System and method for providing dynamic radio access network orchestration

• US 9,729,396 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2015
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosa de Sousa Teixeira, Virginia, Grayson, Mark, Bull, Oliver James
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Anh-Vu
• Application Number:
  US14/852,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20160127169A1
• Time in Patent Office: 697 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• 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 41/0895 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 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• 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 41/5051 Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/828 Allocation of resources per group of connections, e.g. per group of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include monitoring, by a radio access network (RAN) orchestration function, impairments between a plurality of candidate locations interconnected by a transport network, wherein one or more network elements capable of performing one or more operations associated with a RAN are located at the plurality of candidate locations; determining a decomposition of one or more operations associated with the RAN into a plurality of sets of virtualized network functions (VNFs) to execute the operations; determining a distribution of the plurality of sets of VNFs among the one or more network elements associated with the RAN for one or more optimal locations of the plurality of candidate locations based, at least in part, on the monitored impairments; and instantiating the plurality of sets of VNFs at each of the one or more optimal locations.

Claims

1. A method for a communication network comprising:

monitoring, by a radio access network (RAN) orchestration function, impairments between a plurality of candidate locations interconnected by a transport network that comprises a fronthaul network and a backhaul network, wherein one or more network elements capable of performing one or more operations associated with a RAN are located at the plurality of candidate locations interconnected by the fronthaul network;

determining a decomposition of one or more operations associated with the RAN into a plurality of sets of virtualized network functions (VNFs) to execute the operations based, at least in part, on the monitored impairments, wherein the plurality of sets comprise a first set of VNFs capable of performing Layer 2 (L2) RAN operations and a second set of VNFs capable of performing Layer 1 (L1) RAN operations associated with Radio Frequency (RF) termination points;

determining a distribution of the plurality of sets of VNFs among the one or more network elements associated with the RAN for one or more optimal locations of the plurality of candidate locations based, at least in part, on the monitored impairments; and

instantiating the plurality of sets of VNFs at each of the one or more optimal locations, wherein the first set of VNFs and the second set of VNFs are instantiated at different locations within the RAN.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring a plurality of orchestration policies for the RAN orchestration function, wherein each orchestration policy identifies a particular decomposition of one or more operations associated with the RAN into particular sets of VNFs based, at least in part, on particular impairments that can be present between the plurality of candidate locations interconnected by the transport network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the distribution of the plurality of sets of particular VNFs for the one or more optimal locations further comprises identifying, one or more optimal locations at which to distribute one or more sets of VNFs for executing operations that are associated with one or more of:

the L1 RAN operations;

the L2 RAN operations; and

Layer 3 (L3) RAN operations.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the one or more optimal locations at which to distribute the one or more sets of VNFs includes determining network element capabilities for the network elements capable of performing the one or more operations associated with the RAN located at the plurality of candidate locations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein network elements associated with the RAN include one or more of:

one or more RF termination points; and

one or more data centers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring user equipment (UE) demand associated with one or more of the plurality of candidate locations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the decomposition of the one or more operations associated with the RAN is based additionally on changes in UE demand at one or more of the plurality of candidate locations.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the distribution of the plurality of sets of VNFs is based additionally on changes in UE demand at one or more of the plurality of locations.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating RAN feedback information including one or more of;

information associated with a particular decomposition and a particular distribution; and

communicating the RAN feedback information to a transport management function associated with the transport network.

10. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that includes instructions for execution by a processor, wherein the execution causes the processor to perform operations, comprising:

monitoring, by a radio access network (RAN) orchestration function, impairments between a plurality of candidate locations interconnected by a transport network that comprises a fronthaul network and a backhaul network, wherein one or more network elements capable of performing one or more operations associated with a RAN are located at the plurality of candidate locations interconnected by the fronthaul network;

determining a decomposition of one or more operations associated with the RAN into a plurality of sets of virtualized network functions (VNFs) to execute the operations based, at least in part, on the monitored impairments, wherein the plurality of sets comprise a first set of VNFs capable of performing Layer 2 (L2) RAN operations and a second set of VNFs capable of performing Layer 1 (L1) RAN operations associated with Radio Frequency (RF) termination points;

determining a distribution of the plurality of sets of VNFs among the one or more network elements associated with the RAN for one or more optimal locations of the plurality of candidate locations based, at least in part, on the monitored impairments; and

instantiating the plurality of sets of VNFs at each of the one or more optimal locations, wherein the first set of VNFs and the second set of VNFs are instantiated at different locations within the RAN.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the execution causes the processor to perform operations, comprising:

configuring a plurality of orchestration policies for the RAN orchestration function, wherein each orchestration policy identifies a particular decomposition of one or more operations associated with the RAN into particular sets of VNFs based, at least in part, on particular impairments that can be present between the plurality of candidate locations interconnected by the transport network.

12. The media of claim 10, wherein determining the distribution of the plurality of sets of particular VNFs for the one or more optimal locations further comprises identifying, one or more optimal locations at which to distribute one or more sets of VNFs for executing operations that are associated with one or more of:

the L1 RAN operations, the L2 RAN operations; and

Layer 3 (L3) RAN operations.

13. The media of claim 12, wherein identifying the one or more optimal locations at which to distribute the one or more sets of VNFs includes determining network element capabilities for the network elements capable of performing the one or more operations associated with the RAN located at the plurality of candidate locations.

14. The media of claim 10, wherein the execution causes the processor to perform operations, comprising:

monitoring user equipment (UE) demand associated with one or more of the plurality of candidate locations.

15. The media of claim 14, wherein determining the decomposition of the one or more operations associated with the RAN is based additionally on changes in UE demand at one or more of the plurality of candidate locations.

16. The media of claim 14, wherein determining the distribution of the plurality of sets of VNFs is based additionally on changes in UE demand at one or more of the plurality of locations.

17. The media of claim 10, wherein the execution causes the processor to perform operations, comprising:

generating RAN feedback information including one or more of;

information associated with a particular decomposition and a particular distribution; and

communicating the RAN feedback information to a transport management function associated with the transport network.

18. A system comprising:

a Radio Access Network (RAN) orchestration system comprising;

at least one memory element;

at least one processor; and

a RAN orchestration function adapted when executed by the at least one processor to;

monitor impairments between a plurality of candidate locations interconnected by a transport network that comprises a fronthaul network and a backhaul network, wherein one or more network elements capable of performing one or more operations associated with a RAN are located at the plurality of candidate locations interconnected by the fronthaul network;

determine a decomposition of one or more operations associated with the RAN into a plurality of sets of virtualized network functions (VNFs) to execute the operations based, at least in part, on the monitored impairments, wherein the plurality of sets comprise a first set of VNFs capable of performing Layer 2 (L2) RAN operations and a second set of VNFs capable of performing Layer 1 (L1) RAN operations associated with Radio Frequency (RF) termination points;

determine a distribution of the plurality of sets of VNFs among the one or more network elements associated with the RAN for one or more optimal locations of the plurality of candidate locations based, at least in part, on the monitored impairments; and

instantiate the plurality of sets of VNFs at each of the one or more optimal locations, wherein the first set of VNFs and the second set of VNFs are instantiated at different locations within the RAN.

19. The system of claim 18, the RAN orchestration system further comprising:

a virtualized infrastructure manager adapted when executed by the at least one processor to manage resources for a Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) for each of the plurality of sets of VNFs.

20. The system of claim 18, the RAN orchestration system further comprising:

at least one VNF manager adapted when executed by the at least one processor to manage instantiation of the plurality of sets of VNFs at each of the one or more optimal locations.