Edge Gateway Connection Quality Assessment and Route Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing SD-WAN solutions face challenges in maintaining reliable and resilient multi-site connectivity due to varying network path characteristics such as packet loss, latency, and jitter, which can degrade the performance of virtual networks across edge nodes connected to cloud datacenters.
Innovation Solution
A method is implemented where a gateway in the cloud datacenter assesses the quality of connections with edge devices, terminates insecure connections, and distributes routes differently based on connection quality, using a blacklist to manage secure connections and route distribution, ensuring that edge devices connect through better-quality links and perform route reset operations when anomalies are detected.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the gateway maintains secure connections with all edge devices regardless of connection quality, then the system maintains high availability and continuous connectivity, but the virtual network performance degrades due to poor-quality connections with packet loss, latency, and jitter
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway dynamically changes the operational parameters of secure connections based on assessed connection quality metrics (packet loss, latency, jitter). When connection quality falls below thresholds, the gateway modifies routing parameters, terminates poor connections, and establishes alternative connections through better-quality paths, thus resolving the contradiction between maintaining continuous connectivity and ensuring performance quality
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a static connection model to a dynamic one where the gateway continuously assesses connection quality and adapts the secure connection topology in real-time. The gateway can dynamically terminate poor-quality connections and establish new ones through alternative edge devices or gateways, making the virtual network resilient to connection quality variations while maintaining availability
2Device complexity
If the gateway distributes routes to all edge devices through all available connection links, then the system maintains simple route distribution logic, but the route information becomes inaccurate or stale when connection quality degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway dynamically adjusts route distribution parameters based on connection quality assessment. When a connection link's quality degrades below thresholds, the gateway automatically updates routing parameters to forgo distributing routes through that particular link, while maintaining route distribution through alternative high-quality links. This ensures route information accuracy without significantly complicating the distribution logic
3Reliability
If the gateway continuously monitors and reassesses connection quality, then the system achieves high resilience and adaptability to connection changes, but the computational overhead and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway implements periodic connection quality assessment at defined intervals rather than continuous monitoring. This periodic action allows the system to achieve high resilience and adaptability to connection changes while controlling computational overhead and processing time, resolving the contradiction between reliability and time loss
Data Source
AI summary
Some embodiments provide a method for maintaining a virtual network that spans at least one cloud datacenter separate from multi-machine edge nodes of an entity. This method configures a gateway in the cloud datacenter to establish secure connections with several edge devices at several multi-machine edge nodes (e.g., branch offices, datacenters, etc.) in order to establish the virtual network. The method configures the gateway to assess quality of connection links with different edge devices, and to terminate a secure connection with a particular edge device for a duration of time after the assessed quality of the connection link to the particular edge device is worse than a threshold value. In some embodiments, the gateway is configured to distribute routes to edge devices at the edge nodes, and to forgo distributing any route to the particular edge device along the connection link for the duration of time when the assessed quality of the connection link is worse than (e.g., less than) a threshold value. In different embodiments, the gateway assesses the quality of the connection link based on different factors or different combinations of factors. Examples of such factors in some embodiments include the following attributes of a connection link: packet loss, latency, signal jitter, etc. Also, the routes that the gateway distributes in some embodiments include routes that the edge devices distribute to the gateway, as well as routes that the gateway learns on its own.