NFV Service Management via Virtual Resource Pool Migration
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Solution Overview
Problem
In network function virtualization (NFV) architectures, changes to underlying physical resources, such as upgrades or maintenance, can disrupt upper-layer services, which require high reliability with minimal downtime, posing a challenge in ensuring service continuity without interrupting operations.
Innovation Solution
A method is implemented where a first network element determines affected objects by resource changes and sends notification messages to a second network element, allowing for service management and migration to unaffected resources, ensuring continuous service operation by avoiding direct resource changes that could impact service availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If underlying physical resources are changed (upgraded, repaired, or maintained), then resource performance and reliability are improved, but service continuity is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating backup virtual resource pools before physical resource changes are made. The backup pools are pre-configured with sufficient capacity to host services, ensuring that when physical resources need maintenance or upgrading, services can be quickly migrated without interruption to the pre-prepared backup resources.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual resource pool acts as an intermediary layer between physical resources and services. Instead of directly modifying physical resources while services are running, the system uses virtual resource pools as a buffer to decouple the service from the physical resource being changed, allowing resource modification without service disruption.
2Reliability
If services are migrated to ensure continuity during resource changes, then service reliability is maintained, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The backup virtual resource pool serves multiple functions: it acts as a standby resource pool for migration, a testing environment for new service versions, and a capacity buffer for load balancing. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated backup systems, thereby managing complexity while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system manages complexity by dynamically adjusting parameters such as the size and composition of backup resource pools based on service requirements, resource availability, and migration priorities. Instead of maintaining fixed complex migration architectures, the system adapts resource allocation parameters to match actual needs, simplifying the overall system structure.
Data Source
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AI summary
This application provides a method for managing a service in an NFV architecture, and an apparatus. The method includes: generating, by a first network element after receiving a network function virtualization NFV resource change notification sent by a virtualized infrastructure manager VIM, first constraint information used to modify NFVI software and/or hardware; and sending, by the first network element, a first notification message to the VIM, where the first notification message carries the first constraint information, and the first constraint information is used by the VIM to modify NFVI software and/or hardware based on the first constraint information. In embodiments of this application, when an NFV resource is to change, the first network element sends, to the VIM, constraint information used to modify NFVI software and/or hardware, to avoid a problem that a service is affected because the VIM directly migrates the service, ensure normal running of the service, and improve user experience.