Automatic router configuration based on traffic and service level agreements

• US 7,145,871 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2002
• Issued: 12/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sikora, John J., Pinzon, Eduardo, Levy, Yonatan Aharon, Kujoory, Ali Mohammad
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rose, Kerri M.
• Application Number:
  US10/090,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20030179703A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,739 Days
• Field of Search: 370/229, 370/232, 370/237, 370252-254, 370/351, 370/389, 709/242, 709220-221, 709/223, 709238-239
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• 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 41/0896 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 41/142 using statistical or mathematical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/16 using machine learning or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/115 using a dedicated packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 : Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 : Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 : for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 : for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 : Modification of priorities while in transit
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2475 : for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 : in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 : in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes

Abstract

An arrangement where a policy manager automatically generates configuration file updates for the routers in the network, as necessary, sends those updates to the appropriate routers, and causes the routers to install the configuration file updates in real-time. The automatic generation of configuration file updates is carried out in response to information that is delivered to the policy manager from a traffic measurement and flow analysis system that replaces the prior art analyzer system. The information that is generated by the traffic measurement and flow analysis system is sensitive to thresholds that the policy manager installs in the traffic measurement and flow analysis system.

Claims

1. Apparatus comprising:

a first module that receives information from a plurality of routers of a network;

a second module that carries out analysis of said information relative to received thresholds that are related to stored service-level agreements;

a third module for providing to the second module said thresholds and also being responsive to analysis results of said second module that, when said analysis results indicate an unsatisfactory operational condition in said network, develops configuration-information regarding configuration files of one or more of said routers; and

a fourth module that transmits said configuration-information to said one or more of said routers to modify a configuration file within said one or more of said routers in real time that, in turn, modifies operation of said one or more of said routers.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 where said first module receives said information independently of any request for information by said first module.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 where said first module receives said information by polling said routers.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 where said first module polls said routers pursuant to an internal algorithmic process, or periodically.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 where said first module receives first type of information from said routers independently of any request for information, and receives second type of information from said routers in response to polling requests launched by said first module.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 where the first type of information includes exception reports that alert said first module of occurrence of predetermined events, and said second type of information comprises monitored values information of variables specified in said polling requests.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 where said first type of information further includes information relating to packet flow through said routers.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 where said second module, in said analysis, distills performance information from said information received from said routers, and evaluates said performance information relative to said preselected thresholds.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said analysis determines whether said performance information exceeds one or more of said thresholds.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said analysis determines whether said performance information exceeds one or more of said thresholds by more than a predetermined number of times within a selected time interval.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 where the thresholds relate to one or more from a set including load carried by said routers, classes of applications, service level agreements, applications of specific customers, and quality-of-service parameters.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 where said analysis identifies routers whose mode of operation is in need of modifying.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprises a memory that stores quality-of-service parameters, service level agreements parameters, and a configuration file for each of said routers that is controlled by a configuration file.

14. The apparatus claim 13 where said thresholds are related to said quality-of-service parameters that are stored in said memory, and to said service level agreements that are stored in said memory.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 where said configuration file of one router comprises sub-configuration files.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 where said configuration file of said one router comprises one or more sub-configuration files taken from a set that includes a sub-configuration file that directs operation of a controller of said one router, sub-configuration files that control one or more lines cards of said one router, and sub-configuration files that control receiving elements of said one router.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 where said configuration-information developed by said third module for one of said routers is a modified configuration file for said one of said routers.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 where said configuration-information developed by said third module for one of said routers is a modification of said configuration file for said one of said routers.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 where said modification modifies assignments of class to applications, modifies scheduling algorithm in line cards of said one or more routers, or modifies queue limits in line cards of said one or more routers.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 where said assignments of class to applications are reflected in assignment in TOS field of packets entering said one of said routers.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 where said modification comprises instructions to replace elements in said configuration file of said one of said routers, or to modify elements in said configuration file of said one of said routers.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 where said elements of said configuration file are sub-configuration files.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 where said elements of said configuration file are parameters of sub-configuration files of said configuration file.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 where said configuration file includes a directive to install said configuration-information.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 where said directive causes installation of said configuration-information upon receipt of said configuration-information.

26. The apparatus of claim 1 where said fourth module also transmits a directive to install said configuration-information.

27. The apparatus of claim 1 where said configuration file of said one router includes one or more elements from a set comprising

scheduling algorithm for outputting packets from a line card of said one router,

queue sizes in a line card of said one router,

transmission buffer size in said line card of said one router,

processing algorithm and parameters of processing elements of input ports of said one router,

TOS specifications,

specification of information that said routers are to send back to said fourth module on a continuous basis,

specification of information that said one router is to store in a MIB file that is accessible to said fourth module through polling, and

analysis algorithms that said one router is to undertake.

28. The apparatus of said claim 1, further comprising a network comprised of said plurality of routers, with said routers being coupled to said fourth module.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 where some of said routers are access routers in said plurality of routers, and remaining ones of said routers in said plurality of routers are backbone routers.

30. The apparatus of claim 29 where said access routers include means for sending test packets through said network, resulting in end-to-end delay information being provided to said first module.

31. The apparatus of claim 1 where said modules are software modules of said apparatus.

32. A method executed by a computer comprising the steps of:

a receiving information from a plurality of routers of a network;

analyzing said information relative to preselected thresholds that relate to service level agreements;

when said step of analyzing indicates an unsatisfactory operational condition in said network, developing configuration-information regarding configuration files of one or more of said routers; and

transmitting said configuration-information to said one or more of said routers to modify a configuration file within each of said one or more of said routers that, in turn, modifies operation of said one or more of said routers.

33. The method of claim 32 where said receiving of information occurs without any explicit request for information.

34. The method of claim 32 further comprising a step of polling said routers, pursuant to a algorithm executed by said computer, in response to which information arrives at said computer and is received by said step of receiving.

35. The method of claim 32 where said step of receiving receives first type of information from said routers independently of any request for information, and receives second type of information from said routers in response to polling requests launched by said computer.

36. The method of claim 35 where the first type of information includes exception reports alerting said first module of occurrence of predetermined events, and said second type of information comprises monitored values information of variables specified in said polling requests.

37. The method of claim 36 where said first type of information further includes information relating to packet flow through said routers.

38. The method of claim 32 where said step of analyzing distills performance information from said information received from said routers, and evaluates said performance information relative to said preselected thresholds.

39. The method of claim 38 said step of analyzing determines whether said performance information exceeds one or more of said thresholds more than a predetermined number of times within a selected time interval.

40. The method of claim 32 where the thresholds relate to one or more from a set including load carried by said routers, classes of applications, service level agreements, applications of specific customers, and quality-of-service parameters.

41. The method of claim 32 where step of analyzing identifies routers whose mode of operation is in need of modifying.

42. The method of claim 32 where said configuration-information developed by said step of developing is a modified configuration file one of said routers.

43. The method of claim 42 where said modified configuration file comprises one or more sub-configuration files taken from a set that includes a sub-configuration file that directs operation of a controller of said one router, sub-configuration files that control one or more lines cards of said one router, and sub-configuration files that control receiving elements of said one of said routers.

44. The method of claim 32 where said configuration-information developed by said step of developing is an update to a configuration file one of said routers.

45. The method of claim 44 where said modification modifies assignments of class to applications, modifies scheduling algorithm in line cards of said one of said routers, or queue limits in line cards of said one of said routers.

46. The method of claim 45 where said assignments of class to applications are reflected in assignment in TOS field of packets entering said one of said routers.

47. The method of claim 32 where said configuration file includes a directive to install said configuration-information.

48. The method of claim 32 where said configuration information is a configuration file that includes one or more elements from a set comprising

scheduling algorithm for outputting packets from a line card of said one router,

queue sizes in a line card of said one router,

transmission buffer size in said line card of said one router,

processing algorithm and parameters of processing elements of input ports of said one router,

TOS specifications,

specification of information that said routers are to send back to said fourth module on a continuous basis,

specification of information that said one router is to store in a MIB file that is accessible to said computer through polling, and

analysis algorithms that said one router is to undertake.

49. The method of claim 32 where the developing configuration-information regarding configuration files of one or more of said routers is carried out wholly within said computer.