Fault detection of service chains in a SDN/NFV network environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10057112-B2
Application number	US-201615079231-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2016
Priority date	Mar 24, 2016
Publication date	Aug 21, 2018
Grant date	Aug 21, 2018

Abstract

An electronic device includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor and storing computer readable program code that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations including generating, at given time intervals, a plurality of topology graphs that correspond to a service chain that comprises a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs) and that is operating in a software defined network (SDN)/network function virtualization (NFV) computing environment, each of the plurality of topology graphs corresponding to a different one of the time intervals. Operations may include comparing a first one of the plurality of topology graphs that is received at a first time to a second one of the plurality of topology graphs that is received at a second time that is after the first time to determine if the service chain has a fault.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
performing operations as follows on a processor of an electronic device:
receiving a first plurality of metrics values corresponding to a service chain that comprises a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs) and that is operating in a software defined network (SDN)/network function virtualization (NFV) computing environment at a first time;
generating a first time interval specific topology graph that corresponds to the service chain in the SDN/NFV computing environment using the first plurality of metrics values;
receiving a second plurality of metrics values corresponding to the service chain that is operating in the SDN/NFV computing environment at a second time that is after the first time;
generating a second time interval specific topology graph that corresponds to the service chain in the SDN/NFV computing environment using the second plurality of metrics values; and
comparing the first time interval specific topology graph to the second time interval specific topology graph to determine if the service chain has a fault.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the first time interval specific topology graph in a data repository;
responsive to determining that the service chain has a fault, tagging the second time interval specific topology graph as faulty and storing the tagged second time interval specific topology graph;
responsive to determining that the service chain does not have a fault and the second time interval specific topology graph is the same as the first time interval specific topology graph, replacing the first time interval specific topology graph with the second time interval specific topology graph in the data repository; and
responsive to determining that the service chain does not have a fault and the second time interval specific topology graph is different from the first time interval specific topology graph, storing the second time interval specific topology graph as a new correct topology graph without removing the first time interval specific topology graph from the data repository.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
generating a plurality of time interval specific topology graphs that include the first and second time interval specific topology graphs and that correspond to a plurality of time intervals, wherein the plurality of metrics values correspond to times defined by the plurality of time intervals; and
aggregating the plurality of time interval specific topology graphs to provide a playback topology that identifies evolution of the service chain over time.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein generating the first time interval specific topology graph comprises requesting edge set data corresponding to physical network devices, virtual networks, data flow information corresponding to virtual networks, and hosting and identification information corresponding to each of the plurality of VNFs in the service chain.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein requesting edge set data corresponding to one of the physical network devices, one or more of the virtual networks, data flow information corresponding to the one or more of the virtual networks, and hosting and identification information corresponding to each of the plurality of VNFs in the service chain comprises:
sending a simple network management protocol (SNMP) GET request to the one of the physical network devices and receiving a MAC address of the one of the physical network devices, wherein the one of the physical network devices includes a switch or a router;
responsive to the SNMP GET request, receiving data corresponding to one or more physical servers that are connected to the one of the physical network devices;
receiving, for each of the one or more physical servers, data corresponding to virtual machines that are communicatively coupled to the corresponding one or more physical servers; and
receiving, for each of the one or more physical servers, bridge and interface data defined in a respective hypervisor that defines mapping of a physical interface to a logical interface.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the first time interval specific topology graph and the second time interval specific topology graph each comprise edge set data at multiple network layers that range from the physical network devices to the plurality of VNFs in the service chain at the respective first and second times.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of metrics values comprises a first edge set and the second plurality of metrics values comprises a second edge set, and
wherein comparing the first plurality of metrics values to the second plurality of metrics values to determine if the service chain has the fault comprises comparing a level 1 topology of the first edge set to a level 1 topology of the second edge set.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the fault is detected if any edge in the level 1 topology of the first edge set is not present in the level 1 topology of the second edge set.

9. The method according to claim 7 , wherein, responsive to the level 1 topology of the second edge set including all edge sets of the level 1 topology of the first edge set and more edge sets than the level 1 topology of the first edge set, the second time interval specific topology graph indicates a positive topology change and the second time interval specific topology graph is stored as a new correct topology graph.

10. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the level 1 topology of the first edge comprises an edge set including the plurality of VNFs in the service chain.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the service chain comprises an ordered sequence of the plurality of VNFs that guides a packet's flow in the SDN/NFV computing environment.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the service chain comprises a virtual mobile management entity (vMME), a virtual PDN gateway (vPGW), a virtual signaling gateway (vSGW), a virtual firewall, a virtual network address translation (vNAT), a virtual router, a virtual switch, or a virtual intrusion detection system (vIDS).

13. An electronic device, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor and storing computer readable program code that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
generating, at given time intervals, a plurality of topology graphs that correspond to a service chain that comprises a plurality of virtual network functions (VNFs) and that is operating in a software defined network (SDN)/network function virtualization (NFV) computing environment, each of the plurality of topology graphs corresponding to a different one of the time intervals;
comparing a first one of the plurality of topology graphs that is generated at a first time to a second one of the plurality of topology graphs that is generated at a second time that is after the first time to determine if the service chain has a fault; and
responsive to determining that the service chain has a fault, tagging the second one of the plurality of topology graphs as faulty and storing the tagged second one of the plurality of topology graphs in a data repository.

14. The electronic device according to claim 13 , the operations further comprising:
responsive to determining that the service chain does not have a fault and that the second one of the plurality of topology graphs is the same as the first one of the plurality of topology graphs, replacing the first one of the plurality of topology graphs w

Assignees

• Ca Inc

Inventors

• Shevenell Michael Paul
• Kumar Preetdeep
• Puli Ravindra Kumar

Classifications

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L41/0677 Primary

  Localisation of faults · CPC title

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L41/122 Primary

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title