Patent ID: 11895023
Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method for using a managed hardware forwarding element (MHFE) to perform packet forwarding operations for a logical network, the method comprising:
receiving at the MHFE data that defines a logical router and a plurality of logical switches of the logical network that connects a plurality of end machines operating on a plurality of host computers to a plurality of physical machines that are connected to the MHFE;
using the received data to configure a set of forwarding tables of the MHFE in order to define the logical router and the plurality of logical switches on the MHFE; and
using the set of forwarding tables at the MHFE to perform packet forwarding operations for the logical network,
wherein the logical router spans the MHFE and forwarding elements on the host computers that implement the logical router, while each logical switch spans the MHFE and the forwarding elements on the host computers that implement the logical switch;
wherein the forwarding elements on the host computers connect to the end machines operating on the host computers and the MHFE connects to the end machines only through the forwarding elements on the host computers as the MHFE is a standalone hardware appliance that operates outside of the host computers.