Intent Translator for Self-Driving Network Policy Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current network management systems lack extensibility and support for end-to-end business policies, failing to efficiently configure network devices with stateful intents by translating them into stateless intents, which hampers network configuration performance.
Innovation Solution
A controller device determines a stateless intent using an abstract function for implementing stateful intents, generating low-level configuration data and interfacing with network devices to configure them efficiently, thereby supporting business policies across intent models.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If network management systems use traditional configuration methods, then device configuration can be performed, but the system lacks extensibility and cannot efficiently translate stateful intents into stateless intents for end-to-end business policies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intent translator as an intermediary component that mediates between business policy definitions (stateful intents) and network device configurations (stateless intents). This translator layer enables the system to be extended with new business policies without modifying core configuration mechanisms, while maintaining efficient translation to device-specific configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the configuration process into distinct phases: business policy definition, intent translation, and device configuration. By separating the stateful intent modeling from stateless configuration generation, the system achieves both extensibility for new policies and efficiency through optimized translation mechanisms.
2Adaptability or versatility
If network management systems translate stateful intents into stateless intents, then business policy support is enabled, but the translation process increases system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The intent translator is designed as a universal component that handles multiple translation tasks through a single unified architecture. It can translate various types of stateful intents (bandwidth, latency, connectivity) into corresponding stateless configurations, reducing overall system complexity by consolidating translation logic rather than creating separate mechanisms for each policy type.
3Productivity
If network devices are configured using traditional methods, then configuration can be performed, but the configuration process is slow and less effective
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary translation of business policies into optimized intent models before actual device configuration. This pre-processing step analyzes the stateful intent, determines the optimal stateless representation, and prepares configuration commands in advance, resulting in faster and more effective device configuration when execution occurs.
Data Source
AI summary
A controller device manages a plurality of network devices. The controller device includes one or more processing units configured to receive an indication of a stateful intent, the data structure including a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges, each node of the plurality of nodes being representative of a respective network device of the plurality of network devices. The one or more processing units are configured to determine, using an abstract function configured at a node of the plurality of nodes, a stateless intent for implementing the stateful intent and generate low level configuration data for the plurality of network devices based on the stateless intent. The one or more processing units are configured to interface with one or more of the plurality of network devices to configure the one or more of the plurality of network devices with the low level configuration data.