Basic Concepts

Connection

A connection is a dedicated channel that connects your on-premises data center to the cloud. Connections are more stable, reliable, and secure than Internet-based connections, and provide up to 100 Gbit/s of bandwidth. Direct Connect provides ports only. After you request a connection, you need to work with the carrier and Huawei Cloud to establish network connectivity between your on-premises data center and the cloud.

Direct Connect provides standard connections and hosted connections.

• Standard connection: A standard connection provides an exclusive port. You can create standard connections on the management console. To improve reliability, you can create multiple connections terminated at different locations and allow them to serve as backups for each other.
  You can choose self-service connections or full-service connections.

  • Self-service connection: Huawei Cloud only provides the port. You need to create a connection on the console, and lease a line from a carrier.
  • Full-service connection: You only need to create a connection on the console, and Huawei Cloud will complete all operations required for network connectivity.

  Figure 1 shows an example of how standard connections work.

  Figure 1 Accessing the cloud using standard connections
  
• Hosted connection: If you use a hosted connection to access the cloud, the port you use is shared with other users. These connections are created by a carrier (a partner of Huawei Cloud), who allocates the required VLAN and bandwidth for your connection. Only one virtual interface can be associated with each hosted connection.

  If you are a partner, you can request operations connections. If you are a common user, you can purchase a host connection from your partner. Hosted connections must be hosted on operations connections, and your partner will allocate VLAN and bandwidth resources to the connection.

  Figure 2 shows an example of how hosted connections work.

  Figure 2 Accessing the cloud using hosted connections
  

Connections support redundant configuration. If there are two connections terminated at different locations in the same region, they can work in an active/standby pair to back each other up. If one connection becomes faulty, the other will take over, ensuring stable services.

Virtual Gateway

A virtual gateway is a logical gateway that enables an on-premises data center to access a VPC over a connection. To enable an on-premises data center to access a VPC over a connection, you can associate the VPC with a virtual gateway. To access other VPCs, you can use VPC Peering or Cloud Connect to connect the VPC your on-premises data center is accessing to these VPCs.

A virtual gateway can only have one VPC associated. An on-premises data center can access the same VPC over two connections through one virtual gateway.

Global DC Gateway

A global DC gateway enables your on-premises data center to access VPCs in multiple regions so you can use a single connection to provide high-speed access to cloud compute and storage resources in any region.

A global DC gateway can be attached to different enterprise routers to build a central network so that your on-premises data center can access the VPCs in different regions over the Huawei backbone network. This reduces network latency, simplifies network topology, and improves O&M efficiency.

A global DC gateway can only be associated with connections terminated at the same Direct Connect location. If there are multiple connections terminated at different Direct Connect locations, you need to create multiple global DC gateways.

Virtual Interface

A virtual interface is a point of entry for an on-premises data center to access a VPC over a connection. A virtual interface associates a connection with a virtual gateway and connects the virtual gateway to a remote gateway, enabling communications between the on-premises data center and the VPC.

Virtual interfaces support static routing and BGP routing. You can use BGP to connect your on-premises data center to the virtual gateway over a connection. BGP helps you build a hybrid cloud more efficiently, flexibly, and reliably.