Dynamic network adaptation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11405281-B2
Application number	US-201915733654-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2019
Priority date	Mar 25, 2018
Publication date	Aug 2, 2022
Grant date	Aug 2, 2022

Abstract

A computer implemented method of adapting a software defined network (SDN), the SDN operating with a set of network appliances in communication via network connections and the SDN comprising a control component operable in communication with at least a subset of the network appliances to control communication via the SDN, the method including receiving a representation of the logical arrangement of the SDN including a definition of appliances configured to provide communication for the SDN and network connections therebetween; receiving a measure of a performance metric for the SDN; receiving a forecast demand for the SDN; using a heuristic search to search a library of possible adaptations to the logical arrangement to identify a sequence of adaptations of the SDN that, when implemented, satisfy the forecast demand for the SDN and provide an improved measure of the performance metric of the SDN; applying the identified sequence of adaptations to the SDN by modifying the logical arrangement for use by the control component in subsequent communication via the SDN.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method of adapting a software defined network (SDN), the SDN operating with a set of network appliances in communication via network connections and the SDN comprising a control component operable in communication with at least a subset of the set of network appliances to control communication via the SDN, the method comprising:
receiving a representation of a logical arrangement of the SDN including a definition of appliances configured to provide communication for the SDN and network connections therebetween;
receiving a measure of a performance metric for the SDN;
receiving a forecast demand for the SDN;
using a heuristic search to search a library of possible adaptations to the logical arrangement of the SDN to identify a sequence of adaptations of the SDN that, when implemented, satisfy the forecast demand for the SDN and provide an improved measure of the performance metric of the SDN, the library of possible adaptations including adaptations of re-designation or de-designation of an existing network resource; and
applying the identified sequence of adaptations to the SDN at runtime by modifying the logical arrangement of the SDN for use by the control component in subsequent communication via the SDN.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received measure of the performance metric corresponds to a point in time of operation of the SDN, and the received forecast demand corresponds to a first time window commencing at the point in time, wherein the identified sequence of adaptations are applied for a subsequent time window.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein searching the library is terminated according to a predetermined stopping condition.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the predetermined stopping condition is determined as a time within the first time window determined such that sufficient time in the first time window is available for applying the identified sequence of adaptations to the SDN before the subsequent time window.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heuristic search includes one or more of: simulated annealing; hill climbing; or guided local search, so as to iteratively converge on the sequence of adaptations.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving, the searching, and the applying are repeated for multiple time windows.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performance metric includes one or more of: a number of network elements; a number of network appliances; a number of network connections; a length of network connections between two or more network appliances; a total length of network connections in a design of the SDN; a forecast throughput of the SDN between two or more network appliances; or a forecast transfer rate of the network between two or more network appliances.

8. A computer system comprising:
a processor and memory storing computer program code for adapting a software defined network (SDN), the SDN operating with a set of network appliances in communication via network connections and the SDN comprising a control component operable in communication with at least a subset of the set of network appliances to control communication via the SDN, by:
receiving a representation of a logical arrangement of the SDN including a definition of appliances configured to provide communication for the SDN and network connections therebetween;
receiving a measure of a performance metric for the SDN;
receiving a forecast demand for the SDN;
using a heuristic search to search a library of possible adaptations to the logical arrangement of the SDN to identify a sequence of adaptations of the SDN that, when implemented, satisfy the forecast demand for the SDN and provide an improved measure of the performance metric of the SDN, the library of possible adaptations including adaptations of re-designation or de-designation of an existing network resource; and
applying the identified sequence of adaptations to the SDN at runtime by modifying the logical arrangement of the SDN for use by the control component in subsequent communication via the SDN.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program element comprising computer program code to, when loaded into a computer system and executed thereon, cause the computer system to perform the method as claimed in claim 1 .

Assignees

• British Telecomm

Inventors

• Glover Timothy
• Conway Anthony
• Di Cairano-Gilfedder Carla

Classifications

• H04L45/036

  Updating the topology between route computation elements, e.g. between OpenFlow controllers · CPC title

• H04L41/122

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L41/40

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

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title