Dedicated Software-Defined Networking Network for Performance Monitoring of Production Software-Defined Networking Network

• US 20170111246A1
• Filed: 10/14/2015
• Published: 04/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2015
• 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: Shaw, Venson, He, Jin
• Granted Patent: US 9,838,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• 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 45/70 Routing based on monitoring results
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation

Abstract

According to one aspect disclosed herein, a performance monitoring SDN controller can translate an intent specified by a performance monitoring application into a flow rule and an action set to be utilized by a performance monitoring SDN element to process a packet flow received from the target SDN network. The performance monitoring SDN controller can provide the flow rule and the action set to a performance monitoring SDN element, which can receive the packet flow from the target SDN network and can analyze the packet flow in accordance with the flow rule to match the packet flow to an action included within the action set. The performance monitoring SDN element can execute the action to monitor a performance metric of the packet flow and to provide a value for the performance metric to the performance monitoring application agent, which can generate a message that includes the value.

Claims

1. A performance monitoring system for monitoring performance of a target software-defined networking network, the performance monitoring system comprising:

a network virtualization platform comprising a plurality of hardware resources; and

a performance monitoring software-defined networking network comprising a performance monitoring software-defined networking element, a performance monitoring software-defined networking controller, and a performance monitoring application agent that are executable by the plurality of hardware resources of the network virtualization platform to perform operations comprising;

translating, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking controller, an intent specified by a performance monitoring application into a flow rule and an action set to be utilized by a performance monitoring software-defined networking element to process a packet flow received from the target software-defined networking network,

providing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking controller, the flow rule and the action set to the performance monitoring software-defined networking element,

receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the flow rule and the action set from the performance monitoring software-defined networking controller and the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network,

analyzing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow in accordance with the flow rule to match the packet flow to an action comprised within the action set,

executing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the action to monitor a performance metric of the packet flow received from the target software-defined networking network and to provide a value for the performance metric to the performance monitoring application agent,

receiving, by the performance monitoring application agent, the value for the performance metric, and

generating, by the performance monitoring application agent, a message comprising the value for the performance metric.

2. The performance monitoring system of claim 1, further comprising a message broker system;

wherein the operations further comprise providing, by the performance monitoring application agent, the message to the message broker system; and

wherein;

the message broker system performs message broker system operations comprising

receiving, from the performance monitoring application agent, the message comprising the value for the performance metric, and

exposing, by the message broker system, an application programming interface that is callable by the performance monitoring application to obtain the value for the performance metric.

3. The performance monitoring system of claim 2, wherein the message broker system operations further comprise receiving in-band performance data from the target software-defined networking network;

and wherein the application programming interface is also callable by the performance monitoring application to obtain the in-band performance data.

4. The performance monitoring system of claim 3, wherein the in-band performance data comprises data selected from a group of data comprising an in-band trace, an in-band log, and an in-band performance statistic.

5. The performance monitoring system of claim 4, wherein the in-band performance data is received from a target software-defined networking network application, a target software-defined networking network controller, or a target software-defined networking element.

6. The performance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network comprises receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network via a network analyzer that selects the packet flow from among network traffic that traverses a dummy target software-defined networking element of the target software-defined networking network.

7. The performance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the message comprises an original packet in the packet flow.

8. A method comprising:

translating, by a performance monitoring software-defined networking controller of a performance monitoring system via execution by at least a portion of a plurality of hardware resources of a network virtualization platform, an intent specified by a performance monitoring application into a flow rule and an action set to be utilized by a performance monitoring software-defined networking element to process a packet flow received from a target software-defined networking network;

providing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking controller, the flow rule and the action set to the performance monitoring software-defined networking element;

receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the flow rule and the action set from the performance monitoring software-defined networking controller and the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network;

analyzing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow in accordance with the flow rule to match the packet flow to an action comprised within the action set,

executing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the action to monitor a performance metric of the packet flow received from the target software-defined networking network and to provide a value for the performance metric to a performance monitoring application agent;

receiving, by the performance monitoring application agent, the value for the performance metric, and

generating, by the performance monitoring application agent, a message comprising the value for the performance metric.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

providing, by the performance monitoring application agent, the message to a message broker system;

receiving, by the message broker system, from the performance monitoring application agent, the message comprising the value for the performance metric, and

exposing, by the message broker system, an application programming interface that is callable by the performance monitoring application to obtain the value for the performance metric.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving in-band performance data from the target software-defined networking network;

and wherein the application programming interface is also callable by the performance monitoring application to obtain the in-band performance data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the in-band performance data comprises data selected from a group of data comprising an in-band trace, an in-band log, and an in-band performance statistic.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the in-band performance data is received from a target software-defined networking network application, a target software-defined networking network controller, or a target software-defined networking element.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network comprises receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network via a network analyzer that selects the packet flow from among network traffic that traverses a dummy target software-defined networking element of the target software-defined networking network.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the message comprises an original packet in the packet flow.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions for a performance monitoring system stored thereon that, when executed by a compute resource of a network virtualization platform, cause the performance monitoring system to perform operations comprising:

translating, by a performance monitoring software-defined networking controller of the performance monitoring system, an intent specified by a performance monitoring application into a flow rule and an action set to be utilized by a performance monitoring software-defined networking element to process a packet flow received from a target software-defined networking network;

providing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking controller, the flow rule and the action set to the performance monitoring software-defined networking element;

receiving, by a performance monitoring software-defined networking element of the performance monitoring system, the flow rule and the action set from the performance monitoring software-defined networking controller and the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network;

analyzing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow in accordance with the flow rule to match the packet flow to an action comprised within the action set,

executing, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the action to monitor a performance metric of the packet flow received from the target software-defined networking network and to provide a value for the performance metric to a performance monitoring application agent of the performance monitoring system;

receiving, by the performance monitoring application agent, the value for the performance metric, and

generating, by the performance monitoring application agent, a message comprising the value for the performance metric.

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

providing, by the performance monitoring application agent, the message to a message broker system of the performance monitoring system;

receiving, by the message broker system, from the performance monitoring application agent, the message comprising the value for the performance metric, and

exposing, by the message broker system, an application programming interface that is callable by the performance monitoring application to obtain the value for the performance metric.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise receiving in-band performance data from the target software-defined networking network;

and wherein the application programming interface is also callable by the performance monitoring application to obtain the in-band performance data.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the in-band performance data comprises data selected from a group of data comprising an in-band trace, an in-band log, and an in-band performance statistic.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the in-band performance data is received from a target software-defined networking network application, a target software-defined networking network controller, or a target software-defined networking element.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network comprises receiving, by the performance monitoring software-defined networking element, the packet flow from the target software-defined networking network via a network analyzer that selects the packet flow from among network traffic that traverses a dummy target software-defined networking element of the target software-defined networking network.