SDN Element Differential History for Anomaly Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing software-defined networks (SDNs) is complex due to dynamic resource allocation and the difficulty in tracking network anomalies, faults, and changes over time, as current monitoring tools only maintain information about the last update and lack insight into the network's lifecycle and relationships between elements.
Innovation Solution
The Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management, and Policy (ECOMP) platform provides real-time monitoring and visualization of network elements, tracking their lifecycles, relationships, and changes over time, enabling the detection of errors and root cause analysis through a suite of tools and interfaces that display attribute and relationship changes, facilitating remediation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If current monitoring tools only maintain information about the last update, then device complexity is reduced, but loss of information increases because insight into network lifecycle and relationships between elements is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously capturing and storing network element states, relationships, and attributes throughout the network lifecycle before errors occur. This historical data is preserved in a structured format that enables later analysis of network evolution, element relationships, and change patterns without requiring complex real-time monitoring infrastructure.
2Measurement precision
If detailed monitoring of network element changes over time is implemented, then measurement precision increases, but device complexity increases due to the need to track lifecycles and relationships
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system is segmented into modular components: a data capture module that collects network element states, a storage module that organizes historical data by element and time, and an analysis module that compares states. This segmentation allows precise tracking of changes while keeping each component simple and manageable, avoiding the need for a monolithic complex system.
3Reliability
If real-time monitoring and visualization of network elements is provided, then reliability improves through error detection, but loss of time increases due to the complexity of analyzing network changes
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms that continuously compare current network element states with historical states and automatically generate alerts when anomalies or errors are detected. This real-time feedback loop enables reliable error detection while reducing analysis time by immediately notifying operators of issues rather than requiring manual inspection of change histories.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual error analysis with automated computational methods that use algorithms to compare network states, identify changes, and detect errors. This substitution of mechanical human analysis with automated electronic processing significantly reduces the time required to analyze network changes while improving detection reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A device that monitors a network element in a network topology of network elements within a software defined network (SDN) and identifies a first node state and a second node state for the network element. The device detects an occurrence of an error between the first node state and the second node state. The device determines a differential for the network element between the first node state and the second node state indicating changes to the network element occurring between the first node state and the second node state. The device, based on determining the differential, displays one or more attributes or the one or more relationships associated with the network element at the first node state, the second node state or the differential between states.