Method and apparatus for managing resources in a software defined network

• US 10,212,289 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2017
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaw, Venson, Dowlatkhah, Sangar
• Primary Examiner(s): Htun, San
• Application Number:
  US15/498,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20180316799A1
• Time in Patent Office: 663 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/20 Network management software packages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/61 based on the service used
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method including determining, according to quality of service requirements associated with available services of a communication network, first quality of service parameters associated with facilitating providing a first service to a first communication device, determining, according to the first quality of service parameters, a first allocation of a first resource of a plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device, determining aggregated quality of service requirements associated with the plurality of resources to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices via the plurality of resources, and directing the first resource to facilitate the first service to the first communication device according to a priority of the first allocation of the first resource based on the aggregated quality of service requirements. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

determining performance requirements associated with available services associated with a communication network;

determining, according to the performance requirements, quality of service requirements to facilitate providing the available services to communication devices via the communication network;

determining, according to the performance requirements, preemption parameters to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices, wherein the preemption parameters include an allocation and retention priority;

identifying a first communication device of the communication devices associated with a first service of the available services;

determining first quality of service parameters associated with the first communication device according to the quality of service requirements;

determining, according to the preemption parameters, first preemption parameters to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device;

determining, according to the first quality of service parameters, a first allocation of a first resource of a plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device via the first resource;

determining aggregated quality of service requirements associated with the plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices via the plurality of resources;

determining, according to the aggregated quality of service requirements, a priority of the first allocation of the first resource of the plurality of resources to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device via the first resource;

directing the first resource to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device according to the priority of the first allocation of the first resource;

detecting a shortfall in the first resource used to facilitate the providing the first service to the first communication device; and

facilitating an instantiation of a virtual network function responsive to the detecting of the shortfall of the first allocation of the first resource, wherein the virtual network function increases a capacity of the first resource for the providing of the first service.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first allocation of the first resource is further determined according to the first preemption parameters associated with the first communication device.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining aggregated preemption parameters associated with the plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices via the plurality of resources.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the priority of the first allocation is further determined according to the aggregated preemption parameters.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the quality of service requirements include a quality of service identifier.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the quality of service requirements include an aggregate maximum bit rate associated with an access point of the communication network.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first communication device is associated with a first user, wherein the operations further comprise retrieving a first user profile of the first user of the first service, and wherein the first quality of service parameters are further determined according to the first user profile.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise generating, a first billing associated with the first communication device according to the first allocation of the first resource to facilitate providing the first service.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the first billing includes a charging data record.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining the virtual network function associated with the first resource.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting a level of the first resource provided by the virtual network function to facilitate the first service; and

transmitting a communication to the virtual network function to adjust the level of the first resource responsive to the level of the first resource being detected.

12. A software defined network manager, comprising:

a network device interface;

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

accessing a service layer of a communication network via the network device interface to determine quality of service requirements to facilitate providing available services to communication devices via the communication network;

determining, according to the quality of service requirements, first quality of service parameters associated with a first service of the available services to facilitate providing the first service to a first communication device;

determining, according to the first quality of service parameters, a first allocation of a first resource of a plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device via the first resource;

accessing first preemption parameters from quality of service profiles associated with the first communication device via the network device interface to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices, wherein the first preemption parameters include allocation and retention priority parameters;

accessing a plurality of resources of the communication network via the network device interface to determine aggregated quality of service requirements associated with the plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices via the plurality of resources;

determining, according to the aggregated quality of service requirements, a priority of the first allocation of the first resource of the plurality of resources to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device via the first resource;

accessing the first resource via the network device interface to direct the first resource to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device according to the priority of the first allocation of the first resource;

accessing the first resource via the network device interface to detect a shortfall in the first resource used to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device; and

accessing a cloud orchestrator function via the network device interface to facilitate an instantiation of a virtual network function responsive to the detecting of the shortfall of the first allocation of the first resource, wherein the virtual network function increases a capacity of the first resource for the providing of the first service.

13. The software defined network manager of claim 12, wherein the first allocation of the first resource is further determined according to the first preemption parameters associated with the first communication device.

14. The software defined network manager of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise determining aggregated preemption parameters associated with the plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate the available services to the communication devices via the plurality of resources, wherein the priority of the first allocation is further determined according to the aggregated preemption parameters.

15. The software defined network manager of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining the virtual network function associated with the first resource.

16. A method, comprising:

determining, by a processing system including a processor, according to quality of service requirements associated with available services of a communication network, first quality of service parameters associated with facilitating providing a first service to a first communication device;

determining, by the processing system, according to the first quality of service parameters, a first allocation of a first resource of a plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device via the first resource;

determining, by the processing system, first preemption parameters from quality of service profiles associated with the first communication device to facilitate providing the available services to communication devices including the first communication device, wherein the first preemption parameters include allocation and retention priority parameters;

determining, by the processing system, aggregated quality of service requirements associated with the plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices via the plurality of resources;

directing, by the processing system, the first resource to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device according to a priority of the first allocation of the first resource based on the aggregated quality of service requirements;

detecting, by the processing system, a shortfall in the first resource used to facilitate providing the first service to the first communication device; and

facilitating, by the processing system, an instantiation of a virtual network function responsive to the detecting of the shortfall of the first allocation of the first resource, wherein the virtual network function increases a capacity of the first resource for the providing of the first service.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining, by the processing system, aggregated preemption parameters associated with the plurality of resources of the communication network to facilitate providing the available services to the communication devices via the plurality of resources; and

determining, by the processing system, the priority of the first allocation according to the aggregated preemption parameters.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating, by the processing system, a first billing associated with the first communication device according to the first allocation of the first resource to facilitate providing the first service.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining the virtual network function associated with the first resource, and wherein the first preemption parameters are accessed via a network device interface.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

detecting a level of the first resource provided by the virtual network function to facilitate the first service; and

transmitting a communication to the virtual network function to adjust the level of the first resource responsive to the level of the first resource being detected.