Network single entry point for subscriber management

• US 7,464,148 B1
• Filed: 01/30/2004
• Issued: 12/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Bokaemper, Martin, Filho, Wladimir de Lara Araujo, El-Medani, Sherine
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu; Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoang; Hieu T
• Application Number:
  US10/766,962
• Time in Patent Office: 1,775 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/225, 709/224, 709/202
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/18 Delegation of network management function, e.g. customer network management [CNM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components

Abstract

A gateway may be used as a common entry point for a network. Subscribers may request network services through the gateway. The gateway may identify management entities that are appropriate for a particular subscriber'"'"'s request by contacting a network information collector (NIC). The NIC may include one or more, possibly distributed, resolver components and information collection agents. The resolvers are responsible for the resolution process, which may be based on a resolution process that specifies resolution functions that are required to identify the management entities. The information collection agents may be customizable software agents that collect state information from other elements in the network.

Claims

1. One or more devices in a network comprising:

at least one storage device for storing computer instructions for implementing;

agents configured to collect information relating to other devices in the network; and

at least one resolver configured to contact the agents to obtain the collected information and configured to identify, based on identification information of a subscriber, a network resource that manages elements associated with the subscriber to implement network services for the subscriber, the at least one resolver identifying the network resource in accordance with a resolution process determined based on the information collected by the agents, the resolution process specifying a mapping from the identification information of the subscriber to the network resource, wherein, when identifying the network resource in accordance with the resolution process, the at least one resolver is part of a resolution graph defined by vertices representing network data types used by the at least one resolver and edges representing resolvers that can perform a mapping from a data type represented by a source vertex to another data type represented by a destination vertex, wherein the network data types comprise an Internet Protocol (IP) address, an IP pool, and a service activation engine identifier (ID).

2. The one or more devices of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of host components wherein each provides a framework for execution of the agents and the at least one resolver.

3. The one or more devices of claim 2, wherein the plurality of host components are distributed in the network.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the other devices in the network include at least one of service activation engines, routers, Radius servers, or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol servers.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the resolution graph is further defined by constraints that specify prerequisites for traversing the edges.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the agents are dynamically added in response to the other devices being added to the network.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the agents include at least one remote agent that executes on one of the other devices with which the agents collect information.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the network resource that manages the elements comprises service activation engines.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the network resource that manages the elements is implemented within routers.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the agents push the collected information to the at least one resolver.

11. A method implemented in a network comprising:

collecting information pertaining to a plurality of different network devices via a set of collection agents;

identifying, using resolvers and a resolution graph defined by vertices representing network data types and edges representing the resolvers that can perform a mapping from a data type represented by a source vertex to another data type represented by a destination vertex, one of the plurality of different network devices as a network device that provides services to a subscriber of the network based on information that identifies the subscriber and based on the collected information, wherein the information that identifies the subscriber comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address and wherein the identified network device comprises a service activation engine (SAE) that manages routing devices; and

specifying a mapping from the information that identifies the subscriber to the identified network device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

pushing the collected information to a network information collector (NIC).

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting the collected information to a network information collector (NIC) when the collected information is requested by the NIC.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the collection agents are executed remotely at least one of the plurality of different network devices.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the network device includes at least one of a Radius server or a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server.

16. A system comprising:

a gateway, comprising hardware, configured to receive network service requests from or on behalf of subscribers in a network, at least some of the service requests requiring configuration of one or more routers to satisfy the service request;

a network information collector (NIC), coupled to the gateway, configured to identify a service activation engine associated with the one or more routers required to satisfy the at least some of the service requests, the NIC including;

at least one resolver configured to create a resolution graph and identify the service activation engine by traversing the resolution graph, wherein the resolution graph is defined by vertices representing network data types used by the at least one resolver and edges representing resolvers that can perform a mapping from a data type represented by a source vertex to another data type represented by a destination vertex, wherein the network data types comprise an Internet Protocol (IP) address, an IP pool, and a service activation engine identifier (ID); and

a plurality of agents, coupled to the NIC, configured to collect information relating to a state of the one or more routers, the collected information being used to identify the service activation engine.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a plurality of distributed resolvers.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the resolution graph is formed based on the information collected by the plurality of agents.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the resolution graph is further defined by constraints that specify prerequisites for traversing the edges.

20. A method of resolving a resolution request to identify a management resource, the method comprising:

receiving a resolution request that includes an identification of a subscriber;

performing a resolution process that specifies an ordering of functions required to satisfy the resolution request, including determining a mapping from the identification of the subscriber to the management resource, the resolution process comprising consulting a resolution graph, wherein the resolution graph includes;

vertices and edges, wherein the vertices represent network data types used by resolvers and the edges represent resolvers that perform a mapping from a data type represented by a source vertex to another data type represented by a destination vertex, wherein the network data types comprise an Internet Protocol (IP) address, an IP pool, and a service activation engine identifier (ID);

selecting resolvers designed to perform the functions specified in the resolution process; and

controlling the resolvers to perform the functions specified in the resolution process.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the resolvers are distributed across different network elements in a network.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein selecting resolvers further includes:

associating cost values with the edges of the resolution graph; and

selecting edges based on the associated cost values.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein edges that are associated with remote resolvers are associated with higher cost values than edges associated with local resolvers.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein selecting resolvers further includes:

associating constraints with the edges of the resolution graph that specify prerequisites for traversing the edges; and

selecting edges based on the associated constraints.