Geographical redundancy and dynamic scaling for virtual network functions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11003516-B2
Application number	US-201715657518-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 24, 2017
Priority date	Jul 24, 2017
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

When a virtualized service platform encounters a catastrophic fault, an orchestrator may instantiate new virtual machines instances to deploy additional capacity in other cloud locations to handle failover storms. After the network fault is fixed and service returns to normal condition, these additional VM instances may be removed from the platform and cloud resources may be released. The system may minimize the resource over-provisioning and may continue to support geographical redundancy or dynamic scaling in a large-scale service network.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled with the processor, the memory storing executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:
obtaining information associated with a virtual network function, wherein the information comprises a key performance indicator (KPI), operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) information, a system log, memory utilization, number of active calls, or a fault alarm;
detecting a trigger event, wherein the trigger event is based on a combination of the information associated with the virtual network function and information associated with a first processing virtual machine of a plurality of processing virtual machines with only internal interfaces, wherein the first processing virtual machine is included in the virtual network function node, wherein the plurality of processing virtual machines communicates with one or more external virtual machines, wherein the external virtual machines comprise internal interface and external interfaces, wherein the external interfaces communicate using public internet protocol addresses, wherein the internal interfaces communicate using private internet protocol addresses;
based on the detected trigger, sending a message to the virtual network function to obtain additional information associated with the virtual network function;
based on the additional information, determining an amount to increase an available capacity for operation of the virtual network function, wherein the additional information comprises battery performance or energy constraints of a server associated with the virtual network function;
based on the amount, determining a device that comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function;
in response to the determining the device, providing instructions to instantiate at least a second processing virtual machine of the plurality of processing virtual machines with internal interfaces; and
sending a percentage of data traffic to the second processing virtual machine, wherein the percentage is based on the information associated with the virtual network function.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the additional information comprises an indication of an expected social event.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the additional information comprises processor speed of the apparatus.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises a number of processing virtual machines.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises a number of processing virtual machines, wherein the number of processing virtual machines is based on an amount of available memory of the device for the processing virtual machines.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , the operations further comprising determining the device that comprises a threshold amount of memory to accommodate the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function.

7. A method comprising:
obtaining, by an apparatus, information associated with a virtual network function, wherein the information comprises a key performance indicator (KPI), operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) information, a system log, memory utilization, number of active calls, or a fault alarm;
detecting a trigger event, wherein the trigger event is based on a combination of the information associated with the virtual network function and information associated with a first processing virtual machine of a plurality of processing virtual machines with only internal interfaces, wherein the first processing virtual machine is included in the virtual network function node, wherein the plurality of processing virtual machines communicates with one or more external virtual machines, wherein the external virtual machines comprise internal interface and external interfaces, wherein the external interfaces communicate using public internet protocol addresses, wherein the internal interfaces communicate using private internet protocol addresses;
based on the detected trigger, sending a message to the virtual network function to obtain additional information associated with the virtual network function;
based on the additional information, determining an amount to increase an available capacity for operation of the virtual network function, wherein the additional information comprises battery performance or energy constraints of a server associated with the virtual network function;
based on the amount, determining a device that comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function;
in response to the determining the device, providing instructions to instantiate at least a second processing virtual machine of the plurality of processing virtual machines with internal interfaces; and
sending a percentage of data traffic to the second processing virtual machine, wherein the percentage is based on the information associated with the virtual network function.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the obtained information comprises an indication of an expected social event.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the additional information comprises processor speed of the apparatus.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises a number of processing virtual machines.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises a number of processing virtual machines, wherein the amount of processing virtual machines is based on an amount of available memory of the device for the processing virtual machines.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining the device that comprises a threshold amount of memory to accommodate the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function.

13. A system comprising:
a remote device; and
an apparatus communicatively connected with the remote device, the apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled with the processor, the memory storing executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:
obtaining information associated with a virtual network function, wherein the information comprises a key performance indicator (KPI), operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) information, a system log, memory utilization, number of active calls, or a fault alarm;
detecting a trigger event, wherein the trigger event is based on a combination of the information associated with the virtual network function and information associated with a first processing virtual machine of a plurality of processing virtual machines with only internal interfaces, wherein the first processing virtual machine is included in the virtual network function node, wherein the plurality of processing virtual machines communicates with one or more external virtual machines, wherein the external virtual machines comprise internal interface and external interfaces, wherein the external interfaces communicate using public internet protocol addresses, wherein the internal interfaces communicate using private internet protocol addresses;
based on the detected trigger, sending a message to obtain additional information associated with the virtual network function;
based on the

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Qiu Chaoxin
• Dailey Robert F
• Ratcliffe Mark A
• Scruggs Jeffrey L

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L47/10

  Flow control; Congestion control · CPC title

• G06F9/546 Primary

  Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• H04L12/00

  Data switching networks (interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00) · CPC title