WAN Assurance Diagnostics Relay Through Peer Network Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network devices experience issues communicating with WAN assurance systems due to performance degradation or failure, leading to stranded management and loss of connectivity, which conventional methods struggle to address effectively.
Innovation Solution
Network devices report diagnostics data to a peer device with a reliable connection to the WAN assurance system, allowing the system to troubleshoot and remediate issues by selecting a peer with optimal connectivity to forward the diagnostics data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a network device sends telemetry data directly to the WAN assurance system, then the system can monitor network performance, but connectivity issues cause management loss and stranded devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a peer network device as an intermediary to relay diagnostics data from the stranded network device to the WAN assurance system. When a network device loses direct connectivity, it can still communicate issues through its peer device that maintains connection to the system, thus resolving the contradiction between maintaining monitoring reliability and avoiding management loss.
2Reliability
If the system uses multiple communication paths for redundancy, then connectivity reliability improves, but path selection and management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements automatic path selection where the network device autonomously determines whether to send diagnostics data directly to the WAN assurance system or through a peer device based on connectivity status. This self-service mechanism eliminates manual path configuration and selection, improving ease of operation while maintaining communication reliability through automatic redundancy activation.
3Productivity
If network devices report diagnostics data through peer devices, then stranded devices can be remediated, but peer device utilization may become unbalanced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent allows peer devices to handle diagnostics data reporting for multiple stranded devices simultaneously, enabling rapid remediation of multiple failed devices through available peers. This partial action approach accepts that some peer devices may be overutilized temporarily, prioritizing fast remediation over perfect load distribution, while the system overall maintains reliability through the collective capacity of available peer devices.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for reporting diagnostics data by a first network device to a cloud-based Wide Area Network (WAN) assurance system, responsive to the first network device detecting a communication issue with the cloud-based WAN assurance system. For example, the first network device detects an issue with sending telemetry data to the cloud-based WAN assurance system via a first communication path. In response, the first network device determines a second network device that has connectivity to the WAN assurance system. The first network device sends diagnostics data to the second network device along a second communication path for forwarding to the cloud-based WAN assurance system. The cloud-based WAN assurance system receives the diagnostics data from the second network device. The cloud-based WAN assurance system controls the second network device to remediate the first network device based on the diagnostics data.