Optimizing network delivery of 5G edge application services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12476896-B2
Application number	US-202318304016-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 20, 2023
Priority date	Oct 21, 2020
Publication date	Nov 18, 2025
Grant date	Nov 18, 2025

Abstract

A method and apparatus for optimizing network delivery of fifth generation (5G) edge application services by weighting network latency along with a load, capacity, and preference of an application server to determine where to transmit a new flow of packets. By using the weighted approach, network traffic can be equalized among multiple instances (e.g., applications) with the same address.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A first ingress router, comprising:
a memory; and one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to cause the first ingress router to: receive a flow associated with an anycast address; compute a cost of reaching a first application server via a first path and a second application server via a second path in accordance with a first internet protocol (IP) layer metric corresponding to the first application server with the anycast address and a second IP layer metric corresponding to the second application server with the anycast address, respectively, wherein the first IP layer metric comprises one or more of a first network latency, a first load measurement, a first capacity index, and a first network preference as weighted, and wherein the second IP layer metric comprises one or more of a second network latency, a second load measurement, a second capacity index, and a second network preference as weighted; and select either the first path or the second path based on the cost computed, wherein the first load measurement and the second load measurement each comprise a weighted combination of a total number of packets sent by an egress node to an application server, the total number of packets received by the egress node from the application server, a total number of bytes sent by the egress node to the application server, and the total number of bytes received by the egress node from the application server.

2 . The first ingress router of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the first ingress router to:
receive a first border gateway protocol (BGP) message comprising at least part of the first IP layer metric from a first egress router connected by the first path to the first application server.

3 . The first ingress router of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the first ingress router to:
receive a second border gateway protocol (BGP) message comprising at least part of the second IP layer metric from a second egress router connected by the second path to the second application server.

4 . The first ingress router of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the first ingress router to:
receive a second border gateway protocol (BGP) message comprising at least part of the second IP layer metric from an ingress router of the second path.

5 . The first ingress router of claim 1 , wherein the cost is determined according to:

α
⁢

L
j

⁢

β
i

L
i

⁢

β
j

+

(

1
-
α

)

⁢

D
j

⁢

γ
i

D
i

⁢

γ
j

where α represents a weighting factor and has a value between zero and one, L i represents the first load measurement, L j represents the second load measurement, β i represents the first capacity index, β j represents the second capacity index, D i represents the first network latency, D j represents the second network latency, γ i represents the first network preference, γ j represents the second network preference.

6 . The first ingress router of claim 1 , wherein the first network latency and the second network latency each comprise a round trip time (RTT).

7 . The first ingress router of claim 1 , wherein the first network latency and the second network latency are each measured by an ingress router of a corresponding path of the first path and the second path.

8 . The first ingress router of claim 1 , wherein the first network latency and the second network latency are each measured by an egress router of a corresponding path of the first path and the second path.

9 . A method of routing implemented by a first ingress router, comprising:
receiving a flow associated with an anycast address; computing a cost of reaching a first application server via a first path and a second application server via a second path in accordance with a first internet protocol (IP) IP layer metric corresponding to the first application server with the anycast address and a second IP layer metric corresponding to the second application server with the anycast address, respectively, wherein the first IP layer metric comprises one or more of a first network latency, a first load measurement, a first capacity index, and a first network preference as weighted, and wherein the second IP layer metric comprises one or more of a second network latency, a second load measurement, a second capacity index, and a second network preference as weighted; and selecting either the first path or the second path based on the cost computed, wherein the cost is determined according to:
α L j β i +(1−α) D j γ i

where α represents a weighting factor and has a value between zero and one, L i represents the first load measurement, L j represents the second load measurement, β i represents the first capacity index, β j represents the second capacity index, D i represents the first network latency, D j represents the second network latency, γ i represents the first network preference, γ j represents the second network preference.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving a first border gateway protocol (BGP) message comprising at least part of the first IP layer metric from a first egress router connected by the first path to the first application server.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving a second border gateway protocol (BGP) message comprising at least part of the second IP layer metric from a second egress router connected by the second path to the second application server.

12 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving a second border gateway protocol (BGP) message comprising at least part of the second IP layer metric from an ingress router of the second path.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first network latency and the second network latency each comprise a round trip time (RTT).

14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first network latency and the second network latency are each measured by an ingress router of a corresponding path of the first path and the second path.

15 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first network latency and the second network latency are each measured by an egress router of a corresponding path of the first path and the second path.

16 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first load measurement and the second l

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Dunbar Linda
• Song Haoyu
• John Kaippallimalil Mathew
• Chen Huaimo

Classifications

• H04L47/125

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title

• H04L45/04

  Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing · CPC title

• H04L67/1001

  for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers · CPC title

• H04L45/125

  based on throughput or bandwidth · CPC title

• H04L45/124

  using a combination of metrics · CPC title