System, method, and computer program for performing preventative maintenance in a network function virtualization (NFV) based communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9760428-B1
Application number	US-201414572732-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 16, 2014
Priority date	Dec 19, 2013
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for performing preventative maintenance in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network. In use, a first potential fault is identified in a first resource in an NFV-based communication network. Additionally, a first time for maintaining the first resource is identified to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault. Further, a second resource is identified for replacing the first resource during the first time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
identifying a first potential fault in a first resource in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network, the first resource including a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF);
identifying a first time for maintaining the first resource to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault, the first time being a time for performing a preventive maintenance activity on the first resource;
identifying a second resource for replacing the first resource during the first time; and
verifying compatibility of the second resource with the first resource by:
installing a second instance of the VNF on the second resource,
providing a same data flow as input to each of the first instance of the VNF and the second instance of the VNF,
identifying a first output of the first instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the first instance of the VNF,
identifying a second output of the second instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the second instance of the VNF, and
comparing the first output with the second output,
using the second resource to replace the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to be the same, and
preventing the second resource from replacing the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to not be the same.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising securing availability of the second resource for the VNF for the first time.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising replacing the first resource with the second resource during the first time by:
initiating the second instance of VNF in the second resource, and
after the initiating, deactivating the first instance of the VNF in the first resource.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein replacing the first resource with the second resource during the first time further includes diverting communication addressed to the first instance of the VNF in the first resource to the second instance of the VNF in second resource before deactivating the first instance of the VNF in the first resource.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second resource is identified for replacing the first resource during the first time from a predefined maintenance preparation plan associated with the first resource, the predefined maintenance preparation plan specifying at least the second resource as a backup resource for the first resource.

6. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:
computer code for identifying a first potential fault in a first resource in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network, the first resource including a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF);
computer code for identifying a first time for maintaining the first resource to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault, the first time being a time for performing a preventive maintenance activity on the first resource;
computer code for identifying a second resource for replacing the first resource during the first time; and
computer code for verifying compatibility of the second resource with the first resource by:
installing a second instance of the VNF on the second resource,
providing a same data flow as input to each of the first instance of the VNF and the second instance of the VNF,
identifying a first output of the first instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the first instance of the VNF,
identifying a second output of the second instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the second instance of the VNF, and
comparing the first output with the second output,
using the second resource to replace the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to be the same, and
preventing the second resource from replacing the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to not be the same.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , further comprising computer code for securing availability of the second resource for the VNF for the first time.

8. A system comprising:
a memory system; and
one or more processing cores coupled to the memory system and that are each configured to:
identify a first potential fault in a first resource in a Network Function Virtualization based (NFV-based) communication network, the first resource including a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF);
identify a first time for maintaining the first resource to prevent an occurrence of the first potential fault, the first time being a time for performing a preventive maintenance activity on the first resource;
identify a second resource for replacing the first resource during the first time; and
verify compatibility of the second resource with the first resource by:
installing a second instance of the VNF on the second resource,
providing a same data flow as input to each of the first instance of the VNF and the second instance of the VNF,
identifying a first output of the first instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the first instance of the VNF,
identifying a second output of the second instance of the VNF resulting from the data flow input to the second instance of the VNF, and
comparing the first output with the second output,
using the second resource to replace the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to be the same, and
preventing the second resource from replacing the first resource during the first time when the first output and the second output are determined from the comparison to not be the same.

Assignees

• Amdocs Software Systems Ltd
• Amdocs Dev Ltd

Inventors

• Felstaine Eyal
• Hermoni Ofer
• Sandlerman Nimrod

Classifications

• H04W28/00

  Network traffic management; Network resource management · CPC title

• G06F11/2023

  Failover techniques · CPC title

• H04L41/28

  Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration · CPC title

• H04L41/022

  Multivendor or multi-standard integration · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title