System and Method for Service Provider Cloud Services - Cloud Marketplace

• US 20150332351A1
• Filed: 12/05/2014
• Published: 11/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2014
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: McBride, Kevin M., Casey, Steven M., Schwengler, Thomas, Castro, Felipe
• Application Number:
  US14/562,097
• Publication Number:
  US 20150332351A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• 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

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques are utilized or implemented for providing a cloud services marketplace. In some embodiments, a method might include providing an index of product offerings for selection. The index of product offerings including at least one product offering, each of the at least one product offering in the index of product offerings including a respective qualifier. The method might also include receiving a customer selection of one or more product offerings among the at least one product offering, and providing at least one network service needed to provision the one or more customer selected product offerings based on the respective qualifier. The at least one network service might be associated with at least one virtualized network function. The method might further include provisioning network resources to perform the at least one virtualized network function, based on the respective qualifier.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing a service provider cloud services marketplace, the apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;

a non-transitory computer readable medium having encoded thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to perform one or more operations, the set of instructions comprising;

instructions for providing a service provider cloud services marketplace having an index of service offerings, the index of service offerings including at least one cloud service for selection, each of the at least one service offering in the index of service offerings including a respective qualifier, wherein the at least one cloud service invokes an at least one virtualized network function based on the respective qualifier, wherein the index of service offerings is configured to allow selection of the at least one cloud service; and

instructions for communicating with a marketplace database, the marketplace database comprising current cloud services to be listed in the index of product offerings.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions further comprises instructions for providing the service provider cloud services marketplace to virtualized service equipment over a cloud service network.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions further comprises instructions for updating the service provider cloud services marketplace with current product offerings from the marketplace database.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions further comprises:

instructions for receiving a service provider customer offering; and

instructions for adding the service provider customer offering to the marketplace database.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one product offering includes at least one network service including at least one virtualized network function associated with provisioning the at least one network service, the at least one network service including an associated unique qualifier, wherein network resources are provisioned to perform the at least one virtualized network function based on the associated unique qualifier.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one product offering includes app services for a service provider to provide a customer offering to a subscriber, through the service provider cloud services marketplace.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one product offering includes a customer offering for selection by a subscriber, the customer offering comprising a plurality of qualifiers for provisioning network services associated with the customer offering.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions further comprises:

instructions for receiving, from virtualized service equipment, a selection of one or more of the at least one product offering;

instructions for transmitting a respective qualifier for each of the at least one product offering, in response to the selection of one or more of the at least one product offering.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the respective qualifier for each of the at least one product offering is configured to set up virtualized service equipment to receive network services associated with a respective one of the at least one product offering.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each respective qualifier is configured to cause a network controller to provision network resources to provide the at least one virtualized network function.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one or more of the at least one product offering each comprises authorization to use a carrier defined application programming interface for accessing the at least one virtualized network function.

12. A system for providing a service provider cloud services marketplace, the system comprising:

virtualized service equipment in communication with a cloud service network, the virtualized service equipment configured to register with a central controller in the cloud service network and to receive a configuration file from the central controller, wherein the virtualized service equipment loads an appropriate base configuration based on the configuration file and bootstraps itself to the cloud environment, the base configuration configuring the virtualized service equipment to retrieve and display a user interface of a service provider cloud services marketplace;

wherein the service provider cloud services marketplace comprises;

an index of product offerings for selection, the index of product offerings including at least one product offering, each of the at least one product offering in the index of product offerings including a respective qualifier, wherein the at least one product offering invokes at least one virtualized network function based on the respective qualifier, and wherein the index of product offerings is configured to allow selection of the at least one product offering.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one product offering includes at least one network service including at least one virtualized network function associated with provisioning the at least one network service, the at least one network service including an associated unique qualifier, wherein network resources are provisioned to perform the at least one virtualized network function based on the associated unique qualifier.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one product offering includes app services for a service provider to provide a customer offering to a subscriber, through the service provider cloud services marketplace.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one product offering includes a customer offering for selection by a subscriber, the customer offering comprising a plurality of qualifiers for provisioning network services associated with the customer offering.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the virtualized service equipment is further configured to transmit one or more customer offerings to a marketplace database for listing in the index of product offerings.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the respective qualifier for each of the at least one product offering is configured to set up virtualized service equipment to receive network services associated with a respective one of the at least one product offering.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein each respective qualifier is configured to cause a network controller to provision network resources to provide the at least one virtualized network function.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein one or more of the at least one product offering each comprises authorization to use a carrier defined application programming interface for accessing the at least one virtualized network function.

20. A method of providing a cloud services marketplace, the method comprising:

providing an index of product offerings for selection, the index of product offerings including at least one product offering, each of the at least one product offering in the index of product offerings including a respective qualifier;

receiving a customer selection of one or more product offerings among the at least one product offering;

providing at least one network service needed to provision the one or more customer selected product offerings based on the respective qualifier, wherein the at least one network service is associated with at least one virtualized network function; and

provisioning network resources to perform the at least one virtualized network function, based on the respective qualifier.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a service provider customer offering, wherein the service provider customer offering is created by a service provider using the at least one product offering; and

adding the service provider customer offering to the index of product offerings.