System, method, and computer program for optimizing a chain of virtual network functions in a network based on network function virtualization (NFV)

• US 9,806,979 B1
• Filed: 12/16/2014
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• 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): Bui, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US14/572,728
• Time in Patent Office: 1,050 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2002 where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant flexible arrangements for bus networks involving redundancy H04L12/40176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2025 using centralised failover control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• 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 41/0893 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 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a system, method, and computer program product for deploying a plurality of virtual network function (VNF) instances in a communication network using network function virtualization (NFV-based network), where the network includes a plurality of computing-related units and communication links in-between, the method including: determining at least one performance value for at least one of the computing-related units and communication links, determining at least one performance requirement for at least one of the VNF instances, and associating the at least one VNF instance with at least one of the computing-related units and the communication links according to the at least one performance requirement and the at least one performance value.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, by a computer processor, a service to be provisioned in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network comprising a plurality of computing-related units and communication links in-between, the service to be provisioned as a chain of virtual network function (VNF) instances;

determining, by the computer processor, at least one first performance requirement independently configured for each of the VNF instances;

determining, by the computer processor, at least one second performance requirement configured for the chain of VNF instances;

selecting, by the computer processor, a portion of the NFV-based communication network in which to deploy the service, based on performance characteristics of the portion of the NFV-based communication network satisfying the at least one first performance requirement and the at least one second performance requirement, the portion of the NFV-based communication network having one or more of;

at least one computing-related unit of the plurality of computing-related units, and

at least one communication link of the communication links; and

deploying the service using the selected portion of the NFV-based communication network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one first performance requirement independently configured for each of the VNF instances includes at least one of:

hardware resource requirements,

quality of service requirements, and

operational requirements.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the hardware resource requirements include at least one of;

a processing power requirement, a cache memory capacity requirement, a non-volatile memory capacity requirement, and a cooling requirement, and

the quality of service requirements include at least one of;

maximum latency or delay, average latency and maximum variance (latency jitter), and maximum allowed packet loss, and

the operational requirements include at least one of service availability, redundancy, backup, provisions for roll-back and/or recovery, fault-tolerance, and fail-safe operation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one second performance requirement configured for the chain of VNF instances includes requirements for communications links between the VNF instances in the chain, the requirements for the communications links include at least one of:

bandwidth, latency, bit-error rate, and packet loss.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one second performance requirement configured for the chain of VNF instances includes requirements for deployment of the VNF instances in the chain, including at least one of:

requiring specified ones of the VNF instances in the chain to reside in a same data-center, within a same rack, or in a same computing device sharing memory or being executed by a same processor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is initially deployed to a different portion of the NFV-based communication network, and wherein the method is performed as an optimization process that migrates the service to the selected portion of the NFV-based communication network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the optimization process is performed when the different portion of the NFV-based communication network is over-loaded or approaches an overload situation.

8. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, including computer code executed by a computer processor to perform a method comprising:

identifying, by the computer processor, a service to be provisioned in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network comprising a plurality of computing-related units and communication links in-between, the service to be provisioned as a chain of virtual network function (VNF) instances;

determining, by the computer processor, at least one first performance requirement independently configured for each of the VNF instances;

determining, by the computer processor, at least one second performance requirement configured for the chain of VNF instances;

selecting, by the computer processor, a portion of the NFV-based communication network in which to deploy the service, based on performance characteristics of the portion of the NFV-based communication network satisfying the at least one first performance requirement and the at least one second performance requirement, the portion of the NFV-based communication network having one or more of;

at least one computing-related unit of the plurality of computing-related units, and

at least one communication link of the communication links; and

deploying the service using the selected portion of the NFV-based communication network.

9. A system, the system comprising:

a memory system; and

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

identify a service to be provisioned in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network comprising a plurality of computing-related units and communication links in-between, the service to be provisioned as a chain of virtual network function (VNF) instances;

determine at least one first performance requirement independently configured for each of the VNF instances;

determine at least one second performance requirement configured for the chain of VNF instances;

select a portion of the NFV-based communication network in which to deploy the service, based on performance characteristics of the portion of the NFV-based communication network satisfying the at least one first performance requirement and the at least one second performance requirement, the portion of the NFV-based communication network having one or more of;

at least one computing-related unit of the plurality of computing-related units, and

at least one communication link of the communication links; and

deploy the service using the selected portion of the NFV-based communication network.