Introduction Our last article described VMware’s view of network virtualization, provided definitions and advantages of same, with different opinions expressed on the main advantage(s). There was a reference to a follow on article which would illustrate various configurations of network virtualization. We attempt to do that in this article by describing figures from VMware, ETSI NFV ISG, and Intel’s SDN/NFV reference designs. Network Virtualization Illustrations 1. VMware The figure below (from VMware) shows a Leaf/Spine L3 fabric deployment in support of Network Virtualization. The fabric connects compute cabinets with Hypervisors (below), Infrastructure cabinets with controller nodes, and Edge cabinets that interface to the outside world (e.g. the Internet, private lines, IP VPNs, Carrier Ethernet, etc). Because the virtual network is decoupled from the Data Center switch fabric, the latter can be built without the former complicating or restricting its design. VMware believes that the most scalable, robust, and cost effective architecture (to date) for such a Data Center switch fabric is the Layer 3 (L3 or IP Network layer) Leaf/Spine fabric design shown above. Such a L3 Leaf/Spine fabric is constructed using standard IP routing protocols (e.g. OSPF, IS-IS, BGP) between the Leaf and Spine switches. This fabric can be put [...]
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