US Patent 9825822 Group networking in an overlay network

A technology to create and manage a group network in a virtual network is described. A network address may be registered as a member of a network group in an overlay network within a virtualized computing environment. An open connection may be maintained to the network address. Membership information may be sent over the open connection to the network address as membership of the network group changes. Membership information may be used in communicating with the network group using unicast transmissions.