Network Device Upgrade Grouping by Traffic Importance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional software upgrade schemes in computer networking often disrupt network operations and do not consider the importance of network devices to real-time user usage, leading to potential outages and business impacts.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based Wide-Area Network (WAN) assurance system computes an upgrade score for each network device based on its importance, assigning devices to groups for prioritized software upgrades, allowing less critical devices to be upgraded first and reducing downtime.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If software upgrade is deployed to all network devices simultaneously, then upgrade completion speed is improved, but network reliability deteriorates due to potential outages and disruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments network devices into multiple upgrade groups based on their importance to network traffic delivery. Critical devices (those handling significant traffic) are separated from non-critical devices, allowing staged upgrades that prevent simultaneous outages across the entire network while maintaining upgrade momentum.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary assessment of network device importance by analyzing traffic patterns, application instances, and device roles before deployment. Upgrade groups are pre-formed and prioritized based on this analysis, ensuring that less critical devices are upgraded first to validate the upgrade process before touching critical infrastructure.
2Reliability
If software upgrade is deployed to critical network devices first, then network reliability is improved, but upgrade completion time increases due to validation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary identification and classification of network devices by importance before the actual upgrade process. By pre-sorting devices into upgrade groups based on traffic analysis and device roles, the system establishes a clear upgrade sequence that balances reliability needs with efficient completion timing.
Solution Approach 2:
Network devices are segmented into multiple priority levels and upgrade groups, allowing parallel progression across different segments. Critical devices form one segment that undergoes validation, while non-critical devices form another segment that can be upgraded concurrently, reducing overall completion time while maintaining reliability.
3Ease of operation
If conventional upgrade schemes are used without importance assessment, then upgrade process simplicity is improved, but harmful factors increase due to unconsidered device impact on user usage
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback loops that continuously monitor network traffic patterns, device performance, and upgrade impact. This feedback informs the importance assessment of each device, allowing the upgrade process to adapt to real-time conditions and minimize harmful effects on user usage while maintaining operational simplicity through automated decision-making.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces new assessment parameters such as traffic volume, application instance counts, and device role classifications to evaluate device importance. By changing the evaluation criteria from uniform treatment to parameter-based differentiation, the system automatically identifies devices whose upgrade would have the greatest impact on user usage and prioritizes them accordingly.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for identifying sets of network devices to which to deploy a software upgrade based on an importance to the network of each network device. For example, a network system obtains information identifying a number of instances of an application associated with network traffic forwarded by each network device of a plurality of network devices. The instances of the application are executed by client devices serviced by each network device in forwarding the network traffic. The network system assigns each network device to different upgrade groups based on the number of instances of the application, each upgrade group associated with a different relative priority. The network system deploys a software upgrade to each network device according to a priority of the respective upgrade group relative to a priority of the other upgrade groups.