Highly available service chains for network services
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A computing system to provide a plurality of service chains, the computing system comprising:
- one or more processors;
memory; and
a plurality of programming instructions stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform actions including;
identifying a subset of a plurality of network nodes to be included in a particular service chain of the plurality of service chains to be used for a particular traffic flow of a plurality of traffic flows, the particular traffic flow associated with an application node;
defining a policy indicating the subset of plurality of network nodes and an order of the particular traffic flow associated with the application node through the subset of the plurality of network nodes of the particular service chain;
distributing the policy to a memory in each network node of the subset of the plurality of network nodes to store the policy;
enforcing the policy to direct the particular traffic flow through the particular service chain, the policy indicating the subset of the plurality of network nodes to be included in the particular service chain, the policy further indicating a data flow order through the subset of the plurality of network nodes;
monitoring the plurality of network nodes, each of the network nodes of the plurality of network nodes providing corresponding network-related functions; and
in response to the monitoring, updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes of the subset of the plurality of network nodes with the updated policy, once the policy is updated, wherein updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes is based on determining that a particular node of one of the plurality of nodes independently modified the policy and in response to receiving notification of the modification from the particular node.
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Abstract
A control and monitoring system orders a service chain—an order of data flow through a plurality of network nodes—based on network node identifiers. The control and monitoring system provide a policy to networking nodes in order to enforce the order of the service chain. In some embodiments, features are implemented to improve the availability of service chains. Such features include load-balancing, fail-over, traffic engineering, and automated deployment of virtualized network functions at various stages of a service chain, among others.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A computing system to provide a plurality of service chains, the computing system comprising:
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one or more processors; memory; and a plurality of programming instructions stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform actions including; identifying a subset of a plurality of network nodes to be included in a particular service chain of the plurality of service chains to be used for a particular traffic flow of a plurality of traffic flows, the particular traffic flow associated with an application node; defining a policy indicating the subset of plurality of network nodes and an order of the particular traffic flow associated with the application node through the subset of the plurality of network nodes of the particular service chain; distributing the policy to a memory in each network node of the subset of the plurality of network nodes to store the policy; enforcing the policy to direct the particular traffic flow through the particular service chain, the policy indicating the subset of the plurality of network nodes to be included in the particular service chain, the policy further indicating a data flow order through the subset of the plurality of network nodes; monitoring the plurality of network nodes, each of the network nodes of the plurality of network nodes providing corresponding network-related functions; and in response to the monitoring, updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes of the subset of the plurality of network nodes with the updated policy, once the policy is updated, wherein updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes is based on determining that a particular node of one of the plurality of nodes independently modified the policy and in response to receiving notification of the modification from the particular node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method, comprising:
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identifying a subset of a plurality of network nodes to be included in a particular service chain of a plurality of service chains, the particular service chain for a particular traffic flow associated with an application node, each network node of the plurality of network nodes providing corresponding network-related functions, the particular traffic flow being one of a plurality of traffic flows; defining a policy indicating the subset of the plurality of network nodes and an order of the particular traffic flow associated with the application node through the subset of the plurality of network nodes; distributing the policy to a memory in each network node of the subset of the plurality of network nodes to store the policy; monitoring capacity information associated with one or more of the plurality of network nodes; and in response to the monitoring, updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes of the subset of the plurality of network nodes with the updated policy, once the policy is updated, wherein updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes is based on determining that a particular node of one of the plurality of nodes independently modified the policy and in response to receiving notification of the modification from the particular node. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. One or more hardware storage devices having stored computer-readable instructions which are executable by one or more processors of a computing system to cause the computing system to implement a method that includes:
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the computing system identifying a subset of a plurality of network nodes to be included in a particular service chain of a plurality of service chains, the particular service chain for a particular traffic flow associated with an application node, each network node of the plurality of network nodes providing corresponding network related functions, the particular traffic flow being one of a plurality of traffic flows; the computing system defining a policy indicating the subset of the plurality of network nodes and an order of the particular traffic flow associated with the application node through the subset of the plurality of network nodes; the computing system distributing the policy to a memory in each network node of the subset of the plurality of network nodes to store the policy; the computing system monitoring capacity information associated with one or more of the plurality of network nodes; and the computing system, in response to the monitoring, updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes of the subset of the plurality of network nodes with the updated policy, once the policy is updated, wherein updating the policy and replacing the policy stored in the memory of each of the network nodes is based on determining that a particular node of one of the plurality of nodes independently modified the policy and in response to receiving notification of the modification from the particular node. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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Specification