Network emulation system supporting flexible and efficient dynamic experiment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12375385-B2
Application number	US-202217988777-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 17, 2022
Priority date	Apr 11, 2022
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

A network emulation system supporting a flexible and efficient dynamic experiment emulates a network based on container, veth-pair, traffic control (TC), and other technologies and sets a network state management model based on a key-value pair, thereby constructing a network emulation system supporting a flexible and efficient dynamic experiment. The system flexibly realizes the dynamic performance of a plurality of dimensions, namely, dynamic node start/stop, dynamic node attribute configuration, dynamic link start/stop, and dynamic link attribute configuration. Based on the network state management model, the network emulation system provides a concise and unified dynamic application programming interface (API) for an upper layer. Researchers can call the API in their network innovation programs at any time after an emulation network is deployed to achieve efficient, batch-processing, and programmable dynamic management. The network emulation system greatly facilitates the experimental work of the researchers in a dynamic scenario of the network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A network emulation system supporting a flexible and efficient dynamic experiment, comprising:
a server computer;
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the server computer, cause the server computer to create an underlying emulation network and initialize a network state management model, wherein
the underlying emulation network is configured to: emulate a node and a link between nodes, emulate different types of nodes by using a container technology, and establish an emulation link between two emulation nodes by using a veth-pair technology; and emulate a link attribute by using a traffic control (TC) technology of a Linux operating system, and support a dynamic configuration of an emulation link attribute, wherein an emulation network interface card is capable of being started or stopped at any time and is separately created on the two emulation nodes, and the emulation link is established between two emulation network interface cards;
the network state management model is configured to describe the node, the link, and connection relationships between the node and the link, wherein the node, the link, and the connection relationships are emulated by the underlying emulation network, the network state management model is configured to periodically perform a state synchronization with the underlying emulation network, and the network state management model is configured to provide a user with a dynamic application programming interface (API);
the network state management model describes node state information and link state management information in a form of a key-value pair;
in the node state information, one node is uniquely located based on a combination of a project name and a node name, wherein the node state information comprises:
a container identifier (ID) of the node, wherein the container ID of the node is configured to locate the node when the dynamic API is executed;
an image, a node type, and a node subtype information of the node, wherein the image, the node type, and the node subtype information of the node are used by the user to perform batch dynamic operations on the node through a classification;
node attribute information, wherein the node attribute information is used by the user to dynamically configure a node attribute; and
network interface card information of the node, wherein the network interface card information of the node is configured to provide the user with basic network address information; and
the link state management information is configured to uniquely locate one link based on a combination of the project name and a link name and describe related information and a connection relationship of the link, wherein the described information comprises:
source and destination nodes of the link;
network interface card information of the source and destination nodes of the link, wherein
the network interface card information of the source and destination nodes of the link is configured to provide the user with connection relationship information of the nodes; and
link attribute information, wherein the link attribute information is used by the user to dynamically configure the link attribute based on the link attribute information by using the API.

2. The network emulation system according to claim 1 , wherein a synchronization mechanism between the underlying emulation network and the network state management model is:
collecting, by using a configured application program for a state monitoring, a state of the underlying emulation network in real-time, comprising a node operation state, a real-time node attribute, a link operation state, and a real-time link attribute; and when state information of the underlying emulation network is detected to be inconsistent with state information of the network state management model, updating the state information of the network state management model in real-time.

3. The network emulation system according to claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of preconfigured dynamic APIs, the plurality of preconfigured dynamic APIs are used by the user to perform a dynamic start/stop and a dynamic configuration on the node and the link, wherein the plurality of preconfigured dynamic APIs are described in a form of a dynamic API list, comprising an API name and a function description.

4. The network emulation system according to claim 1 , wherein the node attribute information comprises configuration information and a gateway of the node.

5. The network emulation system according to claim 1 , wherein the network interface card information of the node comprises a name, a type, a network interface card name, and an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the node.

6. The network emulation system according to claim 1 , wherein the link attribute information comprises bandwidths, delays, and packet loss rates of network interface cards of the source and destination nodes.

7. The network emulation system according to claim 1 , wherein the network state management model is implemented based on a database comprising a Redis database.

8. The network emulation system according to claim 2 , further comprising a plurality of preconfigured dynamic APIs, the plurality of preconfigured dynamic APIs are used by the user to perform a dynamic start/stop and a dynamic configuration on the node and the link, wherein the plurality of preconfigured dynamic APIs are described in a form of a dynamic API list, comprising an API name and a function description.

9. The network emulation system according to claim 2 , wherein the node attribute information comprises configuration information and a gateway of the node.

10. The network emulation system according to claim 2 , wherein the network interface card information of the node comprises a name, a type, a network interface card name, and an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the node.

11. The network emulation system according to claim 2 , wherein the link attribute information comprises bandwidths, delays, and packet loss rates of network interface cards of the source and destination nodes.

12. The network emulation system according to claim 2 , wherein the network state management model is implemented based on a database comprising a Redis database.

Assignees

• Univ Electronic Sci & Tech China

Inventors

• Yu Hongfang
• Sun Gang
• Ma Tie
• Ma Chongxi
• Xie Yunhan

Classifications

• H04L41/145 Primary

  involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network · CPC title

• Y02D30/50

  in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate · CPC title

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title

• H04L43/0817

  by checking functioning · CPC title

• H04L41/0803

  Configuration setting · CPC title