Hyper-V Network Architecture

Virtual Network Architecture:

                       Hyper-V supports three types of virtual networks: private virtual networks, internal virtual networks, and external virtual networks. The virtual network switch forms the center of all Hyper-V virtual networks. It never appears as a physical entity—it is a software representation.

 

Virtual Network Interfaces in Hyper-V :

In Hyper-V, the virtual machine queue (VMQ) feature enables physical network adapters to use direct memory access (DMA) to place the contents of data packets directly into virtual machine memory, which increases I/O performance.

Data Path Without Virtual Machine Queue :

In standard Hyper-V environments, the virtual network switch in the management operating system filters data based upon MAC address and VLAN tags. It copies the data and then routes it to the associated virtual machines through the virtual machine bus (VMBus). Non-VMQ-enabled physical network adapters use the following device data path:

 

Data Path with Virtual Machine Queue:

With Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2, you can use the VMQ-enabled network adapter to copy received data directly to a virtual machine’s accessible memory. This avoids the copy of received data from the management operating system to the virtual machine. The network adapter card must have hardware support for virtual network queue (VMQ).