Patent ID: 9614746
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method for supporting a network having an InfiniBand architecture, the network including a subnet comprising a first gateway and a second gateway in communication with an external Ethernet network, a plurality of host servers and a plurality of virtual network interface cards (vNICs) wherein each host server is associated with one or more of said plurality of vNICs, said method comprising: providing a first private virtual hub (vHUB) on said first gateway wherein a first subset of said plurality of vNICs is in communication with said first vHUB; providing a second vHUB on said second gateway wherein a second subset of said plurality of vNICs is in communication with said second vHUB, and said first vHUB is in communication with said second vHUB; receiving at said first vHUB a first multicast packet originating from a vNIC in said first subset of vNICs; detecting with said first gateway that said first multicast packet originated from said first subset of vNICs, and forwarding said first multicast packet from said first gateway to said external Ethernet network, and to host servers associated with the first subset of vNICs; and receiving at said first vHUB a second multicast packet originating from a vNIC in said second subset of vNICs; detecting with said first gateway that said second multicast packet did not originate from said first subset of vNICs, and forwarding said second multicast packet from said first gateway to host servers associated with the first subset of vNICs without forwarding said second multicast packet to the external Ethernet network; receiving at said second vHUB said first multicast packet originating from said vNIC in said first subset of vNICs; detecting with said second gateway that said first multicast packet did not originate from said second subset of vNICs, and forwarding said first multicast packet from said second gateway to host servers associated with the second subset of vNICs without forwarding said first multicast packet to the external Ethernet network; receiving at said second vHUB said second multicast packet originating from said vNIC in said second subset of vNICs; and detecting with said second gateway that said second multicast packet originated from said second subset of vNICs, and forwarding said multicast packet from said second gateway to said external Ethernet network, and to host servers associated with the second subset of vNICs; whereby only a single copy of said first multicast packet is transmitted from said network having the InfiniBand architecture to said external Ethernet network via said first gateway, and whereby only a single copy of said second multicast packet is transmitted from said network having the InfiniBand architecture to said external Ethernet network via said second gateway.