System and Method for Intelligent Data Center Positioning Mechanism in Cloud Computing

• US 20140189092A1
• Filed: 12/28/2012
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Hong
• Application Number:
  US13/730,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20140189092A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA

Abstract

An intelligent data center (DC) positioning mechanism is supported for a cloud computing environment. The intelligent DC positioning mechanism automatically selects an optimal DC from a set of candidate DCs to serve a user. A service request is received from a user at a service portal. The service request is then sent and processed by a DC positioning engine in the cloud computing environment. To select the optimal DC, a plurality of DCs are queried for price-tier and capability information to service the request. A list of candidate DCs is then established in accordance with the price-tier and capability information. A plurality of attributes including internal DC attributes is also obtained. The candidate DCs in the list are then ranked in accordance with the attributes including the internal DC attributes and a highest ranked DC in the list is selected to serve the service request.

Claims

1. A method for data center positioning in cloud computing, the method comprising:

receiving a service request from a user;

querying a plurality of data centers (DCs) for price-tier and capability information to service the request;

establishing a list of candidate DCs in accordance with the price-tier and capability information;

obtaining a plurality of attributes including internal DC attributes;

ranking the candidate DCs in the list in accordance with the attributes including the internal DC attributes; and

selecting a highest ranked DC in the list to serve the service request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a weight to each of the attributes; and

combining the weighted attributes to obtain a normalized value of the attributes for each of the DCs, wherein the DCs are ranked in accordance with the normalized value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving service attributes from the user, a service provider, or both.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the attributes includes obtaining networking communication cost between the user and DC, DC performance, DC resource equivalence, DC performance equivalence, or combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining networking communication cost between the user and DC comprises:

calculating network proximity between the user and DC using a routing layer, a forwarding layer, or both; and

associating lower cost with closer network proximity.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein network proximity is calculated as a logical distance between the user and DC taking into consideration at least one of policy, geo-location, and other routing criteria, forwarding criteria, or both.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining networking communication cost between the user and DC comprises:

evaluating network performance of a DC; and

associating lower cost with better network performance.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein network performance is evaluated in terms of at least one of latency, jitter, packet loss, and bandwidth availability between the user and the DC.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining DC performance comprises measuring a plurality of metrics internal to a DC including at least one of networking status and performance, compute status and performance, and storage status and performance.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining DC resource equivalence comprises:

measuring load variation among loads of different types of resources for a DC; and

associating better equivalence with smaller load variation.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining DC performance equivalence comprises measuring performance variation among different types of resources of a DC.

12. A network component for data center positioning in cloud computing, the network component comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to;

receive a service request from a user;

query a plurality of data centers (DCs) for price-tier and capability information to service the request;

establish a list of candidate DCs in accordance with the price-tier and capability information;

obtain a plurality of attributes including internal DC attributes;

rank the candidate DCs in the list in accordance with the attributes including the internal DC attributes; and

select a highest ranked DC in the list to serve the service request.

13. The network component of claim 12, wherein the programming includes further instructions to:

assign a weight to each of the attributes; and

combine the weighted attributes to obtain a normalized value of the attributes for each of the DCs, wherein the DCs are ranked in accordance with the normalized value.

14. The network component of claim 12, wherein the programming includes further instructions to receive service attributes from the user, a service provider, or both.

15. The network component of claim 14, wherein the service attributes include price-tier information, number of virtual machines, security requirement, storage blocks, performance parameters, or combinations thereof.

16. The network component of claim 14, wherein the attributes include DC capability, DC communication cost, DC performance attributes, DC resource equivalence, or combinations thereof.

17. An apparatus for data center positioning in cloud computing, the apparatus comprising:

a service portal configured to receive a service request from a user; and

a data center positioning engine (DCPE) coupled to the service portal and configured to establish a list of candidate data centers (DCs) in accordance with price-tier and capability information for the DCs and rank the candidate DCs in the list in accordance with a plurality of attributes including internal DC attributes,

wherein the service request is served by a highest ranked DC in the list.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the attributes further include cloud network related attributes, including proximity and performance attributes, and optionally service attributes from the user, a service provider, or both.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the service portal and the DCPE are integrated into a single network component or co-located at a single network location.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the service portal and the DCPE are located at different network components or locations.