METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NETWORK DISTRIBUTION AND PROVISIONING OF APPLICATIONS ACROSS MULTIPLE DOMAINS

• US 20080240150A1
• Filed: 03/29/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shaikh, Anees A., Kandlur, Dilip Dinkar, Rayfield, James Thomas, Dias, Daniel Manuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,666 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• 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 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for network distribution and provisioning of applications, such as transactional applications and parallel applications, across multiple administrative domains that ensure compliance with service level agreements. For example, a method of provisioning one or more resources in a distributed computing network to ensure compliance with a service level agreement associated with a computer application includes the following steps. Network performance is monitored between a local domain and one or more cooperating domains connected to the local domain by network paths. A present or predicted violation of the service level agreement is identified based on at least a portion of results of the monitoring step. One or more cooperating domains are selected that can effect compliance with the service level agreement by instantiating one or more network resources within at least one of the selected cooperating domains in response to a request from the local domain. Reconfiguration of the local domain is effectuated to allow the computer application to make use of the one or more newly instantiated network resources within the selected cooperating domain.

Claims

1. A method of provisioning one or more resources in a distributed computing network to ensure compliance with a service level agreement associated with a computer application, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring network performance between a local domain and one or more cooperating domains connected to the local domain by network paths;

identifying a present or predicted violation of the service level agreement based on at least a portion of results of the monitoring step;

selecting one or more cooperating domains that can effect compliance with the service level agreement by instantiating one or more network resources within at least one of the selected cooperating domains in response to a request from the local domain; and

causing reconfiguration of the local domain to allow the computer application to make use of the one or more newly instantiated network resources within the selected cooperating domain.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network performance monitoring step further comprises collecting information relating to at least one of a latency characteristic and a bandwidth characteristic associated with one of more of the network paths.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the cooperating domain selection step further comprises querying one or more of the cooperating domains to determine one or more available network resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the local domain reconfiguring step further comprises affecting a local area network configuration change.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the local domain reconfiguring step further comprises affecting a firewall rule change.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the local domain reconfiguring step further comprises affecting an access bandwidth change.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the local domain reconfiguring step further comprises instructing a request router to direct one or more client requests to the selected cooperating domain.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer application is one of a transactional application and a parallel application.

9. Apparatus for provisioning one or more resources in a distributed computing network to ensure compliance with a service level agreement associated with a computer application, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

(i) monitor network performance between a local domain and one or more cooperating domains connected to the local domain by network paths;

(ii) identify a present or predicted violation of the service level agreement based on at least a portion of results of the monitoring operation;

(iii) select one or more cooperating domains that can effect compliance with the service level agreement by instantiating one or more network resources within at least one of the selected cooperating domains in response to a request from the local domain; and

(iv) cause reconfiguration of the local domain to allow the computer application to make use of the one or more newly instantiated network resources within the selected cooperating domain.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the network performance monitoring operation further comprises collecting information relating to at least one of a latency characteristic and a bandwidth characteristic associated with one of more of the network paths.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the cooperating domain selection operation further comprises querying one or more of the cooperating domains to determine one or more available network resources.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the local domain reconfiguring operation further comprises affecting a local area network configuration change.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the local domain reconfiguring operation further comprises affecting a firewall rule change.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the local domain reconfiguring operation further comprises affecting an access bandwidth change.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the local domain reconfiguring operation further comprises instructing a request router to direct one or more client requests to the selected cooperating domain.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the computer application is one of a transactional application and a parallel application.

17. An article of manufacture for provisioning one or more resources in a distributed computing network to ensure compliance with a service level agreement associated with a computer application, comprising a computer readable storage medium containing one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:

monitoring network performance between a local domain and one or more cooperating domains connected to the local domain by network paths;

identifying a present or predicted violation of the service level agreement based on at least a portion of results of the monitoring step;

selecting one or more cooperating domains that can effect compliance with the service level agreement by instantiating one or more network resources within at least one of the selected cooperating domains in response to a request from the local domain; and

causing reconfiguration of the local domain to allow a local application to make use of the one or more newly instantiated network resources within the selected cooperating domain.

18. A system for provisioning one or more resources in a distributed computing network to ensure compliance with a service level agreement associated with a computer application, the system comprising:

a network resource provisioner; and

a service level agreement monitor coupled to the network resource provisioner;

wherein the network resource provisioner monitors network performance between a local domain and one or more cooperating domains connected to the local domain by network paths, the service level agreement monitors identifies a present or predicted violation of the service level agreement based on at least a portion of results of the monitoring performed by the network resource provisioner, the network resource provisioner selects one or more cooperating domains that can effect compliance with the service level agreement by instantiating one or more network resources within at least one of the selected cooperating domains in response to a request from the local domain, and the network resource provisioner causes reconfiguration of the local domain to allow the computer application to make use of the one or more newly instantiated network resources within the selected cooperating domain.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the local domain and the one or more cooperating domains comprise distributed grid sites in a grid-based distributed computing network.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer application is one of a transactional application and a parallel application.