Distributed Network Billing In A Datacenter Environment

• US 20140269435A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carlin, Erik, McConnell, Brad
• Application Number:
  US13/803,557
• Publication Number:
  US 20140269435A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/259
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1425 involving dedicated fields in the data packet for billing purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1432 Metric aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery

Abstract

Apparatus, systems and methods are provided for performing distributed network billing in a datacenter environment. The method includes receiving a network packet including a destination identifier in a virtual switch from a virtual machine of a server of a datacenter associated with a customer of the datacenter, determining if the destination identifier is present in an accounting list of the virtual switch that includes destination identifiers each associated with a first billing rate, and if so, updating a counter associated with the accounting list according to a size of the network packet.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a network packet including a destination identifier in a virtual switch from a virtual machine of a server of a datacenter, the virtual machine associated with a customer of the datacenter;

determining if the destination identifier is present in an accounting list of the virtual switch, wherein the accounting list includes a plurality of destination identifiers each associated with a first billing rate; and

if so, updating a counter associated with the accounting list according to a size of the network packet.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating a second counter associated with a default billing rate according to the size of the network packet if the destination identifier is not present in any accounting list.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an announcement of a route to a network block of a second datacenter coupled to the datacenter via a network backbone, the announcement including a message having a destination identifier of the network block, a route to the network block, and a billing tag associated with the destination identifier; and

updating a list of routes in a route server of the datacenter with an entry based on the message information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

processing information from entry of the list of routes to generate aggregated route information and populating an entry in a local route database with the aggregated route information and the billing tag; and

updating a first accounting list of a middleware server of the datacenter, the first accounting list for a billing rate corresponding to the billing tag of the aggregated route information.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising updating an accounting list of the logical port with the destination identifier obtained from the first accounting list of the middleware server.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving a billing request for the customer from a billing system of the datacenter in a software defined network (SDN) controller.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

responsive to the billing request, communicating from the SDN controller a query to one or more switches coupled to virtual machines associated with the customer; and

receiving in the SDN controller of the count values each associated with an accounting list from the one or more switches.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising communicating the count values to the billing system.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising aggregating the count values per billing rate and applying the corresponding billing rate to each of the aggregated count values to generate a data traffic bill for the customer.

10. A system comprising:

a distributed billing system for a multi-tenant datacenter having a plurality of datacenter regions, wherein a first datacenter region includes;

a local route server to receive route messages and to update one or more routing tables based on the route messages, each of the route messages including a destination identifier to identify a network block and a billing tag to be associated with a billing rate to be applied to traffic destined to the network block;

an integration sever coupled to the route server to receive and process the destination identifier and the billing tag to generate an entry for storage in one of a plurality of accounting lists of the integration server, each of the plurality of accounting lists associated with a billing rate corresponds to the billing tag;

a software defined network (SDN) controller coupled to the integration server to receive updates to the plurality of accounting lists and to send the updates to a plurality of virtual switches; and

the plurality of virtual switches coupled to the SDN controller, each of the plurality of virtual switches including a plurality of counters, each to count network traffic destined to a location present on an accounting list of the virtual switch.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a billing server coupled to the SDN controller to communicate a request for billing information of a first customer of the multi-tenant datacenter via the distributed billing system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the billing server is to receive count values responsive to a query from the SDN controller to one or more switches coupled to virtual machines associated with the first customer, wherein the count values are each associated with an accounting list of one or more virtual switches associated with the first customer.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein a first virtual switch of the one or more virtual switches is to receive a network packet including a destination identifier from a virtual machine associated with the first customer, determine if the destination identifier is present in a first accounting list of the first virtual switch, the first accounting list including a plurality of destination identifiers each associated with a first billing rate, and if so, update a counter associated with the first accounting list according to a packet size of the network packet.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first virtual switch is to update a second counter associated with a default billing rate according to the packet size of the network packet if the destination identifier is not present in any accounting list of the virtual switch associated with any billing rate.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the local route server is to receive an announcement of a route to a network block of a second datacenter coupled to the datacenter via a network backbone, the announcement including a message having a destination identifier of the network block, a route to the network block, and a billing tag associated with the destination identifier, and update a list of routes in the local route server with an entry based on the message information.

16. An article comprising a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions to:

receive a network packet including a destination identifier in a virtual switch from a virtual machine of a server of a datacenter, the virtual machine associated with a customer of the datacenter;

determine if the destination identifier is present in an accounting list of the virtual switch, wherein the accounting list includes a plurality of destination identifiers each associated with a first billing rate; and

if so, update a counter associated with the accounting list according to a size of the network packet.

17. The article of claim 16, further comprising instructions to update a second counter associated with a default billing rate according to the size of the network packet if the destination identifier is not present in any accounting list.

18. The article of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

receive an announcement of a route to a network block of a second datacenter coupled to the datacenter via a network backbone, the announcement including a message having a destination identifier of the network block, a route to the network block, and a billing tag associated with the destination identifier; and

update a list of routes in a route server of the datacenter with an entry based on the message information.

19. The article of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

process information from entry of the list of routes to generate aggregated route information and populating an entry in a local route database with the aggregated route information and the billing tag; and

update a first accounting list of a middleware server of the datacenter, the first accounting list for a billing rate corresponding to the billing tag of the aggregated route information.

20. The article of claim 19, further comprising instructions to update an accounting list of the logical port with the destination identifier obtained from the first accounting list of the middleware server.