Logical Router NAT Updates for Rapid Tenant IP Allocation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current mechanisms in computing environments face difficulties in quickly allocating public IP addresses to new virtual nodes, often requiring API requests to an internet service provider, leading to delays.
Innovation Solution
A controller maintains a pool of available public IP addresses and updates network address translation (NAT) rules to associate private IP addresses with selected public IP addresses, also configuring next hop associations for efficient packet forwarding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a controller maintains a pool of available public IP addresses and updates NAT rules to associate private IP addresses with selected public IP addresses, then IP address allocation speed is improved, but device complexity increases due to the need to manage and configure NAT rules and next hop associations
Solution Approach 1:
The controller pre-allocates and maintains a pool of public IP addresses before they are needed by virtual nodes. When a virtual node requires a public IP address, the controller can immediately assign one from the pre-maintained pool without external requests, thereby improving allocation speed while the controller manages the complexity of maintaining this pool and associated NAT rules
2Reliability
If API requests are sent to an internet service provider for each new public IP address, then IP address allocation reliability is improved, but allocation time increases due to external communication delays
Solution Approach 1:
The controller proactively maintains a pool of public IP addresses in advance, so when virtual nodes need IP addresses, they can be assigned immediately from this pre-stocked pool without waiting for external ISP requests, eliminating allocation delays while ensuring reliable IP address provisioning
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary between the virtual nodes and the external network, maintaining its own pool of public IP addresses rather than directly requesting them from ISPs for each allocation, thereby buffering against external communication delays and improving allocation speed
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are systems, methods, and software to manage internet protocol (IP) address allocation for tenants in a computing environment. In one implementation, a logical router associated with a tenant in the computing environment requests a public IP address for a new segment instance from a controller. In response to the request, the controller may select a public IP address from a pool of available IP addresses and update networking address translation (NAT) on the logical router to associate the public IP address with a private IP address allocated to the new segment instance.