KR101883712B1 - Method, apparatus and computer program for managing a network function virtualization system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a server for executing a network function virtualization manager for managing at least one virtual network function, the server for generating an interface capable of receiving a user input for a user setting parameter of a virtual network function, A set of at least one API plugin module for generating configuration information for a virtual network function; A set of at least one driver plug-in module for setting the virtual network function according to the setting information; A storage for storing the setting information for the virtual network function and for storing network information of the virtual machine implementing the virtual network function and setting information of the virtual machine; And selecting an API plug-in module and a driver plug-in module to be linked to the virtual network function in the API plug-in module set and the driver plug-in module set, matching the selected API plug-in module and the selected driver plug- And a matching unit operable to cooperate with the matching unit.

Description

METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR MANAGING A NETWORK FUNCTION VIRTUALIZATION SYSTEM,

The present invention relates to a method for operating a network function virtualization (NFV) system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for setting a virtual network function (VNF) in an NFV platform.

Recently, network function virtualization technology is making new changes throughout the network architecture, which is hardware-oriented. Network function Virtualization, or NFV, is a concept that is implemented on a virtual machine (VM) server, hardware with a general-purpose processor, and a cloud computer, by separating the hardware and software components of the network and virtualizing the functions of the physical network equipment .

According to this, various network devices such as routers, load balancers, firewalls, intrusion prevention, and virtual private networks can be implemented as software on general servers, thereby avoiding the vendor dependency of the network configuration. Expensive dedicated equipment can be replaced by general-purpose hardware and dedicated software. Furthermore, it has the advantage of being able to quickly cope with traffic change as well as equipment operation cost reduction.

Software-defined networking (SDN) technology, on the other hand, separates the complexity of the control plane from the data plane. According to this, the complicated functions of the control plane are processed by software, and the data plane can perform only simple functions indicated by the control plane, such as transferring, ignoring, and changing network packets. With these changes, software can develop new network functions without complex hardware constraints, while at the same time making various attempts that were not possible with previous network architectures.

The NFV and the SDN are separate technologies, but can complement each other. This is because various network functions implemented by software by NFV can be efficiently controlled using SDN.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for setting and / or controlling the VNF of a 3 ^rd party vendor that does not conform to the standard interface in the NFV platform.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a server for executing a network function virtualization manager for managing at least one virtual network function according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an interface capable of receiving user input on user setting parameters of a virtual network function A set of at least one API plug-in module for generating configuration information for the virtual network function according to the user input; A set of at least one driver plug-in module for setting the virtual network function according to the setting information; A storage for storing the setting information for the virtual network function and for storing network information of the virtual machine implementing the virtual network function and setting information of the virtual machine; And selecting an API plug-in module and a driver plug-in module to be linked to the virtual network function in the API plug-in module set and the driver plug-in module set, matching the selected API plug-in module and the selected driver plug- And a matching unit operable to cooperate with the matching unit.

Further, in a server according to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of operating a network function virtualization manager managing at least one or more virtual network functions includes generating an interface capable of receiving a user input for a user setting parameter of a virtual network function Executing at least one API plug-in module for generating configuration information for the virtual network function according to the user input; Executing at least one driver plug-in module that sets the virtual network function according to the setting information; Storing the setting information for the virtual network function, storing network information of the virtual machine implementing the virtual network function, and setting information of the virtual machine; And connecting the API plug-in module and the driver plug-in module to the virtual network function by pairing the API plug-in module and the driver plug-in module.

According to the present invention, the VNF that does not conform to the standard interface can be set in the NFV platform, and the network function virtualization system can be flexibly operated.

1 is a diagram for explaining a standard architecture of an NFV system;
2 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of a framework for controlling an arbitrary VNF in an NFV system according to an embodiment of the present invention
3 is a diagram for explaining an example of controlling a VNF according to an embodiment of the present invention;

It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the description of the embodiments described below, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the technical scope of the present invention. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail.

In the drawings, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals. And in the accompanying drawings, some of the elements may be exaggerated, omitted or schematically illustrated. It is intended to clearly illustrate the gist of the present invention by omitting unnecessary explanations not related to the gist of the present invention. Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram for explaining an NFV system standard framework.

The NFV system may comprise a VNF 20, a VNF infrastructure 30, and a VNF management and orchestration 10 module as shown in FIG.

In the NFV system, the VNF 20 is a collection of virtualization objects (e.g., Firewall, DPI, EPC systems, etc.) that provide specific network functionality. The VNF 20 functional block may include an EM (Element Management) 21. The EM may configure and monitor VNF-related functions and may have a log thereon.

The VNFI (30, NFV Infrastructure) of FIG. 1 means all physical and logical resources supporting the NFV system, and can perform the function of providing virtual resources through virtualization steps with physical elements.

On the other hand, in the NFV system, the management and orchestration 20 can provide a function of registering the NFV in the catalog, creating an instance capable of executing the registered NFV, and allocating physical resources and virtual resources to the instance.

The NFV management and orchestration may include an orchestrator 11, an NFVO, a VNFM 12, and a VNF infrastructure manager 13 as shown in FIG.

In particular, the VNFM 12 is an entity for managing the life cycle of a VNF instance, and manages at least one or more VNF instances, wherein the VNF instance may be the same type or another type. The VNFM may provide general common functions applicable to all types of VNFs, such as VNF instantiation, VNF instance software update and upgrade, VNF instance change, recovery, and termination.

On the other hand, in the architecture shown in FIG. 1, the control for any VNF can be performed by the EM 21 or the VNFM 12, and the implementation scenario between the VNF, the EM, and the VNFM in the NFV standardization group is not confirmed. The VNF configuration interface is also not standardized.

Therefore, depending on the vendor, the VNF may have various setting values, and the setting method of the same type of VNF may vary depending on the vendor. In some cases, modifications to the VM (Virtual Machine) that implements the VNF are not allowed according to the vendor policy. If the modification of the VM is not allowed, there may occur a situation where the EM agent performing the VNF setting function can not be executed in the corresponding VM.

The present invention is intended to solve such a problem that occurs because the VNF setting interface standard is not established. More specifically, according to the present invention, a plug-in module capable of setting an arbitrary VNF is executed in the VNFM 12, and an arbitrary VNF can be set in the VNFM through the plug-in module.

To this end, the VNFM 12 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes an API plug-in module for generating an interface capable of receiving user input for a user setting parameter of the VNF and generating setting information for the corresponding VNF according to user input . Further, the VNFM 12 according to the embodiment of the present invention may include a driver plug-in module for setting an arbitrary VNF according to the setting information.

The API plug-in module and the driver plug-in module may be provided in a pair, and a more detailed description of the VNFM setting of the VNFM using the API plug-in module and the driver plug-in module pair according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings Described below.

2 is a block diagram for explaining a configuration of a framework for controlling an arbitrary VNF in an NFV system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the VNFM 210 includes a web UI 220, an API plug-in module 230, a network function service module 240, a driver plug-in module 250, RTI ID = 0.0 > 260 < / RTI >

The network function service module 240 may operate as an entity that performs life cycle management of a VNF instance handled by a conventional VNFM, such as generating at least one VNF instance and performing a monitoring function for managing the state of the VNF .

The API plug-in module 230 is a set of plug-in applications that provide an API that the user can use for any VNF configuration. At this time, the web UI 220 can be linked to receive user input.

On the other hand, FIG. 2 shows that the Web UI 220 is included in the VNFM 210, but this is merely an example. That is, the web UI 220 may be omitted depending on the implementation.

The user setting parameters are different depending on the VNF type (for example, LB, FW, IDS, etc.), and even the same type of VNF may be different depending on the vendor. Therefore, the API plug-in module may generate an interface capable of receiving a user input for a VNF user setting parameter, and may generate setting information for the corresponding VNF according to a user input.

For example, the user setting parameters for the LB (Load Balancer) include adding, deleting, changing, or adding, deleting, or changing the target port, so the API plugin module for setting LB provides arbitrary LB function Delete, change, or add a load balancing port to the VNF, delete or change the load balancing port, and so on.

The API plug-in module 230 according to the embodiment of the present invention can be always provided in a pair with the driver plug-in module 250 that transmits the generated configuration information to the VNF.

The driver plug-in module 250 may transmit configuration information generated according to a user input received through the API plug-in module 230 to the corresponding VNF. At this time, the driver may be implemented according to the setting method provided by the vendor of the corresponding VNF.

In the previous example of configuring the VNF that provides the LB function, when a specific vendor allows ssh connection, the driver plugin module accesses the corresponding VM using ssh and directly modifies the configuration file according to the setting information. As shown in FIG. On the other hand, if another vendor provides RestAPI, the driver plugin module can configure VNF using RestAPI.

It should be noted that the API plug-in module and the driver plug-in module according to the embodiment of the present invention are always provided in pairs but not in a 1: 1 relationship.

In the above example, a plurality of plug-in modules having different user configuration parameter configurations, such as an API capable of changing both the target server and the target port, and an API capable of changing only the server, may exist for the same type of VNF. Furthermore, a driver plug-in module may be connected to the VM to directly change a configuration file, and a driver for setting VNF using RestAPI may exist for the same type of VNF.

In this case, API plug-in modules and driver plug-in module pairs can be formed in various combinations such as (LB_FULL_API, LB_COMMON_DRIVER), (LB_FULL_API, LB_F5_DRIVER), (LB_MINIMUM_API, LB_F5_DRIVER).

Meanwhile, the VNFM according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a configuration information storage 260 as shown in FIG. This is to provide a storage service for configuration management.

More specifically, the setting information storage 260 stores the user setting information generated by the API plug-in module 230 for the corresponding VNF, and stores network setting information such as IP, NIP, and MAC address for the VM implementing the VNF Can play a role. Furthermore, the configuration information repository can be utilized as a shared repository for a plurality of VNFs.

When the setting information storage 260 is constructed in the VNFM, the user setting information and the network setting information of the specific VNF can be shared or copied to other VNFs. For example, when an arbitrary VNF instance is copied to provide high availability, the configuration information storage can be used to share configuration information of the VNF without a separate protocol, thereby simplifying installation.

On the other hand, various scenarios for setting the VNF according to the VNF modifiable level can be considered.

For example, consider the case where the VNF of the node 270 in FIG. 2 is allowed to modify the VM. In this case, not only the corresponding VNF can be set through the API plug-in module 230 and the driver plug-in module 250, but also an EM agent providing the setting API can be installed.

 In this case, the setting information generated by the EM can be shared (275, 277) with the API plug-in module and the driver plug-in module, and the related information can be stored in the setting information storage 260.

As another example, a configuration API may be separately provided in the VNF of the node 280 in FIG. In this case, the driver plug-in module capable of setting the corresponding VNF according to the embodiment of the present invention is linked with the setting API (285), or the API plug-in module according to the embodiment of the present invention And the driver plug-in module sets the corresponding VNF.

As another example, consider a case where no modification is allowed in the VNF of the node such as 290 in FIG. In this case, the configuration information may be generated through the API plug-in module according to the embodiment of the present invention, and the driver plug-in module may directly set (295) the corresponding VNF.

3 is a diagram for explaining an example of controlling a VNF according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 is an example of setting up a VNF that provides LB functionality.

The user setting parameter for LB is a min-API 310 for HTTP only, or a max-API 315 for HTTP, HTTPS, and SSL_Proxy that provides only a server setting function, .

Further, as a method of setting the VNF for providing the LB function, the web driver 330 for controlling the web protocol and the ssh driver 325 for controlling the ssh protocol can be considered.

In this situation, a combination of the API plug-in and the driver plug-in that can be set for setting the first LB 340, the second LB 350, and the third LB 360 is as follows.

(min-API, web driver, LB # 1): Controlling the first LB with the Web protocol using minimal functionality

(min-API, web driver, LB # 2): Control the second LB with the Web protocol using minimal functionality

(max-API, web driver, LB # 1): Controlling the first LB with Web protocol using maximum function

(max-API, web driver, LB # 2): Controlling the second LB with Web protocol using maximum function

(max-API, ssh driver, LB # 2): control the second LB with ssh protocol using maximal function

(max-API, ssh driver, LB # 3): control the third LB with the ssh protocol using maximum functionality

The embodiments of the present invention disclosed in the present specification and drawings are intended to be illustrative only and not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other modifications based on the technical idea of the present invention are possible in addition to the embodiments disclosed herein.

Claims (4)

A server that executes a network function virtualization manager that manages at least one or more virtual network functions,
A set of at least one API plugin module for generating an interface capable of receiving user input for a user setting parameter of a virtual network function and generating configuration information for the virtual network function according to the user input;
A set of at least one driver plug-in module for setting the virtual network function according to the setting information;
A storage for storing the setting information for the virtual network function and for storing network information of the virtual machine implementing the virtual network function and setting information of the virtual machine; And
Selecting an API plug-in module and a driver plug-in module to be linked to the virtual network function in the API plug-in module set and the driver plug-in module set, matching the selected API plug-in module and the selected driver plug- And a matching unit operatively coupled to the virtual network function manager. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the set of API plug-in modules includes a plurality of API plug-in modules having different configurations of the set of user-
Wherein the set of driver plug-in modules includes a plurality of driver plug-in modules that are different in a manner of setting the virtual network function. 1. A method of operating a network function virtualization manager in a server, the network virtualization manager managing at least one or more virtual network functions,
Executing at least one API plug-in module for generating an interface capable of receiving user input for a user setting parameter of a virtual network function and generating configuration information for the virtual network function according to the user input;
Executing at least one driver plug-in module that sets the virtual network function according to the setting information;
Storing the setting information for the virtual network function, storing network information of the virtual machine implementing the virtual network function, and setting information of the virtual machine;
And plugging the API plug-in module and the driver plug-in module into a pair and interworking with the virtual network function. delete

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