Stateless Tunneling in Datacenter Hosts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing datacenter networks face bottlenecks and single points of failure due to increased traffic demand, as gateway devices act as a single tunneling endpoint for data packet transmission between virtualized networks and public networks.
Innovation Solution
Implementing distributed stateless tunneling endpoints with programmable packet filters in each host computing device within the datacenter, which convert data packets between stateless tunneling and datacenter formats, bypassing virtual machine processing to avoid resource overhead and enable load balancing and fail-over techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If gateway devices act as single tunneling endpoints for data packet transmission, then connectivity between virtualized networks and public networks is established, but traffic bottlenecks and single points of failure occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single gateway device function into multiple distributed tunneling endpoints across different host computing devices. Each host device runs a virtualization module that can independently perform tunneling operations, dividing the concentrated traffic handling function into distributed segments that can process traffic in parallel, thereby eliminating bottlenecks while maintaining connectivity reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single-point tunneling architecture to a multi-dimensional distributed architecture where tunneling endpoints are spread across multiple hosts. This dimensional expansion from one central gateway to many distributed endpoints across the network fabric enables load balancing and failover capabilities, improving both reliability and throughput simultaneously
2Reliability
If gateway devices perform stateful encapsulation and encryption, then secure connectivity is provided, but processing overhead and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the tunneling processing function from the gateway device and relocates it to virtualization modules on host computing devices. This extraction removes the complex stateful processing requirements from the gateway, allowing it to focus on simpler routing functions, while the host-based virtualization modules handle encapsulation and decryption with reduced overhead through direct access to virtual machine traffic
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables each host computing device to perform its own tunneling operations independently through locally-running virtualization modules. Each host self-services its own traffic encapsulation and decryption needs without requiring centralized gateway processing, reducing overall system complexity and distributing the processing load across multiple independent units
3Adaptability or versatility
If virtual machine processing is involved in data packet conversion, then network virtualization is achieved, but resource overhead and processing delay increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a specialized tunneling endpoint virtualization module as an intermediary layer between the virtual machine network stack and the physical network interface. This intermediary handles packet conversion, encapsulation, and decryption operations directly at the host level without requiring full virtual machine processing involvement, thereby maintaining network virtualization capabilities while significantly reducing packet conversion time through optimized direct-path processing
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of tunneling a data packet through a network communicatively coupled to a datacenter is provided. The datacenter is uniquely addressed within the network. The datacenter has a different internal address space than the network. Transformation rules are recorded for a programmable packet filter in the datacenter. The data packet is received in the programmable packet filter of a host computing device in the datacenter. The received data packet is converted in the programmable packet filter of the host computing device between a stateless tunneling data packet and a datacenter data packet according to the recorded transformation rules. The datacenter data packet is uniquely addressed within the internal address space of the datacenter. The received data packet bypasses any virtual machine processing in the host computing device during the converting. The converted data packet is transmitted from the programmable packet filter in the datacenter.