CN110061853B

CN110061853B - Policy processing method, device and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN110061853B
Application number: CN201810046344.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张可
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2018-01-17
Filing date: 2018-01-17
Publication date: 2023-03-14
Anticipated expiration: 2038-01-17
Also published as: CN110061853A

Abstract

The invention provides a strategy processing method and a device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps of establishing a policy processing device in advance according to a micro-service framework of Restful, using the policy processing device as an independent process after starting, receiving information of NFVO or VNFM according to the policy processing device, managing the policy and executing the policy, avoiding the need of performing policy management in the NFVO or VNFM respectively in the related technology, solving the problems of complex policy management and high maintenance cost in the NFV scene in the related technology, using the same policy processing device for serving the NFVO and the VNFM, being convenient and fast to manage, reducing maintenance cost, increasing generality and expandability of policy execution, and meeting the requirements of a platform architecture facing micro-service.

Description

Policy processing method, device and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a policy processing method and apparatus.

Background

In the related art, network Function Virtualization (NFV) is proposed by telecommunication Network operators, and refers to a technical standard for using a large-capacity server, a storage and a switch which are standard in the industry to carry various Network software Functions by means of IT Virtualization technology, and the main idea of NFV is to deploy all Network function software to virtual machines on a commercial server instead of to deploy the Network function software to dedicated Network devices thereof individually. The NFV realizes flexible loading of software and flexible deployment and configuration at various positions such as a data center, a network node, a user side and the like, thereby accelerating the speed of network deployment and adjustment, reducing the complexity of service deployment, and improving the unification, generalization, adaptability and the like of network equipment.

In the NFV scene, after the network element deployment of an operator is finished and operation is started, an elastic threshold is set for key indexes in order to achieve the optimal network service quality, save resources and reduce energy consumption. When the threshold reaches elastic expansion, corresponding virtual machines and modules are popped up according to the elastic surfaces and the elastic step lengths corresponding to the elastic indexes, and after receiving the virtual machines, the network elements perform load balancing processing, so that the load of the original processing module is reduced, and the network service quality is provided. When the threshold value reaches elastic shrinkage, the corresponding virtual machine and the corresponding module are shrunk according to the elastic surface and the elastic step length corresponding to the elastic index, before elasticity, the Network element receives a notification, and removes services on the virtual machine, and then a Virtual Network Function Manager (VNFM) deletes the corresponding virtual machine, so that resources and energy consumption are saved. In addition, for a load balancing scenario among network elements, if a network element detects that a certain Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is abnormal, a higher-level network element is triggered to modify a distribution policy, or a higher-level network element detects that a certain KPI is abnormal, and the higher-level network element is triggered to modify the distribution policy, the corresponding policy module is required to complete different policy actions according to policy rules.

In the current NFV scenario, most of the policy management modules are coupled to a Network Function Virtualization controller NFVO (Network Function Virtualization) or VNFM, and meanwhile, different policy modules process Network Function (NF) policies and Network Service (NS) policies, which do not have generality and extensibility, and cannot meet the needs of a current platform architecture facing microservices, and the maintenance cost of each module is increased.

Aiming at the problems of complex strategy management and high maintenance cost in NFV scenes in the related art, no effective solution is available at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a policy processing method and device, which are used for at least solving the problems of complex policy management and high maintenance cost in an NFV (network function virtualization) scene in the related art.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a policy processing method is provided, which is applied in a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) scenario, and includes: the policy device receives policy information set by at least one of the following functional entities: a network function virtual controller NFVO, a virtual network function manager VNFM; the strategy device is established in advance according to a micro service framework for transmitting Restful in a representational state; and managing or executing the strategy according to the strategy information.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a policy processing apparatus applied in a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) scenario, including: the receiving module is used for receiving the policy information set by at least one of the following functional entities: a network function virtual controller NFVO, a virtual network function manager VNFM; the strategy processing device is established by a micro service framework which transmits Restful in advance according to the representational state; and the processing module is used for managing the strategy or executing the strategy according to the strategy information.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a storage medium including a stored program, wherein the program is operable to perform the method of any of the above-mentioned alternative embodiments.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a processor for executing a program, wherein the program executes to perform the method according to any one of the above-mentioned alternative embodiments.

According to the invention, a policy processing device is established in advance according to a Restful microservice framework and is used as an independent process after being started, the information of NFVO or VNFM is received according to the policy processing device, so that the policy and the execution policy are managed, the problem that the policy management needs to be respectively carried out in the NFVO or VNFM in the related technology is solved, the problems that the policy management is complex and the maintenance cost is high in the NFV scene in the related technology are solved, the same policy processing device is used for serving the nfVO or the VNFM, the management is convenient and fast, the maintenance cost is reduced, the universality and the expandability of policy execution are increased, and the requirement of a platform architecture facing microservice is met.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention without limiting the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a policy processing method according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an XML policy rules file according to the related art;

FIG. 3 is an overall networking diagram of an apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block schematic diagram of an apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a sequence diagram of policy management enforcement in the NFV scenario according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a sequence diagram of policy enforcement in the NFV scenario according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Example one

In this embodiment, a policy processing method operating in an NFV scenario is provided, and fig. 1 is a flowchart of a policy processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, where the flowchart includes the following steps:

step S102, the policy device receives the policy information set by at least one of the following functional entities: a network function virtual controller NFVO, a virtual network function manager VNFM; wherein, the strategy device is established by a micro service framework which transmits Restful in advance according to the representational state;

step S104, managing the strategy or executing the strategy according to the strategy information.

Through the steps, a policy processing device is established in advance according to a micro-service framework of Restful and serves as an independent process after being started, information of NFVO or VNFM is received according to the policy processing device, then the policy and the execution policy are managed, the fact that policy management needs to be carried out in the NFVO or VNFM in the related technology is avoided, the problems that the policy management in an NFV scene in the related technology is complex and the maintenance cost is high are solved, the same policy processing device is used for serving the NFVO and the VNFM in the related technology, management is convenient and fast, the maintenance cost is reduced, the universality and expandability of policy execution are improved, and the requirement of a platform framework facing micro-service is met.

Optionally, the policy processing device performs information interaction with the NFVO or the VNFM as an independent service process.

Optionally, the policy processing device performs information interaction with the NFVO or the VNFM through REST and Javascript object markup language JSON format.

Optionally, the policy information received by the policy processing device includes at least one of:

the strategy information is in an extensible markup language (XML) format;

the object type of the policy information is specified by an object attribute in the root tag in the policy information (it is to be added that object is an attribute in the policy information in the related art). (optionally, chinese corresponding to object is the target).

One or more policy labels are contained in the root, and the policy labels are used for indicating that the policy is a flexible scaling type policy and/or an event type policy; specifically, the elastic scaling policy is indicated by scaletype, and the event type policy is indicated by the event attribute.

The strategy information of the event type comprises event attributes;

the policy label includes: a policy trigger condition and a triggered action, wherein the triggered action comprises at least one of: elastic telescopic action and universal action;

the group of strategy trigger conditions comprises the logic relation between each strategy trigger condition;

the strategy triggering condition comprises a time datatime type or a digital numeric type;

the triggered action tag indicates an action parameter through a parameter sub-tag.

Specifically, the invention provides a general policy rule file based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), wherein the structure of the policy rule file is shown in fig. 2, and fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an XML policy rule file according to the related art;

the object type of the policy file is specified to be NF on VNFM, NS on NFVO and other objects such as network slices and the like through object attributes in the root tag in the policy rule file;

one or more policies are contained under the root, the policies tag can specify the flexible scaling type scaletype (In, out, up, down) of the policy, and the event type policy can specify the event attribute;

the condition of the policy trigger and the action of the trigger are contained under the policy tag; a group of condition tags are wrapped by one condition tag, the condition can specify that a relation attribute is (and, or) to indicate the logical relation of the condition, the type of the condition can be a datatime type, the strategy trigger time is set through a mark bit (1, 0), the strategy trigger time can also be numeric, the value of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) index determines the trigger condition of the strategy, and the event strategy triggers the strategy according to the match of the parameter carried by the name and the event url of the condition;

the action tag defines the action triggered by the strategy, and indicates whether the action is an elastic expansion action or a general action according to the action types of 0 and 1, and the general action is a specific operation indicated by an operation attribute; the action tag may specify action parameters such as the step size of the elastic expansion of the finger, etc. via the parameter sub-tag.

Optionally, managing the policy according to the policy information includes: receiving notification information of a VNFM, wherein after the VNFM executes VNF instantiation operation according to the notification of the NFVO, the VNFM sends out the notification information carrying the policy information; managing a policy according to the notification information, wherein the managing policy includes at least one of: loading a default strategy of a network service NS or a network function NF instance, analyzing a strategy rule in the strategy information, adding a strategy, deleting the strategy, modifying the strategy, activating the strategy, deactivating the strategy and clearing the strategy.

Optionally, executing the policy according to the policy information includes: the strategy device acquires KPIs of a plurality of strategy information in a current NFV scene through a VNFM; determining triggered first policy information based on at least one of: the size relationship between the KPI corresponding to each strategy information and a preset value, and the priority order of the strategy information; and executing the operation corresponding to the first policy information through the VNFM.

The following detailed description will proceed with reference being made to the preferred embodiments of the invention

In view of this, the present invention provides a general policy management method for micro services in an NFV scenario, which can meet policy management requirements of different levels of NS or NF in the NFV scenario.

The invention discloses a device, which is based on a micro service frame of Representational State Transfer (Restful for short), is started to serve as an independent service process and interacts with NFVO or VNFM in a Rest + JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format. It should be noted that the VNFM may include a VNFM-G general M and a VNFM-S specific M, and the VNFM-G may have a plurality of VNFM-S plug-ins. Fig. 3 shows an overall networking diagram of the device, and fig. 3 shows an overall networking diagram of the device according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 3, a Policy Adapter (PA) module of the NFVO or VNFM is responsible for interacting with the device.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 4, the apparatus mainly includes modules of policy management, policy scheduling, policy execution, policy storage, KPI caching, and the like. It should be added that each of the above modules corresponds to a part of the functions of the processing module described in the previous embodiment.

The policy management provides operation management such as loading of default policies of the NS or NF instances, policy rule analysis, policy addition, policy deletion, policy modification, policy activation, policy deactivation and policy cleaning.

The policy schedule provides time scheduling management of policies, supports definition of arbitrary hours per 24 hours per day, supports definition of arbitrary days per 7 days per week, supports definition of arbitrary days per month, supports definition from one day to one day, supports execution period of policies, and the like, in a format such as < condition en-desc = "Running time per day" zh-desc = "Running time per day" name = "hoursOfDay" value = "111110111111111111101111" type = "datetime"/>, with

flag bits

0, 1 indicating validity or not.

The policy execution provides policy execution, supports threshold times (the flexibility is started after the KPI reaches a threshold value for several cycles), flexible cooling time (that is, the time between the successful expansion and contraction of the current time and the next expansion and contraction can be set), supports defining a plurality of conditions, supports defining the logical relationship between the conditions, supports policy priority processing (preferential expansion under the same priority), and supports defining event triggering.

The strategy storage provides strategy instance files for landing, and corresponding strategy instance files are stored according to NF or NS instance classification, so that the strategy instance backup recovery can be realized.

The KPI cache provides KPI index values of real-time storage strategies, supports the setting of the validity period of the indexes, and is used for comparing threshold values, triggering strategy events and the like during the execution of the strategies.

The following are specific examples of preferred embodiments of the invention

Fig. 5 is a sequence diagram of policy management implementation in an NFV scenario according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the implementation steps are as follows:

step S501, a virtual Network function VNF (Virtualized Network Functions) instantiation is initiated from the NFVO;

step S502, the NFVO informs the VNFM to carry out VNF instantiation operation;

step S503, the VNFM executes a VNF instantiation process;

step S504, the VNFM instantiation is completed, and the device is informed to load the default strategy of the current VNF instance;

step S505, the device analyzes the strategy rule file and converts the strategy rule file into an internal data structure;

step S506, the device sends the analyzed strategy rule file to a strategy storage module for storage;

step S507, the strategy scheduling module of the device starts to schedule the strategy of the current instance;

step S508, initiating strategy change from NFVO, including strategy addition, strategy modification, strategy deletion, strategy activation, strategy deactivation, etc.;

step S509, the NFVO sends the change policy content to the VNFM;

step S510, the VNFM continuously sends the changed strategy to the device for processing;

step S511, the device updates the new strategy content to the strategy storage;

step S512, the device dispatches new strategies according to the new strategy contents;

step S513, initiate VNF instance termination from NFVO

Step S514, the NFVO notifies the VFNM to terminate the VNF instance;

step S515, the VNFM informs the device to clear the strategy of the current instance;

step S516, the device clears the strategy of the current instance and stops the scheduling of the strategy of the current instance;

step S517, after the device is cleaned, a VNFM response is returned;

in step S518, the VNFM termination VNF instance is completed.

Fig. 6 is a sequence diagram of policy enforcement in the NFV scenario according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the specific steps in enforcement are as follows:

step S601, the device executes flexible strategy scheduling;

step S602, the device acquires KPI of VNF at regular time according to strategy condition to VNFM-G;

step S603, the VNFM-G goes to a VNFM-S plug-in unit to acquire KPI of the VNF;

step S604, the VNFM-S finally acquires all KPI indexes on the VNF;

step S605, the VNFM-G returns the acquired KPI to the device;

step S606, the device updates KPI cache by using the newly acquired KPI index;

step S607, the strategy executing module of the device fetches the current strategy KPI from the KPI cache to execute;

step S608, the device strategy executing module compares the acquired KPI with the condition index threshold of the strategy, and filters according to the priority of the strategy to finally select the strategy meeting the conditions;

step S609, the policy execution module of the device triggers a policy action that meets the conditional policy, which is an elastic expansion and contraction action here for example;

step S610, the VNFM-G receives the elastic expansion and contraction request and continuously initiates an elastic request to the VNFM-S;

step S611, after the VNFM-S finishes elastic pretreatment, responding to the VNFM-G;

step S612, the VNFM-G continues to request the Virtualized Infrastructure Manager VIM (Virtualized Infrastructure Manager) to create an elastic resource;

step S613, after the VIM creates the resources, responding to the VNFM-G;

step S614, the VNFM-G informs the VNFM-S of the elastic completion processing;

step S615, after the VNFM-S finishes post-processing, responding to the VNFM-G;

step S616, the VNFM-G notifies the user of the elastic completion of the device;

in step S617, the present apparatus records the flexible recording and scheduling process.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the method according to the above embodiments can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware, but the former is a better implementation mode in many cases. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention or portions thereof contributing to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes instructions for enabling a terminal device (which may be a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a network device) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present invention.

Example two

In this embodiment, a policy processing apparatus is further provided, and the apparatus is used to implement the foregoing embodiments and preferred embodiments, and details of which have been already described are omitted. As used below, the term "module" may be a combination of software and/or hardware that implements a predetermined function. Although the means described in the embodiments below are preferably implemented in software, an implementation in hardware or a combination of software and hardware is also possible and contemplated.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a policy processing apparatus, applied in a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) scenario, including:

the receiving module is used for receiving the policy information set by at least one of the following functional entities: a network function virtual controller NFVO, a virtual network function manager VNFM; wherein, the strategy processing device is established by a micro service framework which transmits Restful in advance according to the representational state;

and the processing module is used for managing the strategy or executing the strategy according to the strategy information.

Optionally, the receiving module or the processing module is configured to perform information interaction with the NFVO or the VNFM as an independent service process.

Optionally, the policy information received by the receiving module includes: the strategy information is in an extensible markup language (XML) format; the object type of the strategy information is specified in a root label in the strategy information through an object attribute; the root label comprises one or more strategy labels, and the strategy label is used for indicating that the strategy is an elastic expansion type strategy and/or an event type strategy; the policy tag includes: a policy trigger condition and a triggered action, wherein the triggered action comprises at least one of: elastic expansion and contraction action and general action; the group of strategy trigger conditions comprises the logic relation between each strategy trigger condition; the strategy triggering condition comprises a time datatime type or a digital numeric type; the triggered action tag indicates an action parameter through a parameter sub-tag.

It should be noted that the above modules may be implemented by software or hardware, and for the latter, the following may be implemented, but not limited to: the modules are all positioned in the same processor; alternatively, the modules are located in different processors in any combination.

EXAMPLE III

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a policy processing system applied in a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) scenario, including: a network function virtual controller NFVO and/or a virtual network function manager VNFM issues strategy information to a strategy device; the strategy device manages the strategy or executes the strategy according to the strategy information, wherein the strategy device is established in advance according to a micro service framework for transmitting Restful according to the representational state.

Example four

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a processor for executing a program, wherein the program executes to perform the method according to any one of the above-mentioned optional embodiments.

EXAMPLE five

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the modules or steps of the present invention described above may be implemented by a general purpose computing device, they may be centralized on a single computing device or distributed across a network of multiple computing devices, and alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by a computing device, such that they may be stored in a storage device and executed by a computing device, and in some cases, the steps shown or described may be performed in an order different than that described herein, or they may be separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or multiple ones of them may be fabricated into a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A strategy processing method is applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) scene, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

the policy device receives policy information set by at least one of the following functional entities: a network function virtual controller NFVO, a virtual network function manager VNFM; the strategy device is established by a micro service framework which transmits Restful in advance according to the representational state;

managing a policy or executing a policy according to the policy information; the strategy information is in an extensible markup language (XML) format; the object type of the policy information is specified in a root tag in the policy information through an object attribute; the root tag comprises one or more policy tags which are used for indicating that the root tag is a flexible scaling type policy and/or an event type policy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy device interacts with the NFVO or VNFM as a separate service process.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy tag comprises: a policy trigger condition and a triggered action, wherein the triggered action comprises at least one of: elastic expansion and contraction action and general action;

4. The method of claim 1, wherein managing policies according to the policy information comprises:

receiving notification information of a VNFM, wherein after the VNFM executes VNF instantiation operation according to the notification of the NFVO, the VNFM sends out the notification information carrying the policy information;

managing a policy in accordance with the notification information, wherein the managing policy includes at least one of:

adding a strategy;

deleting the strategy;

modifying the strategy;

activating a policy;

deactivating the policy;

and (4) clearing the strategy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein enforcing policies based on the policy information comprises:

the strategy device acquires KPIs of a plurality of strategy information in the current NFV scene through a VNFM;

determining triggered first policy information based on at least one of: the size relationship between the KPI corresponding to each strategy information and a preset value, and the priority order of the strategy information;

and executing the operation corresponding to the first policy information through the VNFM.

6. A policy processing device applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) scenario is characterized by comprising:

the receiving module is used for receiving the policy information set by at least one of the following functional entities: a network function virtual controller NFVO, a virtual network function manager VNFM; the strategy processing device is established in advance according to a micro service framework for transmitting Restful in a representational state;

the processing module is used for managing a strategy or executing the strategy according to the strategy information, and the strategy information is in an extensible markup language (XML) format; the object type of the policy information is specified by an object attribute in a root tag in the policy information; the root tag comprises one or more policy tags which are used for indicating that the root tag is a flexible scaling type policy and/or an event type policy.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the policy tag comprises: a policy trigger condition and a triggered action, wherein the triggered action comprises at least one of: elastic telescopic action and universal action;

8. A policy processing system applied to Network Function Virtualization (NFV) scenarios is characterized by comprising:

a network function virtual controller NFVO and/or a virtual network function manager VNFM issues strategy information to a strategy device;

and the strategy device manages the strategy or executes the strategy according to the strategy information, wherein the strategy device is established in advance according to a micro service framework for transmitting Restful according to the representational state.

9. A storage medium, comprising a stored program, wherein the program when executed performs the method of any of claims 1 to 5.

10. A processor, characterized in that the processor is configured to run a program, wherein the program when running performs the method of any of the preceding claims 1 to 5.