Customer premises lan expansion

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses mechanisms for extending a local area network of a customer premises of a customer outside of the customer premises and into a private data network. The extension of a local area network of a customer premises outside of the customer premises and into a private data network may be provided using a customer bridge associated with the customer local area network, a customer bridging domain hosted on a network gateway device for the customer, and a switching element hosted in the private data network for the customer. The network gateway device may be configured to receive, at the customer bridging domain of the customer via a first tunnel associated with the customer bridging domain, a packet including a destination address and determine, based on the destination address, whether to forward the packet via a second tunnel associated with the customer bridging domain or whether to forward the packet toward a public data network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An apparatus, comprising:
 at least one processor; and   at least one memory including computer program code;   wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
 maintain, by a network device, a user bridging domain associated with a user device of a user premises and associated with a user component hosted in a private data network, wherein the user bridging domain has layer 2 forwarding information associated therewith; 
 receive, by the network device via a first tunnel between a bridge of the user premises and the user bridging domain, a packet including a layer 2 address of the user component as a layer 2 destination address; 
 determine, by the network device based on the layer 2 address of the user component and the layer 2 forwarding information, a second tunnel between the user bridging domain and a switching element of the private data network associated with the user component hosted in the private data network, wherein the layer 2 forwarding information includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user component to the second tunnel; and 
 send, by the network device toward the switching element via the second tunnel, the packet. 
   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the user bridging domain is one of a plurality of user bridging domains maintained by the network device for a respective plurality of users. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the mapping of the layer 2 address of the user component to the second tunnel includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user component to a tunnel identifier of the second tunnel. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the mapping of the layer 2 address of the user component to the second tunnel includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user component to a tunnel endpoint identifier of a tunnel endpoint of the second tunnel. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the user bridging domain includes a layer 2 virtual bridge or a layer 2 virtual service. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the layer 2 address of the user component includes a Media Access Control (MAC) address. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the user component includes a physical server, a virtual server, or a virtual machine (VM). 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first tunnel includes a virtual local area network (VLAN) tunnel or an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the second tunnel includes a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel or a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) tunnel. 
     
     
         10 . A method, comprising:
 maintaining, by a network device, a user bridging domain associated with a user device of a user premises and associated with a user component hosted in a private data network, wherein the user bridging domain has layer 2 forwarding information associated therewith;   receiving, by the network device via a first tunnel between a bridge of the user premises and the user bridging domain, a packet including a layer 2 address of the user component as a layer 2 destination address;   determining, by the network device based on the layer 2 address of the user component and the layer 2 forwarding information, a second tunnel between the user bridging domain and a switching element of the private data network associated with the user component hosted in the private data network, wherein the layer 2 forwarding information includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user component to the second tunnel; and   sending, by the network device toward the switching element via the second tunnel, the packet.   
     
     
         11 . An apparatus, comprising:
 at least one processor; and   at least one memory including computer program code;   wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
 maintain, by a network device, a user bridging domain associated with a user component hosted in a private data network and associated with a user device of a user premises, wherein the user bridging domain has layer 2 forwarding information associated therewith; 
 receive, by the network device via a first tunnel between a switching element of the private data network associated with the user component hosted in the private data network and the user bridging domain, a packet including a layer 2 address of the user device as a layer 2 destination address; 
 determine, by the network device based on the layer 2 address of the user device and the layer 2 forwarding information, a second tunnel between the user bridging domain and a bridge of the user premises, wherein the layer 2 forwarding information includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user device to the second tunnel; and 
 send, by the network device toward the bridge via the second tunnel, the packet. 
   
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the user bridging domain is one of a plurality of user bridging domains maintained by the network device for a respective plurality of users. 
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the mapping of the layer 2 address of the user device to the second tunnel includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user device to a tunnel identifier of the second tunnel. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the mapping of the layer 2 address of the user device to the second tunnel includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user device to a tunnel endpoint identifier of a tunnel endpoint of the second tunnel. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the user bridging domain includes a layer 2 virtual bridge or a layer 2 virtual service. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the layer 2 address of the user device includes a Media Access Control (MAC) address. 
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the user component includes a physical server, a virtual server, or a virtual machine (VM). 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the first tunnel includes a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel or a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) tunnel. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the second tunnel includes a virtual local area network (VLAN) tunnel or an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel. 
     
     
         20 . A method, comprising:
 maintaining, by a network device, a user bridging domain associated with a user component hosted in a private data network and associated with a user device of a user premises, wherein the user bridging domain has layer 2 forwarding information associated therewith;   receiving, by the network device via a first tunnel between a switching element of the private data network associated with the user component hosted in the private data network and the user bridging domain, a packet including a layer 2 address of the user device as a layer 2 destination address;   determining, by the network device based on the layer 2 address of the user device and the layer 2 forwarding information, a second tunnel between the user bridging domain and a bridge of the user premises, wherein the layer 2 forwarding information includes a mapping of the layer 2 address of the user device to the second tunnel; and   sending, by the network device toward the bridge via the second tunnel, the packet.