Transparent Rbridge

1. A transparent edge Routing Bridge (RBridge) comprising: a first communication unit configured to receive a data packet from an access segment of a network, the data packet including a TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) egress device nickname and at least one Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag; a TRILL header constructing unit configured to construct a TRILL header based on the VLAN tag; and a second communication unit that transmits the data packet, including the TRILL header, to an egress device corresponding to the TRILL egress device nickname via a TRILL compliant interconnection layer.

2. The transparent edge RBridge according to claim 1 , wherein the data packet includes, as the at least one VLAN tag, either a VLAN tag or a TRILL compliant Fine Grained Labeling (FGL).

3. An access segment comprising: a server defining a first virtual machine; and a hypervisor configured to transmit a network control message requesting location information of a second virtual machine defined at a second server, the location information including an egress device nickname and at least one Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag, to insert the location information corresponding to the second virtual machine into a data packet to be sent from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine, and to transmit the data packet to an ingress edge Routing Bridge (RBridge) configured to send the data packet to the second server over a TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) compliant interconnect layer.

4. The access segment according to claim 3 , wherein the hypervisor is configured to transmit the network control message to the ingress edge RBridge.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein when the ingress edge RBridge receives the network control message, the ingress edge RBridge determines the location information and reports the location information to the hypervisor.

6. A transparent edge Routing Bridge (RBridge) comprising: a first communication unit configured to receive a data packet designating at least one Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag in an Ethernet header, the at least one VLAN tag being either a single VLAN tag or a double VLAN tag, corresponding to a destination virtual machine in a server, the transparent edge RBridge executing a lookup on the at least one VLAN tag to determine a TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) nickname of an egress device and a VLAN associated with the egress device; a TRILL header constructing unit that constructs a TRILL header by appending the TRILL egress device nickname to the data packet; and a second communication unit that transmits the data packet, including the TRILL header, to a TRILL compliant interconnection layer.

7. A method for forwarding packets on a TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) compliant network, the method comprising: receiving, at an edge Routing Bridge (RBridge) located at an interface between a first access segment and a TRILL compliant interconnecting layer, a data packet including TRILL egress device nickname and at least one Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag; constructing, as executed by a processor of the edge RBridge, a TRILL header based on the TRILL egress device nickname and the at least one VLAN tag; determining a next hop device for the transmitting the data packet; and transmitting the data packet, including the TRILL header, through a TRILL compliant interconnect layer to the next hop device.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising: transmitting, from the edge device, a network control message requesting to receive location information of a virtual machine defined at a second access segment, the requested location information including the TRILL egress device nickname and the at least one VLAN tag; inserting location information, received in response to the request, corresponding to the virtual machine defined at the second access segment into the data packet; and transmitting the data packet to the edge RBridge.

9. A method for transmitting a data packet on a TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) compliant network, the method comprising: in a first access segment of the TRILL compliant network, defining a first hypervisor and a first virtual machine; transmitting, from the first hypervisor, a network control message requesting to receive location information of a second virtual machine defined at a second access segment of the TRILL compliant network, the location information including a nickname for an egress device associated with the second access segment and at least one Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag; inserting, as executed by a processor of the first access segment, the location information received in response to the control message into an Ethernet packet to be sent from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine; and providing the Ethernet packet from the first access segment to an ingress edge Routing Bridge (RBridge) located at an interface between the first access segment and an interconnect layer of the TRILL compliant network.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the first hypervisor sends, as the network control message, an End Station Address Distribution information (ESADI) message.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the location information includes, as the at least one VLAN tag, a TRILL compliant Fine Grained Labeling (FGL).

12. A method for forwarding packets on a TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) compliant network, the method comprising: receiving, at a first edge Routing Bridge (RBridge) located at an interface between a first access segment and an interconnecting layer of the TRILL compliant network, a data packet designating either a single Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag or a double VLAN tag in an Ethernet header, the single or double VLAN tag corresponding to a virtual machine defined in a second access segment of the TRILL compliant network; executing, via a processor of the first edge RBridge, a lookup using at least the single or double VLAN tag to determine a TRILL egress device nickname and at least one VLAN tag corresponding to a second edge RBridge associated with the second access segment; and appending a TRILL header to the data packet, the TRILL header including the TRILL egress device nickname and the at least one VLAN tag.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the lookup returns, as the at least one VLAN tag, a Fine Grained Labeling (FGL).

14. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising forwarding the data packet to a next hop location in the TRILL compliant network using the at least one VLAN tag.

15. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising: forwarding an address resolution message from a first Virtual Machine (VM) defined in the first access segment in order to resolve an address for a second VM located in the second access segment; trapping, at the first edge RBridge, an address resolution response indicating at least a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the second edge RBridge associated with the second access segment; and updating, at first the edge device and in response to the trapped address resolution response, a lookup table establishing a correspondence between the single or double VLAN tag, the TRILL egress device nickname of the second edge device associated with the second access segment, and the at least one VLAN tag corresponding to the second edge RBridge.