Patent Grant
10693715
Many companies and other organizations operate computer networks that interconnect numerous computing systems to support their operations, such as with the computing systems being co-located (e.g., as part of a local network) or instead located in multiple distinct geographical locations (e.g., connected via one or more private or public intermediate networks). For example, data centers housing significant numbers of interconnected computing systems have become commonplace, such as private data centers that are operated by and on behalf of a single organization, and public data centers that are operated by entities as businesses to provide computing resources to customers. Some public data center operators provide network access, power, and secure installation facilities for hardware owned by various customers, while other public data center operators provide “full service” facilities that also include hardware resources made available for use by their customers. However, as the scale and scope of typical data centers has increased, the tasks of provisioning, administering, and managing the physical computing resources have become increasingly complicated.
The advent of virtualization technologies for commodity hardware has provided benefits with respect to managing large-scale computing resources for many customers with diverse needs, allowing various computing resources to be efficiently and securely shared by multiple customers. For example, virtualization technologies may allow a single physical computing machine to be shared among multiple users by providing each user with one or more virtual machines hosted by the single physical computing machine, with each such virtual machine being a software simulation acting as a distinct logical computing system that provides users with the illusion that they are the sole operators and administrators of a given hardware computing resource, while also providing application isolation and security among the various virtual machines. Furthermore, some virtualization technologies are capable of providing virtual resources that span two or more physical resources, such as a single virtual machine with multiple virtual processors that spans multiple distinct physical computing systems. As another example, virtualization technologies may allow data storage hardware to be shared among multiple users by providing each user with a virtualized data store which may be distributed across multiple data storage devices, with each such virtualized data store acting as a distinct logical data store that provides users with the illusion that they are the sole operators and administrators of the data storage resource.
Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings, in which:
Various embodiments of methods, apparatus, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for dynamic network address space allocation for virtual networks are described. Embodiments can, for example, be implemented in the context of a service provider system that provides virtualized resources, such as computing resources executing as virtual machines (VMs), etc., as well as other virtual resources such as virtual storage, to customers via an intermediate network such as the Internet. The service provider system can include a network substrate and a control plane implemented by one or more data centers, and can host one or more virtual computing services and application programming interfaces (APIs) allowing customers to establish, provision, and manage their virtualized resources in virtual networks (also referred to herein as “private networks”) implemented within the service provider system.
In virtual network environments that allow customers to provision virtual networks, the customers' virtual network(s) may be discrete, routed Internet Protocol (IP) containers that are hosted on the provider network and that may be viewed as virtual analogs to physical data centers. A virtual network may be launched in a service provider system with a customer-specified IP address space (e.g., an Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block, e.g., 172.31.0.0/20 or 10.0.0.0/16, or alternatively an Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) CIDR block, e.g., 2600:lf16:67d:2000::/56), which may be referred to as a local or private (to the virtual network) IP address space. In some embodiments, virtual networks may be required to use IP address ranges within the private IP address spaces as defined by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) 1918 for IPv4 as their local IP address space:
In some embodiments, virtual networks may use IP address ranges within the private IP address space as defined by RFC 4193 for IPv6 (fc00::/7) as their local IP address space. In some embodiments, virtual networks use public IPv4 or IPv6 address ranges in their virtual networks as their local IP address space.
In some embodiments, a customer may also specify one or more subnets in their virtual network's IP address space. In some embodiments, a subnet can be specified as the same CIDR block as the virtual network (providing a single subnet in the virtual network), or alternatively one or more CIDR blocks that are subsets of the CIDR block of the virtual network can be specified to provide one or more subnets in the virtual network. As one example, a customer could create a virtual network with the CIDR block 10.0.0.0/24, which supports 256 IP addresses. The customer may, for example, break this CIDR block into two subnets, each supporting 128 IP addresses. One subnet uses CIDR block 10.0.0.0/25 (for addresses 10.0.0.0-10.0.0.127) and the other uses CIDR block 10.0.0.128/25 (for addresses 10.0.0.128-10.0.0.255).
Service provider systems may or may not allow customers to add additional IP address spaces to their virtual networks. When customers are not able to add additional IP address spaces, the customers may have to predict the IP address space requirements for their virtual networks when initially creating the networks. However, over time, resource usage in a virtual network may outgrow the initial IP address space. This may cause problems for customers who underestimate the growth potential for their virtual networks, and who later find that resource usage in their virtual networks outgrow the initially specified IP address spaces. A customer may allocate a much larger initial IP address space for a virtual network than the network may ever need; however, customers may have many virtual networks on the provider network, as well as external networks, that may be interconnected and that thus may have to share IP address space and avoid overlapping IP address ranges, and thus customers may need to use their IP address space efficiently.
Additionally, in a service provider system where a customer could be able to add additional IP address spaces to their virtual networks, properly adding and using such network address ranges can be extremely difficult and error prone. For example, customers may need to perform fairly involved mathematical operations to identify network address ranges—which may or may not be contiguous—that would satisfy the needs of the customers. These operations can become non-trivial, especially when multiple virtual networks (and potentially, one or more external networks such as an external data center or “office” network) may share an address space with the virtual networks being modified. Thus, if a customer does not select and configure proper network address ranges for a particular environment, the functioning of the entire virtual network (and associated systems/connected networks) may be impaired or destroyed.
Accordingly, embodiments for dynamic network address space management in virtual networks are described that allow for IP address spaces for a virtual network to automatically be enlarged or shrunk based on one or more allocation rules. In some embodiments, conditions of the one or more allocation rules can be selected and/or customized by the customers to define when a network address space is to be modified. Upon a condition being satisfied, the service provider system can automatically, quickly, and safely increase or decrease the network address space(s) of a virtual network, according to a dynamic allocation configuration, without requiring customer interaction and without inadvertently crippling a virtual network due to misconfigurations of customers.
For example, upon a particular condition being satisfied—such as a certain threshold amount of IP addresses (or percentage of an IP address space) being utilized within a virtual network, the service provider system can automatically “scale up” the network address space by adding additional IP address spaces (e.g., additional CIDR blocks, for example 10.1.0.0/16, 11.0.0.0/20, etc.) to the existing virtual network (e.g., created with an initial CIDR block of 10.0.0.0/24). As used herein, the terms network address “scaling” or “allocation”—and network address space management—may be used somewhat synonymously to indicate that a network address space may be dynamically increased and/or decreased in size.
Virtual network 110A may include resource instances 116A-116B such as virtual machines executed on host devices of the service provider system 100. Virtual network 110A may also include networking devices such as one or more gateways 111 and/or one or more routers 112. In at least some embodiments of a service provider system 100, virtual network 110A networking devices such as gateways 111 and routers 112A may be virtual networking devices (e.g., implemented as a software entity, which may execute on general purpose or specialized hardware) of the service provider system 100. A virtual gateway 111 or router 112 may, for example, be implemented in the hypervisor on a host device. A hypervisor, or virtual machine monitor (VMM), on a host device may be described as the software, firmware, and/or hardware that provides an execution environment for the virtual machines on the host device. Network traffic to and from the virtual machines executing on a host device may pass through and be processed by the hypervisor on the host device. Alternatively, a gateway 111 or router 112 may be implemented as a virtual machine executing on a host device of the service provider system 100. As another possibility, a gateway 111 or router 112 may be implemented as a physical networking device of the service provider system 100, or as a virtual device on a networking device of the service provider system 100.
In some embodiments, the service provider system 100 allows the customer to establish a dedicated network connection, referred to as a direct connection 194, from a customer network 192A (e.g., located outside the service provider system 100) to virtual network 110 within the service provider system 100. The direct connection 194 may, for example, be established between a gateway 111 of virtual network 110A (e.g., a “virtual private gateway”) and a gateway at customer network 192A. A direct connection 194 may be a private communications channel, and may provide secure communications and higher bandwidth throughput than is available over an Internet-based connection. Once a direct connection 194 is established between virtual network 110A and customer network 192A, routing tables 113 used by router(s) 112 in private network 110A and router(s) in customer network 192A may be configured with routes for the direct connection 194, and endpoints in the two networks may then begin communicating over the direct connection 194. In some embodiments, virtual network 110A is not allowed to have any IP address space(s) that overlap with the IP address space(s) of an external customer network 192A to which a direct connection 194 is established.
Conventionally, packet flows between endpoints (resource instances 116A and 116N, for example) in different private networks 110 of the service provider system 100 are routed through the network substrate of the service provider system 100 to an intermediate public network 180 such as the Internet. The intermediate network 180 routes the packets back to the service provider system 100. In the service provider system 100, the packets are then routed over the network substrate to the destination private network. In some embodiments of a service provider system 100, to provide a virtual analog to physical transit centers at which physical cables between data centers are patched to create a peering between the respective private networks at the data centers in the virtual network environment within a service provider system 100, a peering service and API may be provided that allow customers to request and accept virtual peerings 196 between virtual networks 110A-110B of the service provider system 100. A private network peering 196 allows packets to flow between endpoints in the two private networks 110A-110B via the service provider system 100 network substrate without passing through the intermediate public network 180. Once a peering 196 is established between two virtual networks 110A-110B, routing tables (e.g., routing table(s) 113) used by router(s) 112 in the private networks 110 may be configured with routes to the peering 196 connection, and endpoints in the two private networks 110 may then begin communicating over the peering 196 as if the two virtual networks 110 were connected by a physical cable.
In this example, virtual network 110A has been created with an initial IP address space (in this example, the IPv4 CIDR block 10.0.0.0/24), which allows for 256 distinct IP addresses. In this example, two subnets, subnet 114A with CIDR block 10.0.0.0/25 (allowing for 128 distinct IP addresses) and subnet 114B with CIDR block 10.0.0.128/25 (allowing for 128 distinct IP addresses), have been created in the IP address space of the virtual network 110A. Resource instance(s) 116A are assigned IP addresses in the IP network address space of subnet 114A, and resource instance(s) 116B are assigned IP addresses in subnet 114B. In some embodiments, each subnet 114A-114B may include at least one router 112 that acts to route traffic to (and from) resource instances 116A-116B of the respective subnet 114A-114B.
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Control plane 104 may maintain metadata about private networks 110A-110B on provider network, for example in a control plane (CP) data store 105. CP data store 105 may include a descriptor record for each private network 110 in the service provider system 100. When a customer creates or modifies a virtual network (e.g., virtual network 110A), information about the private network 110A may be written to, updated in, or read from a descriptor record in data store 105 corresponding to that private network 110A at circle ‘1A’. A descriptor record for a private network may include descriptions of the private network's network address space (e.g., CIDR blocks). A descriptor record for a private network 110 may include one or more of, but is not limited to: the private network name, a private network identifier, one or more CIDR blocks of the private network 110, subnet(s) of the private network 110, information identifying other private networks 110 that are peered with the private network 110, information about external network(s) 192 that are connected with the private network 110 via direct connections 194, routing information for the private network 110, and so on.
Service provider system 100 may implement one or more services 108A-108Z that may perform various functionalities for private networks 110. For example, a (non-illustrated) metadata service may execute in the service provider system 100, for example on each on host device that executes VMs, that exposes an interface to resource instances 116 that allows an executing resource instance 116 to obtain metadata about its respective private network 110 (e.g., information about the private network's IP address space(s), etc.) and metadata about the resource instance 116 (e.g., its media access control (MAC) address, local IP address, etc.). As another example, a direct connect service may support the establishment and management of direct connections I 94 to external networks 192 from private networks 110. As another example, a peering service may support the establishment and management of peering 196 connections between private networks 110.
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In some embodiments, a customer may enable dynamic management of the network address space of one or more virtual networks 110A-110B. For example, a customer may issue a request 128 (at circle ‘2A’) via an API 106 of the service provider system 100 to enable dynamic management of network address spaces for one or more virtual networks. For example, the request may configure an allocation rule to dynamically allocate (or “manage”) a network address space for one or more virtual networks. The request 128 can be an HTTP request message carried by one or more packets that are destined to an API 106 endpoint of the service provider system 100. In some embodiments, a graphical user interface (GUI) to API 106 may be provided on a console on customer network 192A or other network 192B via which the customer may, for example, request dynamic network address management for private network 110A. In some embodiments, other methods may be used instead of or in addition to a GUI to access functionality of the API 106, including but not limited to using a command line interface (CLI).
Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, the service provider system 100 may enable dynamic allocation of network addresses on its own, such as during the creation of a virtual network, etc.
In some embodiments, the request 128 may be a “create virtual network scaling group” request that identifies one or more virtual networks that are to have their network addresses dynamically allocated. For example, the request 128 may include one or more identifiers of virtual networks.
The request 128, in some embodiments, specifies an allocation rule 130 indicating a condition that, when satisfied, indicates that a virtual network is to have its network address space dynamically changed (e.g., increased or decreased). The allocation rule 130 may be stored, at circle ‘2B’, in the CP data store 105. As one example, a condition of an allocation rule 130 may indicate that when more or fewer than a threshold amount of network addresses are being used in a particular virtual network (or virtual networks), a dynamic allocation is to be performed. For example, a condition may indicate that when at least 80% (or 70%, 85%, 90%, etc.) of the addresses of a current network address space are being used, the network address space for the virtual network is to be scaled up—i.e., increased. As another example, a condition may indicate that when fewer than 40% (or 30%, 20%, etc.) of the addresses of a current network address space are being used, the network address space for the virtual network is to be scaled down—i.e., decreased.
Alternatively, in some embodiments the request 128 may not explicitly identify an allocation rule 130, instead allowing the service provider system to use its own allocation rule(s). This configuration can be beneficial in that it relieves the customer from needing to determine a condition, who can rely upon the service provider system to take care of the implementation of the dynamic management of network addresses. However, in some scenarios, a customer may have better visibility (or understanding) into the particular needs or future needs of the involved virtual network(s), and thus customer-specified conditions may also be beneficial.
In various embodiments, a condition can be specified in a variety of ways as (or including) a variety of types of data. For example, a condition could identify a numeric value (e.g., 80%) and a metric type (e.g., “number of IP addresses used in a virtual network”). As another example, the condition could be one of a set of enumerated values (e.g., “aggressive” or “medium” or “conservative”, which could correspond to certain values such as 50%, 75%, or 90% of an address space being consumed) that indicate an aggressiveness for when scaling is to be performed.
In some embodiments, the allocation rule 130 may identify an allocation factor value that indicates how the network address space is to be modified. For example, an allocation factor value could indicate that the network address space is to be doubled (or halved), if possible given an amount of available address space. As another example, an allocation factor value could indicate that a particular size of network address range/block is to be added or removed (e.g., a/24 block). As another example, an allocation factor value could indicate that the network address size is to be expanded or decreased to a particular size—e.g., to expand to a full 10.0.0.0/16 CIDR block, to contract to a 10.0.0.0/24 CIDR block. Alternatively, in some embodiments the request 128 may not explicitly identify an allocation factor, instead allowing the service provider system to use its own allocation factor(s). Again, this configuration can beneficially relieve burdens on customers, though in some scenarios, a customer may have knowledge of what allocation factors will be appropriate, and thus customer-specified allocation factors may also be beneficial.
In some embodiments, the request 128 may include (or identify) an address pool 132 that defines a range or ranges of network addresses (e.g., one or more private network addresses such as IP addresses belonging to the address ranges defined by RFC 1918) that are available to be used within the virtual network 110A, or used across multiple virtual networks 110A-110B. For example, an address pool 132 could include a first CIDR block 10.0.0.0/16, a second CIDR block 10.2.0.0/16, etc. The address pool 132 may be stored in the CP data store 105. When a condition indicates that a dynamic allocation to add addresses is to be performed, the control plane 104 can select addresses to be added from the address pool, and may mark them as being used, etc. Similarly, when a condition indicates that a dynamic allocation to decrease addresses is to be performed, the control plane 104 may insert these addresses back into the address pool (e.g., actually insert them, mark them as available, etc.) In some embodiments, the address pool 132 can be used for multiple networks (e.g., multiple virtual networks) as a single source of network addresses. However, in some embodiments an address pool 132 is not utilized, and instead a number of private network address blocks/ranges can be drawn from defined private network address ranges, such as those defined by RFC 1918 and/or RFC 4193.
After receipt of the request 128, the control plane 104 may begin operations to determine whether the condition(s) of the allocation rule(s) 130 is satisfied.
For example, when a condition is based on a number of addresses being used/allocated, the control plane 104 may periodically access a CP data store 105 to access a management database storing records allowing the control plane 104 to make that determination.
As another example, as shown by circle ‘3’, the control plane 104 may periodically monitor a monitoring service 108A to detect, via an event log 109 storing event records from within the service provider system 100, whether the condition is satisfied. In some embodiments, when a network address is newly being used or is eliminated from use (e.g., in a virtual network 110A via a resource instance 116 being created or destroyed), an “event” may be provided (e.g., at circle ‘4’) to a monitoring service 108A to be stored in an event log 109. Thus, the control plane 104 at circle ‘3’ may begin periodically issue requests to the monitoring service 108A to obtain a number of network addresses currently being used in a particular virtual network or networks, event log 109 records associated with a particular virtual network or networks, etc., thus allowing the control plane 104 to determine the network address space usage.
Alternatively, at circle ‘3’ the control plane 104 may configure the monitoring service 108A to send an event notification to the control plane 104, thus relieving the need for the control plane 104 to periodically check in with the monitoring service 108A. The event notification may be sent upon particular types of events being received from a particular virtual network or networks (or sent upon the condition being satisfied), and may include the event itself, a value determined by the monitoring service 108A (e.g., a current number of network addresses in use), or an indicator that the allocation rule has been satisfied.
Additionally, other techniques for determining whether the condition(s) of the allocation rule(s) 130 is satisfied can be performed in other environments, such as via messaging performed between components within the control plane 104, messaging between the virtual network 110A and the control plane 104, etc., and thus these examples are to be viewed as illustrative.
Thereafter, due to a change associated with the virtual network 110A (e.g., a new IP address being used or allocated to an instance within the network, a new resource instance being launched), an event may be sent (e.g., from the virtual network 110A or another entity in the service provider system 100) to the monitoring service 108A at circle ‘4’, where it may be stored in the event log 109. For the sake of explanation, we stipulate that this event causes the condition of an allocation rule 130 to be satisfied, and thus the control plane 104 at circle ‘5’ may receive an indication from the monitoring service 108A that the condition is satisfied, or may receive the event (e.g., in response to having sent a request for recent events, etc.), or may receive a collection of recent events, etc., and thus determine that the condition was satisfied at circle ‘6’ (e.g., by determining that it received an indication of the condition being satisfied, by determining that the received event or events satisfy the condition, etc.).
The control plane 104 may then, at circle ‘7’, determine that a dynamic allocation is able to be performed, and cause a dynamic network address space allocation to be performed. As shown in
As illustrated, the IP address space at “time 1” of 10.0.0.0/24 is auto-scaled to become 10.0.0.0/16 at “time 2,” which effectively increases the network address space size from 256 addresses to 65,534 addresses. For example, turning again to
As indicated above with regard to circle ‘7’, in some embodiments, before the dynamic allocation of the network address space, the control plane 104 determines whether such an allocation can be performed. For example, when the allocation rule 130 indicates that the dynamic allocation is to increase a network address space by a particular amount, the control plane 104 may perform a set of conflict check operations. The conflict check operations may include determining whether a sufficient network address space is available that can be added, which can include determining whether one or more network address spaces exist in the address pool 132 that are not utilized, and that represent a sufficient number of network addresses sought to be added, and that do not create network address conflicts.
For example, in some embodiments dynamic allocation operations may not add CIDR blocks that overlap with other IP address spaces that are associated with the virtual network (e.g., the IP address space of external customer network 192A connected to the virtual network 110A via direct connection 194, and/or the IP address space of private network 110B connected to private network 110A through peering 196). For example, the control plane 104 may check one or more of, but not limited to, the IP address space(s) of one or more external networks 192 that are connected to virtual network 110A via a direct connection 194 (external customer network 192A, in this example), the IP address space(s) of one or more other virtual networks 110 that are connected to virtual network 110A through a virtual peering connection 196 (private network 110B, in this example), etc. In some embodiments, the control plane 104 may access private network 110A's descriptor record in CP data store 105 to obtain the IP address space and route information to be checked for overlaps with any new network addresses (e.g., CIDR block(s)).
To enlarge a network address space, in some embodiments it is possible to replace an existing route (of an initial network address space) with another route for a larger address space that may completely consume the initial network address space. Thus, although a “new” address space (e.g., 10.0.0.0/16) may technically “conflict” with the initial address space (e.g., 10.0.0.0/24), the dynamic allocation still may occur, e.g., by replacing an existing route for the address space (e.g., route 202) with a new route (e.g., route 204) or simply adding another route or routes to the route table.
In some scenarios, dynamic allocation may include both enlarging an address block (e.g., by modifying an existing route) as well as adding a new block (by adding a new route). For example, in
In some embodiments, the service provider system 100 via the set of conflict check operations, may impose one or more other restrictions on the IP address ranges that may be automatically added to private network 110A as part of dynamic allocation. For example, in some embodiments, the control plane 104 may also check to ensure that the requested IP address space does not violate any of one or more restrictions. As an example, in some embodiments, if private network 110A's initial IP address space is in one of the private IP address spaces as defined by RFC 1918 for IPv4, dynamic allocation may not be allowed to add address ranges from the other IPv4 private address spaces to private network 110A. As another example, in some embodiments, certain IP addresses and/or ranges may be used by service provider system 100 processes or services 108, and the customer may not be allowed to create private network 110A with an IP address space that overlaps the reserved ranges, or to add additional IP address spaces that overlap the reserved ranges.
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In some embodiments, when decreasing a size of a network address space, the control plane 104 identifies which range or ranges of addresses are to be removed from the address space. For example, the control plane 104 can identify the number of addresses to be removed (i.e., the “size” of the network address space to be eliminated), and identify whether there is a block—or multiple blocks, if need be—of addresses that are not being utilized and thus can be removed. As a result, a single route in a routing table may be modified (e.g., from a /20 to a /24), or a single route may be modified and/or replaced with one or more other routes.
In some embodiments, the control plane 104 may perform one or more other tasks to perform the dynamic allocation. For example, in some embodiments, the control plane 104 may update private network 110A's descriptor record to reflect the “new” IP address space.
In some embodiments, control plane 104 may write events indicating changes to private networks 110 to an event log 109 (e.g., of monitoring service 108A), which can allow other services 108B-108Z to asynchronously consume the events from event log 109 to update their information about private networks 110 and perform one or more tasks in response to the events as necessary. In these embodiments, control plane 104 may write an event to event log 109 indicating that a new IP address space has been added to or removed from the private network 110A, or indicating what the overall “new” IP address space is.
In some embodiments, control plane 104 may provide an indication to the customer (e.g., via API 106) that the network address space has been modified via dynamic allocation, which may identify the overall “new” address space and/or the previous address space.
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Upon the completion of a dynamic allocation of the network address space, the customer may then utilize the expanded or contracted dynamic allocation network address space as is normal; for example, at circle ‘8’ a customer may add or modify a subnet to utilize new network address space.
However, in some embodiments, the control plane 104 may itself modify the size of existing subnets of the network based on the dynamic allocation. For example, if one subnet existed before the dynamic allocation that included the full size of the network address space, after the dynamic allocation the subnet could be modified (or removed and then a new one reconstructed) to match the “new” size of the network address space. Similarly, in some embodiments, if two subnets existed before the dynamic allocation that split the previous network address space in half, in some embodiments the control plane 104 could modify one or both of the subnets so that the updated network address space is fully and appropriately utilized.
For example, in some embodiments upon a size of a network address space being dynamically increased, an existing subnet may be likewise expanded, perhaps to cover the entire new size of the network address space, or may be left its previous size. As another example, in some embodiments during the process of decreasing a size of a network address space, one or more subnets may be checked to determine whether they can similarly be decreased in size to be covered within the new network address space. This check can include identifying whether ranges of a subnet that potentially could be eliminated (to move the subnet within a particular new network address space) do not include any utilized/assigned network addresses; if not, other checks can be performed to identify other possible ways to resize the network address space, warning or error messages can be generated, etc.
However, in some embodiments the control plane 104 may not auto-scale (or create new) subnets upon a dynamic allocation occurrence, and thus the customer may do this on their own. For example, a customer may be able to create a subnet in the “new” network address space. In some embodiments, once a new IP address space (e.g., CIDR block 10.0.0.0/16, in this example) has been created, the customer may specify one or more subnets 114 for the new IP address space. In some embodiments, the subnet may be specified as the same CIDR block as the new IP address space, or alternatively one or more CIDR blocks that are subsets of the new CIDR block can be specified to provide one or more subnets 110C in the new IP address space. In this example, CIDR block 10.0.0.0/17 has been specified as a subnet 114A for the new IP address space 10.0.0.0/16, and CIDR block 10.0.128.0/25 has been specified as a subnet 114A for the new IP address space 10.0.0.0/16. In some embodiments, at least one router 112 may be provisioned for the subnets, and one or more route tables 113 of virtual network 110A may be updated to include the new subnet(s).
In some embodiments, control plane 104 may perform one or more other tasks when creating a subnet. For example, in some embodiments, the control plane 104 may update the virtual network's descriptor record to add the subnet(s). In some embodiments, the control plane 104 may write an event to event log 109 indicating that the new subnet(s) have been created. In some embodiments, control plane 104 may provide an indication to the customer that the new subnet(s) have been created, for example via an interface displayed on a customer's console or via API 106.
In some embodiments, the customer may also add resources—e.g., resource instance(s) 116B—at circle ‘9’ in the new IP address space for the example virtual network of
Thereafter, when the auto-scaled network address space has been fully configured (if necessary) in the virtual network, endpoints on external networks 192 may communicate with endpoints on private network 110A (e.g., resource instances 116A-116B). Network traffic (e.g., IP packets) from the external endpoints to endpoints in the private network 110A are routed over the intermediate network 180 to an edge device of the service provider system 100. At the edge device, the packets may be encapsulated and routed over the network substrate of the service provider system 100 to a gateway 111 that controls public access to the private network 110A. The gateway 111 forwards network packets to routers 112 of the private network 110A, which route the packets to the appropriate resource instances 116A-116B on the respective subnets 114A-114B according to routing information maintained in route table(s) 113 for the private network 110A. Similarly, network traffic (e.g., IP packets) from the resource instances 116A-116B is routed to the gateway 111, which sends the packets over the network substrate to an edge device of the service provider system 100 to be routed over the intermediate network 180 to respective endpoints in the external networks 192. Note that at least some endpoints on customer network 192A may also or instead communicate with resource instances 116A-116B of the virtual network 110A over direct connection 194. In addition, endpoints (e.g., resource instances 116N) in virtual network 110B may communicate with resource instances 116A-116B through the peering 196 connection.
The operations 300 optionally include, at block 305, receiving a virtual network scaling request identifying a dynamic allocation condition. The scaling condition, when satisfied, is to cause the service provider system to attempt to auto-scale a network address space of a virtual network.
In some embodiments, the virtual network scaling request is (or is carried by) an HTTP request message sent from a device of a customer via an API of the service provider system. The virtual network scaling request may specify an allocation rule that includes the scaling condition. In some embodiments, the virtual network scaling request includes an identifier of the virtual network (which may be unique across the service provider system, or unique only among virtual networks of a customer), and in some embodiments the allocation rule comprises an allocation factor that indicates whether the network address space is to be increased in size or decreased in size when the scaling condition is satisfied and/or indicates how large the change in size is to be. In some embodiments, the allocation factor indicates a number of addresses that the network address space is to be scaled up or down to. For example, in some embodiments the allocation factor specifies a number of network addresses, while in some embodiments the allocation factor specifies the size of an address block that the network address space is to be scaled to.
As indicated by the use of dashed lines, block 305 is optional in some embodiments. For example, in some embodiments the service provider system implements dynamic allocation of a virtual network that is not directly in response to a virtual network scaling request. For example, in some embodiments the service provider system enables dynamic allocation upon the creation of a virtual network, and may configure at least one “scale up” allocation rule (for adding additional network address space) and/or at least one “scale down” allocation rule (for removing network address space) for the virtual network.
In some embodiments, the scaling condition of the virtual network scaling request identifies one or more metrics that can be utilized to determine whether the scaling condition is satisfied. Thus, the scaling condition may be based at least in part on one or more metrics. In some embodiments, at least one metric comprises a current amount of network addresses used and/or assigned in the virtual network, and in some embodiments at least one metric comprises a current percentage of a network address space that is currently used and/or assigned in the virtual network.
In some embodiments, values for the one or more metrics can be obtained from a monitoring service within the service provider system. The virtual network may be adapted to publish an event to the monitoring service upon a network address being assigned or released within the virtual network, and the monitoring service may store the event in an event log.
In some embodiments, the operations 300 optionally include, at block 310, monitoring for events associated with the scaling condition. In some embodiments, monitoring includes sending one or more requests for events to the monitoring service, and optionally receiving one or more responses back from the monitoring service. In some embodiments, the monitoring service may be configured to transmit an event upon it receiving the event from the virtual network, and thus in some embodiments monitoring may include receiving one or more events from the monitoring service.
In other embodiments, block 310 includes querying (e.g., sending a query request to a service, and receiving a query response back from the service) an information service of the service provider system that maintains operational or configuration information of the service provider system for values of the one or more metrics. For example, block 310 may include sending a query for a number of IP addresses currently being used in a particular virtual network, and receiving a query response indicating a result of the service having executed that query (e.g., against a database of operational or configuration information).
The operations 300 include, at block 315, detecting one or more events. In some embodiments, the detecting comprises receiving an event (or a description of an event) indicating a value of a metric—e.g., a number of IP addresses currently being used in a particular virtual network—from a monitoring service or other service of the service provider system.
The operations 300 include, at block 320, determining whether the scaling condition is satisfied based at least in part on the one or more events. In some embodiments, the scaling condition is a logical statement that compares the value of the metric (e.g., of the one or more events) with another value using one or more comparison operators (e.g., equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, etc.). Determining whether the scaling condition is satisfied includes, in some embodiments, evaluating the condition to determine whether it is true or false.
When the scaling condition is not satisfied, the flow may continue back to block 310 (or block 315), and continuing to monitor for events and/or detecting events. When the scaling condition is satisfied, the flow may continue to block 325.
The operations 300 optionally include, at block 325, determining whether the dynamic allocation is able to be performed. In some embodiments, block 325 includes identifying a number of network addresses that are to be added or removed to the network address space of the virtual network. The identifying may be based on a scaling value associated with the scaling condition, which may indicate a number of network addresses (e.g., an exact number of addresses, a size of an address block, a rate or percentage of increase or decrease) and may further indicate whether the number of network addresses are to be added or removed.
In some embodiments, when the scaling is to add additional network addresses to the network address space, the determining includes identifying, within a pool of network addresses associated with the customer, whether a range of addresses (e.g., a block of addresses) exists that are available for use and that include the number of network addresses to be added. In some embodiments, when the scaling is to remove network addresses from the network address space, the determining includes identifying whether there is a range of network addresses currently assigned to the virtual network that are not being used.
However, in some embodiments block 325 may not be utilized, as it is possible to configure dynamic allocation to be performed in scenarios where it is always possible to perform the dynamic allocation. As one simple example, it may be the case where a customer has one virtual network using a /24 block of a private address space (e.g., an RFC 1918 range of addresses, such as 10.0.0.0/24) and the scaling value may indicate that the network address space is to be expanded to a /16 block (e.g., to 10.0.0.0/16)—in this case, it may be the case that no such check (of block 325) is required.
For further detail regarding optional block 325, we turn to
At decision block 405, the operations 400 include determining whether the scaling condition is to add or remove network address space. In some embodiments, the scaling value includes an identifier (e.g., a character such as “+” for add or “−” for remove, a string such as “add” or “remove”, etc.) that can be obtained in block 405.
When the determination at block 405 results in network addresses being added, the operations 400 may include block 410 and 415, which can be performed sequentially in any order or in parallel. Block 410 includes identifying network addresses that are available to be utilized for the virtual network. In some embodiments, a pool of network addresses is provided by (or for) a customer that can be used by the virtual network, or can be used by multiple virtual networks of the customer. The pool of network addresses can include one or multiple different blocks of network addresses, which can be from different private network address ranges (e.g., 10.0.0.0/8 or 172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16, as a simple example).
Block 415 includes determining an amount of network addresses that are to be added for the virtual network. In some embodiments, block 415 includes identifying a scaling value of an allocation rule (that includes the scaling condition). The scaling value, in some embodiments, indicates a number of addresses to be added (e.g., an exact number of addresses that the scaled address space is to include, an exact number of addresses that are to be removed, a size of a block of network addresses that the scaled address space is to be).
At decision block 420, the operations 400 include determining whether one or more ranges of the available addresses exist that cover the amount of network addresses to be added. Block 420 can include, for example, determining whether one or more blocks of the addresses available to be utilized exist that provide enough network addresses. In some embodiments, the output of block 420 may serve as the output value of block 325.
When the determination at block 405 results in network addresses being removed, the operations 400 may include block 450, and determining an amount of network addresses that are to be removed. In some embodiments, block 450 includes identifying a scaling value of an allocation rule (that includes the scaling condition). The scaling value, in some embodiments, indicates a number of addresses to be removed (e.g., an exact number of addresses that the scaled address space is to include, an exact number of addresses that are to be removed, a size of a block of network addresses that the scaled address space is to be).
The operations 400 may then continue with decision block 455, and determining whether a range of addresses exists that can be removed and that includes the amount of network addresses. In some embodiments, blocks 455 includes determining whether there is a block (or multiple blocks) of network addresses currently in the network address space that are unused and that collectively include the determined amount of addresses to be removed.
Turning back to
Another example set of operations is illustrated in
The operations 500 include block 505, and determining that a condition of an allocation rule is satisfied. The condition (or scaling condition) is based on a current utilization of network addresses within a network address space associated with a virtual network implemented in a service provider system. The network address space has an initial size. The determining can include evaluating the condition based on one or more metric values to determine whether the condition is satisfied (e.g., evaluates to true, evaluates to false). The one or more metric values may be obtained from a monitoring service within the service provider system, and may indicate a current amount of network addresses used in the virtual network. The allocation rule may be specified by a customer via an API request message, or can be implemented by the service provider system on its own for the virtual network.
In some embodiments, the allocation rule is identified in a request that is received, via an application programming interface (API) of the service provider system, where the request is to configure the allocation rule to dynamically allocate the network address space for the virtual network. In some embodiments, the request further includes an allocation factor that indicates how the network address space is to be changed when the condition is satisfied.
The operations 500 also include, at block 510, determining a new size for the network address space that is different than the initial size. In some embodiments, the determining of block 510 includes identifying a scaling value of the allocation rule, which indicates an amount of network addresses to be added or removed for the virtual network, and determining the new size based on the allocation rule.
At block 515, the operations 500 include configuring the network address space associated with the virtual network to be of the new size. In some embodiments, block 515 includes updating one or more routes of one or more routing tables used for the virtual network within the service provider system. In some embodiments, block 515 further includes updating a size of one or more subnets based on the new size of the virtual network.
In some embodiments, the new size is larger than the initial size; prior to the configuring of the network address space to be of the new size, the network address space comprises a first range of network addresses; and after the configuring of the network address space to be of the new size, the network address space comprises a second range of network addresses.
In some embodiments, the second range of network addresses is contiguous with the first range of network addresses (and the new network address space may or may not include the first range of network addresses), and in some embodiments, the second range of network addresses is not contiguous with the first range of network addresses.
In some embodiments, the operations 500 further include receiving, via an API, a request that specifies at least one subnet for the virtual network that is to be configured within the second range of network addresses, and configuring the at least one subnet in the virtual network. In some embodiments, the operations 500 further comprise receiving, via the API, a request that indicates that one or more resource instances, such as one or more compute instances (e.g., a virtual machine (VM) using a guest operating system (O/S) that operates using a hypervisor that may or may not further operate on top of an underlying host O/S, a container that may or may not operate in a VM, an instance that can execute on “bare metal” hardware without an underlying hypervisor), are to be launched in the at least one subnet of the virtual network; launching the one or more resource instances; and assigning network addresses from the second range of network addresses to the one or more resource instances.
In some embodiments, the operations 500 further include determining that the second range of network addresses does not conflict with a third range of network addresses. The determining can include determining whether any of the second range of network addresses exists within the third range of network addresses.
In some embodiments, the third range of network addresses are of another virtual network implemented by the service provider system, wherein the another virtual network is connected to the virtual network via a peering connection. In some embodiments, the third range of network addresses are of another network that is external to the service provider system that is connected to the virtual network across an intermediate network.
In some embodiments, wherein the new size is smaller than the initial size. In some embodiments, the operations 500 further include determining that a range of network addresses that are within the network address space are not utilized, and block 515 includes removing the range of network addresses from the network address space.
In some embodiments, the operations 500 further include, after block 515, transmitting an indication that the size of the network address space has changed. The transmission may occur via an API of the service provider system (e.g., to the customer, to another system or service), via a notification service, etc.
For example, in some embodiments, one or more provider network service(s) may be informed of the new IP address space for the private network. For example, in some embodiments, the control plane may write events indicating changes to virtual networks in the service provider system to an event log via an API. Service provider system services (or other resource instances) that need this information may asynchronously consume the events from the event log, such as via an API, to update their information about the virtual networks and to perform one or more tasks in response to the changes as necessary. However, note that other techniques may be used instead of or in addition to the described techniques to inform other services that the address space has been modified (e.g., via the dynamic allocation).
Conventionally, the provider network 600, via the virtualization services 610, may allow a customer of the service provider (e.g., a customer that operates client network 650A) to dynamically associate at least some public IP addresses 614 assigned or allocated to the customer with particular resource instances 612 assigned to the customer. The provider network 600 may also allow the customer to remap a public IP address 614, previously mapped to one virtualized computing resource instance 612 allocated to the customer, to another virtualized computing resource instance 612 that is also allocated to the customer. Using the virtualized computing resource instances 612 and public IP addresses 614 provided by the service provider, a customer of the service provider such as the operator of customer network 650A may, for example, implement customer-specific applications and present the customer's applications on an intermediate network 66, such as the Internet. Other network entities 620 on the intermediate network 66 may then generate traffic to a destination public IP address 614 published by the customer network 650A; the traffic is routed to the service provider data center, and at the data center is routed, via a network substrate, to the local IP address 616 of the virtualized computing resource instance 612 currently mapped to the destination public IP address 614. Similarly, response traffic from the virtualized computing resource instance 612 may be routed via the network substrate back onto the intermediate network 66 to the source entity 620.
Local IP addresses, as used herein, refer to the internal network addresses of resource instances in a provider network. Local IP addresses are only mutable within the provider network. Network traffic originating outside the provider network is not directly routed to local IP addresses; instead, the traffic uses public IP addresses that are mapped to the local IP addresses of the resource instances. The provider network may include networking devices or appliances that provide network address translation (NAT) or similar functionality to perform the mapping from public IP addresses to local IP addresses and vice versa.
Public IP addresses are Internet mutable network addresses that are assigned to resource instances, either by the service provider or by the customer. Traffic routed to a public IP address is translated, for example via 1:1 network address translation (NAT), and forwarded to the respective local IP address of a resource instance.
Some public IP addresses may be assigned by the provider network infrastructure to particular resource instances; these public IP addresses may be referred to as standard public IP addresses, or simply standard IP addresses. In some embodiments, the mapping of a standard IP address to a local IP address of a resource instance is the default launch configuration for all resource instance types.
At least some public IP addresses may be allocated to or obtained by customers of the provider network 600; a customer may then assign their allocated public IP addresses to particular resource instances allocated to the customer. These public IP addresses may be referred to as customer public IP addresses, or simply customer IP addresses. Instead of being assigned by the provider network 600 to resource instances as in the case of standard IP addresses, customer IP addresses may be assigned to resource instances by the customers, for example via an API provided by the service provider. Unlike standard IP addresses, customer IP addresses are allocated to customer accounts and can be remapped to other resource instances by the respective customers as necessary or desired. A customer IP address is associated with a customer's account, not a particular resource instance, and the customer controls that IP address until the customer chooses to release it. Unlike conventional static IP addresses, customer IP addresses allow the customer to mask resource instance or availability zone failures by remapping the customer's public IP addresses to any resource instance associated with the customer's account. The customer IP addresses, for example, enable a customer to engineer around problems with the customer's resource instances or software by remapping customer IP addresses to replacement resource instances.
In some embodiments, the IP tunneling technology may map IP overlay addresses (public IP addresses) to substrate IP addresses (local IP addresses), encapsulate the packets in a tunnel between the two namespaces, and deliver the packet to the correct endpoint via the tunnel, where the encapsulation is stripped from the packet. In
Referring to
In addition, a network such as the provider data center 700 network (which is sometimes referred to as an autonomous system (AS)) may use the mapping service technology, IP tunneling technology, and routing service technology to route packets from the VMs 724 to Internet destinations, and from Internet sources to the VMs 724. Note that an external gateway protocol (EGP) or border gateway protocol (BGP) is typically used for Internet routing between sources and destinations on the Internet.
The data center 700 network may implement IP tunneling technology, mapping service technology, and a routing service technology to route traffic to and from virtualized resources, for example to route packets from the VMs 724 on hosts 720 in data center 700 to Internet destinations, and from Internet sources to the VMs 724. Internet sources and destinations may, for example, include computing systems 770 connected to the intermediate network 740 and computing systems 752 connected to local networks 750 that connect to the intermediate network 740 (e.g., via edge router(s) 714 that connect the network 750 to Internet transit providers). The provider data center 700 network may also route packets between resources in data center 700, for example from a VM 724 on a host 720 in data center 700 to other VMs 724 on the same host or on other hosts 720 in data center 700.
A service provider that provides data center 700 may also provide additional data center(s) 760 that include hardware virtualization technology similar to data center 700 and that may also be connected to intermediate network 740. Packets may be forwarded from data center 700 to other data centers 760, for example from a VM 724 on a host 720 in data center 700 to another VM on another host in another, similar data center 760, and vice versa.
While the above describes hardware virtualization technology that enables multiple operating systems to run concurrently on host computers as VMs on the hosts, where the VMs may be instantiated on slots on hosts that are rented or leased to customers of the network provider, the hardware virtualization technology may also be used to provide other computing resources, for example storage resources 718, as virtualized resources to customers of a network provider in a similar manner.
Provider network 800 may provide a customer network 850, for example coupled to intermediate network 840 via local network 856, the ability to implement virtual computing systems 892 via hardware virtualization service 820 coupled to intermediate network 840 and to provider network 800. In some embodiments, hardware virtualization service 820 may provide one or more APIs 802, for example a web services interface, via which a customer network 850 may access functionality provided by the hardware virtualization service 820, for example via a console 894. In some embodiments, at the provider network 800, each virtual computing system 892 at customer network 850 may correspond to a computation resource 824 that is leased, rented, or otherwise provided to customer network 850.
From an instance of a virtual computing system 892 and/or another customer device 890 or console 894, the customer may access the functionality of storage virtualization service 810, for example via one or more APIs 802, to access data from and store data to a virtual data store 816 provided by the provider network 800. In some embodiments, a virtualized data store gateway (not shown) may be provided at the customer network 850 that may locally cache at least some data, for example frequently accessed or critical data, and that may communicate with virtualized data store service 810 via one or more communications channels to upload new or modified data from a local cache so that the primary store of data (virtualized data store 816) is maintained. In some embodiments, a user, via a virtual computing system 892 and/or on another customer device 890, may mount and access virtual data store 816 volumes, which appear to the user as local virtualized storage 898.
While not shown in
A customer's virtual network 960 may be connected to a customer network 950 via a private communications channel 942. A private communications channel 942 may, for example, be a tunnel implemented according to a network tunneling technology or some other technology over an intermediate network 940. The intermediate network may, for example, be a shared network or a public network such as the Internet. Alternatively, a private communications channel 942 may be implemented over a direct, dedicated connection between virtual network 960 and customer network 950.
A public network may be broadly defined as a network that provides open access to and interconnectivity among a plurality of entities. The Internet, or World Wide Web (WWW) is an example of a public network. A shared network may be broadly defined as a network to which access is limited to two or more entities, in contrast to a public network to which access is not generally limited. A shared network may, for example, include one or more local area networks (LANs) and/or data center networks, or two or more LANs or data center networks that are interconnected to form a wide area network (WAN). Examples of shared networks may include, but are not limited to, corporate networks and other enterprise networks. A shared network may be anywhere in scope from a network that covers a local area to a global network. Note that a shared network may share at least some network infrastructure with a public network, and that a shared network may be coupled to one or more other networks, which may include a public network, with controlled access between the other network(s) and the shared network. A shared network may also be viewed as a private network, in contrast to a public network such as the Internet. In some embodiments, either a shared network or a public network may serve as an intermediate network between a provider network and a customer network.
To establish a virtual network 960 for a customer on provider network 900, one or more resource instances (e.g., VMs 924A and 924B and storage 918A and 918B) may be allocated to the virtual network 960. Note that other resource instances (e.g., storage 918C and VMs 924C) may remain available on the provider network 900 for other customer usage. A range of public IP addresses may also be allocated to the virtual network 960. In addition, one or more networking devices (routers, switches, etc.) of the provider network 900 may be allocated to the virtual network 960. A private communications channel 942 may be established between a private gateway 962 at virtual network 960 and a gateway 956 at customer network 950.
In some embodiments, in addition to, or instead of, a private gateway 962, virtual network 960 may include a public gateway 964 that enables resources within virtual network 960 to communicate directly with entities (e.g., network entity 944) via intermediate network 940, and vice versa, instead of or in addition to via private communications channel 942.
Virtual network 960 may be, but is not necessarily, subdivided into two or more subnetworks, or subnets, 970. For example, in implementations that include both a private gateway 962 and a public gateway 964, a virtual network 960 may be subdivided into a subnet 970A that includes resources (VMs 924A and storage 918A, in this example) reachable through private gateway 962, and a subnet 970B that includes resources (VMs 924B and storage 918B, in this example) reachable through public gateway 964.
The customer may assign particular customer public IP addresses to particular resource instances in virtual network 960. A network entity 944 on intermediate network 940 may then send traffic to a public IP address published by the customer; the traffic is routed, by the provider network 900, to the associated resource instance. Return traffic from the resource instance is routed, by the provider network 900, back to the network entity 944 over intermediate network 940. Note that routing traffic between a resource instance and a network entity 944 may require network address translation to translate between the public IP address and the local IP address of the resource instance.
Some embodiments may allow a customer to remap public IP addresses in a customer's virtual network 960 as illustrated in
While
In the example virtual network 1010 shown in
Illustrative System
In some embodiments, a system that implements a portion or all of the techniques for dynamic allocation of network address spaces of virtual networks implemented in service provider network environments as described herein may include a general-purpose computer system that includes or is configured to access one or more computer-accessible media, such as computer system 1100 illustrated in
In various embodiments, computer system 1100 may be a uniprocessor system including one processor 1110, or a multiprocessor system including several processors 1110 (e.g., two, four, eight, or another suitable number). Processors 1110 may be any suitable processors capable of executing instructions. For example, in various embodiments, processors 1110 may be general-purpose or embedded processors implementing any of a variety of instruction set architectures (ISAs), such as the x86, PowerPC, SPARC, or MIPS ISAs, or any other suitable ISA In multiprocessor systems, each of processors 1110 may commonly, but not necessarily, implement the same ISA.
System memory 1120 may store instructions and data accessible by processor(s) 1110. In various embodiments, system memory 1120 may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, such as static random-access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), nonvolatile/Flash-type memory, or any other type of memory. In the illustrated embodiment, program instructions and data implementing one or more desired functions, such as those methods, techniques, and data described above for resizing virtual networks in provider network environments, are shown stored within system memory 1120 as code 1125 and data 1126.
In one embodiment, I/O interface 1130 may be configured to coordinate I/O traffic between processor 1110, system memory 1120, and any peripheral devices in the device, including network interface 1140 or other peripheral interfaces. In some embodiments, I/O interface 1130 may perform any necessary protocol, timing or other data transformations to convert data signals from one component (e.g., system memory 1120) into a format suitable for use by another component (e.g., processor 1110). In some embodiments, I/O interface 1130 may include support for devices attached through various types of peripheral buses, such as a variant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard or the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In some embodiments, the function of I/O interface 1130 may be split into two or more separate components, such as a north bridge and a south bridge, for example. Also, in some embodiments some or all of the functionality of I/O interface 1130, such as an interface to system memory 1120, may be incorporated directly into processor 1110.
Network interface 1140 may be configured to allow data to be exchanged between computer system 1100 and other devices 1160 attached to a network or networks 1111, such as other computer systems or devices as illustrated in
In some embodiments, system memory 1120 may be one embodiment of a computer-accessible medium configured to store program instructions and data as described above for
Various embodiments may further include receiving, sending, or storing instructions and/or data implemented in accordance with the foregoing description upon a computer-accessible medium. Generally speaking, a computer-accessible medium may include storage media or memory media such as magnetic or optical media, e.g., disk or DVD/CD-ROM, volatile or non-volatile media such as RAM (e.g. SDRAM, DDR, RDRAM, SRAM, etc.), ROM, etc., as well as transmission media or signals such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals, conveyed via a communication medium such as network and/or a wireless link.
In the preceding description, various embodiments are described. For purposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the embodiment being described.
Bracketed text and blocks with dashed borders (e.g., large dashes, small dashes, dot-dash, and dots) are used herein to illustrate optional operations that add additional features to some embodiments. However, such notation should not be taken to mean that these are the only options or optional operations, and/or that blocks with solid borders are not optional in certain embodiments.
Reference numerals with suffix letters (e.g., 108A-108Z) may be used to indicate that there can be one or multiple instances of the referenced entity in some embodiments, and when there are multiple instances, each does not need to be identical but may instead share some general traits or act in common ways. Further, the particular suffixes used are not meant to imply that a particular amount of the entity exists unless specifically indicated to the contrary. Thus, two entities using the same or different suffix letters may or may not have the same number of instances in various embodiments.
References to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
The various methods as illustrated in the Figures and described herein represent exemplary embodiments of methods. The methods may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. The order of method may be changed, and various elements may be added, reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc.
Various modifications and changes may be made as would be obvious to a person skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. It is intended to embrace all such modifications and changes and, accordingly, the above description to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
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