System, method, and computer program for performing preventative maintenance in a network function virtualization (NFV) based communication network

• US 9,760,428 B1
• Filed: 12/16/2014
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amdocs Development Limited (Amdocs Ltd.), Amdocs Software Systems Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Amdocs Development Limited (Amdocs Ltd.), Amdocs Software Systems Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Inventors: Felstaine, Eyal, Hermoni, Ofer, Sandlerman, Nimrod
• Primary Examiner(s): Duncan, Marc
• Application Number:
  US14/572,732
• Time in Patent Office: 1,001 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/20 Network management software packages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/28 Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/00 Network traffic management; Network resource management

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for performing preventative maintenance in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network. In use, a first potential fault is identified in a first resource in an NFV-based communication network. Additionally, a first time for maintaining the first resource is identified to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault. Further, a second resource is identified for replacing the first resource during the first time.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a first potential fault in a first resource in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network, the first resource including a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF);

identifying a first time for maintaining the first resource to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault, the first time being a time for performing a preventive maintenance activity on the first resource;

identifying a second resource for replacing the first resource during the first time; and

verifying compatibility of the second resource with the first resource by;

installing a second instance of the VNF on the second resource,

providing a same data flow as input to each of the first instance of the VNF and the second instance of the VNF,

identifying a first output of the first instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the first instance of the VNF,

identifying a second output of the second instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the second instance of the VNF, and

comparing the first output with the second output,

using the second resource to replace the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to be the same, and

preventing the second resource from replacing the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to not be the same.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising securing availability of the second resource for the VNF for the first time.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising replacing the first resource with the second resource during the first time by:

initiating the second instance of VNF in the second resource, and

after the initiating, deactivating the first instance of the VNF in the first resource.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein replacing the first resource with the second resource during the first time further includes diverting communication addressed to the first instance of the VNF in the first resource to the second instance of the VNF in second resource before deactivating the first instance of the VNF in the first resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second resource is identified for replacing the first resource during the first time from a predefined maintenance preparation plan associated with the first resource, the predefined maintenance preparation plan specifying at least the second resource as a backup resource for the first resource.

6. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:

computer code for identifying a first potential fault in a first resource in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network, the first resource including a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF);

computer code for identifying a first time for maintaining the first resource to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault, the first time being a time for performing a preventive maintenance activity on the first resource;

computer code for identifying a second resource for replacing the first resource during the first time; and

computer code for verifying compatibility of the second resource with the first resource by;

installing a second instance of the VNF on the second resource,

providing a same data flow as input to each of the first instance of the VNF and the second instance of the VNF,

identifying a first output of the first instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the first instance of the VNF,

identifying a second output of the second instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the second instance of the VNF, and

comparing the first output with the second output,

using the second resource to replace the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to be the same, and

preventing the second resource from replacing the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to not be the same.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising computer code for securing availability of the second resource for the VNF for the first time.

8. A system comprising:

a memory system; and

one or more processing cores coupled to the memory system and that are each configured to;

identify a first potential fault in a first resource in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network, the first resource including a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF);

identify a first time for maintaining the first resource to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault, the first time being a time for performing a preventive maintenance activity on the first resource;

identify a second resource for replacing the first resource during the first time; and

verify compatibility of the second resource with the first resource by;

installing a second instance of the VNF on the second resource,

providing a same data flow as input to each of the first instance of the VNF and the second instance of the VNF,

identifying a first output of the first instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the first instance of the VNF,

identifying a second output of the second instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the second instance of the VNF, and

comparing the first output with the second output,

using the second resource to replace the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to be the same, and

preventing the second resource from replacing the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to not be the same.