Virtual infrastructure
First Claim
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- at least one processor; and
at least one memory including computer program code;
wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to;
receive infrastructure information describing infrastructure resources of a network infrastructure of a communication network, wherein the infrastructure resources comprise network resources and service resources;
process the infrastructure information, based on a set of infrastructure virtualization data structures, to provide virtualized infrastructure information describing virtualized infrastructure resources of a virtualized network infrastructure of the communication network;
wherein the set of infrastructure virtualization data structures includes at least one infrastructure virtualization data structure including;
a first set of fields configured to support management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple owners; and
a second set of fields configured to support hierarchical management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple tenants based on association of respective ones of the fields of the second set of fields with respective levels of a tenant hierarchy for the set of multiple tenants;
wherein the virtualized infrastructure resources comprise virtualized network resources representing virtualization of the network resources and virtualized service resources representing virtualization of the service resources; and
manage the virtualized infrastructure resources based on the virtualized infrastructure information describing the virtualized infrastructure resources.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present disclosure generally discloses a network infrastructure virtualization mechanism configured to support virtualization of the network infrastructure (NI) of a communication network to provide thereby a virtualized infrastructure (VI) for the communication network. The network infrastructure virtualization mechanism may be configured to support virtualization of infrastructure resources (IRs) of the network infrastructure to provide virtualized infrastructure resources (VIRs) of the network infrastructure. The IRs of the communication network may include network resources (NRs) which may be virtualized to provide virtualized network resources (VNRs) and service resources (SRs) which may be virtualized to provide virtualized service resources (VSRs). The network infrastructure virtualization mechanism may be configured to support multi-owner virtualization such that multiple owners may share portions of the network infrastructure of the communication network and multi-tenant virtualization such that multiple tenants, at one or more hierarchical layers, may share portions of the network infrastructure of the communication network.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. An apparatus, comprising:
-
at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to; receive infrastructure information describing infrastructure resources of a network infrastructure of a communication network, wherein the infrastructure resources comprise network resources and service resources; process the infrastructure information, based on a set of infrastructure virtualization data structures, to provide virtualized infrastructure information describing virtualized infrastructure resources of a virtualized network infrastructure of the communication network; wherein the set of infrastructure virtualization data structures includes at least one infrastructure virtualization data structure including; a first set of fields configured to support management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple owners; and a second set of fields configured to support hierarchical management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple tenants based on association of respective ones of the fields of the second set of fields with respective levels of a tenant hierarchy for the set of multiple tenants; wherein the virtualized infrastructure resources comprise virtualized network resources representing virtualization of the network resources and virtualized service resources representing virtualization of the service resources; and manage the virtualized infrastructure resources based on the virtualized infrastructure information describing the virtualized infrastructure resources. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions configured to cause an apparatus to at least:
-
receive infrastructure information describing infrastructure resources of a network infrastructure of a communication network, wherein the infrastructure resources comprise network resources and service resources; process the infrastructure information, based on a set of infrastructure virtualization data structures, to provide virtualized infrastructure information describing virtualized infrastructure resources of a virtualized network infrastructure of the communication network; wherein the set of infrastructure virtualization data structures includes at least one infrastructure virtualization data structure including; a first set of fields configured to support management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple owners; and a second set of fields configured to support hierarchical management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple tenants based on association of respective ones of the fields of the second set of fields with respective levels of a tenant hierarchy for the set of multiple tenants; wherein the virtualized infrastructure resources comprise virtualized network resources representing virtualization of the network resources and virtualized service resources representing virtualization of the service resources; and manage the virtualized infrastructure resources based on the virtualized infrastructure information describing the virtualized infrastructure resources.
-
-
19. A method, comprising:
-
receiving, by an apparatus, infrastructure information describing infrastructure resources of a network infrastructure of a communication network, wherein the infrastructure resources comprise network resources and service resources; processing the infrastructure information, by the apparatus based on a set of infrastructure virtualization data structures, to provide virtualized infrastructure information describing virtualized infrastructure resources of a virtualized network infrastructure of the communication network; wherein the set of infrastructure virtualization data structures includes at least one infrastructure virtualization data structure including; a first set of fields configured to support management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple owners; and a second set of fields configured to support hierarchical management of the virtualized infrastructure resources by a set of multiple tenants based on association of respective ones of the fields of the second set of fields with respective levels of a tenant hierarchy for the set of multiple tenants; wherein the virtualized infrastructure resources comprise virtualized network resources representing virtualization of the network resources and virtualized service resources representing virtualization of the service resources; and managing, by the apparatus, the virtualized infrastructure resources based on the virtualized infrastructure information describing the virtualized infrastructure resources.
-
-
20. A network element, comprising:
a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the processor configured to; receive, from a network system, a message comprising a virtualized infrastructure resource data structure comprising virtualized infrastructure resource information for a virtualized infrastructure resource hosted by the network element, the virtualized infrastructure resource data structure identifying a set of entities including a set of multiple owners of the virtualized infrastructure resource and further including a set of multiple tenants of the virtualized infrastructure resource that have a hierarchical management relationship for the virtualized infrastructure resource, the virtualized infrastructure resource data structure including a first set of fields configured to support management of the virtualized infrastructure resource by the set of multiple owners and a second set of fields configured to support hierarchical management of the virtualized infrastructure resource by the set of multiple tenants based on association of respective ones of the fields of the second set of fields with respective levels of a tenant hierarchy for the set of multiple tenants, the virtualized infrastructure resource comprising a virtualized network resource or a virtualized service resource; and initiate configuration of the network element based on the virtualized infrastructure resource information for the virtualized infrastructure resource hosted by the network element.
-
21. An apparatus, comprising:
-
at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to; receive, by the apparatus, infrastructure information describing infrastructure resources of a network infrastructure of a communication network, wherein the infrastructure resources includes network resources and service resources; process, by the apparatus based on a set of infrastructure virtualization data structures, the infrastructure information to provide virtualized infrastructure information describing virtualized infrastructure resources of a virtualized network infrastructure of the communication network, wherein the virtualized infrastructure resources include virtualized network resources representing virtualization of the network resources and virtualized service resources representing virtualization of the service resources; support, by the apparatus, management of the virtualized infrastructure resources based on the virtualized infrastructure information describing the virtualized infrastructure resources; and provide, by the apparatus, a set of virtualized infrastructure management applications configured for use in managing the virtualized infrastructure resources and including, for one of the virtualized infrastructure management applications, a first customized version of the one of the virtualized infrastructure management applications for a first tenant and a second customized version of the one of the virtualized infrastructure management applications for a second tenant.
-
Specification