Dynamic policy based software defined network mechanism

• US 10,644,950 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2014
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2014
• 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: Hu, Qingmin
• Primary Examiner(s): Jiang, Charles C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Preval, Voster
• Application Number:
  US14/496,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20160094395A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,049 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Improving wireless service subscriber experiences by dynamically managing wireless communication resources using a big data analytic mechanism is presented herein. A method can include receiving, by a system comprising a processor via a software-based interface of a control plane of a communication network, service data corresponding to a request for a wireless communication service; receiving, by the system via the software-based interface of the control plane, contextual data corresponding to a subscription of the wireless communication service; receiving, by the system via the software-based interface of the control plane, network data corresponding to data packet transmissions of a network device within a data plane of the communication network; and configuring, by the system via the software-based interface of the control plane based on a defined set of policies, the service data, the contextual data, and the network data, a resource of the data plane corresponding to the wireless communication service.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor from a network device of network devices of a communication network, service data corresponding to a request for a wireless communication service;

receiving, by the system, contextual data comprising device information representative of capabilities of a wireless device associated with a subscriber identity that is subscribed to the wireless communication service;

receiving, by the system, network data corresponding to data packet transmissions of ones of the network devices associated with a data plane of the communication network; and

in response to correlating, using metadata corresponding to analytic operations performed via respective groups of devices of distributed groups of devices of a distributed file system, a first data cluster of a first data domain corresponding to the service data, a second data cluster of a second data domain corresponding to the contextual data, and a third data cluster of a third data domain corresponding to the network data with a state of the network devices of the communication network corresponding to the request for the wireless communication service, and further in response to determining that the state of the network devices of the communication network satisfies a constraint that has been defined by a policy rule representing that a source gateway device does not have an available bandwidth to support the request for the wireless communication service,

redirecting, by the system, a communication session corresponding to the wireless communication service from the source gateway device to a target gateway device,

based on the service data, the contextual data, and the network data, modifying, by the system, via a software-based interface of a control plane of the communication network, the policy rule to obtain a modified policy rule representing a use of a modified configuration represented by the redirecting of the communication session, and

storing, by the system, the modified policy rule in a storage device of the system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the redirecting comprises configuring the target gateway device utilizing network function virtualization.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based on the network data, identifying, by the system via the software-based interface of the control plane of the communication network, a resource constraint on a resource of the data plane corresponding to the wireless communication service.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising configuring the resource based on the resource constraint.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the redirecting, publishing, by the system via the software-based interface of the control plane of the communication network, configuration information corresponding to the communication session.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the system via the software-based interface of the control plane of the communication network, a policy input via an application programming interface; and

modifying, by the system via the software-based interface of the control plane and based on the policy input, the policy rule.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the state of the network devices represents a communication bandwidth of the source gateway device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining that the state of the communication network satisfies the constraint comprises determining that the communication bandwidth exceeds a defined utilization rate for the network devices.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device comprises the source gateway device.

7. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

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

determining, via a software-based application of a control plane of a communication network based on a service policy rule of defined policy rules, service information representing a request for a service of the communication network;

determining, via the software-based application of the control plane based on a contextual policy rule of the defined policy rules, contextual information representing a subscription of the service;

determining, via the software-based application of the control plane based on a network status policy rule of the defined policy rules, network information corresponding to a condition of a network device within a forward plane of the communication network corresponding to data packet transmissions; and

in response to linking, via metadata corresponding to operations performed by distributed devices of a distributed file system, a first data cluster representative of the service information, a second data cluster representative of the contextual information, and a third data cluster representative of the network information to the condition of the network device, and in response to the condition of the network device being determined to satisfy one of the defined policy rules representing that a bandwidth of a first gateway device of the forward plane is incompatible with the request for the service,

redirecting, via the software-based application of the control plane, the service from the first gateway device to a second gateway device,

in response to the redirecting, modifying, via the software-based application of the control plane based on the service information, the contextual information, and the network information, the one of the defined policy rules to obtain a revised policy, and

storing the revised policy in a storage device of the system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the redirecting comprises configuring the second gateway device utilizing network function virtualization.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the determining the network information comprises identifying a constraint on a resource of the forward plane based on the condition of the network device.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the redirecting, publishing configuration information for the first gateway device.

18. The system of claim 7, wherein the linking comprises linking the first data cluster, the second data cluster, and the third data cluster to the condition of the network device utilizing respective data stores of the distributed devices.

19. The system of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to receiving, via the software-based application, a policy input via an application programming interface, modifying, via the software-based application based on the policy input, the one of the defined policy rules.

20. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

configuring the resource based on the constraint.

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

determining, within a software-based interface of a control plane of a communication network based on a defined policy framework, request data representing a request for a network service;

determining, within the software-based interface based on the defined policy framework, contextual data corresponding to a subscription of the network service;

determining, within the software-based interface based on the defined policy framework, network data representing a condition of a device within a data plane of the communication network corresponding to data packet transmissions; and

in response to correlating, using metadata corresponding to respective operations performed by a group of devices of a distributed file system, the request data with a network condition of the communication network, the contextual data with the network condition and the network data with the network condition, and in response to determining that the network condition satisfies a defined criterion represented by the defined policy framework with respect to an insufficient bandwidth of a source gateway device,

transferring, via the software-based interface, a communication service corresponding to the network service from the source gateway device to a target gateway device,

changing, via the software-based interface based on the request data, the contextual data, and the network data, the defined criterion to obtain a modified criterion representing a use of a modified resource configuration represented by the transferring, and

storing the modified criterion in storage device.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the transferring comprises configuring a resource within the data plane using network function virtualization.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the determining the network data comprises determining a constraint on a resource within the data plane based on the condition of the device.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

modifying the network service based on the constraint.