Method and apparatus for managing virtual networks via cloud hosted application

• US 9,722,877 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2014
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ViaSat Incorporated
• Inventors: Uberoy, Pawan, Madhav, Praveen
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Jianye
• Application Number:
  US14/485,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20160080172A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 370254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• 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: 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 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing a cloud hosted application able to manage virtual network (“VN”) is disclosed. In one embodiment, a process of managing VN using virtual machines (“VMs”) receives a message or request from a user requesting a new VN to be built. The request is sent from a dashboard to a network orchestrator via a communication network. The orchestrator is a VN manager able to facilitate building a VN based on users'"'"' input. In one aspect, the orchestrator provides a set of templates that represent VN devices or components to users for facilitating construction of VN. After configuring a VN, a cloud capable of hosting the network is selected. The network or VN is subsequently launched using at least a portion of computing resources allocated in the cloud.

Claims

1. A method for building a network, comprising:

receiving at an orchestrator from a first dashboard via a first communications network a request for building a first network;

providing to the first dashboard for display to a first user a plurality of templates including a virtual network and router each representing a different virtual machine (VM) for performing a network function;

receiving at the orchestrator from the first dashboard via the first communications network selections by the first user of at least two of the templates; and

configuring, by the orchestrator, the first network having at least one VM corresponding to one of the received templates selected by the first user and another VM corresponding to another of the received templates selected by the first user, wherein the configuring the first network includes selecting, from among a plurality of available network clouds, a network cloud capable of hosting the first network, launching the first network utilizing at least a portion of resources in the selected network cloud, and permitting a predefined group of users to clone the first network after the first network is built via one or more templates.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the orchestrator from a second dashboard via a second communications network a request for building a second network; and

providing to the second dashboard for display to a second user the plurality of templates.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving at the orchestrator from the second dashboard via the second communications network selections by the second user of at least two of the templates; and

configuring, by the orchestrator, the second network having at least one VM corresponding to one of the received templates selected by the second user and another VM corresponding to another of the received templates selected by the second user.

4. The method of claim 1, where configuring the first network includes building one of the VMs in a private network cloud and another of the VMs in a public network cloud.

5. The method of claim 1, where permitting a predefined group of users to clone the first network comprises providing a template representing the first network as a selection option for display on dashboards associated with the users in the group.

6. The method of claim 5, where permitting a predefined group of users to clone the first network further includes allowing one of the users in the group to copy the first network by selecting the representation of the first network on the dashboard associated with the one of the users.

7. The method of claim 1, where:

the plurality of templates includes a template representing a physical network device for performing a network function;

receiving network selections by the first user comprises receiving the template representing the physical device; and

the configuring the first network comprises configuring the first network with the physical device included to perform its network function.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing to a second dashboard for display to a second user a virtual network (VN) template representing a VN comprising a plurality of interconnected VMs each configured to perform a network function;

receiving at the orchestrator from the second dashboard via a second communications network selection by a second user of the VN template; and

configuring, by the orchestrator, an operational instance of the VN represented by the selected VN template.

9. The method of claim 8, where the configuring an operational instance of the VN comprises configuring the operational instance of the VN at least in part in a network cloud.

10. The method of claim 8, where the plurality of interconnected VMs of the VN represented by the VN template include at least two of the following:

a virtual router, a virtual database, a virtual switch, and a virtual connection.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to receiving the request for building the first network, sending from the orchestrator to the first dashboard via the first communications network the templates.

12. The method of claim 1, where each VM represented by one of the templates performs a unique network function with respect to the VMs represented by the other templates.

13. A communication network having virtual machines (“

VMs”

), comprising;

a first private network cloud able to provide network services to a plurality of users, the first private network cloud configured to contain a plurality of servers and at least one end host manager (“

ehm”

) situated in one of the plurality of servers;

a public network cloud coupled to the first private network cloud and configured to provide cloud computing service to remote users; and

an orchestrator coupled to the first private network cloud, the public network cloud, and the plurality of users, wherein the orchestrator is able to receive a request for creating a virtual network (“

VN”

) with at least two selected templates from one of the plurality of users, the orchestrator configured to launch a first VM and a second VM organized in accordance with the VN in the public network cloud, wherein the first VM corresponds to one of the at least two selected templates and the second VM corresponds to another one of the at least two selected templates, wherein templates include a virtual network and router and the orchestrator includes dashboards configured to communicate with subscribers via a network and is able to provide a plurality of icons on the dashboards, wherein the plurality of icons is a set of templates representing a plurality of network devices.

14. The network of claim 13, wherein the orchestrator is able to assist establishing a virtual network based on at least a portion of the templates in response to input from the subscriber via the dashboard.

15. The network of claim 13, wherein the public cloud is able to provide cloud computing to facilitate VMs based on user'"'"'s input.

16. The network of claim 13, further includes a second private cloud coupled to the orchestrator and able to provide cloud computing using at least one VM and at least one physical server situated in the second private network cloud.

17. The network of claim 13, wherein the orchestrator is configured to allowing one of the plurality of subscribers to clone an established network containing a group of VMs operating in one or more clouds.