Systems and methods to detect, diagnose, and mitigate issues in multi-layer networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9503228-B2
Application number	US-201414573396-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2014
Priority date	Dec 17, 2014
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A method and server to detect, diagnose, and mitigate issues in a network include receiving Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) data related to the network, the OAM data related to current operation of the network; instantiating a rule engine to evaluate one or more rules based on any one of the OAM data, an event, policy, and an anomaly; and performing one or more actions based on the evaluating the one or more rules. A Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller is also described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to detect, diagnose, and mitigate issues in a network, the method comprising:
receiving Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) data related to the network, the OAM data related to current operation of the network;
receiving external data related to the network, the external data describing events related to any one or more of construction, weather, natural disasters, and planned outages;
instantiating a rule engine to evaluate one or more rules based on any one of the OAM data, an event, policy, and an anomaly;
performing one or more actions based on the evaluating the one or more rules; and
analyzing the external data to determine a relationship between the events and network elements in the network, wherein the relationship comprises any one or more of distance, amount of time the event exists, a number of events in a shared area, reputation of an event based on historical data, and a magnitude of collateral damage an event may cause to generate an associated risk level.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules are in a syntax of when one or more conditions are met then perform the one or more actions.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the instantiating is performed based on detecting the event or the anomaly from monitoring the OAM data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the OAM data is any of alarms, Performance Monitoring (PM) data, and events.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more actions comprise biasing a Path Computation Element (PCE) or other path computation component away from nodes and/or links in the network with detected issues.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more actions comprise suggesting a new link in the network or suggesting traffic rearranging to free up capacity on some links.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more actions comprise communicating a current state of the network to a Path Computation Element (PCE) or other path computation component to update administrative weights used in a path computation.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more actions comprise any of generation of severity ticket intimating network management personnel of an underlying systemic fault in network, invocating of other Software Defined Networking applications to optimize network, and triggering a new rule to operate.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship is determined through:
geocoding the events and network elements and calculating the distance based thereon,
parsing environmental event consolidation programs for end and start times of an event to calculate a time window,
parsing environmental event consolidation programs for historical reputation of an event and assigning a value based on credibility, and
parsing environmental event consolidation programs for existence of collateral damage multipliers and assigning a value based thereon.

10. A server implementing an application to detect, diagnose, and mitigate issues in a network, the server comprising:
a network interface, a processor, and memory, each communicatively coupled therebetween;
wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to
obtain Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) data related to the network, the OAM data related to current operation of the network,
receive external data related to the network, the external data describing events related to any one or more of construction, weather, natural disasters, and planned outages,
instantiate a rule engine to evaluate one or more rules based on any one of the OAM data, an event, policy, and an anomaly,
perform one or more actions based on an evaluation of the one or more rules, and
analyze the external data to determine a relationship between the events and the network elements in the network, wherein the relationship comprises any one or more of distance, amount of time the event exists, a number of events in a shared area, reputation of an event based on historical data, and a magnitude of collateral damage an event may cause to generate an associated risk level.

11. The server of claim 10 , wherein the one or more rules are in a syntax of when one or more conditions are met then perform the one or more actions.

12. The server of claim 10 , wherein the rule engine is instantiated based on detecting the event or the anomaly from monitoring the OAM data.

13. The server of claim 10 , wherein the OAM data is any of alarms, Performance Monitoring (PM) data, and events.

14. The server of claim 10 , wherein the one or more actions comprise biasing a Path Computation Element (PCE) or other path computation component away from nodes and/or links in the network with detected issues.

15. The server of claim 10 , wherein the one or more actions comprise suggesting a new link in the network or suggesting traffic rearranging to free up capacity on some links.

16. The server of claim 10 , wherein the one or more actions comprise communicating a current state of the network to a Path Computation Element (PCE) or other path computation component to update administrative weights used in a path computation.

17. The server of claim 10 , wherein the one or more actions comprise one of triggering a new rule to operate, generation of severity ticket intimating network management personnel of an underlying systemic fault in network, or invocation of other Software Defined Networking applications to optimize the network.

18. The server of claim 10 , wherein the relationship is determined through:
geocoding the events and network elements and calculating the distance based thereon,
parsing environmental event consolidation programs for end and start times of an event to calculate a time window,
parsing environmental event consolidation programs for historical reputation of an event and assigning a value based on credibility, and
parsing environmental event consolidation programs for existence of collateral damage multipliers and assigning a value based thereon.

19. A Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller communicatively coupled to a network and to a Software Defined Networking (SDN) application to detect, diagnose, and mitigate issues in the network, the SDN controller comprising:
a network interface, a processor, and memory, each communicatively coupled therebetween;
wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to
communicate Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) data related to the network, the OAM data related to current operation of the network to an SDN application,
receive external data related to the network, the external data describing events related to any one or more of construction, weather, natural disasters, and planned outages,
cause a rule engine to be instantiated to cause evaluation of one or more rules based on any of the OAM data, an event, policy, and an anomaly,
communicate one or more actions based on the evaluation to a Path Computation Element (PCE) or other path computation component, and
analyze the external data to determine a relationship between the events and the network elements in the network, wherein the relationship comprises any one or more of distance, amount of time the event exists, a number of events in a shared area, reputation of an event based on historical data, and a magnitude of collateral damage an event may cause to generate an associated risk level.

20. The SDN controller of claim 19 , wherein the relationship is determine

Assignees

• Subhedar Sachin
• Htay Aung
• Elbaz Roger Michael
• Webb William
• Ciena Corp

Inventors

• Subhedar Sachin
• Htay Aung
• Elbaz Roger Michael
• Webb William

Classifications

• H04L41/142

  using statistical or mathematical methods · CPC title

• H04L41/16

  using machine learning or artificial intelligence · CPC title

• H04L41/0823

  characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability (for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02) · CPC title

• H04L1/24 Primary

  Testing correct operation · CPC title

• H04L41/0895 Primary

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title