Software-controlled cloud exchange

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016337180-A1
Application number	US-201615001919-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 20, 2016
Priority date	May 12, 2015
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In some examples, a method includes: providing, by a programmable network platform (PNP), a software interface to receive service requests for configuration of services; receiving a service request to configure a service within the edge network of the one or more network data centers; generating, by the PNP and based on the service request, a service definition that specifies one or more service requirements to implement the service; determining at least one network field unit that is capable of servicing the service request, wherein the network field unit controls a portion of the edge network; determining one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network that are usable to provide the service; and configuring physical devices of the edge network to provide the service.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
providing, by a programmable network platform (PNP), a software interface to receive service requests for configuration of services within an edge network of one or more network data centers that are controlled by the PNP; receiving, by the PNP and via the software interface, a service request to configure a network service within the edge network of the one or more network data centers, wherein the edge network within the one or more network data centers connect through one or more switching fabrics of the one or more network data centers; generating, by the PNP and based on the service request, a network service definition that specifies one or more service requirements to implement the network service; determining, by the PNP and based on the network service definition, at least one network field unit that is capable of servicing the service request, wherein the network field unit controls a portion of the edge network, wherein the network service definition is usable by the at least one network field unit to configure the portion of edge network to provide the service; determining, by the at least one network field unit and based on the network service definition, one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network that are usable to provide the service; and configuring, by the at least one network field unit, the one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network to provide the service.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring, by the PNP, performance data for the service that is received from the at least one network field unit; comparing, by the PNP, the performance data with at least one of the service requirements of the service and service telemetry and analytics data stored by the PNP to determine whether the service requirements for the service are satisfied by performance of the portion of the edge network; responsive to determining that the service requirements for the service are not satisfied, determining, by the PNP, at least one remedial action to satisfy the service requirements for the service; and executing, by the PNP, the at least one remedial action.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein executing the at least one remedial action comprises sending one or more instructions to the at least one network field unit to reconfigure at least the portion of the edge network or a different portion of other interconnection assets of the edge network.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more service requirements specify at least one of a type of service, a geographic location for the service, a bandwidth for the service, whether the bandwidth is burstable, an Excess Information Rate (EIR), a maximum latency for the bandwidth, an minimum availability level of the service, a cloud service provider for the service, or one or more security properties for the service.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the service comprises at least one of a layer 3 interconnection service, a firewall service, a data storage service, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) service, an analytics service, network address translation service, or a deep-packet inspection service.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to the at least one network field unit configuring the service at the portion of the edge network, storing, by the PNP, billing information that indicates a fee for provisioning the service to a requestor of the service; and sending, by the PNP, an indication of the billing information to the requestor of the service.

7 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more network data centers are geographically dispersed, and wherein a plurality of network field units are geographically dispersed, respectively, with the one or more geographically dispersed network data centers, each of the plurality of network field units controlling respective interconnection assets of one of the plurality of network data centers.

8 . The method of claim 7 ,
wherein the service request does not specify particular, physical devices of the interconnection assets, and wherein the network service definition is usable by the at least one network field unit to configure the particular, physical devices of the interconnection assets.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprises:
configuring the portion of the edge network to aggregate first cloud service traffic originating from a first cloud service provider and second cloud service traffic originating from a second cloud service provider; and configuring the portion of the edge network to deliver the aggregated cloud service traffic.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein configuring the one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network further comprises:
sending, by the network field unit, and to at least one of a Software-Defined Network (SDN) controller or a hardware configurator, one or more instructions that are usable by the least one of the SDN controller or the hardware configurator to configure the one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network to provide the service.

11 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more network data centers are geographically dispersed, and wherein a plurality of network field units that includes the network field unit are geographically dispersed, respectively, with the one or more geographically dispersed network data centers, each of the plurality of network field units controlling respective interconnection assets of one of the plurality of network data centers.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein configuring one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network to provide the service further comprises:
configuring a plurality of provider edge routers included in the portion of the edge network to define one or more virtual private network routing and forwarding instances (VRFs) for the service.

13 . A programmable network platform (PNP) comprising:
one or more computer processors; and a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to: provide a software interface to receive service requests for configuration of services within an edge network of one or more network data centers that are controlled by the PNP; receive a service request to configure a network service within the edge network of the one or more network data centers, wherein the edge network within the one or more network data centers connect through one or more switching fabrics of the one or more network data centers; generate a network service definition that specifies one or more service requirements to implement the network service; determine, by the PNP and based on the network service definition, at least one network field unit that is capable of servicing the service request, wherein the network field unit controls a portion of the edge network, wherein the network service definition is usable by the at least one network field unit to configure the portion of edge network to provide the service; determine, based on the network service definition, one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network that are usable to provide the service; and configure the one or more particular, physical devices of the edge network to provide the service.

14 . The PNP of claim 13 , wherein the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
monitor performance data for the service that is received from the at least one network field un

Assignees

• Equinix Inc

Inventors

• Rao Ravindra Jn

Classifications

• H04L49/25

  Routing or path finding in a switch fabric · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04L41/0806 Primary

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

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L41/5051

  Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time · CPC title