SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING AND VERIFYING OPEN PROGRAMMABLE NETWORK AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20140115126A1
• Filed: 10/18/2013
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: SHIN, Myung Ki, KIM, Hyoung Jun, HAHM, Jin Ho, NAM, Ki-Hyuk
• Application Number:
  US14/057,846
• Publication Number:
  US 20140115126A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements
• 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: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/66 Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's

Abstract

In a network environment in which pieces of heterogeneous network equipment interwork, a system receives a request including configuration information regarding a network operation with respect to at least one piece of a network equipment. The system verifies whether the request is in conflict with a network configuration and property managed by the system, and when an error does not occur according to verification results, the system transfers the verification results including configuration information to the network equipment.

Claims

1. A method for verifying a network operation by a system in a network environment in which heterogeneous types of network equipment interwork, the method comprising:

receiving, by the system, a request including network operation-related configuration information regarding at least one piece of network equipment included in a single domain, in a state in which the network equipment is managed by a domain;

to verifying, by the system, whether the request is in conflict with a network configuration and property managed by the system; and

when an error has not occurred according to the verification results, transferring the verification results including the configuration information to the network equipment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein

in the receiving, the request is received from an application of a higher layer or an external network operation system (NOS), and

in the transferring, the verification results are transferred to the application unit or the external NOS.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

translating the input request into a configuration form for verification before the verifying; and

translating the verification results into a form that is processable in the application unit or the external NOS before the transferring.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the configuration information is information regarding a software defined network (SDN) to control network equipment included in the domain by the application unit of the higher layer or the external NOS, and the SDN is one of a plurality of virtual networks obtained by classifying a physical network to which pieces of network equipments are connected, by slice.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising

allocating the input received by one of the plurality of virtual networks so that the corresponding request can be processed on the basis of a slice ID corresponding to the virtual network to which the request was allocated, after the receiving.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein in the verifying, the configuration information includes match-action rules with respect to network equipment included in a domain related to the SDN and information regarding a structure of the SDN, and

the verifying comprises verifying whether inter-contradiction exists between the rules or whether an infinite loop or a black hole is generated in the structure of the SDN.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein

the verifying further comprises,

when the request includes property information in addition to the configuration information,

verifying whether the configuration information satisfies the property information.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein

the verifying further comprises

verifying whether the configuration information satisfies property information previously set by the system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein,

in the verifying,

the configuration information is verified in consideration of information regarding networks managed by the system and state information regarding the networks.

10. A system for controlling and verifying networks in which pieces of heterogeneous network equipment interwork, the system comprising:

a control device configured to manage the network equipment by domain, classify a physical network to which network equipment is connected into a plurality of virtual networks by slice and manage the same, and control operation of piece of each network equipment; and

a reliability checking device configured to receive configuration information regarding a network operation with respect to at least one piece of network equipment included in a single domain and verify whether the request is in conflict with a network configuration and property managed by the control device,

wherein the request is input from an application unit of a higher layer or an external network operation system (NOS).

11. The system of claim 10, wherein

the control device comprises:

a verifying unit configured to verify whether the request is in conflict with a network configuration and property managed by the control device; and

a translation unit configured to translate the request into a configuration form for verification, provide the same to the verifying unit, and translate verification results from the verifying unit into a form based on an interface corresponding to the application unit or the external NOS.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein

the control device further comprises:

a slice management unit configured to allocate the request to one of a plurality of virtual networks so that the corresponding request can be processed on the basis of a slice ID corresponding to the virtual network to which the request was allocated; and

a network database configured to store information regarding a network state and a network equipment state managed by the control device, the information including at least one of topology information, link state information, and a flow rule,

wherein the information stored in the network database is matched to the slice ID corresponding to the virtual network and a domain ID with respect to network equipment related to the corresponding virtual network.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein

at least one of the reliability checking device and the verifying unit operates as a verifying device,

wherein when the configuration information includes match-action rules with respect to network equipment included in a domain related to a software defined network (SDN) and information regarding a structure of the SDN, the verifying device verifies whether intra-contradiction exists between the rules or whether an infinite loop or a black hole is generated in the structure of the SDN.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein when the request includes property information in addition to the configuration information, the verifying device additionally verifies whether the configuration information satisfies the property information.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the verifying device comprises a property library storing property information previously set by the system, and additionally verifies whether the configuration information satisfies the property information previously set by the system.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the network equipment is a programmable switch.