Patent ID: 8966035
Filing Date: 2015-02-24
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. For a network hypervisor, a method of managing a network comprising physical forwarding elements, the method comprising: identifying a set of virtual machines communicatively coupled to a set of physical forwarding elements, at least one of the physical forwarding elements in the set of physical forwarding elements also coupled to a virtual machine that is not in the set of virtual machines; generating a set of flow entries for the set of physical forwarding elements to use to implement a logical forwarding element that is to handle communications between the set of virtual machines, wherein the logical forwarding element maintains isolation between the set of virtual machines and other virtual machines that are coupled to the set of physical forwarding elements but are not in the set of virtual machines; and sending the generated set of flow entries to the set of physical forwarding elements, wherein a particular physical forwarding element in the set of forwarding elements is for using the set of flow entries to (i) make a set of logical forwarding decisions to identify a logical egress port of the logical forwarding element for a packet received from a virtual machine in the set of virtual machines and (ii) map the identified logical egress port to a physical port of the particular forwarding element through which to send the packet.