Virtual Router Session Logging for Cloud Data Center Traffic
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional network analyzers face challenges in efficiently collecting and logging traffic statistics, as they often generate large bursts of traffic flow packets that consume significant network bandwidth and can overload packet flow collectors, especially in multi-analyzer environments.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of session-based monitoring and logging techniques within a cloud data center, where a virtual router processes both ingress and egress network flows to generate statistics, and a VR agent identifies communication sessions to create session-based records that are then uploaded to a traffic collector for storage in an analytics database.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional network analyzers accumulate flow statistics and transmit in bursts, then complete traffic flow information is collected, but network bandwidth is significantly consumed and packet flow collectors are overloaded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the accumulated traffic flow data into session-based records, where each record represents a complete communication session. This segmentation allows for more efficient transmission compared to sending all accumulated flows at once, reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining data completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements periodic transmission of session-based traffic flow records at defined intervals rather than continuous or burst transmission. This periodic action smooths out the data transmission load, preventing collector overload while ensuring complete traffic information is captured over time.
2Loss of information
If conventional network analyzers send large collections of traffic flow packets, then comprehensive network traffic analysis is enabled, but packet flow collectors become burdened and processing efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual flow records into consolidated session-based records that represent complete communication sessions. This consolidation reduces the total number of records the collector must process while preserving all necessary traffic analysis information, thereby improving processing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The network analyzer performs preliminary processing and consolidation of flow data into session-based records before transmission to the collector. This preliminary action reduces the processing burden on the collector by pre-aggregating data in an efficient format.
3Loss of information
If per-flow based logging is used, then detailed traffic flow information is recorded, but the number of index tables and write operations increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple per-flow records into single session-based records that capture the essential information of complete communication sessions. This merging reduces the number of index tables required and decreases write operations while maintaining sufficient detail for network traffic analysis.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for session-based traffic statistics. In an example method, a virtual router of a cloud data center processes traffic flows for virtual machines executing on a server within the cloud data center to generate traffic flow statistics. The traffic flows include ingress traffic flows originating from the virtual machines and destined for a network of the cloud data center, and egress traffic flows originating from the network of the cloud data center and destined for the virtual machines. A virtual routing agent processes the traffic flow statistics to identify pairs of ingress and egress traffic flows corresponding to a common communication session. The virtual routing agent generates, for each identified pair of ingress and egress traffic flows, session records comprising traffic session statistics for each of the ingress and egress traffic flows of the pair and uploads the session records to a traffic collector for the network.