Geographical Redundancy and Dynamic Scaling for Virtual Network Functions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019026168-A1
Application number	US-201715657518-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 24, 2017
Priority date	Jul 24, 2017
Publication date	Jan 24, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

Virtual machines may have external interfaces (E-VMs) and VMs with internal interfaces (I-VMs). A control system may automatically scale the quantity of I-VMs based on traffic demand, among other things.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and a memory coupled with the processor, the memory storing executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:
obtaining information associated with a virtual network function;
detecting a trigger event based on the information associated with the virtual network function;
based on the detected trigger, sending a message to obtain additional information associated with the virtual network function; and
based on the additional information, determining an amount to increase an available capacity for operation of the virtual network function.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
determining a device that comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function; and in response to the determining the device, providing instructions to instantiate a processing virtual machine.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
based on the additional information, implementing a restriction for data traffic processed by the apparatus to a threshold; determining a device that comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function; in response to the determining the device, providing instructions to instantiate a processing virtual machine; obtaining an indication that the processing virtual machine is instantiated; and based on the indication that the processing virtual machine is instantiated, removing the restriction for data traffic processed by the apparatus to the threshold.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the additional information comprises processor speed of the apparatus.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises an amount of processing virtual machines.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises an amount of processing virtual machines, wherein the amount of processing virtual machines is based on an amount of available memory of a device for the processing virtual machines.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the operations further comprising determining a device that comprises a threshold amount of memory to accommodate the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function.

8 . A method comprising:
obtaining, by an apparatus, information associated with a virtual network function; detecting a trigger event based on the information associated with the virtual network function; based on the detected trigger, sending a message to obtain additional information associated with the virtual network function; and based on the additional information, determining an amount to increase an available capacity for operation of the virtual network function.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining a device that comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function; and in response to the determining the device, providing instructions to instantiate a processing virtual machine.

10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
based on the additional information, implementing a restriction for data traffic processed by the apparatus to a threshold; determining a device that comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function; in response to the determining the device, providing instructions to instantiate a processing virtual machine; obtaining an indication that the processing virtual machine is instantiated; and based on the indication that the processing virtual machine is instantiated, removing the restriction for data traffic processed by the apparatus to the threshold.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the additional information comprises processor speed of the apparatus.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises an amount of processing virtual machines.

13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises an amount of processing virtual machines, wherein the amount of processing virtual machines is based on an amount of available memory of a device for the processing virtual machines.

14 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining a device that comprises a threshold amount of memory to accommodate the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function.

15 . A system comprising:
a remote device; and an apparatus communicatively connected with the remote device, the apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled with the processor, the memory storing executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:
obtaining information associated with a virtual network function;
detecting a trigger event based on the information associated with the virtual network function;
based on the detected trigger, sending a message to obtain additional information associated with the virtual network function; and
based on the additional information, determining an amount to increase an available capacity for operation of the virtual network function.

16 . The system of claim 15 , the operations further comprising:
determining that the remote device comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function; and in response to the determining the remote device comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function, providing instructions to instantiate a processing virtual machine.

17 . The system of claim 15 , the operations further comprising:
based on the additional information, implementing a restriction for data traffic processed by the apparatus to a threshold; determining that remote device comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function; in response to the determining that the remote device comprises the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function, providing instructions to instantiate a processing virtual machine; obtaining an indication that the processing virtual machine is instantiated; and based on the indication that the processing virtual machine is instantiated, removing the restriction for data traffic processed by the apparatus to the threshold.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the additional information comprises processor speed of the apparatus.

19 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the amount to increase the available capacity for operation of the virtual network function comprises an amount of processing virtual machines.

20 . The apparatus of claim 15 , the operations further comprising determining that the remote device comprises a threshold amount of memory to accommodate the determined amount to increase the available capacity for the virtual network function.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Qiu Chaoxin
• Dailey Robert F
• Ratcliffe Mark A
• Scruggs Jeffrey L

Classifications

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/45504

  Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/546 Primary

  Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues · CPC title