AUTOMATIC DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF NETWORK OVERLOAD CONDITIONS USING SDN

• US 20160112275A1
• Filed: 10/21/2014
• Published: 04/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Park, Sun-Uk, Huynh, Minh, Mangla, Ashima
• Granted Patent: US 9,674,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/127 by using congestion prediction

Abstract

A controller node in a network implementing software defined networking (SDN) proactively detects network overload conditions in a target node and subsequently prevents the conditions from developing by launching a new virtual network node. The detection and prevention are based on the determination of a probability of failure of the target node as a weighted function of information from the target node and probabilities of failure of related nodes.

Claims

1. A method for mitigating network overload conditions at a target network node in a communications network, comprising:

by a controller node of the communications network, monitoring key performance indicators of a plurality of network nodes related to the target network node;

by the controller node, based on the key performance indicators of the plurality of network nodes related to the target network node, computing probabilities of failure of each of the network nodes related to the target node;

by the controller node, monitoring key performance indicators of the target network node;

by the controller node, computing a probability of failure of the target network node based on the key performance indicators of the target network node and further based on the probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the target network node, weighted by a closeness of relationships to the target network node;

making a determination that the probability of failure of the target network node exceeds a threshold; and

based on the determination, spawning a new instance of the target network node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the target network node are weighted by a closeness of relationships to the target network node including aggregation level, call flow relationship and topography.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the target node is a PCRF and the related nodes are eNodeB edge nodes and intermediate nodes.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying a support node of the communication network that the new instance is accessible to the communications network.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the support node is a domain name system server.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein computing the probability of failure of a particular network node of the network nodes related to the target node is further based on probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the particular network node, weighted by a closeness of relationships to the particular network node.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the controller node is a Diameter routing agent.

8. A network controller software node of a communications network, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one network interface; and

at least one computer readable storage device having stored thereon computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations for mitigating network overload conditions at a target network node in a communications network comprising;

monitoring key performance indicators of a plurality of network nodes related to the target network node;

based on the key performance indicators of the plurality of network nodes related to the target network node, computing probabilities of failure of each of the network nodes related to the target node;

monitoring key performance indicators of the target network node;

computing a probability of failure of the target network node based on the key performance indicators of the target network node and further based on the probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the target network node, weighted by a closeness of relationships to the target network node;

making a determination that the probability of failure of the target network node exceeds a threshold; and

based on the determination, spawning a new instance of the target network node.

9. The network controller software node of claim 8, wherein the probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the target network node are weighted by a closeness of relationships to the target network node including aggregation level, call flow relationship and topography.

10. The network controller software node of claim 8, wherein the target node is a PCRF and the related nodes are eNodeB edge nodes and intermediate nodes.

11. The network controller software node of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

notifying a support node of the communication network that the new instance is accessible to the communications network.

12. The network controller software node of claim 11, wherein the support node is a domain name system server.

13. The network controller software node of claim 8, wherein computing the probability of failure of a particular network node of the network nodes related to the target node is further based on probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the particular network node, weighted by a closeness of relationships to the particular network node.

14. The network controller software node of claim 8, wherein the controller node is a Diameter routing agent.

15. A tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions for mitigating network overload conditions at a target network node in a communications network, wherein execution of the computer readable instructions by a processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

monitoring key performance indicators of a plurality of network nodes related to the target network node;

based on the key performance indicators of the plurality of network nodes related to the target network node, computing probabilities of failure of each of the network nodes related to the target node;

monitoring key performance indicators of the target network node;

computing a probability of failure of the target network node based on the key performance indicators of the target network node and further based on the probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the target network node, weighted by a closeness of relationships to the target network node;

making a determination that the probability of failure of the target network node exceeds a threshold; and

based on the determination, spawning a new instance of the target network node.

16. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the target network node are weighted by a closeness of relationships to the target network node including aggregation level, call flow relationship and topography.

17. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the target node is a PCRF and the related nodes are eNodeB edge nodes and intermediate nodes.

18. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

notifying a support node of the communication network that the new instance is accessible to the communications network.

19. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the support node is a domain name system server.

20. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein computing the probability of failure of a particular network node of the network nodes related to the target node is further based on probabilities of failure of the nodes related to the particular network node, weighted by a closeness of relationships to the particular network node.