NETWORK FUNCTIONS VIRTUALIZATION

• US 20170257276A1
• Filed: 06/30/2015
• Published: 09/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: CHOU, JOEY, VENKATACHALAM, MUTHAIAH, KEDALAGUDDE, MEGHASHREE DATTATRI
• Granted Patent: US 10,951,480 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• 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: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Technology for a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate instantiation of a virtualized network function (VNF) instance is disclosed. The VNFM can receive a request to instantiate a new VNF instance from a network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO), the request including VNF instantiation information. The VNFM can send a request to a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for allocating virtual resources for the new VNF instance based on the VNF instantiation information. The VNFM can receive an acknowledgement from the VIM after successful allocation of the virtualized resources for the new VNF instance. The VNFM can instantiate the new VNF instance and send an acknowledgement of the new VNF instance to the NFVO, wherein the new VNF instance is operable to ease congestion at an overloaded non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network.

Claims

1. A virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate instantiation of a virtualized network function (VNF) instance, the VNFM comprising one or more processors configured to:

receive, at the VNFM, a request to instantiate a new VNF instance from a network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO), the request including VNF instantiation information;

send a request to a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for allocating virtual resources for the new VNF instance based on the VNF instantiation information;

receive, at the VNFM, an acknowledgement from the VIM after successful allocation of the virtualized resources for the new VNF instance; and

instantiate, at the VNFM, the new VNF instance and send an acknowledgement of the new VNF instance to the NFVO, wherein the new VNF instance is operable to ease congestion at an overloaded non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network.

2. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the request to instantiate the new VNF instance is initially triggered at the NM in the mixed wireless network upon detection that the non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network is overloaded.

3. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the wireless network includes non-virtualized network elements that are collocated with virtualized network elements.

4. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to configure one or more lifecycle parameters for the new VNF instance.

5. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to notify a NFV element manager (EM) of the new VNF instance that is instantiated, wherein the NFV EM is configured to configure VNF application specific parameters.

6. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to request permission from the NFVO for allocation of the virtualized resources prior to sending the request to the VIM for allocating the virtualized resources, wherein the NFVO is configured to verify the request and grant the allocation of the virtualized resources for the new VNF instance.

7. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the new VNF instance is available for offloading by an element manager (EM) in the mixed wireless network.

8. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the new VNF instance is instantiated in order to run a virtualized evolved node B (eNB), a virtualized radio base station, a virtualized baseband unit (BBU), a virtualized mobility management entity (MME), a virtualized serving gateway (SGW) or a virtualized packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW).

9. A virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate termination of a virtualized network function (VNF) instance, the VNFM comprising one or more processors configured to:

receive, at the VNFM, a request to terminate an existing VNF instance from a network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO);

initiate termination of the existing VNF instance; and

send an acknowledgment to the NFVO after successfully terminating the existing VNF instance, wherein the NFVO is configured to request a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) to delete virtualized resources used by one or more virtualization deployment units (VDUs) of the existing VNF instance.

10. The VNFM of claim 9, wherein the request to terminate the existing VNF instance is received from the NFVO when the NFVO determines that a non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network is able to handle a VNF instance load associated with the existing VNF instance.

11. The VNFM of claim 9, wherein the request to terminate the existing VNF instance is initially triggered at the NM in the mixed wireless network upon detection that the virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network is unnecessarily wasting virtualized resources.

12. The VNFM of claim 9, wherein the VNFM coordinates with other nodes in the mixed wireless network to gradually shut down the existing VNF instance, wherein user equipments UEs of the mixed wireless network that are currently connected to the existing VNF instance are offloaded to a non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network prior to termination of the existing VNF instance.

13. The VNFM of claim 9, wherein an element manager (EM) in the mixed wireless network is notified when the existing VNF instance is terminated.

14. The VNFM of claim 9, wherein the mixed wireless network is operable to support a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 13 network functions virtualization (NFV) management architecture that includes a management architecture for managing non-virtualized and virtualized network elements, and a NFV management and network orchestration (MANO) architectural framework.

15. A virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate expansion of virtualized resources for a virtualized network function (VNF) instance, the VNFM comprising one or more processors configured to:

determine, at the VNFM, to expand virtualized resources for an existing VNF instance when the existing VNF instance is overloaded;

send a request to a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for expanding the virtualized resources for the existing VNF; and

receive, at the VNFM, an acknowledgement from the VIM after additional virtualized resources are successfully allocated for the existing VNF instance.

16. The VNFM of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine to expand the virtualized resources for the existing VNF instance after receiving an expansion request from a NFV element manager (EM), wherein the NFV EM is configured to detect that the existing VNF instance is overloaded based on performance data received from the existing VNF instance and send the expansion request to the VNFM.

17. The VNFM of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine to expand the virtualized resources for the existing VNF instance after receiving an expansion request from a NFV network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO), wherein the NFV VM is configured to detect that the existing VNF instance is overloaded based on performance data received from the existing VNF instance and send the expansion request to the NFVO, wherein the NFVO is configured to forward the expansion request to the VNFM.

18. The VNFM of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to request permission from the NFVO for expansion of the virtualized resources prior to sending the request to the VIM for expanding the virtualized resources, wherein the NFVO is configured to verify the request with respect to virtualized resource availability and grant the expansion of the virtualized resources for the existing VNF instance.

19. The VNFM of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to notify a NFV EM in the mixed wireless network that the existing VNF instance is updated with additional virtualized resources.

20. A virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate contraction of virtualized resources for a virtualized network function (VNF) instance, the VNFM comprising one or more processors configured to:

determine, at the VNFM, to contract virtualized resources for an existing VNF instance when the virtualized resources are excessive for the existing VNF instance;

send a request to a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for contracting the virtualized resources for the existing VNF; and

receive, at the VNFM, an acknowledgement from the VIM after the virtualized resources are successfully contracted for the existing VNF instance.

21. The VNFM of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are configured to trigger contraction of the virtualized resources for the existing VNF instance based on monitoring of performance data received from the existing VNF instance.

22. The VNFM of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine to contract the virtualized resources for the existing VNF instance after receiving a contraction request from a NFV element manager (EM), wherein the NFV EM is configured to detect that the virtualized resources are excessive for the existing VNF instance and send the contraction request to the VNFM.

23. The VNFM of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine to contract the virtualized resources for the existing VNF instance after receiving a contraction request from a NFV network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO), wherein the NFV NM is configured to detect that the virtualized resources are excessive for the existing VNF instance and send the contraction request to the NFVO, wherein the NFVO is configured to forward the contraction request to the VNFM.

24. The VNFM of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to request permission from the NFVO for contraction of the virtualized resources prior to sending the request to the VIM for contracting the virtualized resources, wherein the NFVO is configured to verify the request with respect to a configuration policy and grant the contraction of the virtualized resources for the existing VNF instance.

25. The VNFM of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to notify a NFV EM in the mixed wireless network after the virtualized resources are reduced for the existing VNF instance.

26. The VNFM of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to request the existing VNF instance to gradually terminate a VNF component, wherein user equipments (UEs) of the mixed wireless network that are currently connected to the existing VNF instance using the VNF component are transferred to another VNF component prior to termination of the VNF component.