SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT BETWEEN OPERATOR NETWORKS

• US 20160359682A1
• Filed: 05/31/2016
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: SENARATH, Nimal Gamini, VRZIC, Sophie, RAO, Jaya
• Granted Patent: US 10,700,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks

Abstract

There is provided a system and method for virtual infrastructure management and in some embodiments for virtual infrastructure management between operator networks. According to embodiments, there is provided a system and a method for the requesting and provisioning of network resources including infrastructure resources, spectrum resources or both, between network operators.

Claims

1. A method for managing network resources between a first communication network associated with a first network domain and a second communication network associated with a second network domain, the method comprising:

receiving, at a resource broker in the first network domain, a request for additional network resources;

transmitting, to a resource broker in the second network domain, a request for additional network resources; and

receiving, in response to the transmitted request, an offer for at least some of the requested additional network resources.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving an approval of use of at least some of the requested network resources.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising allocating the at least some of the requested network resources.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising checking a resource request policy in light of the request for additional network resources.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the additional network resources include one or a combination of spectrum resources, data centre resources, core bandwidth resources, computing resources, storage resources and networking resources.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising negotiating, by the resource broker of the first domain, with the resource broker of the second domain for provision of at least some of the requested additional network resources.

7. A method for managing network resources between a first communication network associated with a first network domain and a second communication network associated with a second network domain, the method comprising:

receiving, at a resource broker in the second domain, a request for additional network resources from the first communication network;

transmitting an inquiry to determine availability of network resources;

receiving an indication of the availability of network resources; and

transmitting, in response to the received request, an offer for at least some of the requested additional network resources.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising transmitting an approval of use of at least some of the requested network resources.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising checking a resource sharing policy in light of the request for additional network resources from the first communication network.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising negotiating, by the resource broker of the second domain, with the resource broker of the first domain for provision of at least some of the requested additional network resources.

11. A system for managing network resources between a first communication network associated with a first network domain and a second communication network associated with a second network domain, the system comprising:

a first broker/negotiator configured to transmit a request for additional network resources, the first broker/negotiator operatively connected with the first communication network; and

a second broker/negotiator configured to receive and act upon the request from the first broker/negotiator to provision at least some of the requested additional network resources, the second broker/negotiator operatively connected with the second communication network and the at least some network resources associated the second communication network.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the first broker/negotiator is instantiated within an Orchestrator associated with the first communication network.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the second broker/negotiator is instantiated within an Orchestrator associated with the second communication network.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the first broker/negotiator is instantiated outside of an Orchestrator associated with the first communication network.

15. The system according to claim 14, further comprising a Virtual Network Function Manager (VNFM) instantiated outside of the Orchestrator and communicatively coupled with a VNFM of a Management and Orchestration (MANO) entity operative on the first communication network.

16. The system according to claim 15, the VNFM instantiated outside of the Orchestrator is configured to manage one or more Virtual Network Functions (VNF) instantiated using the at least some network resources associated with the second communication network.

17. The system according to claim 11, wherein the additional network resources include one or a combination of spectrum resources, data centre resources, core bandwidth resources, computing resources, storage resources and networking resources.

18. The system according to claim 11, wherein the first broker/negotiator and the second broker/negotiator are configured to negotiate the provision of at least some of the requested additional network resources.