Patent ID: 11893406
Assignee: VMWARE LLC
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 14:
15. A system comprising:
a virtual local area network (VLAN); and
a host comprising:
a processor;
a virtual machine (VM); and
a VLAN coordinator communicatively coupled to the VM, wherein the VLAN coordinator is a component of virtualization software running outside the VM and supporting operation of the VM on a host system, the VLAN coordinator configured to cause the processor to:
receive an outgoing network data frame from a network interface card (NIC) driver loaded into the VM;
modify the outgoing network data frame by writing a VLAN identifier associated with the VM into the outgoing network data frame received from the NIC driver, wherein the VLAN identifier restricts transmission of the outgoing network data frame from the NIC driver to the VLAN associated with the VLAN identifier, wherein the modifying occurs outside of the VM, and wherein modifying the outgoing network data frame is transparent to the first VM;
transmit the modified outgoing network data frame over a physical network;
receive an incoming network data frame from the physical network;
determine the incoming network data frame includes the first VLAN identifier,
remove the VLAN identifier from the received incoming network data frame; and
convey the received incoming network data frame to the VM through the NIC driver.