The present disclosure provides a method for communicating by using a remote network element port, and an apparatus, and the method is applied to a virtual network element. The virtual network element includes a master node and an egress AP, and the master node adds a first layer VLAN tag to a virtualization packet according to a virtual port corresponding to the virtualization packet to allow the egress AP to distinguish between the virtualization packet and a non-virtualization packet according to the first layer VLAN tag, and, based on the distinguishing, the virtualization packet is correctly processed.

Systems and methods for connecting devices via a virtual global network are disclosed. In one embodiment the network system may comprise an endpoint device including a tunnel manager and a first virtual interface, an access point server including at least one tunnel listener and a second virtual interface. One or more tunnels are formed connecting the tunnel managers and tunnel listeners. The virtual interfaces provide a logical point of access to the one or more tunnels.

A method and system for flow tracing for use in a packet-optical network is disclosed herein. A device in the packet-optical network may receive a packet including a header and payload. The device may read intent information from the header, and translate the intent information to generate a device-specific action in an optical layer to provide one or more globally unique identifiers (IDs) associated with the device. The device may execute the device-specific action in the optical layer to generate a response including the globally unique IDs corresponding to the intent, where the response forms part of the flow trace. The device may associate the response with the intent, and encode the response for downstream data forwarding. The device may further add multi-layer proof-of-transit (POT) information to the response that may be used to securely verify the path indicated in the SmartFlow flow trace.

Systems and methods are disclosed including a method comprising: receiving, with a controller having a computer processor, a preservation status input from a user indicative of whether or not to preserve a virtual local area network (VLAN) tag in a header of a data packet transmitted within an Ethernet local area network (E-LAN), the VLAN tag identifying at least one of customer information and service provider information for the data packet in the E-LAN, wherein the E-LAN comprises network devices having physical ports and is configured to allow multiple customers use of an individual physical port; determining a scalable network-wide service configuration model having multiple predetermined rules for automatically configuring the physical ports of the network devices for the E-LAN based on the preservation status input from the user; and configuring automatically, with the controller, the physical ports of the network devices using the predetermined rules of the configuration model.

Provided is a system and method for a multi-tenant datacenter with layer 2 cloud interconnection. More specifically the multi-tenant datacenter includes a plurality of client systems in a first datacenter each client system having a set of physical infrastructure resources. A first cloud computing environment is also in the first datacenter, and coupled to the client systems by OSI Layer 2. The first cloud computing environment thereby virtually extending the physical infrastructure resources of each client system. An associated method of providing a multi-tenant datacenter with layer 2 cloud interconnection is also provided.

The present disclosure pertains to systems and methods of monitoring communication devices and communication links in a software-defined network (SDN). Network packets may be colored or tagged for routing to a packet analyzer. A VLAN bitmask may be added to a packet to identify the packet for inspection and, optionally, provide origin information identify a switch and/or port of origin. Port mirroring may be utilized and/or eventual routing of network packets to their original destination may ensure that network traffic is not disrupted. In one example, a most significant bit of a VLAN bitmask may be used by a match rule to identify packets intended for a packet analyzer without regard to original packet routing instructions and/or packet content.

The present technology pertains to receiving a tag associating at least one routing domain in an on-premises site with at least one virtual network in a cloud environment associated with a cloud service provider. The present technology also pertains to the automation of populating route and propagation tables with the cloud service provider.

Provided is a system and method for a multi-tenant datacenter with layer 2 cloud interconnection. More specifically the multi-tenant datacenter includes a plurality of client systems in a first datacenter each client system having a set of physical infrastructure resources. A first cloud computing environment is also in the first datacenter, and coupled to the client systems by OSI Layer 2. The first cloud computing environment thereby virtually extending the physical infrastructure resources of each client system. An associated method of providing a multi-tenant datacenter with layer 2 cloud interconnection is also provided.

Provided is a system and method for a multi-tenant datacenter with layer 2 cloud interconnection. More specifically the multi-tenant datacenter includes a plurality of client systems in a first datacenter each client system having a set of physical infrastructure resources. A first cloud computing environment is also in the first datacenter, and coupled to the client systems by OSI Layer 2. The first cloud computing environment thereby virtually extending the physical infrastructure resources of each client system. An associated method of providing a multi-tenant datacenter with layer 2 cloud interconnection is also provided.

A communication system includes: a first forwarding apparatus located at an end point of a network, a second forwarding apparatus located at an end point of the network, and a control apparatus that constructs a virtual network by controlling the first and second forwarding apparatuses. The control apparatus sets in the first forwarding apparatus, a first processing rule such that, when the first forwarding apparatus receives a packet into which is inserted a first tag including an identifier for identifying the virtual network, the first forwarding apparatus inserts a second tag into the received packet and sends the received packet from a prescribed port. The control apparatus sets, in the second forwarding apparatus, a second processing rule such that, when the second forwarding apparatus receives the packet into which is inserted the second tag, the second forwarding apparatus removes the second tag and sends from a prescribed port.