Standardized interface for wide area network programming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12307306-B2
Application number	US-202217900020-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2022
Priority date	Aug 31, 2022
Publication date	May 20, 2025
Grant date	May 20, 2025

Abstract

Techniques for providing a standardized interface that is configured to provide application developers with ways for interacting with different wide area network controllers. A standardized interface may include an application programming interface (API) server that can receive a connectivity request associated with an application that is to be hosted on an application orchestration system. The API server may determine, based at least in part on the connectivity request, a vendor network to be used by the application to send traffic to a remote service. Based at least in part on determining the vendor network, the API server may translate the connectivity request into a first format that is understandable by a controller of the vendor network. The API server may also provide the connectivity request in the first format to the controller of the vendor network such that a path through the vendor network can be determined.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An application programming interface (API) server comprising:
at least a processor and a memory;
an agent that is configured to monitor an application orchestration controller of an application orchestration system for received connection request objects;
an interface component that is configured to receive, from the agent, a connectivity request associated with an application that is capable of being hosted on an application orchestration system; and
a first plugin associated with a first vendor network, the first plugin configured to translate the connectivity request into a first format that is understandable by a first controller of the first vendor network, the first format being different from a second format that is understandable by a second controller of a second vendor network that is different from the first vendor network.

2. The API server of claim 1 , further comprising a second plugin associated with the second vendor network, the second plugin configured to translate the connectivity request into the second format.

3. The API server of claim 1 , wherein the API server is hosted as a web service that is external to the application orchestration system.

4. The API server of claim 1 , wherein the API server is accessible as an independent web service that is hosted within at least one of the first controller or the second controller.

5. The API server of claim 1 , wherein the API server is hosted within the application orchestration system as at least one of an operator or a virtual machine.

6. The API server of claim 1 , wherein the first controller establishes a connection over the first vendor network for traffic associated with the application based at least in part on the connectivity request being translated into the first format.

7. The API server of claim 6 , wherein the traffic is egress traffic of the application that is to be sent over the first vendor network to a service relied upon by the application.

8. The API server of claim 1 , wherein the first vendor network is a software-defined wide area network and the first controller is a software-defined networking controller.

9. The API server of claim 1 , wherein the connectivity request is received, by the interface component, from at least one of a computing device associated with a developer of the application or the application orchestration controller of the application orchestration system.

10. A method comprising:
receiving, at an application programming interface (API) server, a connectivity request associated with an application that is to be hosted on an application orchestration system, wherein the request is received from an agent of the API server that is configured to monitor a controller of the application orchestration system for received connection request objects;
determining, based at least in part on the connectivity request, a vendor network to be used by the application to send traffic;
based at least in part on determining the vendor network, translating the connectivity request into a first format that is understandable by a controller of the vendor network, the first format being different from a second format that is understandable by a different controller of a different vendor network; and
providing, to the controller of the vendor network, the connectivity request in the first format.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second format is incomprehensible by the controller of the vendor network.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the API server is hosted as a web service that is external to the application orchestration system.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the API server is accessible as an independent web service that is hosted within at least one of the controller of the vendor network or the different controller of the different vendor network.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the API server is hosted within the application orchestration system as at least one of an operator or a virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the traffic is egress traffic of the application that is to be sent over the vendor network to a service relied upon by the application.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the controller of the vendor network establishes a connection over the vendor network for the traffic based at least in part on being provided with the connectivity request in the first format.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the vendor network is a software-defined wide area network and the controller of the vendor network is a software-defined networking controller.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein the connectivity request is received from at least one of a computing device associated with a developer of the application or the controller of the application orchestration system.

19. The method of claim 10 , wherein the connectivity request includes at least one of:
subnet information associated with the application;
metadata associate with the application;
compute cluster information;
a domain name associated with a service to which the traffic is to be sent;
an internet protocol address associated with the service; or
a port associated with the service.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors associated with an application programming interface (API) server to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at an application programming interface (API) server, a connectivity request associated with an application that is to be hosted on an application orchestration system, wherein the request is received from an agent of the API server that is configured to monitor a controller of the application orchestration system for received connection request objects;
determining, based at least in part on the connectivity request, a vendor network to be used by the application to send traffic to an external service relied upon by the application;
based at least in part on determining the vendor network, translating the connectivity request into a first format that is understandable by a controller of the vendor network, the first format being different from a second format that is incomprehensible by the controller but understandable by a different controller of a different vendor network; and
providing, to the controller of the vendor network, the connectivity request in the first format.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Praharaj Saswat
• Maino Fabio R
• Rodriguez Natal Alberto
• Singh Ram Dular
• Agarwal Vivek

Classifications

• G06F9/541

  via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications · 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

• H04L41/0233

  Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA] · CPC title

• G06F9/547 Primary

  Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services · CPC title