Patent attributes
Methods and systems for a virtual environment are provided. A method includes receiving a packet from a first virtual machine at a virtual switch; determining if the packet is destined to a second virtual machine by comparing a destination address to a mapping data structure maintained by the virtual switch; transferring the packet to a first virtual function of a device assigned to the first virtual machine by directly mapping the first virtual function to the first virtual machine; the first virtual function initiating a direct memory access (DMA) operation to transfer the packet to the second virtual machine based on a logical memory address of the second virtual machine that is received from a second virtual function; and using the DMA operation to transfer the packet to the second virtual machine.