host computer with the information.

18. A distributed computer system for performing a service discovery comprising:

a computer system including;

a processor; and

a service discovery module operably connected to the processor, wherein the service discovery module is configured to;

obtain information of a service that is provided by a host computer in the distributed computer system; and

embed the information into a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) data frame to be transmitted from the host computer to another component of the distributed computer system; and

a network device configured to intercept the LLDP data frame at a network device, the network device being further configured to decode the LLDP data frame and embed the information into a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) data frame.