Method And System For Offloading Tunnel Packet Processing In Cloud Computing

Abstract

A network device may provide Layer-2 (L2) based tunneling to offload tunneling performed by tunneling gateways. The network device may selectively offload tunneling handled by a tunneling gateway by determining whether addressing or locality information of a destination network device for a traffic packet is available. When the locality information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is available, the network device may establish a separate tunnel for communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device instead of forwarding the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway. The separate tunnel may be configured to bypass the tunneling gateway. When the addressing or locality information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is not available, the network device may forward the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway for tunneling of the traffic packet by the tunneling gateway.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 in a network device:   selectively offloading tunneling handled by a tunneling gateway by:
 determining whether addressing information of a destination network device for a traffic packet is available; and 
 when the addressing information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is available:
 instead of forwarding the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway for tunneling of the traffic packet by the tunneling gateway, establishing a separate tunnel for communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device, where the separate tunnel is configured to bypass the tunneling gateway; and 
 communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device through the separate tunnel, thereby bypassing the tunneling gateway with the separate tunnel; and 
 
 when the addressing information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is not available:
 forwarding the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway for tunneling of the traffic packet by the tunneling gateway. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 formatting the traffic packet for communicating through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , where formatting the traffic packet comprises encapsulating the traffic packet using the addressing information. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 maintaining a tunneling table storing tunneling attributes;   accessing the tunneling table to determine the tunneling attributes for the destination network device; and   encapsulating the traffic packet using the tunneling attributes for communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising establishing the separate tunnel via a network connection available to the network device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , where the addressing information comprises a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the destination network device. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , where the network device that performs the selective offloading comprises an end-point network device 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway, an encapsulated traffic packet that was encapsulated by the destination network device; and   decapsulating the encapsulated traffic packet.   
     
     
         9 . A device comprising:
 a communication interface; and   a circuit in communication with the communication interface, the circuit operable to:
 selectively offload tunneling handled by a tunneling gateway by:
 determining whether locality information of a destination network device for a traffic packet is available; and 
 when the locality information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is available:
 instead of forwarding the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway for tunneling of the traffic packet by the tunneling gateway, establishing a separate tunnel for communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device, where the separate tunnel is configured to bypass the tunneling gateway; and 
 communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device through the separate tunnel, thereby bypassing the tunneling gateway with the separate tunnel; and 
 
 when the locality information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is not available:
 forwarding the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway for tunneling of the traffic packet by the tunneling gateway. 
 
 
   
     
     
         10 . The device of  claim 9 , where the circuit is further operable to:
 format the traffic packet for communicating through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway.   
     
     
         11 . The device of  claim 10 , where the circuit is operable to format the traffic packet by encapsulating the traffic packet using the locality information. 
     
     
         12 . The device of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 a memory storing a tunneling table, the tunneling table storing tunneling attributes; and   where the circuit is further operable to:
 access the tunneling table to determine the tunneling attributes for the destination network device; and 
 encapsulate the traffic packet using the tunneling attributes for communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway. 
   
     
     
         13 . The device of  claim 9 , where the locality information comprises information relating to the physical or geographical location of the destination network device. 
     
     
         14 . The device of  claim 9 , where the locality information comprises information describing position of the destination network device logically within a network. 
     
     
         15 . The device of  claim 9 , where the circuit is operable to forward the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway through a private network. 
     
     
         16 . The device of  claim 9 , where the circuit is further operable to:
 receive, through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway, an encapsulated traffic packet that was encapsulated by the destination network device; and   decapsulate the encapsulated traffic packet.   
     
     
         17 . A product comprising:
 a machine readable medium; and   instructions stored on the medium that when executed causes a system to:
 selectively offload tunneling handled by a tunneling gateway by:
 determining whether addressing information of a destination network device for a traffic packet is available; and 
 when the addressing information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is available:
 instead of forwarding the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway for tunneling of the traffic packet by the tunneling gateway, establishing a separate tunnel for communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device, where the separate tunnel is configured to bypass the tunneling gateway; and 
 communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device through the separate tunnel, thereby bypassing the tunneling gateway with the separate tunnel; and 
 
 when the addressing information of the destination network device for the traffic packet is not available:
 forwarding the traffic packet to the tunneling gateway for tunneling of the traffic packet by the tunneling gateway. 
 
 
   
     
     
         18 . The product of  claim 17 , where the instructions further cause the system to: format the traffic packet for communicating through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway. 
     
     
         19 . The product of  claim 17 , where the instructions further cause the system to format the traffic packet by encapsulating the traffic packet using the addressing information. 
     
     
         20 . The product of  claim 17 , where the instructions further cause the system to:
 maintain a tunneling table storing tunneling attributes;   access the tunneling table to determine the tunneling attributes for the destination network device; and   encapsulate the traffic packet using the tunneling attributes for communicating the traffic packet to the destination network device through the separate tunnel configured to bypass the tunneling gateway.