SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR POLICY-BASED SMART PLACEMENT FOR NETWORK FUNCTION VIRTUALIZATION

• US 20170279672A1
• Filed: 03/28/2016
• Published: 09/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Krishnan, Ram, Ghanwani, Anoop, Mukhopadhyay, Snigs, Anumala, Mohnish
• Granted Patent: US 9,967,136 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• 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 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• 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 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

A system for managing networked devices comprising a plurality of racks of computing devices, each rack computing device further comprising a plurality of constraints and configured to operate one or more hosted systems, each rack comprising a bit vector stored in a data memory defining the minimum available set of constraints for each of the plurality of rack computing devices. A plurality of enterprises, each comprising one or more enterprise computing device configured to operate a virtual network system that is configured to interactively operate with the one or more hosted systems of one of the rack computing devices. A network function virtualization system configured to receive a service request and to determine that a new hosted system is required to respond to the service request, and to select a rack for instantiation of the new hosted system as a function of the plurality of bit vectors.

Claims

1. A system for managing networked devices comprising:

a plurality of racks of computing devices, each rack computing device further comprising a plurality of constraints, and each rack represented by a bit vector stored in a data memory defining a minimum available set of constraints for each of the plurality of rack computing devices, each rack computing device further configured to operate one or more hosted systems;

a plurality of enterprises, each comprising one or more enterprise computing device configured to operate a virtual network that is configured to interactively operate with the one or more hosted systems of one or more of the rack computing devices;

a network function virtualization system operating on a processor and configured to interface with the enterprise computing devices to receive a service request and to determine that a new hosted system is required to respond to the service request, and to select a rack of the plurality of racks for instantiation of the new hosted system as a function of the plurality of bit vectors.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of racks further comprise one or more ToR switches and physical servers, with physical servers running virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the network function virtualization system is configured to instantiate one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers using one or more of the plurality of racks in response to the service request.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the network function virtualization system is configured to instantiate a batch of virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers using one or more of the plurality of racks in response to a batch service request.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the network function virtualization system is configured to instantiate a batch of virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers using two or more of the plurality of racks in response to a batch service request as a function of rack location data.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the constraints comprise one or more of a fraction of available resources, a maximum amount of memory, a current memory utilization and/or allocation, a maximum number of cores, a current CPU utilization and/or allocation, a maximum network interface bandwidth and a current network interface utilization and/or allocation.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein each rack further comprises a top of rack system and the network function virtualization infrastructure system is configured to interface with the top of rack system and the servers within each rack.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising a network function virtualization infrastructure system configured to determine a server configuration and to instantiate a one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers in response to the server configuration in the corresponding service request.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a network function virtualization infrastructure system configured to determine a storage configuration and to instantiate a one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers in response to the storage configuration in the corresponding service request.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a network function virtualization infrastructure system configured to determine a network communications configuration and to instantiate a one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers in response to the network communications configuration in the corresponding service request.

11. A method for managing networked devices comprising:

determining a plurality of constraints for each of a plurality of racks of computing devices;

storing a bit vector in a data memory to define a minimum available set of constraints for each of the plurality of rack computing devices;

configuring each rack computing device to operate one or more hosted systems;

configuring an enterprise computing device to operate a virtual network system that is configured to interactively operate with the one or more hosted systems of one or more of the rack computing devices;

configuring a network function virtualization infrastructure system to interface with the enterprise computing devices to receive a service request and to determine that a new hosted system is required to respond to the service request; and

selecting with the network function virtualization system a rack of the plurality of racks for instantiation of the new hosted system as a function of the plurality of bit vectors.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising instantiating one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers with the network function virtualization infrastructure system using one or more of the plurality of racks in response to the service request.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising instantiating a batch of virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers at one or more of the plurality of racks using the network function virtualization infrastructure system in response to a batch service request.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising instantiating a batch of virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers at one or more of the plurality of racks using the network function virtualization infrastructure system in response to a batch service request.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising configuring the network function virtualization infrastructure system to instantiate a batch of virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers using two or more of the plurality of racks in response to a batch service request as a function of rack location data.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the constraints comprise one or more of a fraction of available resources, a maximum amount of memory, a current memory utilization and/or allocation, a maximum number of cores, a current CPU utilization and/or allocation, a maximum network interface bandwidth and a current network interface utilization and/or allocation.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the network function virtualization system is configured to interface with the top of rack system and servers within each rack.

18. The method of claim 11 further comprising configuring a network function virtualization infrastructure system to determine a server configuration and to instantiate a one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers in response to the server configuration in the corresponding service request.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising configuring a network function virtualization infrastructure system to determine a storage configuration and to instantiate a one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers in response to the storage configuration in the corresponding service request.

20. The method of claim 11 further configuring a network function virtualization infrastructure system to determine a network communications configuration and to instantiate a one or more virtual machines, virtual network functions or containers in response to the network communications configuration in the corresponding service request.