System, method, and computer program for routing traffic to a service in a network including at least one virtual network service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9749218-B1
Application number	US-201414538754-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 11, 2014
Priority date	Nov 11, 2014
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for routing traffic to a service in a network including at least one virtual network service. In use, data traffic directed to at least one first component in a network system is received. Further, one or more second components capable of handling the data traffic are identified based on information associated with the data traffic, the one or more second components including one or more virtual services or one or more physical services. Additionally, at least one of the one or more second components is selected to receive the data traffic, based on criteria associated with the at least one of the one or more second components and the information associated with the data traffic. Moreover, the data traffic is sent to the at least one of the one or more second components.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
storing, by a network function virtualization (NFV) based network system, a routing table that correlates each of a plurality of components in the NFV based network system to one of a plurality of types of data traffic capable of being handled by the component, the plurality of components in the NFV based network system including physical network services and virtual network services, wherein the routing table is generated by:
for each type of data traffic of the plurality of types of data traffic, determining each component of the plurality of components in the NFV based network system that is capable of handling the type of data traffic,
for each type of data traffic of the plurality of types of data traffic, selecting one of the components determined to be capable of handling the type of data traffic based on a plurality of factors;

receiving, by a virtual network function (VNF) of the NFV based network system, data traffic directed to at least one first component of the plurality of components in the NFV based network system, the at least one first component being one of the physical network services or one of the virtual network services;
analyzing, by the VNF, the received data traffic to identify information associated with the received data traffic, the information indicating one of the plurality of types of data traffic that comprises the received data traffic;
determining, by the VNF using the routing table, a second component of the plurality of components in the NFV based network system that is correlated with, and thus capable of handling, the type of the received data traffic, the second component including one of the virtual network services or one of the physical network services;
sending, by the VNF, the data traffic to the determined second component for handling thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first component is one of the physical network services.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first component is one of the virtual network services.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second component is one of the virtual network services.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of factors includes a monetary cost.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of factors includes at least one of: a location of the component, a processing cost, a service level agreement, a cost of the component, and a jitter associated with the component.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of factors are weighted for selecting the one of the components determined to be capable of handling the type of data traffic.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a cost table is utilized to generate the routing table.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one of the components determined to be capable of handling the type of data traffic is selected responsive to determining that the component has a lowest cost.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the lowest cost is determined based on at least one of a location of the component, a processing cost for handling the data traffic, a service level agreement associated with the component, a cost of the component, and a jitter associated with the component.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first component includes at least one other VNF.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the routing table is generated using a cost table, and wherein the cost table stores, for each of the plurality of components, values of the plurality of factors.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of factors include cost and processing time.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of types of data traffic each include a different geographical source location of the data traffic, wherein the plurality of components each include a firewall, and wherein the plurality of factors include, for each of the different geographical source locations, which of the firewalls has a most up to date knowledge for handling the data traffic therefrom.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of types of data traffic each include a different network protocol, wherein the plurality of factors include, for each of the different network protocols, which of the components has a most efficient implementation of the network protocol.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein, for each of the plurality of components, values of the plurality of factors are determined by analyzing the component with respect to different data requests.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein, for each of the plurality of components, values of the plurality of factors are determined by querying a provider of the component for characteristics of the component.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first portion of the plurality of factors are static and include properties of the component that do not change, and wherein a second portion of the plurality of factors have values that change over time, such that the one of the components that is selected based on the plurality of factors may change over time.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer code executable by a processor to perform a method, comprising:
storing, by a network function virtualization (NFV) based network system, a routing table that correlates each of a plurality of components in the NFV based network system to one of a plurality of types of data traffic capable of being handled by the component, the plurality of components in the NFV based network system including physical network services and virtual network services, wherein the routing table is generated by:
for each type of data traffic of the plurality of types of data traffic, determining each component of the plurality of components in the NFV based network system that is capable of handling the type of data traffic,
for each type of data traffic of the plurality of types of data traffic, selecting one of the components determined to be capable of handling the type of data traffic based on a plurality of factors;

receiving, by a virtual network function (VNF) of the NFV based network system, data traffic directed to at least one first component of the plurality of components in the NFV based network system, the at least one first component being one of the physical network services or one of the virtual network services;
analyzing, by the VNF, the received data traffic to identify information associated with the received data traffic, the information indicating one of the plurality of types of data traffic that comprises the received data traffic;
determining, by the VNF using the routing table, a second component of the plurality of components in the NFV based network system that is correlated with, and thus capable of handling, the type of the received data traffic, the second component including one of the virtual network services or one of the physical network services;
sending, by the VNF, the data traffic to the determined second component for handling thereof.

20. A network function virtualization (NFV) based network system comprising:
a memory system; and
one or more processing cores coupled to the memory system and that are each configured to:
store a routing table that correlates each of a plurality of components in the NFV based network system to one of a plurality of types of data traffic capable of being handled by the component, the plurality of components in the NFV based network system including physical network services and virtual networ

Assignees

• Amdocs Software Systems Ltd
• Amdocs Dev Ltd

Inventors

• Felstaine Eyal
• Kitroser Itzik
• Hermoni Ofer
• Ur Shmuel

Classifications

• H04L45/124 Primary

  using a combination of metrics · CPC title