Virtualized networking application and infrastructure

• US 10,439,882 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2016
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Amin, Rahul
• Primary Examiner(s): Tokuta, Shean
• Application Number:
  US15/352,223
• Publication Number:
  US 20180139099A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• 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 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Systems, devices, and techniques described herein are directed to a virtualized networking topology decoupling networking objects from an underlying physical topology. A virtualized networking topology can include networking application objects implementing various networking specifications independent of a networking node or a physical topology of the network to render services to the network. A network forwarding module can render services such as routing and forwarding of packets to the networking application objects. A topology module can probe a network to develop a physical layout of the network by determining connections among ports. And a mapping module can intelligently map networking application objects with the physical topology and various forwarding and routing protocols to build the virtualized networking topology. Networking application objects can be implemented on various networking nodes and located independent of a physical topology of the network, while forwarding and control planes can be updated automatically for directing network traffic.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

one or more modules stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving one or more specifications associated with network services to be provided by a networking application object;

determining at least a portion of a physical topology of a network, the determining comprising;

sending one or more first network probe messages to a first networking node;

receiving one or more second network probe messages from a second networking node, the one or more second network probe messages based at least in part on the one or more first network probe messages; and

identifying, based partly on the one or more second network probe messages, the portion of the physical topology of the network comprised of a first port associated with the first networking node, a first coordinate associated with the first networking node, a second port associated with the second networking node, and a second coordinate associated with the second networking node;

defining the networking application object to be deployed on the first networking node;

associating an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the networking application object with at least the first port of the first networking node; and

deploying the networking application object to the first networking node.

2. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining a first forwarding plane associated with the first networking node and a second forwarding plane associated with the second networking node;

transmitting the first forwarding plane to the first networking node; and

transmitting the second forwarding plane to the second networking node.

3. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

receiving one or more capabilities associated with the first networking node; and

determining that the one or more capabilities meet or exceed the one or more specifications associated with the networking application object.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the networking application object is a first networking application object, the operations further comprising:

deploying a second networking application object to the second networking node, the second networking application object providing at least a portion of the network services;

associating the IP address with the second networking application object; and

routing network traffic from the first networking application object to the second networking application object in response to the deploying the second networking application object to the second networking node.

19. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining that the networking application object has moved from the first networking node to the second networking node without changing the IP address; and

updating a forwarding plane associated with the second networking node based at least in part on the networking application object moving to the second networking node.

20. The system of claim 1, the determining at least the portion of the physical topology of the network further comprising:

receiving one or more additional network probe messages from one or more additional networking nodes, the one or more additional network probe messages based at least in part on the one or more first network probe messages; and

identifying, based partly on the one or more additional network probe messages, the portion of the physical topology of the network comprised of one or more additional networking nodes connected to the first networking node.

5. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory; and

one or more modules stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

determining at least a portion of a physical topology of a network, the determining comprising;

sending one or more network probe messages to one or more networking nodes; and

identifying the portion of the physical topology including at least one port of a networking node and a coordinate associated with the networking node;

defining a networking application object to be deployed on the networking node;

assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to the networking application object;

associating the IP address with the at least one port of the networking node; and

deploying the networking application object to the networking node.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the networking application object uses at least Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to establish routing of packets in the network.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the networking node is a first networking node, the operations further comprising:

moving the networking application object from the first networking node to a second networking node without changing the IP address associated with the networking application object.

8. The system of claim 7, the operations further comprising updating a forwarding plane associated with the second networking node based at least in part on the moving the networking application object to the second networking node.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein sending the one or more network probe messages to the one or more networking nodes includes sending a first network probe message to a first networking node and receiving a second network probe message from a second networking node including at least first port information associated with the first networking node and second port information associated with the second networking node.

10. The system of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

determining a forwarding plane based at least in part on the portion of the physical topology of the network; and

transmitting the forwarding plane to the networking node to configure the networking node to route packets in accordance with the forwarding plane.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the networking node is a first networking node, the operations further comprising:

determining that a number of network connections at the networking application object is above a connection threshold or determining that an amount of network traffic at the networking application object is above a traffic threshold; and

transferring the networking application object from the first networking node with a first network traffic capacity to a second networking node with a second network traffic capacity, wherein the second network traffic capacity is greater than the first network traffic capacity.

12. The system of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

receiving a specification associated with the networking application object; and

defining the networking application object to provide a network service based at least in part on the specification, wherein the specification includes at least a Quality of Service (QoS) to be provided by the networking application object.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the networking application object is configured to be implemented on the one or more networking nodes based at least in part on capabilities of the one or more networking nodes.

14. The system of claim 5, wherein the networking application object is a first networking application object, wherein the first networking application object and a second networking application object are implemented on the networking node, and wherein one or more first ports of the networking node are associated with a first network service provided by the first networking application object and one or more second ports of the networking node are associated with a second network service provided by the second networking application object.

15. A processor-implemented method comprising:

defining a networking application object to be deployed on a first networking node;

determining at least a portion of a physical topology of a network, the determining comprising;

sending one or more network probe messages to one or more networking nodes; and

identifying the portion of the physical topology including at least one port of the first networking node and a coordinate associated with the first networking node;

assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to the networking application object;

associating the IP address with the at least one port of the first networking node; and

deploying the networking application object to the first networking node; and

moving the networking application object from the first networking node to a second networking node without changing the IP address associated with the networking application object; and

updating a forwarding plane associated with the second networking node based at least in part on the moving the networking application object to the second networking node.

16. The processor-implemented method of claim 15, wherein sending the one or more network probe messages to the one or more networking nodes includes sending a first network probe message to the first networking node and receiving a second network probe message from the second networking node including at least first port information associated with the first networking node and second port information associated with the second networking node, the second network probe message based at least in part on the first network probe message.

17. The processor-implemented method of claim 15, wherein updating the forwarding plane further comprises:

determining an updated forwarding plane based at least in part on identifying the portion of the physical topology of the network; and

transmitting the updated forwarding plane to the second networking node to configure the second networking node to route packets in accordance with the updated forwarding plane.

18. The processor-implemented method of claim 15, wherein method moving the networking application object further comprises:

determining that a number of network connections at the networking application object is above a connection threshold or determining that an amount of network traffic at the networking application object is above a traffic threshold; and

transferring the networking application object from first networking node with a first network traffic capacity to the second networking node with a second network traffic capacity, the second network traffic capacity greater than the first network traffic capacity.