A method for network communications from a first device to a second device includes communicating data from the first device to the second device by spawning a first virtual machine for a first network connection that virtualizes network capabilities of the electronic device, and using the virtualized network capabilities of the first virtual machine, transmitting a plurality of packets for communication to a first network address and port combination associated with the second device. The method further includes repeatedly changing to a respective another network address and port combination by repeatedly spawning a respective another virtual machine for a respective another network connection that virtualizes network capabilities of the electronic device, and using the virtualized network capabilities of the spawned respective another virtual machine, transmitting a plurality of packets for communication to the respective another network address and port combination associated with the second device.

A method and an apparatus for controlling packet transmission and a network functions virtualization (NFV) system, where the method includes determining, by a control device, at least two target service processing units and at least one associated service processing unit, where packets of a target service need to be transmitted to the at least two target service processing units through the at least one associated service processing unit, a first target service processing unit in the at least two target service processing units is configured to perform, on packets of the target service, service processing corresponding to a first software version, and a second target service processing unit in the at least two target service processing units is configured to perform, on packets of the target service, service processing corresponding to a second software version; and sending first control information according to a preset first threshold.

Various embodiments of a network element comprising a control plane including stream tracer logic are described herein. The network element additionally includes a data plane coupled to the control plane, where the data plane includes forwarding logic to forward a unit of network data from an ingress interface to an egress interface. The stream tracer logic can be configured to cause marking logic to mark selected units of network data for to be counted by counting logic and to cause the counting logic to count marked units of network data. The stream tracer logic can determine whether units of network data are dropped within the forwarding logic via comparison of an ingress count of the marked units of network data with an egress count of the marked units of network data.

In a CN access network with a virtual node for at least one third party, the virtual node being used for bearing and operating the function defined by the third party, the UE accesses from a fixed access network; and the access network provides the UE with the communication connection between the UE and the virtual node of the third network/service operator. According to the embodiment the access network accommodates the virtual node to operate the function related to the third party, and improves the function topology architecture of the network, to provide users with better user experience quality.

Techniques are described for providing managed virtual computer networks that have a configured logical network topology with virtual networking devices, such as by a network-accessible configurable network service, with corresponding networking functionality provided for communications between multiple computing nodes of the virtual computer network by emulating functionality that would be provided by the virtual networking devices if they were physically present. In some situations, the networking functionality provided for a managed computer network of a client includes receiving routing communications directed to the virtual networking devices and using included routing information to update the configuration of the managed computer network, such as to allow at least some computing nodes of a managed computer network to dynamically signal particular types of uses of one or more indicated target network addresses and/or to dynamically signal use of particular external public network addresses based on such routing information.

A method includes: determining a group in which communication between virtual machines belonging to the group is not permitted by referring information regarding communication rules on virtual machines belonging to individual groups; storing deployment information indicating dispersed deployment in association with identification information on the determined group; determining whether the deployment information associated with identification information on a first group is stored when receiving an instruction to deploy a first virtual machine belonging to the first group; and determining a target physical machine in which the first virtual machine is to be deployed from among one or more physical machines in which a second virtual machine other than the first virtual machine belonging to the first group is not running out of physical machines when determining that the deployment information is stored in association with the identification information on the first group.

A server, includes a virtual machine identifier assigning section to assign an identifier of a virtual machine operating on the server; and a network interface to transmit a packet including a Layer 2 header information which includes the identifier of the virtual machine and a first packet field for a VLAN-Tag, wherein the network interface transmits the packet to a packet encapsulate section which encapsulates a second packet field including the Layer 2 header information with a virtual network identifier representing a virtual network to which the virtual machine belongs.

Disclosed are various embodiments for multi-homing in an extended bridge, including both multi-homing of port extenders and multi-homing of end stations. In various embodiments, a controlling bridge device receives a packet via an ingress virtual port and determines a destination virtual port link aggregation group based at least in part on a destination media access control (MAC) address of an end station in the packet. The controlling bridge device selects one of multiple egress virtual ports of the destination virtual port link aggregation group. The end station of the extended bridge is reachable through any of the egress virtual ports of the destination virtual port link aggregation group. The controlling bridge device forwards the packet through the selected egress virtual port, and the forwarded packet includes an identifier of a destination virtual port to which the end station is connected.

A communication device performs communication over a communication path configured in a network, includes: a communication path identification section that can identify a communication path to which a received packet belongs; and a switching section that can forward the received packet to a network node associated with the communication path to which the received packet belongs, among multiple network nodes that can terminate the communication path.

Aspects of the embodiments include receiving a packet at a network element of a packet-switched network; identifying a presence of a shared service destination address in a header of the packet; identifying a shared service destination address for the packet based, at least in part, on a destination internet protocol (IP) address stored in a forward information base; and forwarding the packet to the shared service destination address.