Virtualized clocks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11356189-B2
Application number	US-202016898726-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2020
Priority date	Nov 17, 2016
Publication date	Jun 7, 2022
Grant date	Jun 7, 2022

Abstract

A method of virtualizing a clock is executed by a network controller comprising a processor and computer-readable instructions for creating one or more virtual network elements comprising one or more virtual clocks. The method comprises retrieving, at a first virtual network element of the one or more virtual network elements, a first time of day value and a second time of day value. The method further comprises adjusting the amount of time elapsed based, in part, on a frequency adjustment value and incrementing a clock value based on the amount of time elapsed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of virtualizing a clock of a network element in a virtualized network, comprising:
creating, by a network controller, one or more virtual network elements wherein each virtual network element comprises a virtual clock;
retrieving, at a first of said one or more virtual network elements a first time of day value;
retrieving, at the first virtual network element a second time of day value;
calculating an amount of time elapsed between the first time of day value and the second time of day value;
adjusting the amount of time elapsed; and
incrementing a clock value based on the adjusted amount of time elapsed;

wherein each virtual network element comprises a virtual network protocol stack that provides the first time of day value and the second time of day value.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual network protocol stack fully replicates the behavior of a network element.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the frequency adjustment value is stored as a multi-bit fractional value.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving an adjustment value; and
calculating a frequency adjustment value based on the adjustment value.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising executing the method of claim 1 on at least one thousand virtual network elements.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the method of claim 1 at a fixed time period.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the fixed time period is a one second interval.

8. A system for virtualizing a clock, the system comprising:
a network controller coupled with one or more virtual network elements, each virtual network element comprising a virtual clock adapted to;
retrieve a first time of day value;
retrieve a second time of day value;
calculate an amount of time elapsed between the first time of day value and the second time of day value;
adjust the amount of time elapsed; and
increment a clock value based on the adjusted amount of time elapsed;

wherein each virtual network element further comprises a virtual network protocol stack adapted to provide the first time of day value and the second time of day value to the virtual clock.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the virtual network protocol stack fully replicates the behavior of a network element.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the virtual clock is further adapted to:
retrieve an adjustment value; and
calculate a frequency adjustment value based on the adjustment value.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the frequency adjustment value is a fractional value.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the network controller is adapted to instantiate at least one thousand virtual network elements.

Assignees

• Accedian Networks Inc

Inventors

• Decorte Thierry

Classifications

• H04J3/0667 Primary

  Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays (arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864) · CPC title

• H04L69/00

  Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass (networks security protocols H04L9/40; wireless communication networks H04W) · CPC title