Methods and devices are disclosed for controlling and managing a home network, and expediting service delivery on a communications service provider. The communications service provider may receive information identifying one or more service group selected by a subscriber of the communications service provider. The communications service provider may also identify pre-set configurations associated with each of the one or more selected service group, generate configuration instructions for a micro-domain corresponding to each of the one or more selected service group, and create the micro-domain in the home network for each of the one or more selected service group by applying the generated configuration instructions to network services of the communications service provider.

A replication of a physical network is created in the cloud. The replicated network safely validates configuration changes for any hardware network device of the physical network and the physical network end state resulting from the changes without impacting the physical network steady state. The replicated network creates virtual machines on hardware resources provisioned from the cloud. The virtual machines emulate network device functionality and have the same addressing as the network devices. Nested overlay networks reproduce the direct connectivity that exists between different pairs of the network devices on the virtual machines. A first overlay network formed by a first Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) provides direct logical connections between the cloud machines on which the virtual machines execute. A second overlay network of VXLANs leverages the first VXLAN to establish direct logical connections between the virtual machines that mirror the direct connections between the network devices.

Methods and systems for facilitating communication between two or more autonomous system instances include the instantiation of a bridge between the autonomous system (AS) instances. The bridge includes multiple virtual routers each of which is connected using a Layer 2 and a Layer 3 connection to a respective one of the AS instances. For example, each router may be connected to a respective AS instance by each of a virtual local area network (VLAN) connection and a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) session. To facilitate the BGP session, the bridge may be assigned an AS number (ASN) different than that of each of the AS instances and that is exchanged between the routers and the AS instances. Routing within the bridge may be facilitated by the exchange of interior gateway protocol (IGP) information between the virtual routers.

A replication of a physical network is created in the cloud. The replicated network safely validates configuration changes for any hardware network device of the physical network and the physical network end state resulting from the changes without impacting the physical network steady state. The replicated network creates virtual machines on hardware resources provisioned from the cloud. The virtual machines emulate network device functionality and have the same addressing as the network devices. Nested overlay networks reproduce the direct connectivity that exists between different pairs of the network devices on the virtual machines. A first overlay network formed by a first Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) provides direct logical connections between the cloud machines on which the virtual machines execute. A second overlay network of VXLANs leverages the first VXLAN to establish direct logical connections between the virtual machines that mirror the direct connections between the network devices.

Systems and methods for managing network traffic receives, at a grade of service device, network traffic information for a plurality of network traffic channels from a network device separate from the grade of service device. The network traffic information is compared to a threshold to determine a behavior value for each network traffic channel. Each network traffic channel is mapped to a grade of service according to the behavior value.

In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor and logic configured to designate one of a plurality of endpoint virtual network identifiers (EPVNIDs) for each endpoint device in a network, wherein each EPVNID is configured to be shared by one or more endpoint devices, designate a common waypoint virtual network identifier (WPVNID) for all transparent waypoint devices in the network which perform a same function, designate a unique WPVNID for each routed waypoint device in the network, designate a common virtual network identifier (VNID) for all virtual switches in a single virtual network, wherein a different VNID is designated for each virtual network, and create a service chain table comprising each VNID, WPVNID, and EPVNID designated in the network individually correlated with at least a pair of VNIDs: a source VNID and a destination VNID, based on one or more policies affecting application of services to packets in the network.

Methods and devices are disclosed for controlling and managing a home network, and expediting service delivery on a communications service provider. The communications service provider may receive information identifying one or more service group selected by a subscriber of the communications service provider. The communications service provider may also identify pre-set configurations associated with each of the one or more selected service group, generate configuration instructions for a micro-domain corresponding to each of the one or more selected service group, and create the micro-domain in the home network for each of the one or more selected service group by applying the generated configuration instructions to network services of the communications service provider.

Some embodiments provide a method for a set of central controllers that manages forwarding elements operating in a plurality of datacenters. The method receives a configuration for a bridge between (i) a logical L2 network that spans at least two datacenters and (ii) a physical L2 network. The configuration specifies a particular one of the datacenters for implementation of the bridge. The method identifies multiple managed forwarding elements that implement the logical L2 network and are operating in the particular datacenter. The method selects one of the identified managed forwarding elements to implement the bridge. The method distributes bridge configuration data to the selected managed forwarding element.

A client device includes a memory and at least one processor configured to cooperate with the memory. The at least one processor receives a virtual disk change notification from a server, with the virtual disk change notification including a new configuration for a virtual disk image. At least one change to the virtual disk image is determined based on a comparison of the virtual disk image with the new configuration of the virtual disk image. The virtual disk image is modified based on the determined at least one change.

A packet-transmission method, a local edge device and a machine-readable storage medium are provided. The method includes: receiving a first notification message from an opposite edge device, parsing out a first host route from the first notification message, and adding a first forwarding table entry to a software forwarding table, wherein the first forwarding table entry includes a correspondence between the first host route and an interface receiving the first notification message; inquiring, after receiving a packet, a hardware forwarding table according to a destination address of the packet, if there is no forwarding table entry matched with the destination address in the hardware forwarding table, inquiring the software forwarding table according to the destination address of the packet, if there is a forwarding table entry matched with the destination address in the software forwarding table, sending the packet according to the forwarding table entry matched with the destination address.