Methods, systems, and computer readable media for diameter load and overload information and virtualization

• US 9,537,775 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2013
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: McMurry, Sam Eric, Campbell, Ben Allen, Sparks, Robert James
• Primary Examiner(s): Yuen, Kan
• Application Number:
  US14/034,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20150085663A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,198 Days
• Field of Search: 370/236
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 47/127 by using congestion prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0892 by using authentication-authorization-accounting [AAA] servers or protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for managing Diameter overload information within a telecommunications network are disclosed. One embodiment of a system for implementing the subject matter described herein includes at a virtualization orchestrator (VO) having a hardware processor and within the telecommunications network, receiving overload information, determining a network virtualization operation to perform based on the received information, and performing the network virtualization operation.

Claims

1. A method for using overload information for managing network virtualization, the method comprising:

at a virtualization orchestrator (VO) for managing virtual networks within a telecommunications network and comprising a hardware processor;

receiving Diameter overload information;

determining a network virtualization operation to perform based on the received Diameter overload information, wherein determining the network virtualization operation to perform comprises using a rules engine for analyzing the received Diameter overload information and status of a current network topology of the telecommunications network and identifying the network virtualization operation to be performed based on the Diameter overload information and the status of the current network topology; and

performing the network virtualization operation to direct the telecommunications network to deploy additional resources to mitigate a Diameter overload indicated by the Diameter overload information by deploying, in response to the Diameter overload indicated by the Diameter overload information, one or more additional virtual gateways or one or more additional virtual switches or both in the telecommunications network using one or more network virtualization modules.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving Diameter overload information comprises receiving network load and overload information from a Diameter agent for facilitating communication between a plurality of Diameter clients and a plurality of Diameter servers.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving Diameter overload information comprises receiving information directly from at least one of:

a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) plugin module, a cloud management plugin, or an information collection module.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving Diameter overload information comprises receiving information including an attribute value pair (AVP) or a Diameter message.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a network virtualization operation to perform comprises using a state database for maintaining network state information.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a network virtualization operation to perform comprises using information collected from within a telecommunications network.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein using information collected within the telecommunications network comprises using network performance indicators transmitted via a PCRF plugin and wherein performing the network virtualization operation to direct the telecommunications network to deploy additional resources comprises directing commands to the PCRF plugin, which is configured to control topology and provisioning of configuration within the telecommunications network.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a network virtualization operation to perform comprises using information received from an entity external to the telecommunications network.

9. A system for using overload information for managing network virtualization, the system comprising:

a virtualization orchestrator (VO) for managing virtual networks within a telecommunications network, wherein the VO includes;

a network interface for receiving Diameter overload information; and

a rules engine for determining a network virtualization operation based on the received Diameter overload information and for performing the network virtualization operation to direct the telecommunications network to deploy additional resources to mitigate a Diameter overload indicated by the Diameter overload information by deploying, in response to the Diameter overload indicated by the Diameter overload information, one or more additional virtual gateways or one or more additional virtual switches or both in the telecommunications network using one or more network virtualization modules;

wherein determining the network virtualization operation to perform comprises using the rules engine for analyzing the received Diameter overload information and status of a current network topology of the telecommunications network and identifying the network virtualization operation to be performed based on the Diameter overload information and the status of the current network topology.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the rules engine performs the network virtualization operation via a network virtualization module.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the virtualization orchestrator receives the Diameter overload information from a Diameter agent for facilitating communication between a plurality of Diameter clients and a plurality of Diameter servers.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the Diameter load information comprises information including an attribute value pair (AVP).

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the received Diameter load information comprises a Diameter message.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the virtualization orchestrator further comprises at least one of:

a rules database for providing network virtualization operation rules;

a state database for maintaining network state information; and

a topology database for maintaining network topology information.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the rules engine is configured to determine a network virtualization operation using information received from an entity external to the network.

18. The system of claim 9 wherein the network virtualization operation comprises one of:

assigning at least one additional network resource to a network component, and removing at least one network resource from a network component.

16. The system of claim wherein the rules engine is configured to determine a network virtualization operation using information collected from within the telecommunications network.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the information collected from within the telecommunications network includes information collected from a PCRF plugin for directing network performance indicators, and wherein performing the network virtualization operation comprises directing commands to the PCRF plugin, which is configured to control topology and provisioning of configuration within the telecommunications network.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions embodied in a computer readable medium and when executed by a processor of a computer performs steps comprising:

at a virtualization orchestrator (VO) for managing virtual networks within the telecommunications network;

receiving Diameter overload information;

determining a network virtualization operation to perform based on the received Diameter overload information, wherein determining the network virtualization operation to perform comprises using a rules engine for analyzing the received Diameter overload information and status of a current network topology of the telecommunications network and identifying the network virtualization operation to be performed based on the Diameter overload information and the status of the current network topology; and

performing the network virtualization operation to direct the telecommunications network to deploy additional resources to mitigate a Diameter overload indicated by the Diameter overload information by deploying, in response to the Diameter overload indicated by the Diameter overload information, one or more additional virtual gateways or one or more additional virtual switches or both in the telecommunications network using one or more network virtualization modules.