On-demand control plane redundancy

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

requesting, by a router to a cloud service, instantiation of a virtual instance of a control plane of the router;

receiving, by the router, confirmation of instantiation of the virtual instance of the control plane;

transferring, to the virtual instance of the control plane, an active state of the control plane;

performing, at the router, offline services; and

in response to completion of the offline services, receiving at the control plane, the active state.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a secure tunnel between the router and the cloud service is established.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

in response to performing the offline services, the tunnel between the router and the cloud services being disconnected; and

re-establishing, by a boot loader of the router, the secure tunnel.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the offline services are at least one of a configuration change, operating system update, or firmware upgrade.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein during the re-establishment of the tunnel a data plane of the router will forward incoming packets using previous programming.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, one or more packets at a data plane of the router, during the offline services being performed;

sending, to the virtual control plane, routing information of the one or more packets;

receiving, at the data plane of the router, destination instructions for transmission of the one or more packets; and

sending, the one or more packets by the data plane of the router, to the destination.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the router does not have redundancy.

8. A router comprising:

a control plane being communicatively coupled to a data plane; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

request, a cloud service to instantiate a virtual instance of the control plane;

receive a confirmation of instantiation of the virtual instance;

transfer to the virtual instance of the control plane, an active state of the control plane;

perform offline services; and

in response to completion of the offline services, receive the active state.

9. The router of claim 8 , wherein a secure tunnel between the router and the cloud service is established.

10. The router of claim 8 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:

in response to performing the offline services, receive an indication the secure tunnel between the router and the cloud services is disconnected; and

re-establish, by a boot loader of the router, the secure tunnel.

11. The router of claim 10 , wherein the offline services are at least one of a configuration change, operating system update, or firmware upgrade.

12. The router of claim 10 , wherein during the re-establishment of the tunnel a data plane of the router will forward incoming packets using previous programming.

13. The router of claim 8 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:

receive, one or more packets at a data plane of the router, during the offline services being performed;

send, to the virtual control plane, routing information of the one or more packets;

receive, at the data plane of the router, destination instructions for transmission of the one or more packets; and

send, the one or more packets by the data plane of the router, to the destination.

14. The router of claim 8 , wherein the router does not have redundancy.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor of a router, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

request, a cloud service to instantiate a virtual instance of a control plane of the router;

receive a confirmation of instantiation of the virtual instance;

transfer to the virtual instance of the control plane, an active state of the control plane;

perform offline services; and

in response to completion of the offline services, receive the active state.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein a secure tunnel between the router and the cloud service is established.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:

in response to the performance of the offline services, the tunnel between the router and the cloud services being disconnected; and

re-establish, by a boot loader of the router, the secure tunnel.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the offline services are at least one of a configuration change, operating system update, or firmware upgrade.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein before the re-establishment of the tunnel a data plane of the router will forward incoming packets using previous programming.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:

receive, one or more packets at a data plane of the router, during the offline services being performed;

send, to the virtual control plane, routing information of the one or more packets;

receive, at the data plane of the router, destination instructions for transmission of the one or more packets; and

send, the one or more packets by the data plane of the router, to the destination.