BANDWIDTH METERING IN LARGE-SCALE NETWORKS
First Claim
1. A system, comprising a plurality of computing devices configured to:
- determine, at a first metering component on a host of a provider network comprising a plurality of hosts, networking metadata comprising (a) endpoint address information and (b) a traffic metric, wherein the networking metadata is associated with one or more network transmissions for which at least one endpoint comprises a virtualized resource instantiated at the host;
provide, by the first metering component to a second metering component on the host, at least a subset of the networking metadata determined at the first metering component;
aggregate networking metadata from at least the first metering component at the second metering component in accordance with an on-host aggregation policy;
transmit, from the second metering component to a traffic classification node of the provider network, aggregated networking metadata;
generate, at the traffic classification node, a set of categorized usage records based at least in part on aggregated networking metadata obtained from at least a subset of the plurality of hosts and based at least in part on a representation of a network topology associated with the provider network, wherein a particular usage record of the set of categorized usage records indicates a particular billable usage category to be associated with the one or more network transmissions;
provide the set of categorized usage records from the traffic classification node to a billing node of the provider network; and
determine, using the set of categorized usage records, a billing amount to be charged for the one or more network transmissions at the billing node.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for bandwidth metering in large-scale networks are disclosed. Metadata for a network transmission involving a virtualized resource at a host of a provider network, including endpoint address information and a traffic metric, is determined at a metering component. The metadata is aggregated at another metering component and provided to a traffic classification node. The traffic classification node generates a categorized usage record for the network transmission, based at least in part on network topology information associated with the provider network. The categorized usage record is used to determine a billing amount for the network transmission.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system, comprising a plurality of computing devices configured to:
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determine, at a first metering component on a host of a provider network comprising a plurality of hosts, networking metadata comprising (a) endpoint address information and (b) a traffic metric, wherein the networking metadata is associated with one or more network transmissions for which at least one endpoint comprises a virtualized resource instantiated at the host; provide, by the first metering component to a second metering component on the host, at least a subset of the networking metadata determined at the first metering component; aggregate networking metadata from at least the first metering component at the second metering component in accordance with an on-host aggregation policy; transmit, from the second metering component to a traffic classification node of the provider network, aggregated networking metadata; generate, at the traffic classification node, a set of categorized usage records based at least in part on aggregated networking metadata obtained from at least a subset of the plurality of hosts and based at least in part on a representation of a network topology associated with the provider network, wherein a particular usage record of the set of categorized usage records indicates a particular billable usage category to be associated with the one or more network transmissions; provide the set of categorized usage records from the traffic classification node to a billing node of the provider network; and determine, using the set of categorized usage records, a billing amount to be charged for the one or more network transmissions at the billing node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method, comprising:
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determining, at a first metering component on a host of a provider network comprising a plurality of hosts, networking metadata comprising (a) endpoint address information and (b) a traffic metric, wherein the networking metadata is associated with one or more network transmissions for which at least one endpoint comprises a virtualized resource instantiated at the host; aggregating networking metadata from at least the first metering component at a second metering component in accordance with an aggregation policy; generating, at a traffic classification node of the provider network, one or more categorized usage records corresponding to the one or more network transmissions, based at least in part on aggregated networking metadata obtained from at least the second metering component and based at least in part on a representation of a network topology associated with the provider network; and determining, using the one or more categorized usage records, a billing amount to be charged for the one or more network transmissions. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more processors:
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generate a plurality of networking metadata records at a host of a provider network, wherein a particular networking metadata record of the plurality of networking metadata records corresponds to one or more network transmissions detected at the host, wherein the particular networking metadata record comprises (a) endpoint address information of the one or more network transmissions and (b) a traffic metric; aggregate the plurality of networking metadata at the host based at least in part on the endpoint address information; and transmit aggregated networking metadata from the host to a traffic classification node of the provider network, wherein the traffic classification node is configured to generate a categorized usage record corresponding to the one or more network transmissions based at least in part on a representation of a network topology associated with the provider network. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more processors:
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obtain a representation of a network topology corresponding to at least a portion of a provider network, wherein the representation is generated by a topology authority of the provider network and is based at least in part on network configuration information collected by one or more topology observer nodes of the provider network; receive, from metering components at one or more virtualization hosts of the provider network, a plurality of networking metadata records associated with network transmissions detected at the one or more virtualization hosts, wherein a particular networking metadata record of the plurality of networking metadata records comprises endpoint address information and a traffic metric; generate a set of categorized usage records based at least in part on the plurality of networking metadata records and based at least in part on the representation of the network topology, wherein the set of categorized usage records is usable for determining billing amounts associated with the network transmissions detected at the one or more virtualization hosts. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification