TWI558129B - Software Definition Experience Quality Measurement System - Google Patents

Description

Software definition experience quality measurement system

The invention belongs to a software-defined quality of experience (QoE) measurement architecture system, and the invention provides a cost-effective and software-defined network (SDN), which adopts a centralized control mechanism and can At the same time, the quality measurement system of the plurality of users is measured.

With the increasing number of instant Internet applications, the need for quality testing becomes indispensable because network operators need to control network resources while maintaining user satisfaction. Quality of Experience is a customer experience that measures a service. Quality testing can help network operators control their network resources to ensure customer satisfaction and service quality. The Quality of Experience system is designed to measure network-related parameters to evaluate service quality and to measure the experience of customers using Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE network services, and to return information to operators.

Quality of Experience (QoE) is a tool for measuring customer service experience (website browsing, TV broadcasting, calling to a call center). Experience quality focuses on the overall service experience, is a more comprehensive evaluation tool, different from the narrower user experience (UX) focuses on the software interface and customer experience (CX) focuses on support Sexual indicator one. Measuring the link bandwidth bottleneck along a path is an important way to understand the performance of many services. However, using existing decentralized network probe tools to collect network information to measure the quality of experience will be very expensive. Monitoring architecture.

Most operating systems today are capable of monitoring traffic load and device status. In the telecommunications industry, experience quality is used to measure end-to-end connectivity and application quality running over the network. Most of today's experience quality systems use a decentralized architecture to deploy detectors, for example, by placing detectors in different geographic locations to detect network client behavior. This architectural approach will result in high cost, high power consumption and lack of flexibility. Obviously, when the quality of experience system needs to be upgraded and applied to all detectors, it will cause a load on the network operator's work.

Quality of Service (QoS) is used to measure network operating conditions such as noise, loss, or discarded data packets. Quality of experience refers to the perception of service or network access. It is expressed like a human feeling, like good, excellent or bad. Although in many cases better network service quality will lead to better experience quality, high service quality level does not guarantee high user satisfaction. Therefore, accurate measurement of the service provider's user experience is very important.

China Patent No. 201206113, "System and Method for Monitoring the Quality of Experience of Mobile Users on Wireless Networks", published on February 1, 2012, refers to a service provider using its implementation in other possible situations. The experience quality information provided is used to manage, update, or enhance its wireless network to ensure end-user quality network experience. Combine the software-defined networking (SDN) and virtualization technologies with the present invention to dynamically and quickly deploy and remove experience quality test programs, and use packet forwarding (OpenFlow) The network is opened to control the measurement traffic path, and it is possible to simulate multiple virtual clients. Under the same test time, the architecture for testing the quality of experience at multiple points is not the same.

For example, WO103873306 discloses a method for measuring the quality of user experience, and in the method for measuring the quality of experience, the effective media data in the receiving end cache is caused by the problem of the business system. The deficiency is different from the effective media data in the receiver cache caused by the user behavior, and the degradation of the quality of the experience is measured according to the different reasons for the insufficient effective media data in the cache, so that the measurement of the quality of the experience is more accurate. Objectively, in order to make reasonable use of network resources. Rather than referring to the present invention, a software-defined experience quality measurement architecture is used, and a centralized control mechanism is used to simultaneously measure the quality of experience of multiple clients.

The present invention proposes a new architecture for designing, building, and managing a network using a new experience quality system that defines the network concept. The software defines the network to separate the network control and forwarding planes, making it easier to optimize each link. The software-defined network architecture has three layers, in which the network devices at the infrastructure layer are only responsible for forwarding data packets, and all forwarding routes and behaviors are determined by the control layer, which is changed by the southbound application interface (API). The setting of the network policy. The control layer also provides a north-facing application interface (API) for users who need to develop software-defined web applications (application layers) based on their business needs. It is bundled with the old network control plane and data plane, and the network operator needs to set each device separately to have more flexibility and more effective network management capabilities than the software-defined network architecture.

The invention proposes a software-defined quality of experience architecture, which is different from installing detectors in different data centers respectively. The quality of experience system of the present invention is placed in a centralized position, which can significantly reduce the complexity of the detector operation. Degree and equipment cost. The system of the present invention also leverages virtualization technology to dynamically and quickly deploy and remove experience quality test programs. The present invention also uses a packet forwarding open network to control the measurement traffic path. The system of the present invention is primarily capable of simulating multiple virtual clients, and different network devices, such as Wi-Fi gateways, can generate their respective traffic loads during the same test time. The combination of software-defined networking and virtualization technologies makes the inventive quality of experience architecture more flexible and cost-effective.

The present invention is directed to a conventional network management method, in which a large number of detectors are separately installed in different data centers to monitor the state of the network to obtain network service quality and customer experience data, and a cost saving is proposed. A more flexible experience quality measurement architecture.

The invention aims to achieve better performance and improve measurement efficiency in the quality measurement of the experience product. The packet is forwarded to the backbone network, and the network controller can be used to centrally control the characteristics of the measured traffic routing, eliminating the need to manually set up a Multi-Protocol Label Switched Transport (MPLS) VPN network. A specific queuing system is also designed to be arranged and the measurement workload is assigned to the experience quality detector function that is activated in the server virtual machine. Not only does it improve performance, but it also reduces network operators' fixed capital expenditures (CAPEX) and management costs (OPEX) due to intelligent dynamic adjustments of system resources such as virtual machines and routing paths.

The invention is a software definition experience product quality measuring system, comprising: an application interface server, generating a test task according to the setting; a task queue module, the task queue module receiving the test task, generating a dynamic a queue; a virtual client that queues the dynamics in the module based on the task The sequence of scheduling queues performs the test task for the external gateway; a packet forwarding network is established to establish a virtual dedicated connection between the external gateway and the virtual client and a network controller, setting The packet is forwarded to the transport packet of the packet forwarding switch in the open network, and the flow path of the test task is dynamically determined.

The invention provides a software definition experience product quality measuring system, comprising: an application interface server, generating a test task according to the setting; a task queue module, the task queue module receiving the test task, generating a dynamic a scheduling queue; a virtual client performs the test task on the external gateway according to the sequence of the dynamic scheduling queue in the task queue module; a packet is forwarded to the network to establish the external gateway A virtual dedicated connection between the virtual client and the virtual server; and a network controller that sets the transport forwarding of the packet forwarding switch in the open network and dynamically determines the flow path of the test task.

The application interface server is an application interface server based on a characterization state transfer application (RESTful API) to dynamically integrate the task queue to form a control mechanism framework.

The application interface server further includes a network server gateway interface.

The task queue module includes a task proxy software, and the task proxy soft system coordinates the agreement of the dynamic schedule queue between the application interface server and the virtual client, when the application interface server The test task is placed in the dynamic scheduling queue to start the test task, and the task proxy software delivers the test task to the virtual client; the task queue The module monitors the life cycle of the test task, wherein the life cycle includes pause, start, success, failure, and retry; and the task queue dynamically schedules the dynamic schedule of the test task.

The virtual client includes: a network namespace component, the network namespace component includes its own routing, firewall rules and network devices; and a parallel library that utilizes the network namespace component And the parallel library, perform the test task.

The network namespace component has a different, separate network interface and an independently operated routing table instance. By enabling the network namespace in the Linux kernel, the virtual client system generates different network devices. The traffic load.

The parallel library performs highly scalable asynchronous input and output through the asynchronous event processing software library, and the collaborative program ensures a synchronous programming style.

The network controller determines a flow path of the test task from the virtual client to the external gateway according to a plurality of related parameters from the task queue module and the application interface server, each of which is related Parameters include media access control address, VLAN ID, IP address of the gateway and virtual client, and location for quality of quality testing purposes.

The packet forwarding network has programmable features and can quickly adjust the network path.

The system architecture of the software definition experience quality measurement of the present invention achieves a dynamic and centralized control mechanism framework by providing a RESTful API based on a representational state transfer design and an integrated task queue as described above. Reduce system management by assigning tasks between task queues and virtual clients, and virtual clients' concurrent libraries load. In addition, the framework can use the advantages of software to define the network, at the same time allows the network controller to establish a network path. This architecture not only improves network utilization, but also reduces costs.

10‧‧‧ backbone network

11‧‧‧Detector

12‧‧‧Wi-Fi gateway

13‧‧‧Test result collector

14‧‧‧Network equipment

15‧‧‧Computer Room A

16‧‧‧Computer Room B

20‧‧‧MPLS backbone network

21‧‧‧ detector

22‧‧‧Wi-Fi gateway

23‧‧‧Test result collector

24‧‧‧Virtual Machine Monitor

25‧‧‧Server

26‧‧‧Virtual Machine

27‧‧‧Network equipment

28‧‧‧Computer Room A

29‧‧‧Computer Room B

32‧‧‧Wi-Fi gateway

33‧‧‧Test result collector

34‧‧‧Package transfer to backbone network

35‧‧‧Network Controller

36‧‧‧Server

37‧‧‧Network equipment

38‧‧‧ backbone network

39A‧‧‧Computer Room A

39B‧‧‧Computer Room B

41‧‧‧Application Interface Server

42‧‧‧Task queue module

43‧‧‧Virtual Client

44‧‧‧Network Controller

45‧‧‧Package transfer network

51‧‧‧Application Interface Server

52‧‧‧Task queue module

53‧‧‧Virtual Client

54‧‧‧Network Controller

55‧‧‧Test script

56‧‧‧Package transfer gateway

56A‧‧‧Chute 1

56B‧‧‧Chute 2

56C‧‧‧Churn 3

56D‧‧‧Chute 4

57‧‧‧Wi-Fi gateway

60‧‧‧ test script

61‧‧‧Web authentication message

62‧‧‧Ping message

63‧‧‧FTP message

64‧‧‧identity authentication server

65‧‧‧FTP system

66‧‧‧Server

67‧‧‧Virtual Client

67A‧‧‧Media Access Control Address

67B‧‧‧VLAN

67C‧‧‧DHCP IP

Figure 1 is the experience quality architecture diagram of the Wi-Fi network; Figure 2 is an alternative quality measurement architecture diagram of the experience product; Figure 3 is the software definition architecture diagram of the software definition of the present invention; The invention defines a system architecture diagram for the quality measurement of the experience product; FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the quality measurement architecture of the experience product of the present invention; and FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the network identity authentication, ping data packet, and FTP function verification of the present invention.

The present invention is a software-defined experience quality measurement architecture. The present invention proposes a cost-effective and software-defined network (SDN), which adopts a centralized control mechanism and can simultaneously measure the quality of experience of multiple clients. Measurement architecture. The results of the Wi-Fi environment experiment prove that the fixed capital expenditure (CAPEX) and management cost expenditure (OPEX) can be greatly reduced.

In the traditional network management method, the use of the network management system has been mainly limited to monitoring the state of the network. In order to get the quality of network services and the experience of customers, experience quality measurement becomes crucial.

To measure experience products such as wireless or mobile network telecommunications services Quality, probes are widely deployed and IP addresses are obtained through different authentication procedures, such as DHCP, web or EAP-SIM (Extensible Authentication Protocol-Subscriber identity module) to simulate customer behavior and verification efficiency. The detector architecture can only measure one customer at a time. As an ideal measurement architecture, the detector should be placed on the user side for end-to-end experience quality assessment. However, this method is not cost-effective because the user's position is too scattered. In order to save costs and maintain maintenance, most of the detectors are concentrated and placed adjacent to the device under test.

Figure 1 shows the experience quality architecture of the Wi-Fi network. To achieve full monitoring, the Experiential Quality Detector 11 should be deployed with the Wi-Fi Gateway 12. The measurement results are sent back to the centralized test result collector 13 to provide comprehensive information to the network operator. However, due to inherently decentralized architectural constraints, the maintenance cost may increase as system upgrades or configuration modifications are required for all of the detectors 11.

An alternative quality measurement architecture diagram is shown in FIG. 2, which utilizes the server 25 virtualization technology based on the virtual machine monitoring program 24 to centrally deploy the detectors 21 in the data center virtual machines (VMs) 26 for execution. And connect to the MPLS backbone network to collect information. Although this architecture can significantly reduce the number of physical devices, the workload of maintenance work still exists, because each virtual probe 21 still needs to be manually set to set routing settings such as VPN and VLAN. In addition, data center virtual machine management has become another problem. Therefore, virtual machine and network setting automation supply is an urgent need to develop the quality measurement architecture of experience products.

Figure 3 is a diagram of the software definition experience quality of the invention, which aims to achieve better performance and improve efficiency. By using the packet forwarding backbone network 34, the network controller 35 can centrally control the measured traffic routing, eliminating the need for centralized routing. Manually set the need for an MPLS VPN network. In addition, a queuing system is used to schedule and distribute the measurement workload to the detector function running in the virtual machine of the server 36, which not only improves performance, but also due to system resources (such as virtual Intelligent dynamic adjustment of machines and routing paths to reduce fixed capital expenditures and management costs.

4 is a system architecture diagram of the software definition experience quality measurement of the present invention, including an application interface server 41, a task queue 42, a virtual client 43, and a network controller 44. It provides a dynamic, centralized control mechanism framework by providing a RESTful API and integration task queue 42. The system management load is reduced by the assignment of tasks between the task queue 42 and the virtual client 43, and the concurrent library of the virtual client 43. In addition, as a work assignment on the test, the framework can take advantage of the software to define the network, allowing the network controller 44 to establish a network path at the same time. This architecture not only improves network utilization, but also reduces costs.

The architecture of the present invention has an API server 41 function corresponding to the Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI), which is responsible for processing requests from users, converting requests into a task, and pushing it to the task. In column 42, API server 41 can be dynamically expanded based on the load of the experience quality test.

Under this architecture, task queue 42 plays an important role in responding to scheduling and distributing virtual client 43 work. The input to task queue 42 is a unit of work called a task that is constantly monitored by a dedicated worker process to see if there is a new job to be performed. In order to coordinate the API server 41 and the virtual client 43, the task queue 42 uses the message broker software to implement the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol, AMQP). Once the API server 41 puts the message in the queue to initiate a task, the proxy software forwards the message to the virtual client 43. Task queue 42 also monitors the lifecycle of each task, including PENDING, start, success, failure, and retry. In addition, task queue 42 can design workflows and schedule tasks. Workflow design allows you to dynamically schedule the execution of tasks. With proper scheduling, each task has a cycle time and regularly tests the quality of the experience.

The virtual client 43 is responsible for performing the experience quality test, and each virtual client 43 generates an independent traffic load to perform an experience quality performance test on a particular gateway. In order to isolate these virtual clients 43, and also to allow experience quality performance testing to be performed simultaneously, the present invention uses two constituent elements. The first component is the network namespaces, which are logically another copy of the network stack, including its own routes, firewall rules, and network devices. In other words, with a network namespace, developers can have different, separate network interfaces and independently manipulated routing table instances. By enabling the network namespace in the Linux kernel, the virtual client 43 can generate the traffic load of the respective different network devices. The second component is a concurrent library. There are some functions in the parallel network library of the present invention, for example, it uses an asynchronous event processing software library (libevent) to achieve highly scalable asynchronous input/output (non-blocking I/O), and the synchronization program ensures synchronization. (blocking) programming style. With these two components, the present invention can efficiently generate hundreds of virtual clients 43 to perform experience quality testing.

In order to dynamically and quickly deploy network and network traffic routing under specific conditions, packet forwarding to the provisioning network 45 would be the best option. Packet Transfer (OpenFlow) is an open standard, a key overview of packet forwarding The idea is to decouple the control plane and data plane of the network switch. The data plane is responsible for processing and forwarding data packets, while the control plane is responsible for the implementation of the network protocol. This concept makes the packet forwarding network 45 programmable, and developers can quickly adjust the network path based on the characteristics of the application.

Under the architecture of the present invention, the virtual private connection between the experience quality test target and the virtual client 43 is achieved by the packet transfer provisioning network 45, which is controlled by the network controller 44. Based on the relevant parameters from task queue 42 and API server 41, network controller 44 can dynamically determine the optimal end-to-end flow path for the quality of performance test. To define the flow path from the virtual client 43 to the experience quality test target, each experience quality test has certain parameters that need to be set, for example, media access control address (MAC), VLAN ID, and experience quality test flag. The router, and the IP address of the virtual client 43, and even the location for quality of quality testing purposes, will be used to set up the flow of information on the packet forwarding switch. By using the network controller 44, these parameters will be injected into the flow entries of the packet forwarding switch to dynamically determine the path of the stream. Once the experience quality test is complete, the flow path and virtual client 43 will be destroyed to ensure the integrity of each test.

As mentioned earlier, the Quality of Experience system is designed to measure the quality of service on the network and can be used to measure the customer experience through Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE network services. Among these network services, the quality of Wi-Fi network is an important research case. In order to share the load of 3G or LTE networks, public Wi-Fi hotspots are an efficient solution. Customers and users can access the Internet via Wi-Fi hotspots such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, so users can free up the limitations of physical networks for mobility and convenience. In recent years, many countries have provided Wi-Fi hotspots in public places including train stations, convenience stores, airports, tourist attractions and so on. This means Wi-Fi experience Quality is a critical issue, so the present invention takes Wi-Fi experience quality as a research case.

The invention is equipped with a Centos 6.4 operating system on the Linux platform, simulating a plurality of users accessing the Internet through a Wi-Fi gateway, as the subject matter quality evaluation architecture proposed by the experiment of the present invention.

The schematic diagram of the quality measurement architecture of the present invention is shown in Fig. 5. First, the test script 55 is necessary. As an experience quality tester, the RESTful API must be designed into test script 55 to meet the test requirements. Second, the script 55 is executed to send a plurality of commands to the API server 51. Each command contains a unique media access control address that will be treated as a virtual client. Third, API server 51 will trigger task queue 52 to direct network controller 54 and virtual client 53 to generate virtual clients based on these media access control addresses, respectively. For example, assuming that 100 commands are sent to the API server 51, the virtual client 53 will generate 100 virtual clients based on the media access control address. In addition, the VLAN ID is set to a different service area (Zone). As long as these virtual clients have been successfully generated, the network controller 54 will transmit 100 requests to the DHCP service on the Wi-Fi gateway 57 via the packet forwarding gateway 56. The packet forwarding gateway 56 then redirects these requests to the appropriate service area based on the VLAN ID. Finally, each service area can be checked through different VLANs and checked if IP is assigned to each virtual client.

As shown in FIG. 6, the present invention also verifies functions including web identity authentication 61, ping 62 data packet, and FTP 63. The ping 62 is the basic method for verifying the network function. By adjusting the data packet size from 32 bytes to 1024 bytes, the data packet loss rate can be checked. FTP 63 It can be assumed that the user uses the Internet to upload or download files, and uses the way to upload and download 20-megabyte files over the Internet to test file transfers. As mentioned in the web identity authentication 61, each virtual client is assigned a DHCP IP address. In fact, users can use a tablet or other device to access an authentication server 64, such as an email website, Facebook, or online banking. It is therefore possible to utilize the given IP address to access the identity authentication server 64 and the correctness of the test.

That is, in an experimental environment with 500 clients, the traditional architecture requires 500 PCs to simulate 500 clients, and the connection between the client and the Wi-Fi gateway also requires many switches. This means that a lot of hardware resources are required, and power consumption and space for storing these computers have not been considered. The architecture of the present invention requires less resources than conventional approaches. In the same situation, simulating 500 clients, the architecture of the present invention can carry 500 virtual clients and one or two packet forwarding switches using only 12 servers, and the architecture of the present invention is remarkable compared with the conventional architecture. Reduce the use of resources.

As mentioned earlier, the traditional architecture requires more computers than the architecture of the present invention to simulate the client. Such a large number of computers are not easy to centrally manage. These computers will be separated in different computer rooms due to special constraints and other restrictions. If the demand changes, the quality tester must adjust the computers in different locations one by one. This also exposes the weaknesses of traditional architecture. In contrast, the architecture of the present invention is ideal for centralization, with 12 servers and packet forwarding switches making it easier to find the same room to place. This also means that the present invention can quickly adjust the experience quality test environment when the demand changes, and the architecture of the present invention is more portable than the conventional architecture.

Experience quality testing is an important part of providing network services. question. The present invention proposes a software-defined measurement architecture to simplify the overall processing process and implement a dynamic, centralized control mechanism. In addition, the present invention implements this architecture in a Wi-Fi network environment. Through DHCP session and web identity authentication, the experimental results prove that the architecture of the present invention can be more cost effective and more portable. The architecture of the present invention can be further applied to broadband, 3G, or LTE networks, which can improve the ability to measure network service quality, while also reducing fixed capital expenditures and management cost expenditures.

When the software definition experience quality measurement architecture of the present invention is compared with the conventional technology, the following advantages are obtained:

A software-defined experience quality measurement architecture of the present invention proposes a cost-effective and software-defined network (SDN), which adopts a centralized control mechanism and can simultaneously measure quality of experience of multiple users. Architecture.

Compared with the traditional architecture, the architecture of the present invention significantly reduces the use of resources. When the requirements change, the present invention can quickly adjust the experience quality test environment, and the architecture of the present invention is more portable than the traditional architecture.

The invention is implemented in a Wi-Fi network environment, and can be more cost effective and more portable through DHCP session and web identity authentication. The architecture of the present invention can be further applied to broadband, 3G, or LTE networks, which can improve the ability to measure network service quality, while also reducing fixed capital expenditures and management cost expenditures.

The detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention is intended to be construed as the invention The patent scope of this case.

In summary, the case is truly innovative in terms of technical thinking. The multiple functions of the prior art are in full compliance with the statutory invention patent requirements of novelty and progressiveness. If a patent application is filed according to law, you are requested to approve the invention patent application to encourage the invention.

32‧‧‧Wi-Fi gateway

33‧‧‧Test result collector

34‧‧‧Package transfer to backbone network

35‧‧‧Network Controller

36‧‧‧Server

37‧‧‧Network equipment

38‧‧‧ backbone network

39A‧‧‧Computer Room A

39B‧‧‧Computer Room B

Claims (9)

A software-defined experience quality measurement system includes: an application interface server, which generates a test task according to a setting; and a task queue module, the task queue module generates a dynamic schedule after receiving the test task. a virtual client that performs the test task on the external gateway according to the sequence of the dynamic schedule queue in the task queue module; a packet forwarding open network establishes the external gateway and the A virtual private connection between the virtual clients; and a network controller that sets the transport forwarding of the packet forwarding switch in the open network and dynamically determines the flow path of the test task. The software-defined experience quality measurement system described in claim 1, wherein the application interface server is an application interface server that transmits a design-style application (RESTful API) based on a characteristic state to dynamically Cooperate with the integration task to form a control mechanism framework. The software defined experience quality measurement system of claim 1, wherein the application interface server further comprises a network server gateway interface. The software defined experience quality measuring system according to claim 1, wherein the task queue module comprises a task agent software, and the task agent soft system coordinates the application interface server and the virtual client. The dynamic scheduling queue protocol, when the application interface server places the test task in the dynamic scheduling queue to start the test task, the task proxy software delivers the test task to the virtual client The task queue module monitors the life cycle of the test task, where life The cycle includes pause, start, success, failure, and retry; and the task queue dynamically schedules the dynamic schedule for the test task. The software defined experience quality measurement system according to claim 1, wherein the virtual client comprises: a network namespace component, the network namespace component includes its own route, firewall rules and network And a parallel library that utilizes the network namespace component and the parallel library to perform the test task. For example, the software definition experience quality measurement system described in claim 5, wherein the network namespace component has a different, separate network interface and an independently operated routing table instance, which is enabled in the Linux kernel. The network namespace, which generates the traffic load of the different network devices. For example, the software defined experience quality measurement system described in claim 5, wherein the parallel library performs highly extended asynchronous input and output through an asynchronous event processing software library, and a collaborative program to ensure synchronous programming. style. The software defined experience quality measuring system according to claim 1, wherein the network controller determines, according to the plurality of related parameters from the task queue module and the application interface server, from the virtual The flow path of the test task from the client to the external gateway, each of the relevant parameters including the media access control address, the VLAN ID, the IP address of the gateway and the virtual client, and the location of the quality of the test purpose. For example, the software definition experience quality measuring system described in claim 1 of the patent scope, wherein the packet forwarding network has programmable features and can be fast Speed the network path.