Northbound Gateway with Distributed Adapters for Scalable Network Event Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network management systems face challenges in scalability and efficiency as networks grow in size, often becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of events generated, particularly when faults are discovered, leading to a need for a robust and scalable solution.
Innovation Solution
A scalable network management system is implemented using a northbound gateway with distributed NB adapters for efficient information transfer between NMS servers and OSS, and southbound adapters for handling events from Network Elements, along with load balancing schemes to optimize processing power and distribute workload across server clusters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a traditional network management system is used, then it can manage small networks, but it becomes overwhelmed and cannot handle large-scale networks with thousands of events
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into multiple independent components: Northbound Adapters (NBAs) for OSS communication, Southbound Adapters (SBAs) for network element management, and event processing modules. Each component handles specific tasks independently, allowing the system to scale by adding more instances of each component without increasing overall system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
Event Correlators are introduced as intermediary components between SBAs and the central processing system. These correlators aggregate and filter events locally before forwarding them centrally, reducing the event volume that the main system must process while maintaining comprehensive monitoring capability
2Productivity
If processing power is concentrated in a single system, then event processing can be centralized, but the system becomes a bottleneck and cannot scale efficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from a single centralized processing model to a distributed multi-dimensional architecture where processing occurs at multiple levels: local filtering at SBAs, aggregation at Event Correlators, and central processing at NBAs. This multi-layered approach enables linear scaling by adding resources at any level of the hierarchy
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs dynamic load balancing and flexible resource allocation where Event Correlators can be dynamically added or removed based on event volume, and NBAs can dynamically adjust their processing capacity. This dynamic architecture allows the system to adapt processing power to match actual event rates without over-provisioning
Data Source
AI summary
A technique for communicating in a network management system is disclosed. The technique includes transferring information from an application server to a gateway that processes the information, transferring the gateway processed information from the gateway to a plurality of adapters associated with the gateway that process the gateway processed information, and transferring the adapter processed information from one of the adapters to a client.