Network functions virtualization

• US 10,951,480 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2015
• Issued: 03/16/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Venkatachalam, Muthaiah, Kedalagudde, Meghashree Dattatri
• Primary Examiner(s): Guzman, Javier O
• Application Number:
  US15/510,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20170257276A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,086 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• 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 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Technology for a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate instantiation of a virtualized network function (VNF) instance is disclosed. The VNFM can receive a request to instantiate a new VNF instance from a network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO), the request including VNF instantiation information. The VNFM can send a request to a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for allocating virtual resources for the new VNF instance based on the VNF instantiation information. The VNFM can receive an acknowledgement from the VIM after successful allocation of the virtualized resources for the new VNF instance. The VNFM can instantiate the new VNF instance and send an acknowledgement of the new VNF instance to the NFVO, wherein the new VNF instance is operable to ease congestion at an overloaded non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network.

Claims

1. A virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate instantiation of a virtualized network function (VNF) instance, the VNFM comprising one or more processors configured to:

receive, at the VNFM, a request to instantiate a new VNF instance from a network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO), the request including VNF instantiation information, and the request received due to a NM determination that traffic at a non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network is greater than a predetermined threshold and the non-virtualized network element is overloaded;

send, by the VNFM, a request to a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for allocating virtual resources for the new VNF instance based on the VNF instantiation information and an indication from the NFVO granting the allocating of the virtual resources;

receive, at the VNFM, an acknowledgement from the VIM after successful allocation of the virtualized resources for the new VNF instance;

instantiate, at the VNFM, the new VNF instance and send an acknowledgement of the new VNF instance to the NFVO, wherein the new VNF instance is operable to ease traffic congestion at the overloaded non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network, wherein the new VNF instance is instantiated to run a virtualized evolved node B (eNB), a virtualized radio base station, a virtualized baseband unit (BBU), a virtualized mobility management entity (MME) or a virtualized packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW).

2. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the request to instantiate the new VNF instance is initially triggered at the NM in the mixed wireless network upon detection that the non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network is overloaded.

3. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the wireless network includes non-virtualized network elements that are collocated with virtualized network elements.

4. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to configure one or more lifecycle parameters for the new VNF instance.

5. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to notify a NFV element manager (EM) of the new VNF instance that is instantiated.

6. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to request permission from the NFVO for allocation of the virtualized resources prior to sending the request to the VIM for allocating the virtualized resources.

7. The VNFM of claim 1, wherein the new VNF instance is available for offloading by an element manager (EM) in the mixed wireless network.