System and method to chain distributed applications in a network environment

• US 10,417,025 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2015
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bosch, Hendrikus G. P., Samuel, Louis Gwyn, Shatzkamer, Kevin D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Andy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Seye, Abdou K
• Application Number:
  US14/684,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20160139939A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,620 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45508 Runtime interpretation or emulation, e g. emulator loops, bytecode interpretation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include communicating information between a plurality of network function virtualized (NFV) based applications; and creating at least one service chain using at least two of the plurality of NFV-based applications based on the information communicated between the plurality NFV based applications. In some instances, the information can be communicated using border gateway protocol (BGP) exchanges between the NFV-based applications. In some instances, the information can include at least one of: next-hop address information for one or more ingress points of a particular NFV-based application; one or more capabilities by which a particular NFV-based application can receive data on one or more ingress points; and a method by which one or more egress points of a previous NFV-based application in a particular service chain is to perform load balancing for a subsequent NFV-based application in the particular service chain.

Claims

1. A method executed by a hardware processor of a server in a network environment, comprising:

communicating information between a first network function virtualized (NFV)-based application and a second NFV-based application, wherein the information comprises load balancing information communicated from the second NFV-based application to the first NFV-based application that identifies a load balancing method that the first NFV-based application is to use to load balance traffic communicated from one or more egress points of the first NFV-based application to one of a plurality of ingress points of the second NFV-based application and one or more load balancing parameters associated with the load balancing method that the first NFV-based application is to use to load balance the traffic; and

creating at least one service chain using the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application based, at least in part, on the information communicated between the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application;

wherein the first and second NFV applications emulate computer systems.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information is communicated using border gateway protocol (BGP) exchanges between the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information includes next-hop address information for each of the plurality in ingress points of the second NFV-based application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information further comprises one or more capabilities by which the second NFV-based application can receive data at the plurality of ingress points.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first NFV-based application includes a data plane load balancer embedded at the one or more points.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application includes functionality associated with mobile core applications.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application includes functionality associated with a Gi-LAN virtual service area.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more load balancing parameters identify one or more Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP) load balancing parameters for ECMP load balancing that the first NFV-based application is to use to load balance the traffic communicated to one of the plurality of ingress points of the second NFV-based application.

9. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that includes instructions for execution by a processor wherein the execution causes the processor to perform operations, comprising:

communicating information between a first network function virtualized (NFV)-based application and a second NFV-based application, wherein the information comprises load balancing information communication from the second NFV-based application to the first NFV-based application that identifies a load balancing method that the first NFV-based application is to use to load balance traffic communicated from one or more egress points of the first NFV-based application to one of a plurality of ingress points of the second NFV-based application and one or more load balancing parameters associated with the load balancing method that the first NFV-based application is to use to load balance the traffic; and

creating at least one service chain using the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application based, at least in part, on the information communication between the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application;

wherein the first and second NFV applications emulate computer systems.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein the information is communicated using border gateway protocol (BGP) exchanges between the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application.

11. The media of claim 9, wherein the information further comprises next-hop address information for each of the plurality of ingress points of the second NFV-based application.

12. The media of claim 9, wherein the information further comprises one or more capabilities by which the second NFV-based application can receive at the plurality of ingress points.

13. The media of claim 9, wherein the first NFV-based application includes a data plane load balancer embedded at one or more egress points.

14. The media of claim 9, wherein at least one of the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application includes functionality associated with mobile core applications.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory element for storing data; and

a processor for executing instructions associated with the data, wherein the executing causes the apparatus to perform operations, comprising;

communicating information between a first network function virtualized (NFV)-based application and a second NFV-based application;

wherein the information comprises load balancing information communicated from the second NFV-based application to the first NFV-based application that identifies a load balancing method that the first NFV-based application is to use to load balance traffic communicated from one or more egress points of the first NFV-based application to one of a plurality of ingress points of the second NFV-based application and one or more load balancing parameters associated with the load balancing method that the first NFV-based application is to use to load balance the traffic; and

creating at least one service chain using the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application based, at least in part, on the information communicated between the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application;

wherein the first and second NFV applications emulate computer systems.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the information is communicated using border gateway protocol (BGP) exchanges between the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the information includes at least one of:

next-hop address information for each of the plurality of ingress points of the second NFV-based application; and

one or more capabilities by which the second NFV-based application can receive data at the plurality of ingress points.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first NFV-based application includes a data plane load balancer embedded at one or more egress points.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein one of the first NFV-based application and the second NFV-based application includes functionality associated with a Gi-LAN virtual service area.