Systems and Methods for Providing Customized Virtual Wireless Networks Based on Service Oriented Network Auto-creation

• US 20160156513A1
• Filed: 11/26/2015
• Published: 06/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Hang, Li, Xu, Senarath, Nimal Gamini, Vrzic, Sophie, DAO, Ngoc-Dung, Farmanbar, Hamidreza
• Granted Patent: US 10,084,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5041 characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/32 for defining a routing cluster membership

Abstract

System and method embodiments are provided for providing customized virtual networks based on SONAC. In an embodiment, a network management entity for providing a customized VN includes a SONAC module executed by a computing device that is connected to a wireless network, the SONAC module configured to receive service requirement data from the wireless network and create a service customized VN according to the service requirement data, the service requirement data describing one or more service requirements, wherein the SONAC module comprises an interface to interact with: an SDT component, the SDT component used by the SONAC module to determine a service customized logical topology; an SDRA component that maps the logical topology to physical network resources within the wireless network; and a SDP component that determines an end-to-end data transport protocol for communication between a first device and a second device via the wireless network.

Claims

1. A network management entity for providing a customized virtual wireless network, the system comprising:

a service-oriented virtual network auto-creation (SONAC) module executed by a computing device that is connected to a wireless network, the SONAC module configured to receive service requirement data from the wireless network and create a service customized virtual network (VN) according to the service requirement data, the service requirement data describing one or more service requirements;

wherein the SONAC module comprises an interface to interact with;

a software-defined topology (SDT) component, the SDT component used by the SONAC module to determine a service customized logical topology;

a software-defined resource allocation (SDRA) component that maps the logical topology to physical network resources within the wireless network; and

a software-defined protocol (SDP) component that determines an end-to-end data transport protocol for communication between a first device and a second device via the wireless network.

2. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the network management entity includes the SDT, the SDRA, and the SDP components.

3. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to interface with at least one of a service and an application via an application programming interface (API) to initiate or update a service-customized virtual network (SCVN) according to a customer requirement.

4. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to automatically update the service customized VN via a control plane-user plane (C-U) interface.

5. The network management entity of claim 4, wherein the service customized VN is updated via a virtual service specific serving gateway (v-s-SGW) in a user plane via the C-U interface.

6. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is coupled to a management plane via a management plane application programming interface (M-API), wherein the SONAC entity defines a management plane service topology.

7. The network management entity of claim 6, wherein the management plane performs at least one of connectivity management, customer service management, infrastructure management, content and forwarding management, and data analysis management.

8. The network management entity of claim 1, further comprising a user plane-user plane (U-U) interface that provides an interface between functions within user plane for user plane traffic forwarding.

9. The network management entity of claim 1, further comprising a management plane-management plane (M-M) interface that provides an interface between management service slices for inter-management slice communication.

10. The network management entity of claim 1, further comprising a control plane-control plane (C-C) interface that provides an interface among functions within a SONAC slice.

11. The network management entity of claim 1, further comprising a control plane-infrastructure plane (C-I) interface that provides an interface for the SONAC module to configure infrastructure.

12. The network management entity of claim 1, further comprising a control plane-management plane (C-M) interface that provides an interface between the SONAC module and a management plane service for communication between management services and the SONAC module.

13. The network management entity of claim 1, further comprising a control plane-user plane (C-U) interface between the SONAC module and a user plane for on-demand service-customized virtual network (SCVN)/slice update.

14. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to associate a virtual user equipment (UE) specific serving gateway (SGW) in response to service requirement data for a registered UE.

15. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to create a virtual user connectivity manager for a user equipment (UE) in response to service requirement data for the UE.

16. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to receive a trigger for a VN update via a control plane-user plane (C-U) interface with a user plane.

17. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to couple to a management plane via an M-API interface.

18. The network management entity of claim 17, wherein management plane functions on the management plane are configured to communicate requirements via the M-API interface to the SONAC module, wherein the requirements comprise at least one of a requirement description, a latency requirement, a capacity requirement, and a logical function.

19. The network management entity of claim 18, wherein the management plane functions comprise at least one of connectivity management, customer service management, infrastructure management, content and forwarding management, and data analysis management.

20. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to interface with a generalized wireless network infrastructure (GWNI) via a control plane-infrastructure plane (C-I) interface to implement the VN within the GWNI.

21. The network management entity of claim 1, wherein the SONAC module is configured to interface with operator services and customer services via an application programming interface (API).

22. A method in a network device for providing a customized virtual wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving, by a service-oriented virtual network auto-creation (SONAC) module executed by a computing device that is connected to a wireless network, service requirement data representing one or more service requirements; and

creating a service customized virtual network (VN) according to the service requirement data, wherein creating the service customized VN comprises determining a service-customized logical topology, mapping the determined logical topology to physical network resources, and determining an end-to-end data transport protocol for use by entities in the logical topology in accordance with the availability of the physical network resources.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein determining the service-customized logical topology comprises communicating with a network functions virtualization (NFV)-enabled network node (NN) management component to request creation of the logical functions.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising instantiating or terminating a virtual and service-specific serving gateway (SGW) in response to receiving service requirement data for a machine-to-machine (M2M) service.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising associating a virtual user equipment (UE) specific serving gateway (SGW) in response to receiving service requirement data for a registered UE.

26. The method of claim 22, further comprising creating a virtual user connectivity manager for a user equipment (UE) in response to receiving service requirement data for the UE.

27. A network node, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to;

receive, a service-oriented virtual network auto-creation (SONAC) module, service requirement data representing one or more service requirements; and

create a service customized virtual network (VN) according to the service requirement data, wherein the instructions to create the service customized VN comprises instructions to;

determine a service-customized logical topology, map the determined logical topology to physical network resources, and determine an end-to-end data transport protocol for use by entities in the logical topology in accordance with the availability of the physical network resources.

28. The network node of claim 27, wherein the instructions to determine the service-customized logical topology comprise instructions to communicate with a network functions virtualization (NFV)-enabled network node (NN) management component to request creation of the logical functions.

29. The network node of claim 27, wherein the programming further comprises instructions to instantiate or to terminate a virtual and service-specific serving gateway (SGW) in response to receiving service requirement data for a machine-to-machine (M2M) service.

30. The network node of claim 27, wherein the programming further comprises instructions to associate a virtual user equipment (UE) specific serving gateway (SGW) in response to receiving service requirement data for a registered UE.

31. The network node of claim 27, wherein the programming further comprises instructions to create a virtual user connectivity manager for a user equipment (UE) in response to receiving service requirement data for the UE.