Techniques for monitoring virtualized network functions or network functions virtualization infrastructure

• US 10,616,082 B2
• Filed: 02/02/2018
• Issued: 04/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Venkatachalam, Muthaiah
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Maniwang, Joseph R
• Application Number:
  US15/887,915
• Publication Number:
  US 20180183692A1
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• 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 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/142 using statistical or mathematical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• 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 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• 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

Abstract

Examples may include techniques for monitoring virtual network functions or network functions virtualization infrastructure. Examples include receiving performance measurement data from virtualized network functions arranged to support a network service or from network functions virtualization infrastructure composed to support the virtualized network functions. In some examples, corrective actions such as virtualized network function lifecycle management operations are initiated based on the received performance measurement data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving first performance measurement (PM) data for a virtualized network function (VNF);

receiving second PM data for network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) arranged to support the VNF; and

determining whether to initiate a network services (NS) lifecycle management (LCM) operation with a network functions virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) or a VNF LCM operation with a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) based on performing a PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the first and/or the second PM data.

2. The method of claim 1 implemented by an element manager (EM) for a 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless network, the method further comprising:

receiving the first PM data directly from the VNF;

receiving the second PM data from the VNFM coupled with a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) that received the second PM data directly from the NFVI; and

determining to initiate the VNF LCM operation with the VNFM based on performing the PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the first and/or the second PM data.

3. The method of claim 2, the VNF LCM operation comprising one or more of instantiate VNF instance, terminate VNF instance, query VNF instance, scale VNF instance or update VNF instance.

4. The method of claim 2, comprising:

forwarding the first PM data to a network manager (NM) for the 3GPP wireless network, the NM to initiate the NS LCM operation with the NFVO based on performing of the PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the first and/or the second PM data.

5. The method of claim 2, comprising the first PM data related to VNF application layer performance to include calls-per-second, number-of-subscribers, mean number of dedicated evolved packet system (EPS) bearers in active mode or peak number of dedicated EPS bearers in active mode.

6. The method of claim 2, comprising the second PM data related to one or more virtualized resources composed from the NFVI and consumed while supporting the VNF, the second PM data including virtual central processing unit (vCPU) power consumption, virtual machine (VM) memory usage oversubscription, VM disk latency, mean vCPU usage or peak vCPU usage.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising the second PM data related to one or more virtualized resources composed from the NFVI and is associated with the VNF consuming the virtualized resources while supporting the VNF and also related to a network service provided by the VNF.

8. The method of claim 1 implemented by a network manager (NM) for a 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless network, the method further comprising:

receiving the first and second PM data from an element manager (EM) for the 3GPP wireless network; and

determining to initiate the NS LCM operation with the NFVO based on performing the PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the first and/or the second PM data.

9. The method of claim 8, the NS LCM operation comprising one or more of instantiate network service, terminate network service, query network service, scale network service, update network service, create VNF forwarding graph (VNFFG), delete VNFFG, query VNFFG, update VNFFG, create virtual link (VL), delete VL, update VL or query VL.

10. The method of claim 1, the PM data correlation and detection threshold crossing function using the first and/or the second PM data includes using a plurality of PMs from among the first and/or the second PM data to detect whether a given threshold has been crossed.

11. An apparatus implemented in a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) comprising:

circuitry;

first logic for execution by the circuitry to receive performance measurement (PM) data generated by the NFVI while the NFVI supports one or more virtualized network functions (VNFs);

second logic for execution by the circuitry to forward the PM data to a network functions virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) if the PM data is related to a network service provided by the one or more VNFs; and

third logic for execution by the circuitry to forward the PM data to a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) arranged to manage the one or more VNFs if the PM data is related to one or more virtualized resources composed from the NFVI and consumed while the virtualized resources support the one or more VNFs.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the PM data related to the network service provided by the one or more VNFs to be forwarded from the NFVO to a network manager (NM) for a 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless network, the NM to implement a PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the PM data related to the network service to determine whether to initiate a network services (NS) lifecycle management (LCM) operation with the NFVO.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, the NS LCM operation comprising one or more of instantiate network service, terminate network service, query network service, scale network service, update network service, create VNF forwarding graph (VNFFG), delete VNFFG, query VNFFG, update VNFFG, create virtual link (VL), delete VL, update VL or query VL.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, the PM data related to the network service provided by the one or more VNFs to be forwarded from the VNFM to an element manager (EM) for a 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless network, the EM to implement a PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the PM data related to the one or more virtualized resources to determine whether to initiate a VNF lifecycle management (LCM) operation with the VNFM.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, the VNF LCM operation comprising one or more of instantiate VNF instance, terminate VNF instance, query VNF instance, scale VNF instance or update VNF instance.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, the PM data related to the network service includes latency of one or more virtual links supporting the one or more VNFs, usage of the one or more virtual links supporting the one or more VNFs, average bandwidth used by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service over a time interval, peak bandwidth used by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service over the time interval, number of virtual machines (VMs) utilized by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service or number of virtual central processing units (vCPUs) utilized by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, the PM data related to the one or more virtualized resources includes virtual central processing unit (vCPU) power consumption, virtual machine (VM) memory usage oversubscription, VM disk latency, mean vCPU usage or peak vCPU usage.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, comprising a digital display to present a user interface view.

19. A method comprising:

receiving, at a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for managing network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI), performance measurement (PM) data generated by the NFVI while the NFVI supports one or more virtualized network functions (VNFs);

forwarding the PM data to a network functions virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) if the PM data is related to a network service provided by the one or more VNFs; and

forwarding the PM data to a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) arranged to manage the one or more VNFs if the PM data is related to one or more virtualized resources composed from the NFVI and consumed while the virtualized resources support the one or more VNFs.

20. The method of claim 19, the PM data related to the network service provided by the one or more VNFs to be forwarded from the NFVO to a network manager (NM) for a 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless network, the NM to implement a PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the PM data related to the network service to determine whether to initiate a network services (NS) lifecycle management (LCM) operation with the NFVO.

21. The method of claim 20, the NS LCM operation comprising one or more of instantiate network service, terminate network service, query network service, scale network service, update network service, create VNF forwarding graph (VNFFG), delete VNFFG, query VNFFG, update VNFFG, create virtual link (VL), delete VL, update VL or query VL.

22. The method of claim 19, the PM data related to the network service provided by the one or more VNFs to be forwarded from the VNFM to an element manager (EM) for a 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless network, the EM to implement a PM data correlation and detection of threshold crossing function using the PM data related to the one or more virtualized resources to determine whether to initiate a VNF lifecycle management (LCM) operation with the VNFM.

23. The method of claim 22, the VNF LCM operation comprising one or more of instantiate VNF instance, terminate VNF instance, query VNF instance, scale VNF instance or update VNF instance.

24. The method of claim 19, the PM data related to the network service includes latency of one or more virtual links supporting the one or more VNFs, usage of the one or more virtual links supporting the one or more VNFs, average bandwidth used by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service over a time interval, peak bandwidth used by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service over the time interval, number of virtual machines (VMs) utilized by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service or number of virtual central processing units (vCPUs) utilized by the one or more VNFs to provide the network service.

25. The method of claim 19, the PM data related to the one or more virtualized resources includes virtual central processing unit (vCPU) power consumption, virtual machine (VM) memory usage oversubscription, VM disk latency, mean vCPU usage or peak vCPU usage.