VNF Failover via MANO Affinity Groups
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Solution Overview
Problem
In NFV scenarios, the affinity policy is incompatible with the HA mechanism, preventing VNFs from being failed over to secondary hosts when a primary host fails, leading to service discontinuity.
Innovation Solution
A VNF failover method and apparatus that uses a MANO system to determine primary and secondary affinity groups, allowing VNFs in the secondary group to take over services from faulty VNFs in the primary group, ensuring continuous service by updating attributes and managing failover centrally within the MANO system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If affinity policy is applied to deploy VNF on specified host, then deployment control is improved, but failover capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-establishing affinity groups and designating primary and secondary VNFs before faults occur. The MANO system pre-configures which VNFs belong to which affinity groups and identifies primary/secondary relationships, so that when a fault occurs, the failover can immediately execute without delay in decision-making.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces the MANO system as an intermediary between the affinity policy enforcement and the failover mechanism. The MANO system receives fault information, determines the affected affinity group, and coordinates the failover process, thereby reconciling the conflict between strict affinity policy and flexible failover requirements.
2Manufacturing precision
If VNF is restricted to single specified host, then affinity policy compliance is improved, but service continuity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the VNF deployment flexible rather than static. While the affinity policy specifies preferred hosts, the system dynamically adjusts the deployment location when faults occur. The VNF can migrate from the specified primary host to a secondary host within the same affinity group, transforming the rigid affinity constraint into a dynamic failover capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of host specification from a fixed single-host constraint to a multi-host affinity group. By defining affinity groups that contain multiple hosts and allowing VNFs to be deployed to any host within the group, the system maintains policy compliance while enabling failover when the primary host becomes unavailable.
3Duration of action of stationary object
If HA mechanism is implemented for service continuity, then service continuity is improved, but compatibility with affinity policy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the HA mechanism with the affinity policy by integrating failover capabilities directly into the affinity group structure. Instead of treating HA and affinity policy as separate mechanisms that conflict with each other, the system combines them so that affinity groups serve dual purposes: enforcing deployment preferences and enabling failover. The primary and secondary VNF designations within affinity groups provide both policy compliance and high availability.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention discloses a virtualized network function (VNF) failover method and apparatus, so as to resolve a problem that an affinity policy cannot be compatible with a high availability (HA) mechanism in a network functions virtualization (NFV) scenario. The method is: receiving, by a management and orchestration (MANO} system, a fault message, where the fault message indicates a first VNF is faulty; determining, by the MANO system, a primary affinity group to which the first VNF belongs and a secondary affinity group corresponding to the primary affinity group, where VNFs in the secondary affinity group are in a one-to-one correspondence with VNFs in the primary affinity group, and the affinity group represents a set of VNFs on which an affinity policy is used; and instructing, by the MANO system, the VNFs in the secondary affinity group to continue to process services of the VNFs in the primary affinity group.