Cross-Domain SLO Management via Error Budget Aggregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network systems lack end-to-end visibility and integration of Service Level Indicators (SLIs) and Service Level Objectives (SLOs) across sub-domains, leading to siloed decision-making and increased risk of violating overall service level objectives when making changes, such as upgrades or feature deployments.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an end-to-end error budgeting system that aggregates SLI/SLO information from multiple sub-domains, using an error manager to normalize and weight performance metrics, and distribute an end-to-end reliability score to ensure that change decisions consider the cumulative error budget across the service chain, thereby eliminating siloed decision-making.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If sub-domains make independent change decisions based on their own SLIs, then decision-making speed is improved, but the risk of violating overall service level objectives increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an error budget manager as an intermediary component that receives error budget allocations from the service chain manager and distributes them to sub-domains. This mediator enables sub-domains to make independent decisions while ensuring overall SLO compliance by providing them with their specific error budget limits, thus resolving the contradiction between decision-making speed and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the overall error budget into sub-domain-specific error budgets, allowing each sub-domain to operate independently within its allocated limits. This segmentation enables fast local decision-making while the aggregate of all sub-domain decisions maintains overall service level objectives, effectively resolving the contradiction between productivity and reliability.
2Reliability
If an end-to-end error budgeting system is implemented to aggregate SLI information from multiple sub-domains, then service level objective compliance is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the complex end-to-end error budgeting task into manageable segments: the service chain manager handles overall SLO definitions and error budget allocations, while the error budget manager handles distribution and monitoring. This segmentation reduces system complexity by creating clear separation of concerns while maintaining end-to-end visibility for SLO compliance.
Solution Approach 2:
The error budget manager acts as an intermediary that simplifies the system architecture by providing a standardized interface between the service chain manager and sub-domains. It translates complex end-to-end SLO requirements into simple, actionable error budget limits for each sub-domain, reducing the complexity of implementing end-to-end error budgeting.
3Ease of operation
If sub-domains operate in silos with independent error budgets, then ease of operation is improved, but end-to-end visibility and integration are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback loops where sub-domains report their SLI measurements and error budget consumption to the error budget manager, which in turn provides feedback on their status. This feedback mechanism maintains end-to-end visibility while allowing sub-domains to operate independently, as each receives timely information about their error budget status and its impact on the overall service chain.
Solution Approach 2:
The error budget manager provides multiple functions: it allocates error budgets to sub-domains, monitors their consumption, enforces limits, and maintains end-to-end visibility. This multi-functional component enables both sub-domain independence and system-wide integration, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and information loss.
Data Source
AI summary
Aggregation of cross domain service level indications provide an estimate of available end to end error budget within a service chain of a network system. In some embodiments, service level indications are obtained from a plurality of sub-domains, and aggregated to determine an end to end reliability score. The end to end reliability score is then distributed one or more of the sub-domains. The sub-domains then consider whether to implement a change based on local service level indications as well as the end to end reliability score. In other embodiments, a sub-domain requests approval to implement a change from an error manager. The error manager consults the end to end reliability score to determine whether adequate margin exists in the service chain to allow the change to occur, while still meeting service level objectives of the service chain. The error manager conditionally approves the request based on the determination.