SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING VIRTUAL LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

• US 20090059930A1
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kane, John, Renner, Mike, Faber, Pete, Faber, Roberte, Zeschin, Hans, Ryan, James, Hadavi, Marcus, Alcala, Raoul
• Granted Patent: US 10,313,191 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.530
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4679 Arrangements for the registration or de-registration of VLAN attribute values, e.g. VLAN identifiers, port VLAN membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/4629 using multilayer switching, e.g. layer 3 switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities

Abstract

A method for identifying VLANs associated with a network includes gathering actual network element configuration data from a plurality of network elements in the network, wherein the actual network element configuration data identifies one or more VLANs that at least some of the plurality of network elements are actually allocated to; correlating the actual network element configuration data with administrative VLAN data; and determining one or more VLANs that are not commonly identified in both the actual network element configuration data and the administrative VLAN data. A system includes a network monitoring system operable to gather actual network element configuration data from a plurality of network elements at one or more logical network sites, wherein the actual network element configuration data identifies one or more VLANs that at least some of the plurality of network elements are actually allocated to; and a VLAN services module operable to correlate the actual network element configuration data with administrative VLAN data, and further operable to determine one or more VLANs that are not commonly identified in both the actual network element configuration data and the administrative VLAN data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying virtual local area networks (VLANs) associated with a network, the method comprising:

gathering actual network element configuration data from a plurality of network elements in the network, wherein the actual network element configuration data identifies one or more VLANs that at least some of the plurality of network elements are actually allocated to;

correlating the actual network element configuration data with administrative VLAN data, wherein the administrative VLAN data identifies one or more VLANs recognized by a business process; and

based on the correlating, determining one or more VLANs that are not commonly identified in both the actual network element configuration data and the administrative VLAN data.

2. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 further comprising reporting the VLANs that should be provisioned and the VLANs that at least some of the plurality of network elements are allocated to, wherein reporting comprises indicating the one or more VLANs that are not commonly identified in both the actual network element configuration data and the administrative VLAN data.

3. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2 wherein reporting further comprises indicating one or more VLANs commonly identified in both the administrative VLAN data and the actual network element configuration data.

4. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 3 wherein indicating the one or more VLANs commonly identified in both the administrative VLAN data and the actual network element configuration data comprises presenting the commonly identified VLANs in a first color and where indicating the one or more VLANs that are not commonly identified in both the actual network element configuration data and the administrative VLAN data comprises presenting the not commonly identified VLANs in a second color.

5. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2 wherein reporting further comprises simultaneously reporting one or more VLANs identified at each of multiple logical sites.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 wherein gathering actual network element configuration data comprises polling the plurality of network elements for specified configuration data.

7. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein gathering actual network element configuration data comprises gathering the actual network element configuration data from network elements at a plurality of logical sites.

8. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining one or more available VLANs based at least in part on the VLANs identified in the actual network element configuration data and VLANs identified in the administrative VLAN data.

9. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1 wherein the administrative VLAN data comprises a VLAN provisioning data store, a VLAN configuration generation data store, and a VLAN orders data store.

10. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 9, further comprising correlating the actual network element configuration data with predetermined network element configuration data from the VLAN configuration generation data store, wherein correlating comprises identifying differences between the actual network element configuration for a selected VLAN and the predetermined network element configuration for the selected VLAN.

11. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein gathering actual network element configuration data recurs automatically according to a specified time interval.

12. A system for managing virtual local area networks (VLANs) in a network, the system comprising:

a network monitoring system operable to gather actual network element configuration data from a plurality of network elements at one or more logical network sites, wherein the actual network element configuration data identifies one or more VLANs that at least some of the plurality of network elements are actually allocated to; and

a VLAN services module operable to correlate the actual network element configuration data with administrative VLAN data, wherein the administrative VLAN data identifies one or more VLANs recognized by a business process, and further operable to determine one or more VLANs that are not commonly identified in both the actual network element configuration data and the administrative VLAN data.

13. The system as recited in claim 12 further comprising:

a VLAN management user interface operable to report VLAN status determined by the VLAN services module.

14. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the VLAN management user interface is further operable to issue a notification that a VLAN is reserved.

15. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the VLAN management user interface is further operable to receive a reservation request to reserve a specified VLAN.

16. The system as recited in claim 15 wherein the VLAN services modules is further operable to reserve the specified VLAN by marking the VLAN as reserved, assigning the VLAN to an entity, and allocating one or more specified network elements to the specified VLAN.

17. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the VLAN management user interface is further configured to receive a release request to release a specified VLAN that is currently reserved, and wherein the VLAN management services module is further operable to responsively release the specified VLAN.

18. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the VLAN management user interface is further operable to simultaneously present VLAN status of VLANs for multiple selected logical network sites.

19. The system as recited in claim 18 wherein the VLAN management user interface is further operable to enable a user to specify the multiple selected logical network sites.

20. The system as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

a VLAN orders data store including data related to VLANs that have been ordered;

a VLAN provisioning data store including data related to VLANs that have been provisioned;

a configuration generation data store storing data related to network element configurations; and

wherein the VLAN network services module is operable to correlate data from the VLAN orders data store, the VLAN provisioning data store and the configuration generation data store.