DYNAMIC LOCAL DECISION CONTROL IN SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING-BASED ENVIRONMENT

• US 20150312658A1
• Filed: 04/23/2014
• Published: 10/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Winzer, Peter J., Simsarian, John E., Thottan, Marina K., Guan, Kyle
• Granted Patent: US 9,729,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/247 using M:N active or standby paths
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0005 Switch and router aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0062 Network aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0041 Optical control
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0058 Crossbar; Matrix
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0081 Fault tolerance; Redundancy; Recovery; Reconfigurability
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0086 Network resource allocation, dimensioning or optimisation

Abstract

Cross-layer information associated with a software defined networking-based (SDN-based) communication network is collected. One or more updates are sent to one or more network elements in the SDN-based communication network to control one or more local decisions made at the one or more network elements. The one or more updates are based on at least a portion of the collected cross-layer information. Preferably, the collecting and sending steps are performed by a controller implementing an SDN management plane associated with the SDN-based communication network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

collecting cross-layer information associated with a software defined networking-based communication network; and

sending one or more updates to one or more network elements in the software defined networking-based communication network to control one or more local decisions made at the one or more network elements, wherein the one or more updates are based on at least a portion of the collected cross-layer information;

wherein the method is performed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the collecting and sending steps are performed by a controller implementing a software defined networking management plane associated with the software defined networking-based communication network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the one or more local decisions comprises a protection path selection decision and wherein the software defined networking-based communication network comprises an optical transport network.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the cross-layer information collecting step further comprises the controller collecting traffic state information from one or more of optical-layer devices and Internet Protocol-layer devices of the optical transport network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more updates sending step further comprises the controller updating one or more protection path assignments locally in one or more of the optical-layer devices to enable switch-over to an assigned protection path substantially immediately following a failure of a corresponding working path.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the assigned protection path selected comprises a path that currently carries a least amount of best-effort traffic or a path that currently exhibits a most stable physical-layer performance.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the assigned protection path selected comprises a path that does not have a physical-layer performance parameter above a given threshold value.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the cross-layer information collecting step further comprises the controller building a network map of the optical transport network, wherein the network map at least comprises the optical-layer devices and the Internet Protocol-layer devices of the optical transport network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the cross-layer information collecting step further comprises the controller adjusting the network map following a network event resulting in implementation of at least one protection path.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the cross-layer information collecting step further comprises the controller receiving notification of implementation of a path protection from at least one of the optical-layer devices.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more updates sending step further comprises the controller changing one or more of the protection path assignments locally in one or more of the optical-layer devices based on the adjusted network map.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the one or more local decisions comprises a traffic migration decision, and further wherein the one or more updates sending step further comprises the controller updating at least one of the one or more network elements to migrate traffic from one path through which traffic is currently being transmitted to another path through which at least a portion of the traffic can be transmitted.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the traffic selected to be migrated from the one path to the other path comprises high-priority traffic.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the decision to migrate traffic is at least based on a reduction of an operating margin in the one path through which traffic is currently being transmitted due to a physical-layer impairment.

15. An article of manufacture comprising a processor-readable storage medium having embodied therein executable program code that when executed by the processing device causes the processing device to perform the method of claim 1.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor operatively coupled to the memory and configured to perform steps of;

collect cross-layer information about a software defined networking-based communication network; and

send one or more updates to one or more network elements in the software defined networking-based communication network to control one or more local decisions made at the one or more network elements, wherein the one or more updates are based on at least a portion of the collected cross-layer information.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the collecting and sending steps are performed by a controller implementing a software defined networking management plane associated with the software defined networking-based communication network.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein one of the one or more local decisions comprises a protection path selection decision and wherein the software defined networking-based communication network comprises an optical transport network.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the cross-layer information collecting step further comprises the controller collecting traffic state information from one or more of optical-layer devices and Internet Protocol-layer devices of the optical transport network.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the one or more updates sending step further comprises the controller updating one or more protection path assignments locally in one or more of the optical-layer devices to enable switch-over to an assigned protection path substantially immediately following a failure of a corresponding working path.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the assigned protection path selected comprises a path that currently carries a least amount of best-effort traffic or a path that currently exhibits a most stable physical-layer performance.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the assigned protection path selected comprises a path that does not have a physical-layer performance parameter above a given threshold value.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the cross-layer information collecting step further comprises the controller building a network map of the optical transport network, wherein the network map at least comprises the optical-layer devices and the Internet Protocol-layer devices of the optical transport network.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein one of the one or more local decisions comprises a traffic migration decision, and further wherein the one or more updates sending step further comprises the controller updating at least one of the one or more network elements to migrate traffic from one path through which traffic is currently being transmitted to another path through which at least a portion of the traffic can be transmitted.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the traffic selected to be migrated from the one path to the other path comprises high-priority traffic.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the decision to migrate traffic is at least based on a reduction of an operating margin in the one path through which traffic is currently being transmitted due to a physical-layer impairment.

27. An apparatus comprising:

a controller comprising a software defined networking management plane module configured for;

collecting cross-layer information about a software defined networking-based communication network; and

sending one or more updates to one or more network elements in the software defined networking-based communication network to control one or more local decisions made at the one or more network elements, wherein the one or more updates are based on at least a portion of the collected cross-layer information;

wherein the controller is implemented using at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.