Centralized Overlay Gateway for Transitive Cloud Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrating overlay logical networks into cloud provider networks poses challenges, such as transitive routing issues and compatibility problems with cloud-provider assigned addresses, particularly in virtual private clouds (VPCs), which hinder seamless communication and service integration.
Innovation Solution
A centralized overlay-network cloud gateway is introduced in a transit VCN, providing connectivity and services across multiple VCNs, enabling transitive routing and seamless integration by using the same address space as the cloud provider network, with a managed forwarding element and arbiter module determining the best forwarding method based on destination and service requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple overlay-network cloud gateways are deployed in multiple non-transit VCNs, then connectivity between compute nodes is provided, but management overhead and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple distributed cloud gateways across different VCNs are consolidated into a single centralized cloud gateway in a transit VCN. This merging eliminates the need for separate gateway instances in each VCN, reducing management overhead and cost while maintaining connectivity functionality through the centralized gateway's ability to route traffic between multiple VCNs
2Adaptability or versatility
If overlay logical networks use different address spaces from cloud provider networks, then overlay network services can be provided, but integration with cloud provider services becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The overlay logical network adopts the same address space and subnetting scheme as the cloud provider network. This homogenization of address spaces enables seamless integration with cloud provider services while still allowing overlay network functionality through the centralized gateway and managed forwarding elements that operate within this unified addressing framework
3Ease of operation
If direct peering is established between source and destination VPCs, then routing is simplified, but transitive routing through service VPCs cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
A transit VPC is introduced as an intermediary between source and destination VPCs. The centralized cloud gateway in the transit VPC acts as a mediator that enables transitive routing by accepting traffic from source VPCs, processing it through the gateway, and forwarding it to destination VPCs. This intermediary approach maintains routing simplicity while enabling complex transitive routing scenarios
Data Source
AI summary
Some embodiments provide a centralized overlay-network cloud gateway and a set of centralized services in a transit virtual cloud network (VCN) connected to multiple other compute VCNs hosting compute nodes (VMs, containers, etc.) that are part of (belong to) the overlay network. The centralized overlay-network cloud gateway provides connectivity between compute nodes of the overlay network (e.g., a logical network spanning multiple VCNs) and compute nodes in external networks. Some embodiments use the centralized overlay-network cloud gateway to provide transitive routing (e.g., routing through a transit VCN) in the absence of direct peering between source and destination VCNs. The overlay network, of some embodiments, uses the same subnetting and default gateway address for each compute node as the cloud provider network provided by the virtual private cloud provider.