MODELLING SERVICE FLOWS IN DYNAMIC ACCESS DOMAINS

• US 20080219277A1
• Filed: 03/06/2007
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Somarajan, Pratap, Vibhu
• Granted Patent: US 8,040,820 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2852 Metropolitan area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components

Abstract

A topology aware system that facilitates activation of a new service in a dynamic network is provided. The system automatically determines changes in network topology and provides current topology information to determine an optimal service activation path for the new service. The optimal service path is determined by combination of shortest path using standardized algorithms over discovered adjacencies, logical roles assigned to devices and a service-hub for a particular UNI. The service hub is discovered automatically by employing current topology information determined by the system itself Thus, the system can activate a new service to a dynamic network without any manual topology feed.

Claims

1. A dynamic network management system, comprising:

an optimal service path determining component that extracts a current topology of a dynamic network and determines an optimal path for activation of a new service; and

a service activation component that establishes a new end-to-end service via the determined optimal path without manual topology information feed.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic network is a Metro Ethernet Access network with at least one of a ring or hub-spoke topology.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an auto topology monitoring component that monitors the current topology of the dynamic network and assists in determining the optimal path.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the optimal service path determining component can extract topology information from a repository of information regarding a snapshot of devices existing in the dynamic network to discover adjacencies that can be employed to determine the optimal path.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the optimal service path determining component deduces an Ethernet Access Domain (EAD) for a new device to be added to the network for establishing a new service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the optimal service path determining component determines a service-hub for activation of the new end-to-end service.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein a Provider Edge Aggregation (PE-AGG) device is selected as the service-hub if the new UNI (User to Network Interface) to be added belongs to the same Ethernet Access Domain (EAD).

8. The system of claim 6, wherein a Network-facing provider edge (N-PE) device is selected as the service-hub if the new UNI (User to Network Interface) to be added does not belong to the same Ethernet Access Domain (EAD).

9. A system that facilitates activation of a new service, comprising:

means for determining a change in topology of a network;

means for employing current topology information to determine a service-hub for the new service;

means for determining an optimal service path for the new service based on the current topology and the service-hub; and

means for activating the new service without manual entry of information regarding network topology.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising means for manually initializing the network at system startup to lay out the topology of the network.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising means for extracting current topology information from a repository to discover adjacencies between devices of the network, wherein a subset of the adjacencies is employed in determining the optimal service path.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising means for assigning logical service roles to devices in the network to logically build the topology.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising means for assigning a new device in the network to an Ethernet Access Domain (EAD) and update the topology of the network.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising means for interacting with the system to establish a baseline, wherein the baseline is employed to initialize the system.

15. A method for topology aware service activation, comprising:

monitoring and tracking a change in current network topology;

automatically selecting a device to act as a service-hub; and

activating a new service via an optimal service activation path based on information regarding the service-hub and current network topology.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising modifying existing Ethernet Virtual Connection (EVC) to add a new User Network Interface (UNI) for activation of the new service according to user instruction.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising checking if the new UNI has been serviced by the EVC for determining a service-hub to be employed to activate the new service.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising selecting an N-PE device to act as a service-hub if the new UNI is not serviced by the EVC and activating the new service employing the optimal service path determined by the service-hub.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising selecting the existing service-hub for the EVC if the new UNI is serviced by the EVC and the UNI traverses the existing service-hub and activating the new service employing the optimal service path determined by the service-hub.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining a new service-hub in the Ethernet Access Domain (EAD) for all the UNIs belonging to a particular EAD if the new UNI is serviced by the EVC but does not traverse the existing service-hub and activating the new service employing the optimal service path determined by the service-hub.