Schematic concept of network virtualization

Simply put, some functions of the network layer are stripped out of the hardware, and a new network virtual layer is established. If compared with server virtualization, it will help us understand the concept.

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Fan Jun (Frank Fan)

Sina Weibo: @frankfan7

If the vision of a software-defined datacenter is to be implemented, network virtualization will be the last kilometer of the journey. IDC estimates that the network virtualization market will grow from 2013 million US dollars to 2016 3.7 billion. Many giants have made big strides, and many startups have targeted the direction. Let's talk about what this means in a few ways.

a The game between Giants

As cloud computing matures, solving the challenges faced by traditional network architectures is becoming more and more urgent. Small and medium-sized enterprises may be OK, the most anxious is who ah? These internet and IaaS giants. The development of OpenFlow at Stanford University is a concrete realization of the concept of network virtualization. Google and Facebook have been actively involved in the standardization development and promotion of open Networking Foundation (ONF) as a leader in supporting OpenFlow.

Traditional network providers also have to keep pace with the times, otherwise they are likely to be developed by big customers around their own. Network virtualization Emerging Companies Nicira seize the opportunity to integrate with OpenStack in depth, providing solutions for many giants, including ebay.

VMware, already a leader in server virtualization, has also been a frequent hit. In June 2012, VMware12.6 billion to buy the current turnover of only $10 million Nicira, provoked a hot discussion. The importance of network virtualization is evident.

Network virtualization is a delicate game between giants, the final situation, we have to wait and see. Small and medium-sized enterprises and it practitioners, although this is the game between the big, but no matter who wins who negative, will eventually affect our retail investors not? Or a rainy day, to understand the first good.

Two challenges of traditional network architectures

In recent years, the rapid development of server and storage virtualization technology has made it very common for dynamic and rapid allocation of computing resources and storage resources. This greatly shortens the time to create the server. In contrast, the current traditional network architecture appears to be less than the force of the entire resource allocation process in the short board.

For example, the provision of network resources in a large number of cases requires manual intervention. Network switch port configuration, ACLs, routing, and so on. two in the case of WAN data centers, the interconnection between data centers is mostly through the three Layer network protocol. If you are porting applications between data centers, you need to pay particular attention to the configuration of the network environment in your application. If the number of servers is large, this is definitely a laborious task. three enterprise-level mergers require rapid integration of network systems, and those who have implemented integrated projects should know how deep the water is. Project complexity and implementation cycles are challenging. four integration of existing systems and cloud platforms in the enterprise. The last SaaS system may be fast, but you don't want SaaS to be an island of information. You may need SaaS and data interactions with your existing systems, such as SAP. If you use the IaaS public cloud, you may want to integrate with existing systems, which is the concept of hybrid cloud. It also needs to take into account whether your network can meet the seamless migration of applications from the local to the public cloud. Five cannot make full use of network resources. Most companies can use the 30%-40% of network resources is good. In many cases, large amounts of resources are idle, and some times, due to the cyclical spike in data volumes, the network resources are not enough. Many ISPs or communication network providers are scratching their heads, in the case of a small increase in user base fees, users expect more data traffic than ever before. In addition to network expansion, it is more important to improve the existing network utilization. Google claims that because of the use of openflow (an implementation of network virtualization technology), their internal network usage will be close to 100%

three what is network virtualization

In fact, this concept is not unfamiliar, Overlays, MPLS, VPNs, VLANs, LISP, virtual routers, vrfs and so can be considered to be a form of network virtualization. The current emerging network virtualization concept from the depth, breadth and impact of far more than the above technology.

Simply put, some functions of the network layer are stripped out of the hardware, and a new network virtual layer is established. If compared with server virtualization, it will help us understand the concept.

Today's applications running on virtual machines only need to use the virtual CPUs and virtual memory supported by hypervisor, so that the application itself does not have to worry about what the underlying hardware device is running on. At the same time the operating system and the application basically need not change what, sometimes perhaps simple for virtualization optimization.

Network virtualization in the same way, the application itself does not care about a lot of traditional network information, such as routing, IP and so on, these have network virtual layer to pipe. And the underlying hardware, purely to provide the most basic functions, a lot of complex information and its configuration is also hosted by the network virtual layer. For example (L2,L3,TAGGING,COUTERS,ACLS,ETC) and many more than 2 layers of network services, only need to deal with the network virtual layer, there is no need to know the bottom of what hardware to run.

Another deeper impact is operations. As much information is extracted to the network virtual layer, we can manage and configure it more efficiently, and it is easy to achieve the programmability and consistency of the configuration. No need to tangle with the complex iOS configuration of each hardware device.

Explains the benefits of network virtualization.

Network virtualization is not the same as a software-defined network. These two concepts are often confused. Network Virtualization is a solution, and a software-defined network is just one of many implementations of this solution. After we have extracted some of the network information and functions, there is always a way to store the information and keep abreast of their status. This is where the software-defined network comes in. There is usually a module that can be centrally controlled to implement these functions.

Please pay attention to the upcoming article-diagram of the implementation of network virtualization

Reference article:

VMware NSX Network Virtualization

Network Heresy

Open Source, open Interfaces, and open Networking

VXLAN, STT, and looking beyond the wire format

BRAD Hedlund ' s blog

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Schematic concept of network virtualization