Patent ID: 8873375

Claim:
A method for communication, the method comprising: performing by one or more processors or circuits in one or more of a plurality of network devices: distributing hypervisor functions, which control flow of information among one or more virtual machines, across a plurality of network devices, including distributing first hypervisor functions for processing the first hypervisor functions on a first network device, and distributing second hypervisor functions for processing the second hypervisor functions on a second network device; simultaneously processing data by said plurality of network devices, including processing respective portions of operations of a first virtual machine on a first plurality of network devices of the plurality of network devices; simultaneously processing respective portions of operations of a second virtual machine on a second plurality of network devices of the plurality of network devices; processing the first hypervisor functions on the first network device, and simultaneously processing the second hypervisor functions on the second network device; storing state information for each of said one or more virtual machines on at least one other of said plurality of network devices; detecting failure of a network device of the first network device and the second network device; retrieving the last stored state information for each of said one or more virtual machines from the at least one other of said plurality of network devices; reconfiguring the one or more virtual machines on remaining network devices of the plurality of network devices using the retrieved last stored state information.