Large scale residential cloud based application centric infrastructures

Abstract

A first customer edge network device receives an encapsulated packet that includes inner headers comprising source address information for a first service running on a first computing apparatus in a first home cloud and destination address information for a second service running on a second computing apparatus in a second home cloud. The customer edge network device inserts a predetermined portion of bits of a virtual domain identifier of the encapsulated packet into a label to form a virtual domain label for label-based routing. The virtual domain label is appended to the encapsulated packet. The encapsulated packet is sent to a first provider edge network device of a provider network. The first provider edge network device appends an virtual private network label to the encapsulated packet, and sends the encapsulated packet to a provider network device for label-based routing in the provider network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving at a first customer edge network device, an encapsulated packet that includes inner headers comprising source address information for a first service running on a first computing apparatus in a first home cloud and destination address information for a second service running on a second computing apparatus in a second home cloud, the encapsulated packet further including Layer 2 source address information for a first virtual endpoint service running on the first computing apparatus, Layer 2 destination address information for the first customer edge network device, Layer 3 source address information for the first virtual endpoint service, Layer 3 destination address information for a second virtual endpoint service running on the second computing apparatus, a virtual network identifier that identifies one of a plurality of Layer 2 network segments in which the second home cloud resides and a domain identifier that identifies one of a plurality of Layer 3 network segments in which the second home cloud resides;   inserting a predetermined portion of bits of the domain identifier of the encapsulated packet into a header for source-based routing; and   sending the encapsulated packet to a first provider edge network device of a provider network.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the predetermined portion of bits comprises a predetermined number of high endian bits of the domain identifier. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the domain identifier comprises 24 bits and the predetermined number of high endian bits comprises 20 bits. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein remaining bits of the domain identifier are used for virtual Point-of-Presence. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the virtual network identifier and the domain identifier are in a Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) header of a Layer 2 frame. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the VXLAN header and the Layer 2 frame are encapsulated in a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) payload. 
     
     
         7 . A method comprising:
 at a first computing apparatus in a first home cloud:
 for a packet sourced by a first service running on the first computing apparatus to be sent to a second service running on a second computing apparatus in a second home cloud and the packet including headers that comprise source address information for the first service and destination address information for the second service, a first virtual endpoint service running on the first computing apparatus generating an encapsulated packet that includes Layer 2 source address information for the first virtual endpoint service, Layer 2 destination address information for a first customer edge network device, Layer 3 source address information for the first virtual endpoint service, Layer 3 destination address information for a second virtual endpoint service running on the second computing apparatus, a virtual network identifier that identifies one of a plurality of Layer 2 network segments in which the second home cloud resides and a domain identifier that identifies one of a plurality of Layer 3 network segments in which the second home cloud resides; and 
 sending the encapsulated packet to the first customer edge network device; at the first customer edge network device: 
 receiving the encapsulated packet; 
 inserting a predetermined portion of bits of the domain identifier of the encapsulated packet into a header for source-based routing; and 
 sending the encapsulated packet to a first provider edge network device of a provider network; and 
   at the first provider edge network device:
 receiving the encapsulated packet; and 
 sending the encapsulated packet from the first provider edge network device to a provider network device for routing in the provider network. 
   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising, at a second customer edge network device:
 receiving the encapsulated packet from a second provider edge network device in the provider network;   obtaining the encapsulated packet address information indicating that the encapsulated packet is to be routed to the second virtual endpoint service running on the second computing apparatus in the second home cloud; and   routing the encapsulated packet to the second virtual endpoint service running on the second computing apparatus in the second home cloud.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising, at the second computing apparatus:
 receiving the encapsulated packet; and   the second virtual endpoint service removing the domain identifier and the virtual network identifier, and determining that the destination of the packet is the second service; and   forwarding the packet to the second service running on the second computing apparatus.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein generating the encapsulated packet comprises inserting the virtual network identifier and the domain identifier in a Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) header to a Layer 2 frame. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the VXLAN header and the Layer 2 frame are encapsulated in a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) payload. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the predetermined portion of bits comprises a predetermined number of high endian bits of the domain identifier. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the domain identifier comprises 24 bits and the predetermined number of high endian bits comprises 20 bits. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein remaining bits of the domain identifier are used for virtual Point-of-Presence. 
     
     
         15 . An apparatus comprising:
 a plurality of network ports configured to receive packets from and send packets to a network;   a network processor unit coupled to the plurality of network ports and configured to direct received packets to one or more of the network ports; and   a processor configured to:
 receive via one of the plurality network ports, an encapsulated packet that includes inner headers comprising source address information for a first service running on a first computing apparatus in a first home cloud and destination address information for a second service running on a second computing apparatus in a second home cloud, the encapsulated packet further including Layer 2 source address information for a first virtual endpoint service running on the first computing apparatus, Layer 2 destination address information for a first customer edge network device, Layer 3 source address information for the first virtual endpoint service, Layer 3 destination address information for a second virtual endpoint service running on the second computing apparatus, a virtual network identifier that identifies one of a plurality of Layer 2 network segments in which the second home cloud resides and a domain identifier that identifies one of a plurality of Layer 3 network segments in which the second home cloud resides; 
 insert a predetermined portion of bits of the domain identifier of the encapsulated packet into a header for source-based routing; and 
 cause the encapsulated packet to be sent via one of the plurality of network ports to a first provider edge network device of a provider network. 
   
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the predetermined portion of bits comprises a predetermined number of high endian bits of the domain identifier. 
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein the domain identifier comprises 24 bits and the predetermined number of high endian bits comprise 20 bits. 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein remaining bits of the domain identifier are used for virtual Point-of-Presence. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the virtual network identifier and the domain identifier are in a Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) header of a Layer 2 frame. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein the VXLAN header and the Layer 2 frame are encapsulated in a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) payload.