KR20170008435A - Network function virtual apparatus and method for syncronizing time the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A network function virtualization apparatus is disclosed. The network function virtualization apparatus comprises: a first OS; and at least one second OS. And a time synchronization method of the network function virtualization apparatus comprises the following steps: the first OS periodically performs time synchronization with an NTP server; at least one second OS performs time synchronization with the first OS; the at least one second OS receives physical CPU clock information from the first OS; and the at least one second OS modifies a time error by using the received CPU clock information. Accordingly, the efficiency of the apparatus can be improved.

Description

[0001] NETWORK FUNCTION VIRTUAL APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SYNCRONIZING TIME THE SAME [0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network device, and more particularly, to a network function virtualization device that performs NTP (Network Time Protocol) time synchronization and a time synchronization method thereof.

Recently, as the information and communication technology rapidly develops, a ubiquitous society based on information and communication technology is being made. The wired / wireless communication network is connected globally, and various needs of individuals, companies, and countries are being solved.

As the network environment becomes more and more network-centric and the age of IT becomes more and more important, in order to avoid the dependency on specific network equipment vendors and to reduce the investment cost and operation cost of expensive network equipment, R & D is being carried out variously under the leadership.

Among them, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) emerges. NFV technology is a technology that virtualizes software functions required for network configuration and control / management. It implements the limitations of network equipment composed of heterogeneous hardware devices to realize network functions using servers, storage and switches and IT virtualization. to be.

1, a network by NFV may include an Ethernet switch 11, a storage 12, a server 13, a virtualization infrastructure 14, a virtual cloud 15, and an NFV device may include a virtual cloud 15 A virtual router, a virtual SGSN / GGSN / PGW / S-GW, and a virtual IMS.

In addition, when an additional virtual machine (VM) is created for performance and capacity expansion in an NFV environment, time synchronization is required to ensure ordering of traffic between virtual machines.

In the prior art, time synchronization is performed as follows. Specifically, each VM accesses an NTP (Network Time Protocol) server to perform time synchronization, or after the Master VM performs time synchronization with an NTP server, the Master VM performs time synchronization with each VM.

In this case, there is a problem that a large load is generated in the NTP server and the master VM. Therefore, the rise of an improved time synchronization method under the NFV environment is required.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a network function virtualization apparatus and a time synchronization method thereof for preventing load on an NTP server.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a network function virtualization apparatus in which a frequency of time synchronization is frequently performed by a virtual machine.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are not restrictive of the invention, unless further departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It will be possible.

A time synchronization method of a network function virtualization apparatus according to various embodiments of the present invention includes: performing a time synchronization with a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server periodically by a first OS; At least one second OS performing time synchronization with the first OS; The at least one second OS receiving physical CPU clock information from the first OS; And correcting the time error using the received CPU clock information of the at least one second OS.

The first OS may store physical CPU clock information.

And the at least one second OS periodically performs time synchronization with the first OS.

The first OS periodically performs time synchronization with the NTP server, the NTP client program running in the first OS may periodically perform time synchronization with the NTP server through a NIC (Network Interface Card) .

The step of performing time synchronization with the first OS may perform time synchronization with an NTP daemon program driven in the first OS through the virtual NIC, wherein the NTP client program running in the at least one second OS is time synchronized with the NTP daemon program running in the first OS.

Wherein the step of performing time synchronization with the first OS comprises the steps of: receiving, by the virtual NIC, an NTP client program driven by the at least one second OS via a virtual switch (vSwitch) of a hypervisor; You can perform time synchronization with the NTP daemon program running on the OS.

Wherein the at least one second OS receives physical CPU clock information from the first OS comprises: the at least one second OS requesting the hypervisor for CPU clock information of the first OS; Can receive the CPU clock information by requesting the CPU OS information to the first OS.

The NTP server may be external to the virtualization device.

The first OS may be a Host OS, and the at least one second OS may be a Guest OS.

Also, the first NIC may be a physical NIC.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a network function virtualization apparatus includes a first OS;

Wherein the first OS periodically performs time synchronization with an NTP server, the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with the first OS, and the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with the first OS, And can correct the time error using the received CPU clock information.

The first OS may store physical CPU clock information.

The at least one second OS may periodically perform time synchronization with the first OS.

The NTP client program driven by the first OS may periodically perform time synchronization with the NTP server through the NIC.

Wherein the NTP client program driven by the at least one second OS comprises:

And can perform time synchronization with the NTP daemon program driven by the first OS through the virtual NIC.

The NTP client program running on the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with an NTP daemon program running on the first OS via a virtual switch (vSwitch) of a hypervisor through a virtual NIC can do.

The at least one second OS requests CPU clock information of the first OS to the hypervisor and the CPU clock information is requested to the first OS by the hypervisor to receive the CPU clock information .

The NTP server may be external to the virtualization device.

The first OS may be a Host OS, and the at least one second OS may be a Guest OS.

The first NIC may be a physical NIC.

On the other hand, a program stored on a recording medium may be provided, which realizes a time synchronization method of the network function virtualization apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10 through being executed by a processor.

In addition, the program can be stored on a recording medium.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. And can be understood and understood.

According to various embodiments of the present invention, the following effects are expected.

Network capability virtualization devices that prevent load on the NTP server or Master VM are provided, which can improve device efficiency and network efficiency.

By reducing the frequency of frequent time synchronization of virtual machines, device efficiency and device cost can be improved.

The effects obtained by the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned effects, and other effects not mentioned can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description will be.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE 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 specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. It is to be understood, however, that the technical features of the present invention are not limited to the specific drawings, and the features disclosed in the drawings may be combined with each other to constitute a new embodiment.
1 is a diagram showing a network function virtualization apparatus.
2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a network functional virtualization apparatus according to an embodiment.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of performing NTP time synchronization according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an apparatus and various methods to which embodiments of the present invention are applied will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The suffix "module" and " part "for the components used in the following description are given or mixed in consideration of ease of specification, and do not have their own meaning or role.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. That is, within the scope of the present invention, all of the components may be selectively coupled to one or more of them. In addition, although all of the components may be implemented as one independent hardware, some or all of the components may be selectively combined to perform a part or all of the functions in one or a plurality of hardware. As shown in FIG. The codes and code segments constituting the computer program may be easily deduced by those skilled in the art. Such a computer program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, readable and executed by a computer, thereby realizing an embodiment of the present invention. As the storage medium of the computer program, a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, a carrier wave medium, or the like may be included.

In the description of the embodiment, in the case of being described as being formed in the "upper or lower", "before" or "after" of each element, (Lower) "and" front or rear "encompass both that the two components are in direct contact with one another or that one or more other components are disposed between the two components.

It is also to be understood that the terms such as " comprises, "" comprising," or "having ", as used herein, mean that a component can be implanted unless specifically stated to the contrary. But should be construed as including other elements. All terms, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs, unless otherwise defined. Commonly used terms, such as predefined terms, should be interpreted to be consistent with the contextual meanings of the related art, and are not to be construed as ideal or overly formal, unless expressly defined to the contrary.

In describing the components of the present invention, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), and (b) may be used. These terms are intended to distinguish the constituent elements from other constituent elements, and the terms do not limit the nature, order or order of the constituent elements. When a component is described as being "connected", "coupled", or "connected" to another component, the component may be directly connected to or connected to the other component, It should be understood that an element may be "connected," "coupled," or "connected."

2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a network functional virtualization apparatus according to an embodiment.

2, the network functional virtualization apparatus 100 may include a physical CPU 110, a NIC 120, a host OS 130, a hypervisor 140, and a plurality of virtual machines 150 and 160. Although not described herein, it should be appreciated that the network functional virtualization apparatus 100 may include various components, including storage, servers, and the like, required for the network functional virtualization apparatus 100.

The network function virtualization apparatus 100 may be connected to an external NTP server 200. [ The external NTP 200 server is a network time protocol server and supports a network time protocol for time synchronization between computer systems over a packet switched, variable latency data network.

The network function virtualization apparatus 100 can provide a virtualization function so that the multi OS can be operated. The network function virtualization apparatus 100 can provide the virtualization function so that the resources (the CPU occupation quota, the memory occupation quota, and the like) of the device can be shared by the multi OS.

The physical CPU 110 is a main control unit included in the network function virtualization apparatus 100. (E.g., a plurality of OSs, hardware devices, middleware, software, etc.) included in the network function virtualization apparatus 100 can occupy and use the physical CPU 110 by various techniques.

In this specification, the physical CPU 110 is described as being one, but it is needless to say that the physical CPU 110 may be composed of a plurality of physical CPUs. 2, the physical CPU 110 is connected to the host OS 130, the NIC 120, and the like. However, the present invention is not limited thereto.

A network interface card (NIC) 120 corresponds to the hardware required to communicate between homogeneous or heterogeneous devices. The NIC 120 may communicate with the external NTP server 200 under the control of the host OS 130. [

The host OS 130 may control the network virtualization apparatus 100 as a whole. The host OS 130 can control the network function virtualization apparatus 100 to use various network network elements (e.g., virtual router, virtual SGSN / GGSN / PGW / S-GW, virtual IMS, etc.) have.

The host OS 130 may include an NTP daemon 132 and an NTP client 134 program. The NTP daemon 132 is a program running on the OS and can maintain system time synchronization using NTP. The NTP client 134 may perform time synchronization with the external NTP server 200 via the NIC 120. [

The hypervisor (140, Hypervisor) logically distributes resources (CPU, Memory, Disk, etc.) of one system and interconnects various OSs to a plurality of logical virtual machines. The virtual switch 145 (vSwitch) may serve to share one physical NIC with a plurality of virtual machines by receiving a virtual NIC.

Other components may be further included. For example, a live migration may be included, and the live migration may move to another physical virtualization system without shutting down the virtual machine in order to provide service without disruption, overload, or low usage of the physical virtualization system Can play a role.

A plurality of virtual machines (VMs) 150 and 160 are programs for emulating a computer implemented in software in a computing environment. A plurality of virtual machines (VM, 150, 160) may be driven as long as the system allows.

Each of the plurality of virtual machines (VM, 150, 160) can drive the guest OS. The guest OS 152, 162 drives the NTP client.

In addition, the plurality of virtual machines (VM, 150, 160) may include virtual CPUs 154, 164 and virtual NICs 156, 166.

The virtual CPUs 154 and 164 can use the physical CPU 110 according to predetermined criteria. The virtual NICs 156 and 164 may share the NIC 120 under the control of the virtual switch 145.

Hereinafter, a method for efficiently performing time synchronization using an NTP server will be described.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of performing NTP time synchronization according to an embodiment. Although the guest OS 150 is shown as one, it may include a plurality of guest OSs.

The host OS 130 periodically performs communication with the NTP server 200 and performs time synchronization (S310).

The host OS 130 performs time synchronization with the NTP server 200 on behalf of the network function virtualization apparatus 100. [

Then, the host OS 130 performs time synchronization with at least one guest OS 150 through the hypervisor 140 and the virtual switch 145 (S320).

The hypervisor 140 and the virtual switch 145 may logically distribute resources (e.g., NIC resources) of one system to at least one guest OS 150. [

Next, the host OS 130 transmits the physical CPU clock information to at least one guest OS 150 (S330).

The host OS 130 previously stores the physical CPU 110 clock information in the appropriate storage and then receives the CPU clock information transmission request from the guest OS 150 through the hypervisor 140, It is possible to receive clock information.

Lastly, the guest OS 150 can correct the time error for each guest OS based on the received CPU 110 clock information.

Accordingly, the NTP server performs the time synchronization only with the Host OS 130, so that the NTP server load can be prevented. Also, since each guest OS 150 can perform time synchronization only once at the first time with the host OS 130 and can correct the time error using the clock information of the CPU 110, it is possible to overcome the technical limit of the prior art .

It is a matter of course that the guest OS 150 can perform time synchronization with the host OS 130 at any time even after performing the time synchronization.

Hereinafter, each of the above-described steps will be described in detail.

The host OS 130 periodically communicates with the NTP server 200 using the NIC 120 in step S310 (step in which the host OS periodically performs time synchronization with the NTP server) As shown in Fig.

In step S320 (at least one guest OS performs time synchronization with the host OS), at least one of the guest OSs 150 and 160 drives the NTP client, and through the virtual NICs 156 and 166, And performs time synchronization with the NTP Daemon 132 driven by the Host OS 130. [ In particular, at least one Guest OS 150, 160 performs time synchronization via the virtual switch 145 of the hypervisor 140.

At least one guest OS 150 and 160 are connected to the hypervisor 140 in step S330 (at least one guest OS receives physical CPU clock information from the host OS) At least one of the guest OSs 150 and 160 may receive the CPU clock information by requesting the CPU 110 clock information and the hypervisor 140 requesting the host OS 130 for the CPU clock information.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Accordingly, the above description should not be construed in a limiting sense in all respects and should be considered illustrative. The scope of the present invention should be determined by rational interpretation of the appended claims, and all changes within the scope of equivalents of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention.

The method according to the above-described embodiments may be implemented as a program to be executed by a computer and stored in a computer-readable recording medium. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include a ROM, a RAM, a CD- , A floppy disk, an optical data storage device, and the like, and may also be implemented in the form of a carrier wave (for example, transmission over the Internet).

The computer readable recording medium may be distributed over a networked computer system so that computer readable code can be stored and executed in a distributed manner. And, functional program, code, and code segments for implementing the above-described method can be easily inferred by programmers in the technical field to which the embodiment belongs.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof.

Accordingly, the above description should not be construed in a limiting sense in all respects and should be considered illustrative. The scope of the present invention should be determined by rational interpretation of the appended claims, and all changes within the scope of equivalents of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention.

100: Network feature virtualization device

Claims (22)

A time synchronization method of a network function virtualization apparatus,
The first OS periodically performing time synchronization with an NTP server;
At least one second OS performing time synchronization with the first OS;
The at least one second OS receiving physical CPU clock information from the first OS;
And modifying the time error using the at least one second OS received CPU clock information. The method according to claim 1,
And storing the physical CPU clock information in the first OS. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the at least one second OS periodically performs time synchronization with the first OS. The method according to claim 1,
Performing time synchronization with the NTP server comprises:
Wherein the NTP client program running in the first OS periodically performs time synchronization with an NTP (Network Time Protocol) server through a NIC (Network Interface Card). The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the step of performing time synchronization with the first OS comprises:
Wherein the NTP client program running in the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with an NTP daemon program running in the first OS through the virtual NIC. 6. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the step of performing time synchronization with the first OS comprises:
The NTP client program running on the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with the NTP daemon program running on the first OS via the virtual switch of the hypervisor via the virtual NIC , Time synchronization method. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the step of receiving the physical CPU clock information comprises:
Wherein the at least one second OS requests CPU clock information of the first OS to the hypervisor and the hypervisor requests the CPU clock information to the first OS to receive the CPU clock information, Way. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the NTP server is external to the virtualization device. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the first OS is a Host OS and the at least one second OS is a Guest OS. 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the NIC is a physical NIC. In a network function virtualization apparatus,
A first OS;
At least one second OS;
The first OS periodically performs time synchronization with the NTP server,
Wherein the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with the first OS,
Wherein the at least one second OS receives physical CPU clock information from the first OS,
And the at least one second OS corrects the time error using the received CPU clock information. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the first OS stores physical CPU clock information. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the at least one second OS periodically performs time synchronization with the first OS. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the NTP client program running in the first OS periodically performs time synchronization with an NTP (Network Time Protocol) server through a NIC (Network Interface Card). 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the NTP client program driven by the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with an NTP daemon program driven by the first OS through the virtual NIC. 16. The method of claim 15,
The NTP client program running on the at least one second OS performs time synchronization with the NTP daemon program running on the first OS via the virtual switch of the hypervisor via the virtual NIC , Network function virtualization device. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the at least one second OS requests CPU clock information of the first OS to the hypervisor and the hypervisor requests the CPU clock information to the first OS, Virtualization device. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the NTP server is external to the virtualization device. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the first OS is a Host OS, and the at least one second OS is a Guest OS. 15. The method of claim 14,
Wherein the NIC is a physical NIC. 10. A program stored in a recording medium, characterized by realizing a time synchronization method of a network function virtualization apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10 through being executed by a processor. A recording medium on which the program according to claim 21 is recorded.

Images