Patent ID: 9667486
Date: 2017-05-30
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method for performing network address administration and management in federated cloud computing networks, the method comprising: registering a first network interface card (NIC) in a local network services appliance with a local cloud network, the local cloud network having a first physical computing system comprising a first network switch; registering a second NIC in a remote network services appliance with a remote cloud network, the remote cloud network having a second physical computing system comprising a second network switch; configuring the local cloud network to send, to the first registered NIC, a first packet with a first unclaimed network address, the first unclaimed network address having a first destination address the first network switch has not learned; configuring the remote cloud network to send, to the second registered NIC, a second packet with a second unclaimed network address, the second unclaimed network address having a second destination address the second network switch has not learned; upon registering the first NIC and the second NIC and configuring the local cloud network and the remote cloud network, forming, between the local network services appliance and the remote network services appliance, a layer-2 (L2) network tunnel by stitching the local cloud network and the remote cloud network, the L2 network tunnel comprising a data channel and a control channel; performing network address allocation, network address administration, and network address management in the federated cloud computing networks using the control channel in the L2 network tunnel; obtaining the first packet with the first unclaimed network address from the local cloud network; tunneling the obtained first packet, via the formed data channel in the L2 network tunnel, to the remote network services appliance by the local network services appliance; obtaining the second packet with the second unclaimed network address from the remote cloud network; and tunneling the second packet, via the formed data channel in the L2 network tunnel, to the local network services appliance by the remote network services appliance.