Distributed Master Standby Network Management Load Balancing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional master/standby network management systems face issues of master server overload and poor reliability due to unidirectional connections between network elements, leading to incomplete monitoring when Embedded Control Channels (ECC) disconnect.
Innovation Solution
A distributed master/standby management method where network elements configure bidirectional routes and management authorities, allowing servers to dynamically switch roles based on connection status, ensuring load balancing and continuous network management even when ECCs disconnect.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a centralized network management system uses a single master server to manage all network elements, then the system structure is simple, but the master server becomes overloaded and reliability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the network elements into two groups and assigns different master/standby roles to different servers for each group. This segmentation distributes the management load between multiple servers rather than concentrating it on a single master server, thereby preventing overload while maintaining manageable system complexity through structured role assignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local master-standby relationships where each network element group has its own dedicated master and standby servers. This local quality approach ensures that each server manages only a specific subset of network elements, optimizing performance for each local group while collectively improving overall system reliability.
2Device complexity
If network elements use unidirectional connections to master server, then connection configuration is simple, but monitoring becomes incomplete when ECC disconnects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional unidirectional master-server connection model by implementing bidirectional communication between network elements and both master and standby servers. This inversion allows network elements to maintain connectivity and monitoring capabilities even when the primary ECC connection fails, as the standby server can still access network elements through alternative paths.
Solution Approach 2:
The standby server acts as an intermediary that provides backup communication paths between network elements and the management system. When the primary ECC connection fails, the standby server mediates the monitoring and management functions, ensuring continuous operation without requiring direct reconfiguration of network element connections.
3Reliability
If standby server completely mirrors master server data, then data recovery is ensured, but system resources are wasted during normal operation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements partial data mirroring where the standby server maintains data only for network elements that require redundancy protection. Instead of completely mirroring all master server data, the system selectively synchronizes data based on the specific needs of network element groups, reducing unnecessary resource consumption while maintaining adequate data recovery capability for critical systems.
Data Source
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AI summary
A network element based distributed master/standby management method and the system thereof is a dynamic network management protection mode for the network element based distributed master/standby management system. The method involves connecting all the network elements, configuring the route between all the network elements to be bidirectional and configuring one server as the master server of the network elements and the other as the standby server. The master server manages and the standby server monitors the network elements in operation, and the standby server will take the place of the master server to manage the network elements when the communication between the network elements and the master server is disconnected, and the system switches back to the original state in which the master server of the network elements manages the network elements according to the master server returning strategy when the communication is recovered. The method of the present invention achieves load balancing by properly assigning the number of network elements managed by the two network management servers working as the master server to make the two servers share the load; and when the communication is disconnected, the master-standby switching can be performed and the synchronization of the data between the master server and standby server is ensured, thus the reliability of the network management of the system is improved.