Dynamic mobility network recovery system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10979888-B2
Application number	US-201715809360-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 10, 2017
Priority date	Nov 10, 2017
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

A dynamic recovery system for a network comprising: an orchestrator, the orchestrator communicates with at least one mobility management entity in the network to monitor at least one of a key performance and a key capacity indicator; the orchestrator upon detecting that the at least one the key performance and key capacity indicator is above an operator configured threshold: instantiates at least one virtual mobility management entity, disables a communications profile towards the mobility management entity, and provides a communications profile toward at least one virtual mobility management entity.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A dynamic recovery system for a network comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more memory coupled with the one or more processors, the one or more memory storing executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the one or more processors to effectuate operations comprising:
communicating with at least one mobility management entity (MME) in the network to monitor at least one of a key performance or a key capacity indicator;
upon detecting that the at least one of the key performance or the key capacity indicator is above a threshold, indicating an occurrence of a packet storm on the network, wherein the packet storm is caused by packets being repeatedly sent to a signaling interface associated with the at least one MME; and
generating a work flow to reduce a likelihood of the packet storm occurring, wherein the work flow comprises:
instantiating at least one virtual mobility management entity (vMME);
disabling a communications profile toward the MME by deleting an existing Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) profile via a first application program interface (API) call;
providing a communications profile toward the at least one vMME by implementing a new SCTP profile;
determining whether an impacted flow of network traffic resides in a cloud region;
programming a core router in an MME evolved node B (eNB) transport path to remove the impacted flow of network traffic via a second API call to the core router when the impacted flow of network traffic does not reside in the cloud region; and
updating a cloud security group to block the impacted flow of network traffic when the impacted flow of network traffic resides in the cloud region;

monitoring the impacted flow of network traffic to determine when the impacted flow of network traffic returns to normal; and
restoring the communications profile towards the MME in response to the impacted flow of network traffic returning to normal.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator further comprises a MME central processing unit (CPU) utilization spike percentage, memory leaks, and a transaction rate.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein an orchestrator is in communication with an evolved node B (eNB) element management system, wherein the disabling the communications profile comprises deleting the communications profile towards the MME via an application program interface (API) call to the eNB element.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein upon detecting the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator is above an operator configured threshold, generating a virtual MME template.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising providing the communication profile toward the at least one vMME via an eNB element management system.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the MME is in communication with a first transport network, and wherein the at least one vMME communicates with a second transport network.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the second transport network includes at least one router, wherein the at least one vMME directs the impacted flow to the at least one router in the second transport network.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the signaling interface is an S1 interface.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator comprises a packet rate, session-state rate, and a heartbeat message.

10. A network device in a network, the network device comprising: a processor, an input/output device coupled with the processor, and a memory coupled with the processor, the memory comprising executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:
connecting to at least one mobility management entity (MME);
receiving a report from the at least one MME including at least one of a key performance or a key capacity indicator;
comparing the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator to a selected threshold indicating an occurrence of a packet storm on the network, wherein the packet storm is caused by packets being repeatedly sent to a signaling interface associated with the at least one MME; and
in response to the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator being above the selected threshold, implementing a work flow to reduce a likelihood of the packet storm occurring, the work flow comprising:
instantiating at least one virtual mobility management entity (vMME) instance;
disabling a communications profile toward the MME by deleting an existing Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) profile via a first application program interface (API) call;
providing a communications profile toward the at least one vMME by implementing a new SCTP profile;
determining whether an impacted flow of network traffic resides in a cloud region;
programming a core router in an MME evolved node B (eNB) transport path to remove the impacted flow of network traffic via a second API call to the core router when the impacted flow of network traffic does not reside in the cloud region; and
updating a cloud security group to block the impacted flow of network traffic when the impacted flow of network traffic resides in the cloud region;

monitoring an impacted flow of network traffic to determine when the impacted flow of network traffic returns to normal operation, and
restoring communications to the at least one MME in response to the impacted flow of network traffic returning to normal operation.

11. The network device of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator comprises a MME central processing unit (CPU) utilization spike percentage, memory leaks, and a transaction rate.

12. The network device of claim 10 , wherein providing a communications profile toward the at least one vMME by implementing a new SCTP profile comprises causing an eNB element management system to reroute communications to the at least one vMME instance via an application program interface (API) call to the eNB element.

13. The network device of claim 10 further comprising programming the at least one vMME to provide a report comprising the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator, and wherein upon the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator falling below the selected threshold.

14. The network device of claim 10 , wherein the packet storm occurs from an evolved node B (eNB) to an MME pool.

15. The network device of claim 10 , wherein providing a communications profile toward the at least one vMME by implementing a new SCTP profile comprises rerouting communications via the at least one vMME to another network.

16. The network device of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the key performance or key capacity indicator comprises a packet rate, session-state rate, and a heartbeat message.

17. A method for dynamic recovery of a network, the method comprising:
connecting to at least one mobility management entity (MME)
monitoring at least one of a key performance or a key capacity indicator relative to a selected threshold indicating an occurrence of a packet storm on the network, wherein the packet storm is caused by packets being repeatedly sent to a signaling interface associated with the at least one MME; and
upon detecting the at least one of the key performance or the key capacity indicator is above the selected threshold, implementing a work flow to reduce a likelihood of the packet storm occurring

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Seenappa Vikram
• Kodaypak Rajendra Prasad

Classifications

• H04L41/40 Primary

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

• H04W60/00

  Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration · CPC title

• H04W24/04

  Arrangements for maintaining operational condition · CPC title

• H04W8/18

  Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data · CPC title

• H04L41/0668

  by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure · CPC title