cloudSwXtch Bridge
The cloudSwXtch Bridge application enables bi-directional multicast traffic between a non-cloud and cloud network. The source network can be bare-metal and on-premises. The destination network can be a cloud virtual network with a cloudSwXtch instance deployed. With cloudSwXtch, multicast traffic generated from the on-prem network can be received and processed in the cloud which then in turn can be sent back to the on-prem network.
From on-prem to the cloud, the bridge is dynamic. This means that users in the cloud can subscribe to a multicast group via IGMP joins. Then, the bridge will allow that traffic through. This ensures that only necessary traffic goes through the VPN or Express Route/Gateway into the cloud. It guarantees the best use of the gateway and incurs less ingress bandwidth into the cloud.
Operation
The operation of the cloudSwXtch Bridge varies based on direction.
Ground-->Cloud
For Ground to Cloud, a mesh must be configured between the cloudSwXtch and the cloudSwXtch Bridge at the ground. From then on, the operation is dynamic, meaning the user does not need to map multicast addresses to go into the cloud. Instead, when a user is in an application and use an IGMP join then a message is sent to the cloudSwXtch Bridge via the cloudSwXtch through the mesh and then the Bridge allows that traffic through. When the user stops using multicast group and does an IGMP leave, then the bridge stops sending multicast data.
Cloud-->Ground
For Cloud to ground there is no current support to propagate IGMP joins and leaves from cloudSwXtch to on-prem. In this case, multicast groups must be explicitly configured to let the bridge know what traffic is allowed.
See Bridge Installation on how to install the Bridge and the differences between Bridge Type 1 and Type2. See our configuration pages for Bridge Type 1 and Bridge Type 2.