Method And System For The Efficient And Automated Management of Virtual Networks

• US 20120117246A1
• Filed: 07/16/2010
• Published: 05/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, University Pierre et Marie Curie
• Original Assignee: Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, University Pierre et Marie Curie
• Inventors: Pujolle, Guy, Cherkaoui, Omar
• Application Number:
  US13/383,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20120117246A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0836 to enhance reliability, e.g. reduce downtime
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/35 Switches specially adapted for specific applications

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for the automated management of the performance of at least one virtual network (214, 216, 218) consisting of a plurality of virtual nodes installed on physical nodes (202, 204, 206, 208) selected from among a set of physical nodes forming an infrastructure network (200). Said method includes the following steps for each virtual network (214): determining so-called load data related to a load state of at least one virtual node (2022, 2044, 2062, 2086) of said virtual network (214); determining at least one overloaded virtual node (2086) of said virtual network (214) on the basis of said data and of at least one predefined criterion; and redefining said overloaded virtual node (214), said overloaded node benefiting from additional resources after said redefinition.

Claims

1. A Method for the automated management of the performance of at least one virtual network (214, 216, 218) comprising several virtual nodes installed on physical nodes (202, 204, 206, 208) chosen from a set of physical nodes forming an infrastructure network (200), said physical nodes being interconnected through a signaling network (212), said method comprising the following steps for each virtual network (214):

determining data, called load data, relating to a load state of at least one virtual node (2022, 2044, 2062, 2086) of said virtual network (214),

determining at least one overloaded virtual node (2086) of said virtual network (214) according to said data and at least one predefined criterion, and

redefining said overloaded virtual node (214), said overloaded node benefiting from additional resources after said redefinition.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of redefining the overloaded virtual node (2086) comprises an allocation of additional resources at the level of the physical node (208) on which said overloaded virtual node (2086) is installed, when said resources are available at the level of the physical node (208).

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises, before the redefining step, a step of determining resources available on the physical node (208) on which the overloaded virtual node (2086) is installed.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of redefining the overloaded virtual node (2086) comprises a transfer of the overloaded virtual node (2086) to another physical node (210) forming part of said infrastructure network (200) and having available additional resources.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that, prior to the redefining step, it comprises a step of identifying at least one physical node (210) having available additional resources.

6. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the transfer of the overloaded node (2086) to another node (210) comprises a transfer of the virtual device constituting said overloaded node (2086).

7. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the transfer of the overloaded node (2086) to another physical node (210) comprises a cloning of said overloaded node (2086) on said other physical node (210), said cloning comprising the following steps:

transmitting, to said other node, data relating to the configuration of said overloaded node (2086) according to a configuration protocol,

configuring, at said other node, a new virtual node (2012) with said data relating to the configuration of said overloaded node (2086), and

deleting the overloaded node (2086) on the physical node (208) on which it was previously installed.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the load data relating to a state of a virtual node (2022, 2044, 2062, 2086) comprises data relating to resources allocated to said virtual node (2022, 2044, 2062, 2086) and/or to the activity of said virtual node (2022, 2044, 2062, 2086).

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing in at least one file (310), called the availability file, at least a portion of the load data relating to the load state of each of the virtual nodes (304, 306, 308) installed on a physical node (300).

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein identifying at least one physical node (210) having available additional resources comprises sharing, between at least a portion of the physical nodes of the infrastructure network (200), an availability file associated with each of said physical nodes (202, 204, 206, 208, 210) the availability file including at least a portion of the load data relating to the load state of each of the virtual nodes installed on a physical node.

11. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that determining the load data relating to a load state of a virtual node (2082, 2084, 2086) comprises, for each physical node (208):

determining at least one parameter relating to a use of the physical peripherals of said physical node (208) by each of the virtual nodes (2082, 2084, 2086) installed on said physical node (208), and/or

determining at least one parameter relating to the state of each of the virtual nodes (2082, 2084, 2086) installed on said physical node (208).

12. A computer program comprising instructions run on one or more data processing devices in order to carry out the steps of the method according to claim 1.

13. A virtual network (214, 216, 218) whose performance is managed by the method according to claim 1.

14. A system for the automated management of the performance of at least one virtual network (214, 216, 218) comprising several virtual nodes installed on physical nodes (202, 204, 206, 208) chosen from a set of physical nodes forming an infrastructure network (200), said physical nodes being interconnected through a signaling network (212), said system comprising:

means for determining data, called load data, relating to a load state of at least one virtual node (2022, 2044, 2062, 2086),

means for identifying at least one overloaded virtual node (2086) of said virtual network (214) according to said data and at least one predefined criterion, and

means for redefining said overloaded virtual node such that said overloaded node benefits from additional resources.

15. The system according to claim 14, characterized in that the means for determining data relating to a load state of at least one virtual node comprise a computer program (302), run on each physical node (300) and which observes the activity of each virtual node (304, 306, 308) installed on said physical node (300).

16. The system according to claim 14, characterized in that the means for redefining an overloaded virtual node comprise:

a computer program (302) for allocating new resources to said virtual node on the physical node when said physical node has available additional resources, and/or

means for transferring said overloaded virtual node onto another physical node having available additional resources.

17. The system according to claim 14, further comprising means of identifying at least one physical node having available additional resources, said means comprising at least one file (310), called an availability file, comprising, for each physical node (300), at least a portion of the load data relating to each virtual node (304, 306, 308) installed on said physical node (300).

18. The system according to claim 14, characterized in that a virtual node comprises a virtual router installed on a physical node.