VPC Packet Forwarding via Load Balancer Without Header Encapsulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ensuring communication reliability in Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) scenarios is a challenge due to the lack of capability to direct service load to multiple next hops and the need for additional overlay protocol configuration, which complicates operations and reduces performance.
Innovation Solution
A cloud system with a load balancer and packet processing cluster is implemented, utilizing a bidirectional consistent hashing algorithm to determine destination nodes without additional packet header encapsulation, simplifying operations and improving performance and reliability by ensuring packets pass through the same node in both outbound and inbound paths.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If additional overlay protocol configuration is used to direct service load to multiple next hops, then communication reliability is improved, but device complexity and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway device as an intermediary between the VPC network and external networks. This gateway device centrally manages and implements the complex overlay protocol configurations (such as VXLAN or GRE encapsulation), so that individual tenant networks do not need to independently configure these complex protocols. The gateway acts as a mediator that handles the complexity while providing simple, standardized interfaces to tenants, thereby improving communication reliability through proper overlay protocol implementation while reducing the operational complexity for users.
2Reliability
If additional overlay protocol configuration is used to direct service load to multiple next hops, then communication reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway device is configured with automatic route learning and dynamic route advertisement capabilities. It automatically discovers routes within the VPC network, learns about available next hops, and dynamically advertises routes to external networks without requiring manual configuration changes. This self-service mechanism allows the system to automatically adapt to network changes, maintain high communication reliability through proper overlay protocol handling, while keeping operations simple for tenants who don't need to manually configure these complex protocols.
3Reliability
If packet header encapsulation is performed for packet processing, then communication reliability is improved, but productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway device performs packet encapsulation and decapsulation operations in advance at the network boundary, rather than requiring each intermediate network device to perform these operations. Packets are encapsulated with the appropriate overlay protocol headers before entering the VPC network, and decapsulated before leaving. This preliminary action approach ensures that communication reliability is maintained through proper encapsulation while improving productivity by eliminating the need for repeated encapsulation/decapsulation operations at each network hop, thereby reducing processing overhead and latency.
4Reliability
If service load is directed to multiple next hops, then communication reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the routing function into two distinct parts: intra-VPC routing and inter-network routing. Within the VPC, simple flat routing is used where packets are routed based on destination IP addresses without complex overlay considerations. The gateway device handles the complex overlay routing to external networks separately. This segmentation allows multiple next hops to be configured for different destination networks, improving communication reliability through redundancy while keeping the routing logic simple within each segment and avoiding monolithic complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
This application discloses a cloud system based on a public cloud service, a packet processing method, and a related apparatus. The cloud system is set on an infrastructure that provides a public cloud service. The infrastructure includes a plurality of data centers. Each of the data centers is provided with at least one server. The public cloud service runs on one or more servers of the infrastructure. The cloud system includes a virtual private cloud VPC and a load balancer. The VPC includes a first subnet, a second subnet, and a third subnet. The load balancer includes a first elastic network interface ENI and a second ENI. In the cloud system provided in this solution, when sending a request packet to a second instance in the second subnet, a first instance in the first subnet forwards the packet to a packet processing service node in the third subnet via the first ENI and the second ENI. In this way, the packet is forwarded by the packet processing service node in the third subnet without additional packet header encapsulation, thereby simplifying a packet processing operation, and improving performance of the cloud system.