Decentralized Communication Proxy for Microservice Control Plane Stability

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Solution Overview

Problem

The microservice system faces challenges with burst traffic causing faults in the control plane, leading to service disruptions and increased resource consumption, especially when a large number of sidecars send requests to the control plane, resulting in fault diffusion and operational issues.

Innovation Solution

A decentralization processing method is implemented, where a communication proxy receives microservice requests and determines the target control plane rule to route requests to other communication proxies, reducing the load on the control plane by configuring policies such as routing, traffic splitting, load balancing, and circuit breaker policies on the proxy, thereby alleviating resource pressure and preventing service interruptions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If the control plane processes all microservice requests centrally, then service management is simplified, but the control plane becomes vulnerable to burst traffic causing faults and service disruptions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveservice managementVSAvoidcontrol plane stability

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the centralized control plane into distributed control capabilities embedded in each data plane component (sidecar proxies). Each sidecar proxy locally stores and executes control plane rules, transforming the monolithic control plane into a distributed control architecture. This segmentation eliminates the single point of failure while maintaining service management capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts control plane rules and policies from the central control plane and places them locally in the data plane components. By taking out the control logic from the centralized control plane and embedding it in sidecar proxies, the system reduces dependency on the control plane during burst traffic while preserving service management functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Device complexity

If control plane rules are configured centrally, then policy management is centralized, but resource consumption and traffic pressure on the control plane increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepolicy management structureVSAvoidcontrol plane resource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments control plane rules into distributed configurations stored locally in each sidecar proxy. Instead of one centralized policy management system, each data plane component maintains its own local policy configuration, reducing the computational burden and traffic pressure on the central control plane while preserving structured policy management.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent enables sidecar proxies to self-configure by locally storing control plane rules and autonomously executing them without continuous control plane intervention. Each proxy serves itself by making local decisions based on cached rules, eliminating the need for constant communication with the control plane and reducing its resource consumption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

3Ease of operation

If the control plane handles all routing decisions, then routing management is centralized, but burst traffic from multiple sidecars causes fault diffusion

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverouting managementVSAvoidservice continuity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments centralized routing management into distributed routing decisions executed by each sidecar proxy. Each proxy locally stores routing rules and independently makes routing decisions, eliminating the bottleneck and single point of failure in centralized routing while maintaining consistent routing management across the service mesh.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements preliminary action by pre-configuring control plane rules and routing policies in each sidecar proxy before traffic arrives. This allows proxies to make immediate local decisions during burst traffic without needing to communicate with the control plane in real-time, preventing fault diffusion and ensuring service continuity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS11677860B2Decentralization processing method, communication proxy, host, and storage medium

Publication Date: 2023.06.13 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD

AI summary

This application discloses a decentralization processing method, which are applied to a microservice system. A first communication proxy in the microservice system receives a first microservice request sent by a first microservice application, the first communication proxy determines, based on a target control plane rule, a microservice access address corresponding to the first microservice request, and sends the first microservice request to the second communication proxy having the microservice access address, where the second communication proxy is used to forward the first microservice request to the second microservice application. The first communication proxy can send the microservice request to the corresponding second communication proxy, and a control plane does not need to route the microservice request, so that traffic for routing the microservice request by the control plane is effectively reduced, and impact of a burst of microservice requests on the control plane is effectively avoided.