Virtual networking

Abstract

Over a decade ago, virtual networking started with a simple bridging of VM's virtual network adapter to host's physical network adapter in VMware's Workstation product. With VMware's vSphere 4 product, virtual networking has evolved to a distributed virtual networking infrastructure with pluggable packet switching and filtering modules, under the umbrella marketing name of vNetwork. It is clear that in a virtualized environment, traditional network access layer has migrated from physical switches to virtual switches in the hypervisor. We are beginning to see virtualized solutions in layer 3 to 7 network services and we expect this trend of service migration from physical to virtual to continue in the coming years.