SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING COMPUTER NETWORK SERVICE CHAIN ​​ANALYSIS

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The disclosed embodiments generally relate to service-centric and logical function oriented network architectures for data centers, and more particularly, to performing service chain analytics for macro and micro elements in a computer network service chain.BACKGROUND

[0002] US 2016 / 179582 A1 describes techniques to provide performance optimizing of service chains to reduce bottlenecks and / or increase efficiency. Information for performance of virtual elements of a service chain implemented using a shared pool of configurable computing resources may be received. The resource allocation of portions of the configurable computing resources supporting virtual elements of the service chain can be adjusted based on the received information.DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS

[0003] Aspects of the invention are in accordance with the appended claims. The illustrated embodiments are not limited in any way to what is illustrated as the illustrated embodiments described below are merely exemplary, which can be embodied in various forms, as appreciated by one skilled in the art. Therefore, it is to be understood that any structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representation for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the discussed embodiments. Furthermore, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide an understandable description of the illustrated embodiments.

[0004] Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can also be used in the practice or testing of the illustrated embodiments, exemplary methods and materials are now described.

[0005] It must be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a stimulus" includes a plurality of such stimuli and reference to "the signal" includes reference to one or more signals and equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art, and so forth.

[0006] It is to be appreciated the illustrated embodiments discussed below are preferably a software algorithm, program or code residing on computer useable medium having control logic for enabling execution on a machine having a computer processor. The machine typically includes memory storage configured to provide output from execution of the computer algorithm or program.

[0007] As used herein, the term "software" is meant to be synonymous with any code or program that can be in a processor of a host computer, regardless of whether the implementation is in hardware, firmware or as a software computer product available on a disc, a memory storage device, or for download from a remote machine. The embodiments described herein include such software to implement the equations, relationships and algorithms described above. One skilled in the art will appreciate further features and advantages of the illustrated embodiments based on the above-described embodiments. Accordingly, the illustrated embodiments are not to be limited by what has been particularly shown and described, except as indicated by the appended claims.

[0008] In accordance with one or more embodiments discussed here, described are: service-centric and logical function oriented network architectures for data centers, a key enabling technique, and a Virtual Network Function (VNF) service chain entity as defined below. In accordance with the disclosed service-centric architecture, connectivity and networking services can be provided by service-customized virtual networks (SCVNs). Users can actively define, manage, and operate their virtual networks without reliance on network provider technicians, as was necessitated by prior art techniques. It is to be appreciated various embodiments disclosed herein result in a transformation of network architecture, operation, and management.

[0009] In accordance with an illustrative embodiment network architecture, included are a hardware layer, virtualization layer, and operations and management layers. The hardware layer preferably includes a plurality of physical computing, networking and storage resources. The virtualization layer preferably provides multi-cloud aggregation and may include components that are distributed across multiple clouds and that cooperate to provide various services, such as, but not limited to, virtual network, virtual computing and virtual storage. In the operations and management layer (with Software Defined Network (SDN)), network functions may be virtualized to provide a VNF. It is to be understood that VNFs may include (and are not to be limited to): firewalls, packets inspection, Network Operator's backbone systems like Mobility Management Entity (MME), Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway, and the like. It is to be further understood these VNFs may be provisioned, deployed, executed, and deleted in a Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI). Such SDIs may include a set of VNFs that are interconnected through the network to support one or more applications.

[0010] It should be noted that conventional, prior art, network services typically require acquiring hardware components, which provide a transmission medium, such as coaxial cable or twisted pair. Furthermore, each service typically requires specialized resources / interfaces (e.g., specialized hardware, databases, I / O devices, or any other device with its own command syntax, etc.), which increases the chances of configuration errors. In contrast, the illustrated embodiments described herein set forth a network architecture in which network functions are moved into the SDI. One illustrative advantage of this embodiment is that configuring / constructing a VNF service chain no longer requires acquiring hardware resources (as was required with the aforesaid prior art techniques). Thus, the present invention SDN / VNF infrastructure significantly simplifies at least the service chain and application provisioning process. It is to be appreciated the services that VNF service chains may provide include, for instance, Voice-over-IP (VoIP), Video-on-Demand (VOD), IP Mobility Subsystem (IMS) and other mobility services, and Internet services to clients of a service provider network. Typically, each service chain has a specific order.

[0011] It is to be appreciated that in accordance with the illustrated embodiments, each VNF service chain may include a plurality of VNF macro elements and may include two or more VNF micro elements. Examples of such VNF macro elements include (and are not limited to) DRA service / network function, Load Balancer service / network functions, Firewall service / network function, and the like. It is to be understood that at least some of these provided services may be implemented as a sequence of steps. For instance, the DRA VNF service / network function may include a sequence of micro steps, such as DRA steps one two and three required to implement the DRA service. Each of the steps is represented in a corresponding VNF service chain as a VNF micro element.

[0012] Furthermore, the illustrated embodiments of the present invention encompass an automated, pre-configured service chain health analysis system (referred to hereinafter as an automated analytics engine) which dynamically matches and analyzes internal and external data. More specifically, the automated analytics engine is capable of evaluating the health of both macro and micro elements in VNF service chains via a common data model. In various embodiments, such common data model is configured for storing service chain element health metrics, dimensions and normal behavior metrics. It should be noted that the common data model gets derived from packet data, operating system data and active agent measurements. Advantageously, such data model provides an efficient and scalable design model. Examples of data that can be stored in the common data model may include, but are not limited to, multidimensional data (i.e., subscriber data, application data, device data, service data, etc.), a plurality of application / network metrics (i.e., traffic volume, error causes, response time, packet loss data, jitter, etc.) and various OS related metrics (i.e, CPU utilization data, memory utilization data, disk utilization data, etc.). In other words, the service chain health analysis system may be configured to determine the health of particular VNF macro and micro elements by evaluating a common set of metrics / tests as well as using domain knowledge. For instance, the service chain analysis system may be configured to determine existence of the appropriate protocols for a particular VNF element, determine appropriate traffic volumes / ratios, typical success / failure rates, acceptable response time and evaluate misbehaving TCP metrics for the VNF element.

[0013] Furthermore, according to embodiments of the present invention, the service chain analysis engine is configured and operable to utilize "active agent" test data. As used herein, "active agent" refers to a common piece of code preferably inserted into each VNF element to perform pre-determined availability and latency tests within various links of VNF service chains. In one embodiment, such availability and latency tests may be implemented using code embedded into each VNF element. Alternatively, such tests could be performed from a plurality of distributed points within the SDI.

[0014] Reference is made to Appendix A, which embodiments and disclosure are to be incorporated into the description of the one or more illustrated embodiments of the present invention.

[0015] With certain illustrated embodiments described above, it is to be appreciated that various non-limiting embodiments described herein may be used separately, combined or selectively combined for specific applications. Further, some of the various features of the above non-limiting embodiments may be used without the corresponding use of other described features. The foregoing description should therefore be considered as merely illustrative of the principles, teachings and exemplary embodiments of this invention, and not in limitation thereof.Appendix A

[0016]

Claims

1. A computer system which performs service chain analytics in a computer network in which network functions are performed in a Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI), wherein network functions in the SDI are performed in one or more Virtual Network Function (VNF) service chains each comprising a plurality of VNF macro elements (1) and / or two or more VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c), and the computer system comprises: a data model; and an automated analytics engine configured to automatically determine the health of both the VNF macro elements (1) and the VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c) in the one or more service chains using the data model and by utilizing active agent test data, wherein the active agent test data is test data generated by an active agent comprising a common piece of code which is inserted into each VNF element to perform pre-determined availability and latency tests within certain links of the one or more VNF service chains.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein services provided in the one or more VNF service chains includes one or more of: Voice-over-IP (VoIP), Video-on-Demand (VOD), IP Mobility Subsystem (IMS) and other mobility services and Internet services to clients of a service provider network.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the automated analytics engine is configured to match and analyze internal and external data.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the data model is configured for storing service chain element health metrics, dimensions and normal behavior metrics and / or wherein the automated analytics engine is configured to determine the health of particular VNF macro elements (1) and VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c) by evaluating a common set of metrics / tests as well as using domain knowledge.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the VNF macro elements (1) comprise one or more of a DRA service / network function, a Load Balancer service / network function, or a Firewall service / network function; and each VNF macro element (1) comprises a sequence of steps and each of the steps is represented by a respective one of the VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c).

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the health of the VNF elements (1, 1a, 1b, 1c) comprises at least one of existence of the appropriate protocols for a particular VNF element, appropriate traffic volumes / ratios, typical success / failure rates, acceptable response time and presence of misbehaving TCP metrics for the VNF element.

7. The computer system of claim 1, comprising: a hardware layer; a virtualization layer; and operations and management layers, wherein the hardware layer includes a plurality of physical computing, networking and storage resources, the virtualization layer provides multi-cloud aggregation, and on the operations and management layer, network functions are virtualized to provide the one or more VNF elements.

8. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the VNF elements (1, 1a, 1b, 1c) comprise at least one of a firewall, packets inspection, a network operator's backbone system; and / or the SDI includes a set of VNFs that are interconnected through the network to support one or more applications.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the data model stores at least one of multidimensional data, a plurality of application / network metrics, and / or operating system-related metrics, optionally wherein: the multidimensional data comprises at least one of subscriber data, application data, device data, service data; and / or the application and / or network metrics comprise at least one of traffic volume, error causes, response time, packet loss data, jitter; and / or the application and / or network metrics comprise at least one of CPU utilization data, memory utilization data, disk utilization data.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is configured to automatically discover the one or more VNF service chains, for example by inspecting real-time network packets.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the data model is derived from packet data, operating system data and active agent measurements.

12. A method of performing service chain analytics in a computer network in which network functions are performed in a Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI), wherein network functions in the SDI are performed in one or more VNF service chains each comprising a plurality of VNF macro elements (1) and / or two or more VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c), and wherein the method comprises: automatically determining the health of both the VNF macro elements (1) and the VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c) in the one or more VNF service chains using a data model and by utilizing active agent test data generated by an active agent comprising a common piece of code which is inserted into each VNF element to perform pre-determined availability and latency tests within certain links of the one or more VNF service chains.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium structured to store instructions, wherein the instructions when executed cause a processor to: perform a method of performing service chain analytics in a computer network in which network functions are performed in a Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI), wherein network functions in the SDI are performed in one or more VNF service chains each comprising a plurality of VNF macro elements (1) and / or two or more VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c), wherein the method comprises: automatically determining the health of both the VNF macro elements (1) and the VNF micro elements (1a, 1b, 1c) in the one or more VNF service chains using a data model and by utilizing active agent test data generated by an active agent comprising a common piece of code which is inserted into each VNF element to perform pre-determined availability and latency tests within certain links of the one or more VNF service chains.