Controller supported service maps within a federation of forwarding boxes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016294644-A1
Application number	US-201514674260-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 31, 2015
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A controller network device, in a network control layer of a service provider network, receives one or more parameters for providing particular services over a service provider network and provides, to a forwarding network device in a network resources layer of the service provider network, a capabilities query. The capabilities query includes a feature type identifier for a feature required to support the parameters. The controller network device receives, from the forwarding network device, a response to the capabilities query, wherein a format for the response is one of a binary response format, a conditional response format, or a value response format. The controller network device compiles the response with responses from other forwarding network devices to define a network map for supporting the particular services.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
receiving, by a controller network device, one or more necessary parameters for providing particular services over a service provider network; providing, by the controller network device and to a forwarding network device, a capabilities query, wherein the capabilities query includes a feature type identifier for a feature required to support the one or more necessary parameters; receiving, by the controller network device and from the forwarding network device, a response to the capabilities query, wherein a format for the response is one of a binary response format, a conditional response format, or a value response format; and compiling, by the controller network device, the response with responses from other forwarding networking devices, wherein the compiled responses define a network map for supporting the particular services.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters include parameter for supporting Priority Flow Control (PFC) or Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP).

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the capabilities query is provided over a southbound interface in a software defined networking (SDN) environment.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the controller network device is included within a network control layer of the service provider network, and wherein the forwarding network device is included within a network resource layer of the service provider network.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the forwarding network device and the other forwarding network devices are part of a federation of forwarding network devices, and wherein the federation of forwarding network devices includes forwarding network devices from different vendors.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the capabilities query further identifies one of the binary response format, the conditional response format, or the value response format to be used in the response.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the conditional response format includes a field to identify capabilities that must be active on the forwarding network device to support a feature corresponding to a feature type identifier.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the value response format includes a value that corresponds to a capability of the forwarding network device for a feature corresponding to the feature type identifier.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the binary response format includes an indication of whether the forwarding network device supports a feature corresponding to the feature type identifier.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the capabilities query includes the feature type identifier for one or more of:
packets-per-second that a forwarding network device can support, entry updates per second, media access and control (MAC) table size, a buffer size, a number of queues, a number of adjacencies per routing protocol, a maximum number of tunnels or virtual LANs (VLANs), a number of physical interfaces, a minimum granularity for policers, or a rate of locally-generated packets.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
discovering, by the controller network device, the forwarding network device within the service provider network, wherein the discovering triggers providing the capabilities query.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovering includes performing an auto-discovery process to identify the forwarding network device as available for providing services within the service provider network.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving the one or more parameters triggers providing the capabilities query.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving, by the forwarding network device, the capabilities query; identifying, by the forwarding network device, the format for the response and data for the response; and providing, by the forwarding network device, the response to the controller network device.

15 . A system, comprising:
a controller network device in a network control layer of a service provider network to:
receive one or more necessary parameters for providing particular services over a service provider network;
provide, to a forwarding network device in a network resources layer of the service provider network, a capabilities query, wherein the capabilities query includes a feature type identifier for a feature required to support the one or more necessary parameters;
receive, from the forwarding network device, a response to the capabilities query, wherein a format for the response is one of a binary response format, a conditional response format, or a value response format; and
compile the response with responses from other forwarding network devices, wherein the compiled responses define a network map for supporting the particular services.

16 . The system of claim 15 , further comprising:
the forwarding network device in the network resources layer of the service provider network to: receiving the capabilities query; identify the format for the response and data for the response; and provide the response to the controller network device.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the controller network device provides the capabilities query over a southbound interface in a software defined networking (SDN) environment.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the forwarding network device and the other forwarding network devices are part of a federation of forwarding network devices using a software defined networking architecture, and wherein the federation of forwarding network devices includes forwarding network devices from different vendors.

19 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing instructions executable by one or more processors, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions to:
receive one or more parameters for providing particular services over a service provider network using a software defined networking (SDN) environment; provide, to a forwarding network device in a network resources layer of the service provider network, a capabilities query, wherein the capabilities query includes a feature type identifier; receive, from the forwarding network device, a response to the capabilities query, wherein a format for the response is one of a binary response format, a conditional response format, or a value response format; and compile the response with responses from other forwarding network devices, wherein the compiled responses define a network map for supporting the particular services.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , further comprising one or more instructions to:
discover the forwarding network device within the service provider network, wherein in the discovering triggers providing the capabilities query.

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Pacella Dante J
• Tadayon Mani
• Ahmad Syed A

Classifications

• H04L41/0853

  by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information · CPC title

• H04L41/5058

  Service discovery by the service manager · CPC title

• H04L41/5054 Primary

  Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components · CPC title

• H04L41/0806

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L41/5048

  Automatic or semi-automatic definitions, e.g. definition templates · CPC title