Method and apparatus for virtualized network function chaining management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10432736-B2
Application number	US-201815900191-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2018
Priority date	Feb 24, 2015
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

A method for vNF chaining management includes receiving virtualized network function (vNF) information from a chaining client associated with a particular vNF. A service chaining catalog is updated based on the vNF information and chaining information is transmitted to peering vNFs of the particular vNF. The vNF information can indicate instantiation of a vNF and identify peering vNFs. Updates received from vNFs can be used to update the chaining catalog. Updated vNF information can then be sent to peering vNFs of the vNF which sent the update.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for operating a chaining manager comprising:
determining that a new instantiation has occurred at a chaining node;
updating chaining information stored in a chaining catalog of the chaining manager based on information associated with the new instantiation to generate updated chaining information; and
transmitting the updated chaining information to peering chaining nodes of the chaining node.

2. The method of claim 1 , the chaining information comprising information associated with prior instantiations.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving the chaining information from one of the peering chaining nodes.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the chaining information comprises information associated with all instantiations that have occurred at any chaining node of the peering chaining nodes.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the peering chaining nodes stores the updated chaining information received from the chaining node.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the new instantiation comprises instantiation of a virtualized network function.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the chaining information comprises configuration parameters pertaining to the virtualized network function.

8. A chaining manager comprising:
a processor; and
a memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
determining that a new instantiation has occurred at a chaining node;
updating chaining information stored in a chaining catalog of the chaining manager based on information associated with the new instantiation to generate updated chaining information; and
transmitting the updated chaining information to peering chaining nodes of the chaining node.

9. The chaining manager of claim 8 , the chaining information comprising information associated with prior instantiations.

10. The chaining manager of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
receiving the chaining information from one of the peering chaining nodes.

11. The chaining manager of claim 8 , wherein the chaining information comprises information associated with all instantiations that have occurred at any chaining node of the peering chaining nodes.

12. The chaining manager of claim 8 , wherein each of the peering chaining nodes stores the updated chaining information received from the chaining node.

13. The chaining manager of claim 8 , wherein the new instantiation comprises instantiation of a virtualized network function.

14. The chaining manager of claim 13 , wherein the chaining information comprises configuration parameters pertaining to the virtualized network function.

15. A computer readable storage device storing computer program instructions for operating a chaining manager, which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
determining that a new instantiation has occurred at a chaining node;
updating chaining information stored in a chaining catalog of the chaining manager based on information associated with the new instantiation to generate updated chaining information; and
transmitting the updated chaining information to peering chaining nodes of the chaining node.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , the chaining information comprising information associated with prior instantiations.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 16 , the operations further comprising:
receiving the chaining information from one of the peering chaining nodes.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the chaining information comprises information associated with all instantiations that have occurred at any chaining node of the peering chaining nodes.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein each of the peering chaining nodes stores the updated chaining information received from the chaining node.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the new instantiation comprises instantiation of a virtualized network function.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Qiu Chaoxin
• Ratcliffe Mark A
• Scruggs Jeffrey L

Classifications

• H04W4/60

  Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits · CPC title

• H04L67/10 Primary

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

• H04L67/16 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/51 Primary

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title