Method and apparatus for hierarchical management of system resources

• US 8,463,908 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2010
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Zabihi-Sessian, Attaullah, Somadder, Gurudas, Murray, Christopher W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US12/724,542
• Publication Number:
  US 20110231550A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,183 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-203, 709217-227, 709/228, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/526 Mutual exclusion algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities

Abstract

A capability is provided for managing resources of a system. The system resources are managed using a hierarchical organization of the system resources. The resources of the system are managed using at least one hierarchical resource pool, where a hierarchical resource pool includes a master resource pool and a plurality of virtual resource pools. The master resource pool includes a logical representation of the resources managed by the hierarchical resource pool. The virtual resource pools include logical representations of respective subsets of the resources managed by the hierarchical resource pool. A method for managing resources of a management system includes receiving, from a borrower, a resource request for one of a plurality of resources of the management system where the resources are managed using a hierarchal resource pool, identifying a virtual resource pool associated with the resource request, and determining whether to serve the resource request from the identified virtual resource pool.

Claims

1. A method for managing resources of a management system, comprising:

receiving, from a borrower, a request for one of a plurality of resources of the management system, wherein the resources are managed using a hierarchal resource pool (HRP) comprising a master resource pool (MRP) and a plurality of virtual resource pools (VRPs);

identifying a VRP associated with the resource request, wherein the VRP associated with the resource request is identified based on at least one characteristic associated with the resource request; and

determining whether to serve the resource request from the identified VRP.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the system comprises resources of a plurality of resource types, wherein the resources managed using the HRP are resources of one of the resource types.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the MRP comprises a logical representation of all of the resources of the one of the resource types, wherein the VRPs comprise logical representations of respective subsets of the resources of the one of the resource types.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the HRP is arranged using a tree structure with the HRP being the root of the tree.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic associated with the resource request comprises at least one of a source of the resource request, a request type of the resource request, and a task type of a task to be performed using the resource requested in the resource request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the VRPs has at least one characteristic associated therewith, wherein identifying the VRP associated with the resource request comprises:

identifying at least one characteristic associated with the resource request; and

identifying the VRP for which the at least one characteristics of the resource request matches the at least one characteristic of the VRP.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the borrower is a first borrower, further comprising:

receiving a second resource request from a second borrower; and

determining, based on a first priority associated with the first borrower and a second priority associated with the second borrower, whether to serve the first request or the second request first.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to serve the resource request from the identified VRP is performed based on a priority of the borrower.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the priority of the borrower is based on a present resource allocation of the borrower.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to serve the resource request from the identified VRP comprises:

determining whether the resource request can be served using resources presently allocated to the identified VRP.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to a determination that the resource request can be served using resources presently allocated to the identified VRP, allocating the requested resource to the borrower from the identified VRP.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to a determination that the resource request cannot be served using resources presently allocated to the identified VRP, determining whether to reallocate resources from one of the VRPs to the identified VRP for use by the identified VRP in serving the resource request of the borrower.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to a determination that the resource request cannot be served using resources presently allocated to the identified VRP, reallocating a resource from one of the VRPs to the identified VRP.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the reallocated resource is reallocated from one of the VRPs without preempting any borrowers of the one of the VRPs.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the reallocated resource is reallocated from one of the VRPs by preempting a borrower of the one of the VRPs.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the preempted borrower is one of a plurality of borrowers of the one of the VRPs, wherein the preempted borrower is selected based on a respective plurality of priorities of the borrowers of the one of the VRPs.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the borrower is a first borrower, the method further comprising:

when a determination is made that the resource request cannot be served using resources presently allocated to the identified VRP;

determining a request priority of the first borrower based on a present resource allocation associated with the first borrower;

determining a hold priority of a second borrower based on a present resource allocation associated with the second borrower; and

determining, using the first borrower request priority and the second borrower hold priority, whether to reallocate a resource of the second borrower to the first borrower.

18. An apparatus for managing resources of a management system, comprising:

a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the processor configured to;

receive, from a borrower, a request for one of a plurality of resources of the management system, wherein the resources are managed using a hierarchical resource pool (HRP) comprising a master resource pool (MRP) and a plurality of virtual resource pools (VRPs);

identify a VRP associated with the resource request, wherein the VRP associated with the resource request is identified based on at least one characteristic associated with the resource request; and

determine whether to serve the resource request from the identified VRP.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for managing resources of a management system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a borrower, a request for one of a plurality of resources of the management system, wherein the resources are managed using a hierarchical resource pool (HRP) comprising a master resource pool (MRP) and a plurality of virtual resource pools (VRPs);

identifying a VRP associated with the resource request, wherein the VRP associated with the resource request is identified based on at least one characteristic associated with the resource request; and

determining whether to serve the resource request from the identified VRP.