Edge Flow Collector for Dynamic VNF Resource Allocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
In existing network function virtualization (NFV) systems, it is challenging to rapidly allocate optimal resources to virtual network functions (VNFs) during sudden increases in traffic, leading to delays in building VNFs that can handle increased traffic efficiently.
Innovation Solution
A communication system that includes a flow collector, a resource management device, an NFVO, a VIM, and a flow controller, which work together to identify traffic changes, allocate resources, and dynamically add or remove VNFs to ensure optimal resource allocation based on traffic demands, allowing for efficient redirection of traffic to VNFs with appropriate resource amounts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the NFVO monitors traffic at the VNF of the autoscaling target and decides resource allocation based on input traffic amount, then the system maintains simple monitoring architecture, but it takes time to add new VNFs when rapid traffic increase occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a flow collector that monitors traffic at the network edge before traffic reaches the VNF. This preliminary monitoring allows the system to detect traffic increases earlier and trigger VNF scaling before the traffic actually reaches the target VNF, reducing the time lag in responding to traffic changes while maintaining architectural simplicity.
2Reliability
If the system waits for traffic to reach the VNF before detecting the need for scaling, then resource allocation decisions are based on actual traffic data, but it is difficult to immediately build a VNF corresponding to rapid traffic increase
Solution Approach 1:
By placing the flow collector at the network edge to monitor incoming traffic before it reaches the VNF, the system can detect traffic increases in advance and initiate VNF scaling procedures earlier. This preliminary detection maintains reliability by basing decisions on actual traffic data while improving productivity by reducing the response time for VNF deployment.
3Speed
If traffic redirection is performed before new VNFs are added, then the system can quickly respond to traffic changes, but traffic may be redirected to VNFs with insufficient resources
Solution Approach 1:
The flow collector detects traffic increases before they reach the VNF, allowing the NFVO to initiate VNF scaling in advance. This ensures that new VNFs are created and resources are allocated before traffic redirection occurs, maintaining both the speed of response and the reliability of resource sufficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a feedback loop where the flow collector continuously monitors traffic and reports to the NFVO. When traffic thresholds are exceeded, the NFVO triggers scaling operations and updates flow rules accordingly. This feedback mechanism ensures that traffic redirection only occurs when resources are guaranteed to be sufficient.
Data Source
AI summary
A communication system includes a flow collector that collects traffic of an NW edge accommodating CPE, an NFVO that provides an instruction to add or remove a resource of a VNF, a resource management device that notifies the NFVO of an increased or decreased resource amount and an addition or removal instruction of the VNF based on an increase or decrease of the traffic of the NW edge collected by the flow collector, and that decides on the VNF which becomes a redirection destination of the traffic of the NW edge in response to execution of addition or removal of the VNF by the NFVO, a VIM that adds or removes the VNF in accordance with an instruction from the NFVO, and a flow controller that instructs the NW edge to set the VNF decided by the resource management device as the redirection destination of the traffic.