SDN QoS Control via Flow Entry Mediation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current software-defined networking (SDN) lacks a mechanism for implementing quality of service (QoS) control, which is essential for managing network priority and performance.
Innovation Solution
A QoS control method and device that includes a control plane device capable of determining and sending flow entries with QoS information to a forwarding plane device, enabling QoS processing rules to be applied to data packets, specifically using parameters like packet drop rate, delay, jitter, and rate limiting to control data packet behavior.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If SDN separates control plane and forwarding plane to improve network deployment flexibility and manageability, then network deployment flexibility and manageability are improved, but QoS control capability is lost because no mechanism exists to implement QoS control in the separated architecture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces flow entries as intermediary carriers that transport QoS control rules from the control plane device to the forwarding plane device. These flow entries contain QoS parameters and processing rules that enable the forwarding plane to perform QoS control without having integrated control functions, thus resolving the contradiction between architectural separation and QoS capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the QoS control function into two parts: QoS policy determination in the control plane device and QoS rule execution in the forwarding plane device. This segmentation allows the control plane to focus on high-level QoS management while the forwarding plane handles specific packet processing, maintaining QoS capability despite architectural separation.
2Ease of operation
If conventional networks integrate control functions in each network element for easy QoS control, then QoS control ease is improved, but network deployment complexity increases due to distributed control modules
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the control function from individual network elements and consolidates it in a separate control plane device. The control plane device formulates QoS control policies and distributes them as flow entries to forwarding plane devices, eliminating the need for distributed control modules in each network element while maintaining centralized QoS control capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Example quality of service (QoS) control methods and apparatus for software defined network (SDN) are described. One example method includes determining a flow entry that includes QoS information. The QoS information is used to indicate a QoS processing rule that includes a QoS parameter. The QoS processing rule is used to instruct to perform QoS control on a data packet according to the QoS parameter. The flow entry is sent to a forwarding plane device, so that the forwarding plane device obtains the QoS processing rule, and performs QoS control on a target packet according to the QoS parameter in the QoS processing rule, where the target packet is a data packet that matches the flow entry.