TCP/IP techniques connecting virtual Ethernet to external LANs

 

Different TCP/IP techniques can be used to connect the virtual Ethernet network to an external LAN. You can take advantage of virtual Ethernet on the i5/OS™ operating system.

If you are using a virtual Ethernet network for interpartition communication, you might need to enable these partitions to communicate with a physical, external LAN. You need to enable the TCP/IP traffic to flow between the virtual Ethernet network and the external LAN. This figure shows a logical flow of the IP packets.

IP traffic initiated by Partition A goes from its virtual Ethernet interface to the virtual Ethernet interface on Partition B. By implementing any one of the three TCP/IP techniques described below, you can enable the IP packets to continue on to the external interface and toward their destination.

There are three methods for connecting the virtual Ethernet and external LAN. Each method has nuances that make it more feasible based on your knowledge of TCP/IP and your environment. Choose from one of the following methods:

• Proxy ARP method

• Network address translation method

• TCP/IP routing method

• Proxy Address Resolution Protocol method
  This proxy Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) method uses transparent subnetting to associate a partition's virtual interface with an external interface.

• Network address translation method
  You can use i5/OS packet filtering to route traffic between a partition and the outside network.

• TCP/IP routing method
  Standard TCP/IP routing is used to route traffic to the virtual Ethernet network in the same way you define routing to any other LAN. This requires that you update routing information throughout your network.

• Virtual Ethernet considerations
  You can use virtual Ethernet as an alternative to using a network card for interpartition communication.

 

Parent topic:

TCP/IP setup