Methods, apparatus, and systems to dynamically discover and host services in fog servers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10841397-B2
Application number	US-201815993622-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2018
Priority date	Apr 17, 2018
Publication date	Nov 17, 2020
Grant date	Nov 17, 2020

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to dynamically discover and host services in fog servers are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a service manager to determine that a received service request from an Internet of things (IoT) device is not able to be performed locally at a first fog server; a first interface to transmit the service request to a fog resource manager; and a second interface to transmit instructions to the IoT device to transmit the service request to a second fog server, a response from the fog resource manager including service data related to the second fog server.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus to perform service requests in a fog environment, the apparatus comprising:
a service processor to determine that a service request received from an Internet of things (IoT) device is not able to be performed at a first fog server, the first fog server local to the IoT device;
a first interface to transmit, responsive to first instructions from the service processor, the service request to a fog resource manager; and
a second interface to transmit to the IoT device and responsive to second instructions from the service processor, third instructions to cause the IoT device to transmit the service request to a second fog server, an identification of the second fog server received at the service processor from the fog resource manager, and the second fog server within a threshold distance of the first fog server.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first interface is the second interface.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the service processor is to determine that the received service request is not able to be performed at the first fog server based on a service table, the service table identifying services that are provided at the first fog server and the availability of the services.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the first interface is to transmit a resource update to the fog resource manager when the service table is updated.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the fog resource manager is a first fog resource manager, wherein the first interface is to transmit the service request to a second fog resource manager when a connection to the first resource manager is unavailable, a response from the second fog resource manager including service data related to the second fog server.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first, second or third instructions cause a datacenter component of an IoT gateway to be updated to correspond to the second fog server.

7. An apparatus to host services in fog servers, the apparatus comprising:
a database to store service tables of service details corresponding to fog servers in a network of fog servers, the service details to include respective capabilities, a respective availability, and a respective location of respective ones of the fog servers;
a service processor to process the service tables to select a first fog server having a capability to perform a received service request from a second fog server, the location of the first fog server determined by the service processor to be within a threshold distance of the second fog server; and
an interface to transmit the received service request to the first fog server.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the second fog server is not capable of performing the service request.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the service processor selects the first fog server based on a first location of the first fog server relative to a second location of the second fog server, a distance between the first location and the second location satisfies the threshold distance.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the service processor determines if a distance between the second fog server and the first fog server satisfies the threshold distance.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the service details include at least one of an identifier or an address of the first fog server.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the service processor is to determine if a number of service requests received at the second fog server satisfies a threshold number of service requests corresponding to a same service type as the received service request.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the interface instructs, when the service processor determines the number of service requests satisfies the threshold number of service requests, the first fog server to reconfigure resources of the first fog server to be able to execute services corresponding to the same service type as the received service request.

14. A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least: determine that a received service request from an Internet of things (IoT) device is not able to be performed locally at a first fog server; transmit the service request to a fog resource manager;
based on a response from the fog resource manager including service data of a second fog server, determine whether a distance between the second fog server and the first fog server satisfies a threshold distance; and
when the distance is determined to be within the threshold distance, transmit instructions to the IoT device to transmit the service request to the second fog server.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , the instructions to cause the machine to determine that the received service request is not able to be performed locally based on a service table, the service table identifying services that are locally provided at the first fog server and the availability of the services.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , the instructions to cause the machine to transmit a resource update to the fog resource manager when the service table is updated, the service table updated to reflect that services available at the first fog server have changed.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , the instructions to cause the machine to process the response from the fog resource manager to identify the second fog server.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the fog resource manager is a first fog resource manager, and the instructions to cause the machine to transmit the service request to a second fog resource manager when a connection to the first resource manager is unavailable, a response from the second fog resource manager including service data related to the second fog server.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , the instructions to cause the machine to update a datacenter component of an IoT gateway to correspond to the second fog server.

20. A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
store service tables corresponding to capabilities, locations, and availability of fog servers in a network of fog servers;
process the service tables to select a first fog server capable of performing a received service request from a second fog server and located within a threshold distance of the second fog server; and
transmit service details corresponding to the first fog server to the second fog server, the service details including the capabilities, location and availability of the first fog server.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 , wherein the second fog server is not capable of performing the service request.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 , the instructions to cause the machine to determine that the first fog server is within a threshold distance of the second fog server based on a location of the first fog server.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 , wherein the service details include at least one of an identifier or an address of the first fog server.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20 , the instructions to cause the machine to determine if the second fog server has received more than a threshold number of service requests corresponding to a service type of the

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Kottapalli Ravi Kumar Reddy
• Verma Shubham
• Gakhar Suket
• Balasubramanian Kannan

Classifications

• H04L67/60

  Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources (admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04L67/12 Primary

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L67/51

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

• H04L67/01

  Protocols · CPC title

• H04L47/76

  using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions · CPC title