WO2017164932A1

WO2017164932A1 - Network function virtualization (nfv) performance measurement (pm) threshold monitoring operations

Info

Publication number: WO2017164932A1
Application number: PCT/US2016/053950
Authority: WO
Inventors: Joey Chou
Original assignee: Intel IP Corporation
Priority date: 2016-03-25
Filing date: 2016-09-27
Publication date: 2017-09-28
Also published as: EP3433977A1; TWI714718B; TW201735719A

Abstract

Techniques for performing threshold monitoring operations (e.g., creation, deletion, or listing of one or more thresholds) in connection with virtual network function (VNF) related virtualization resource (VR) performance measurements (PMs) are discussed. A Network Manager (NM) can send a request to an Element Manager (EM) to perform a threshold monitoring operation, and the EM can send a request to a VNF manager (VNFM) to perform the threshold monitoring operation, which can send a request to a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM) to perform the threshold monitoring operation. The VIM can perform the threshold monitoring operation, and can send a reply to the VNFM indicating a result of the threshold monitoring operation, which can send a reply to the EM indicating the result of the threshold monitoring operation, which can send a reply to the NM indicating the result of the threshold monitoring operation.

Description

NETWORK FUNCTION VIRTUALIZATION (NFV) PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT (PM) THRESHOLD MONITORING OPERATIONS

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.

62/313,61 6 filed March 25, 2016, entitled "PM THRESHOLD MONITORING

OPERATIONS", the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates to core network technology of a

communication network, and more specifically to techniques for operations associated with thresholds in connection with virtual network functions (VNFs).

BACKGROUND

[0003] Network Function Virtualization (NFV) involves the replacement of physical network nodes with Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) implemented via Virtualization Resources (VRs) that perform the same function as the physical node.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating components of a network in accordance with some embodiments.

[0005] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

[0006] FIG. 3 is a diagram of an architecture that facilitates VR performance measurement threshold monitoring and/or threshold crossing notification according to various aspects described herein.

[0007] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow for threshold creation for monitoring the VR PM data procedure that shows an example flow of a threshold being created to monitor VR performance measurements and a notification being generated when the threshold crossing or performance alarm is detected, according to various aspects described herein. [0008] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system that facilitates threshold monitoring and/or notification operations in connection with a VNF related VR PM, according to various aspects described herein.

[0009] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by a NM according to various aspects described herein.

[0010] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by an EM according to various aspects described herein.

[0011] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a method that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by a VNFM according to various aspects described herein.

[0012] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of a method that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by a VIM according to various aspects described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0013] The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout, and wherein the illustrated structures and devices are not necessarily drawn to scale. As utilized herein, terms "component," "system," "interface," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, hardware, software (e.g., in execution), and/or firmware. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller, or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet PC and/or a user equipment (e.g., mobile phone, etc.) with a processing device. By way of illustration, an application running on a server and the server can also be a component. One or more components can reside within a process, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. A set of elements or a set of other components can be described herein, in which the term "set" can be interpreted as "one or more."

[0014] Further, these components can execute from various computer readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon such as with a module, for example. The components can communicate via local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network, such as, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or similar network with other systems via the signal). [0015] As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specific functionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric or electronic circuitry, in which the electric or electronic circuitry can be operated by a software application or a firmware application executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors can be internal or external to the apparatus and can execute at least a part of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component can be an apparatus that provides specific functionality through electronic components without mechanical parts; the electronic components can include one or more processors therein to execute software and/or firmware that confer(s), at least in part, the functionality of the electronic components.

[0016] Use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or". That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then "X employs A or B" is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean "one or more" unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms "including", "includes", "having", "has", "with", or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description and the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term

"comprising."

[0017] As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.

[0018] Embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 1 illustrates components of a network in accordance with some embodiments. In various aspects, part(s) or all of one or more of the components illustrated in connection with FIG. 1 can be implemented as virtual network functions (VNFs) in connection with various aspects described herein. An Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network 1 00 is shown to include a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 1 10, a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 120, a Serving GateWay (SGW) 130, a Packet Data Network (PDN) GateWay (PGW) 140, a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 150.

[0019] The HSS 1 10 comprises one or more databases for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of

communication sessions. For example, the HSS 1 10 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. The EPC network 1 00 may comprise one or several HSSs 1 10, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc.

[0020] The MME 120 is similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General packet radio service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 120 manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list

management. The EPC network 100 may comprise one or several MMEs 120

[0021] The SGW 130 terminates the interface toward an Evolved UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and routes data packets between the E-UTRAN and the EPC network 100. In addition, the SGW 130 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-eNodeB handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0022] The PGW 140 terminates an SGi interface toward the PDN. The PGW 140 routes data packets between the EPC network 100 and external networks, and may be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. The PCRF 150 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC network 100. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a User Equipment's (UE) Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE's IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 150 may be communicatively coupled to an application server (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)). Generally, the application server is an element offering applications that use Internet Protocol (IP) bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, Long Term Evolution (LTE) PS data services, etc.). The application server may signal the PCRF 150 to indicate a new service flow and selecting the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF 150 may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging

Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server.

[0023] The components of the EPC 100 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is utilized to virtualize any or all of the above described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the EPC network 100 may be referred to as a network slice 101 . A logical instantiation of a portion of the EPC network 100 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 102 (e.g., the network sub-slice 102 is shown to include the PGW 140 and the PCRF 1 50).

[0024] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 2 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 200 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 210, one or more memory/storage devices 220, and one or more communication resources 230, each of which are communicatively coupled via a bus 240. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 202 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 200.

[0025] The processors 210 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 212 and a processor 214. The memory/storage devices 220 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. [0026] The communication resources 230 may include interconnection and/or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 204 and/or one or more databases 206 via a network 208. For example, the communication resources 230 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular

communication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components,

Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[0027] Instructions 250 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 210 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 250 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 210 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 220, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 250 may be transferred to the hardware resources 200 from any combination of the peripheral devices 204 and/or the databases 206. Accordingly, the memory of processors 21 0, the memory/storage devices 220, the peripheral devices 204, and the databases 206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0028] In various embodiments, techniques described herein can be employed to create, delete, and/or list threshold(s) in connection with a VNF related virtualization resource (VR) performance measurement (PM), and/or to generate a notification of a crossing of such a threshold.

[0029] To insure that the VNFs (virtual network functions) deployed on the NFV (network function virtualization) infrastructure (NFVI) are able to deliver a consistent and acceptable service quality to end users, as well as to isolate and correct failure conditions in the most timely manner, virtualized resource (VR) performance

measurements (PMs) can be employed. These performance measurements reflect the way VNFs are impacted by the NFVI services, and the inherent nature of the services being offered by the NFVI, for example, CPU, Virtual Machines, memory, and Virtual Networks. Therefore, the NFV performance measurements can be measured in VNF and NFVI.

[0030] However, to identify a possible issue from performance data, conventionally operators first collect performance data for days, weeks, or even months, and then sift through tons of data, which may be time consuming and costly due to the processing power involved. Even though these conventional techniques can finally find a problem from the PM data mining, it may be too late for mitigation, since the network traffic fluctuates dynamically.

[0031] In various embodiments discussed herein, threshold monitoring operations that include threshold creation, threshold deletion, and threshold listing can be employed to monitor the VNF related VR performance measurement. When a measurement crosses a threshold, a threshold crossing notification can be reported.

[0032] Referring to FIG. 3, illustrated is a diagram of an architecture that facilitates VR performance measurement threshold monitoring and/or threshold crossing notification according to various aspects described herein. In FIG. 3, a virtual network function (VNF) performance measurement (PM) threshold creation flow (and optional subsequent notification of threshold crossing) that can be employed in connection with various aspects described is illustrated as an example threshold monitoring operation, along with a threshold crossing notification flow. The system illustrated in FIG. 3 comprises a Network Manager (NM) 310, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Orchestrator (NFVO) 320, network Element Manager (EM) 330, a set of Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) 370, virtualized by Virtualization Resources (VRs) of a NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) 350, a VNF Manager (VNFM) 340, and a Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) 360. The solid lines between these entities indicate the various reference points that facilitate data exchange between these entities, the dashed lines indicates the flow of data associated with threshold creation, and the dashed and dotted lines indicate the flow of data associated with the notification of threshold crossing.

[0033] Referring to FIG. 4, illustrated is a diagram showing a flow for threshold creation for monitoring the VR PM data procedure that shows an example flow of a threshold being created to monitor VR performance measurements and a notification being generated when the threshold crossing or performance alarm is detected, according to various aspects described herein. In various aspects, techniques described herein can be employed to perform threshold monitoring operations (e.g., threshold creation, deletion, listing, etc.), and to notify an NM and/or operator of such thresholds being crossed. The flow in FIG. 4 shows an example scenario involving creation and subsequent triggering of a threshold.

[0034] At 1 in FIG. 4, an NM can send a request to an EM to create one or more thresholds that can be defined by parameters, such as iOCName (information object class (IOC) name), iOCInstanceList (IOC instance list), thresholdlnfoList (threshold information list, which can specify threshold(s) to specific type(s) of performance measurements (e.g., via one or more measurementTypes)), etc., to monitor VNF related VR performance measurements.

[0035] At 2, the EM can send a request to a VNFM to create thresholds for monitoring measurement types specified in the thresholdlnfoList on the VNF instances identified by iOCName and iOCInstanceList.

[0036] At 3, the VNFM can send a request to a VIM to create thresholds to monitor the virtualized resources identified by a resourceSelector parameter (in aspects, the mapping of measurement types in thresholdlnfoList provided by the EM to

resourceSelector can be done in any of a variety of ways).

[0037] At 4, the VIM can send a response to the VNFM with a thresholdld (threshold identity) parameter that can identify the threshold(s) that have been created.

[0038] At 5, the VNFM can send a response to the EM with the identifiers of thresholds that have been created.

[0039] At 6, the EM can send a response to the NM with a monitorld (monitor identity) parameter that can specify a unique identifier of a thresholdMonitor (e.g., threshold that a PM is or can be monitored in connection with), which can have a status field that has a value of Success.

[0040] At 7, the VIM can send a ThresholdCrossedNotification notification to the VNFM that can have a threshold ID (e.g., via a thresholdld parameter) that indicates a threshold that has been crossed.

[0041] At 8, the VNFM can send a notification to the EM to indicate that the threshold identified by the threshold ID has been crossed. The VNFM can send a VR performance alarm notification to the EM.

[0042] At 9, the EM can send a VNF related VR performance alarm notification to the NM.

[0043] In various aspects, techniques discussed herein can be employed in connection with threshold monitoring operations such as threshold creation, threshold deletion, and threshold listing. The following use cases provide example scenarios involving creation, deletion, and listing of thresholds, and associated actions that can be performed by an NM, EM, VNFM, and/or VIM in connection with such threshold monitoring operations.

[0044] Table 1 , below, shows an example use case of threshold creation for monitoring one or more VNF related VR performance measurements: Table 1 : Threshold creation for monitoring VNF related VR performance measurement

[0045] Table 2, below, shows an example use case of threshold deletion in connection with monitoring one or more VNF related VR performance measurements: Table 2: Threshold deletion for monitoring VNF related VR performance measurement

[0046] Table 3, below, shows an example use case of threshold listing in connection with monitoring one or more VNF related VR performance measurements:

Table 3: Threshold listing for monitoring VNF related VR performance measurement

[0047] Additionally, in various aspects, techniques discussed herein can be employed in connection with generating threshold crossing notifications on various thresholds. Table 4, below, shows an example use case of VR performance measurement threshold crossing notification: Table 4: VR performance measurement threshold crossing notification

[0048] Additionally, in various aspects, the functionalities of one or more of the reference points in FIG. 3 can be modified to support the threshold monitoring and notification operations discussed herein. As examples, the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point can have the following capabilities in various embodiments: (a) the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point can support a capability allowing EM to request VNFM to create a threshold to monitor the VNF related VR performance measurement; (b) the Ve-Vnfm- em reference point can support a capability allowing VNFM to inform EM of the result of the threshold creation; (c) the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point can support a capability allowing EM to request VNFM to delete a threshold that was used to monitor the VNF related VR performance measurement; (d) the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point can support a capability allowing VNFM to inform EM of the result of the threshold deletion; (e) the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point can support a capability allowing EM to request VNFM to list one, more, or all threshold(s) that were used to monitor the VNF related VR performance measurement; (f) the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point can support a capability allowing VNFM to inform EM of the result of the threshold listing; (g) the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point can support a capability allowing VNFM to notify EM when the threshold crossing of VNF related VR performance measurement(s) is detected. In aspects, other reference points involved in the threshold monitoring or crossing notification operations can similarly have capabilities supporting operations described herein.

[0049] Referring to FIG. 5, illustrated is a block diagram of a system 500 that facilitates threshold monitoring and/or notification operations in connection with a VNF related VR PM, according to various aspects described herein. Depending on the embodiment, system 500 can be employed in connection with one or more of a NM, an EM, a VNFM, or a VIM. System 500 can comprise one or more processors 510 (e.g., which can comprise one or more of processor(s) 210, etc.), communication circuitry 520 (which can facilitate communication of data via one or more reference points, networks, etc., and can comprise communication resource(s) 230, etc.), and memory 530 (which can comprise any of a variety of storage mediums and can store instructions and/or data associated with at least one of the one or more processors 510 or communication circuitry 520, and can comprise memory/storage device(s) 220 and/or cache memory of processor(s) 510, etc.). In some aspects, the one or more processors 510, the communication circuitry 520, and the memory 530 can be included in a single device, while in other aspects, they can be included in different devices, such as part of a distributed architecture. As described in greater detail below, system 500 can facilitate threshold monitoring and/or notification operations at any of a NM, an EM, a VNFM, and/or a VIM, depending on the embodiment.

[0050] A first set of embodiments of system 500 relate to embodiments associated with a NM. In an embodiment of system 500 associated with a NM, processor(s) 510 can make a determination to implement a threshold monitoring operation (e.g., based on operator input, etc.). The determined threshold monitoring operation can be to create a threshold to monitor a VNF related VR PM, to delete a threshold to monitor a VNF related VR PM, or to ascertain detailed information regarding one or more current thresholds monitoring the VNF related VR PM. [0051] In aspects involving threshold creation at a NM, processor(s) 510 can send a request to an EM to create a new threshold, and can receive a response from the NM indicating a result of the request to the EM to create the new threshold. In a detailed example, the request sent by processor(s) 510 can specify one or more destination networks (DNs) of one or more ManagedEntity instances of measurement types to be monitored by the created threshold, which can be indicated via an IOC instance list (iOCInstanceList) parameter. In such aspects, the request sent by processor(s) 510 can also comprise one or more IOC name (iOCName) parameters that specifies a managed entity class name for each of the ManagedEntity instances specified by the

iOCInstanceList parameter, and can comprise one or more threshold information list (thresholdlnfoList) parameters that specifies specific measurement types for the new threshold(s) to be created. The response received from the EM by processor(s) 510 can indicate a status of the request to the EM, e.g., success, failure, or partial success, and can also indicate the identity or identities of the created threshold(s), such as via associated monitorld parameters.

[0052] In aspects involving threshold deletion at a NM, processor(s) 510 can send a request to an EM to delete a current threshold, and can receive a response from the NM indicating a result of the request to the EM to delete the current threshold. In a detailed example, the request to the EM can indicate the threshold(s) to be stopped and removed via associated identifier(s) (e.g., monitorld parameters that can specify unique identifiers of thresholdMonitor(s), which can indicate threshold(s) that the VNF related VR PM is or can be monitored in connection with, etc.), and the response from the EM can indicate a status of the request to the EM, e.g., success or failure.

[0053] In aspects involving threshold listing at a NM, processor(s) 510 can send a request to an EM to list one or more thresholds, and can receive a response from the NM indicating a result of the request to the EM to list the one or more thresholds. In a detailed example, the request to the EM can comprise a parameter (e.g., a monitorldList parameter) that indicates thresholds to be listed, and the response from the EM can indicate a status of the request (e.g., success or failure), and can indicate thresholds that match the criteria specified in the request to the EM. In some aspects, the request can comprise an empty list of thresholds, and the response can comprise a list of all thresholds.

[0054] Additionally, in NM embodiments of system 500, processor(s) 510 can receive (e.g., from an EM, via an Itf-N reference point) VNF related VR performance alarm notifications in connection with one or more current threshold that monitor the VNF related VR PM (e.g., thresholds created via a threshold creation operation), which can indicate that the associated threshold(s) have been crossed.

[0055] Referring to FIG. 6, illustrated is a flow diagram of a method 600 that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by a NM according to various aspects described herein. In some aspects, method 600 can be performed at a NM. In other aspects, a machine readable medium can store instructions associated with method 600 that, when executed, can cause a NM to perform the acts of method 600.

[0056] At 610, a threshold monitoring operation can be selected in connection with a VNF related VR PM, such as creation of one or more thresholds, deletion of one or more thresholds, or listing of one or more thresholds.

[0057] At 620, a request can be sent to an EM to perform the selected threshold monitoring operation (e.g., creation, deletion, listing, etc.).

[0058] At 630, a response can be received from the EM that indicates a result of the selected threshold monitoring operation.

[0059] At 640, a threshold crossing notification can be received that indicates that a current threshold (e.g., a threshold created via 61 0-630, or a previously created threshold, etc.) has been crossed.

[0060] Referring again to FIG. 5, a second set of embodiments of system 500 relate to embodiments associated with an EM. In an embodiment of system 500 associated with an EM, processor(s) 51 0 can receive a first request from a NM to perform an indicated threshold monitoring operation (e.g., create a threshold to monitor a VNF related VR PM, delete a threshold monitoring a VNF related VR PM, or list one or more thresholds monitoring a VNF related VR PM).

[0061] In aspects involving threshold creation at an EM, processor(s) 510 can receive a first request from a NM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF related VR PM, and can send a second request to a VNFM to create the new threshold.

Processor(s) 510 can receive a first response from the VNFM indicating the result of the second request to create the new threshold, and can send the NM a second response that can indicate the result of the first request to create the new threshold. In detailed examples, the first request from the NM and the second response to the NM can comprise parameters as described above in connection with NM embodiments of system 500. In addition, the second request to the VNFM can comprise a source selector (sourceSelector) parameter that can specify one or more measurement types associated with the new threshold, and can specify additional details associated with the new threshold via one or more additional parameters, such as a performance metric (performanceMetric) parameter, a threshold type (thresholdType) parameter, and/or a threshold details (thresholdDetails) parameter. The first response from the VNFM can comprise a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that identifies the created threshold.

[0062] In aspects involving threshold deletion at an EM, processor(s) 510 can receive a first request from a NM to delete a threshold monitoring a VNF related VR PM, and can send a second request to a VNFM to delete the threshold. Processor(s) 510 can receive a first response from the VNFM indicating the result of the second request to delete the threshold, and can send the NM a second response that can indicate the result of the first request to delete the threshold. In aspects, the first request from the NM and the second response to the NM can comprise parameters as described above in connection with NM embodiments of system 500.

[0063] In aspects involving threshold listing at an EM, processor(s) 510 can receive a first request from a NM to list one or more thresholds monitoring a VNF related VR PM, and can send a second request to a VNFM to list the one or more thresholds.

Processor(s) 510 can receive a first response from the VNFM indicating the result of the second request to list the one or more thresholds, and can send the NM a second response that can indicate the result of the first request to list the one or more thresholds. In aspects, the first request from the NM and the second response to the NM can comprise parameters as described above in connection with NM embodiments of system 500.

[0064] Additionally, in NM embodiments of system 500, processor(s) 510 can receive (e.g., from a VNFM, via a Ve-Vnfm-em reference point) a notification that a threshold on the VNF related VR PM has been crossed. In response, processor(s) 510 can add a VNF related VR performance alarm associated with the crossed threshold to an alarm list, and can send a VNF related VR performance alarm notification to the NM.

[0065] Referring to FIG. 7, illustrated is a flow diagram of a method 700 that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by an EM according to various aspects described herein. In some aspects, method 700 can be performed at an EM. In other aspects, a machine readable medium can store instructions associated with method 700 that, when executed, can cause an EM to perform the acts of method 700. [0066] At 710, a request can be received from a NM to perform a designated threshold monitoring operation (e.g., threshold creation, threshold deletion, threshold listing, etc.) in connection with a VNF related VR PM.

[0067] At 720, a request can be sent to a VNFM to perform the designated threshold monitoring operation.

[0068] At 730, a response can be received from the VNFM indicating a result of the designated threshold monitoring operation (e.g., success, failure, a list of thresholds, etc.).

[0069] At 740, a response can be sent to the NM indicating the result of the designated threshold monitoring operation.

[0070] Optionally, at 750, a notification can be received from the VNFM that a threshold (e.g., specified via a thresholdld parameter) has been crossed.

[0071] At 760, in response to a notification received at 750, a determination can be made to generate a performance alarm by adding a VNF related VR performance alarm to an alarm list based on the crossed threshold.

[0072] At 770, based on the VNF related performance alarm added to the alarm list at 760, a VNF related performance alarm notification can be sent to the NM.

[0073] Referring again to FIG. 5, a third set of embodiments of system 500 relate to embodiments associated with a VNFM. Processor(s) 51 0 can receive a request to perform a threshold monitoring operation from an EM, which can involve threshold creation, threshold deletion, or threshold listing.

[0074] In aspects involving threshold creation at a VNFM, processor(s) 510 can receive a first request from the EM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF related VR PM, and can send a second request to a VIM to create the new threshold.

Processor(s) 510 can receive a first response from the VIM indicating the result of the second request to create the new threshold, and can send the EM a second response that can indicate the result of the first request to create the new threshold.

[0075] In aspects involving threshold deletion at a VNFM, processor(s) 51 0 can receive a first request from an EM to delete a threshold monitoring a VNF related VR PM, and can send a second request to a VIM to delete the threshold. Processor(s) 510 can receive a first response from the VIM indicating the result of the second request to delete the threshold, and can send the EM a second response that can indicate the result of the first request to delete the threshold. [0076] In aspects involving threshold listing at a VNFM, processor(s) 510 can receive a first request from an EM to list one or more thresholds monitoring a VNF related VR PM, and can send a second request to a VNFM to list the one or more thresholds. Processor(s) 510 can receive a first response from the VNFM indicating the result of the second request to list the one or more thresholds, and can send the NM a second response that can indicate the result of the first request to list the one or more thresholds. In aspects, the first request from the NM and the second response to the NM can comprise parameters as described above in connection with NM embodiments of system 500.

[0077] Additionally, processor(s) 510 can detect that a VNF related VR PM has crossed a current threshold, which can be based on a threshold crossing notification received from the VIM. In aspects, the threshold crossing notification from the VIM can comprise one or more parameters that indicate the threshold that has been crossed and/or details associated with the threshold crossing. Based on processor(s) 510 detecting that a threshold has been crossed, processor(s) 510 can send a notification to the EM of the threshold crossing that can comprise one or more parameters that indicate the threshold that has been crossed and/or details associated with the threshold crossing, such as an objectlnstanceld parameter, a thresholdld parameter, a crossingDirection parameter, a performanceMetric parameter, and/or a

performanceValue parameter.

[0078] Referring to FIG. 8, illustrated is a flow diagram of a method 800 that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by a VNFM according to various aspects described herein. In some aspects, method 800 can be performed at a VNFM. In other aspects, a machine readable medium can store instructions associated with method 800 that, when executed, can cause a VNFM to perform the acts of method 800.

[0079] At 810, a request can be received from an EM to perform a designated threshold monitoring operation (e.g., threshold creation, threshold deletion, threshold listing, etc.) in connection with a VNF related VR PM.

[0080] At 820, a request can be sent to a VIM to perform the designated threshold monitoring operation.

[0081] At 830, a response can be received from the VIM indicating a result of the designated threshold monitoring operation (e.g., success, failure, a list of thresholds, etc.). [0082] At 840, a response can be sent to the EM indicating the result of the designated threshold monitoring operation.

[0083] Optionally, at 850, a notification can be received from the VIM that a threshold (e.g., specified via a thresholdld parameter) has been crossed.

[0084] At 860, based on the notification received from the VIM that the threshold has been crossed, a threshold crossing notification can be sent to the EM.

[0085] Referring again to FIG. 5, a fourth set of embodiments of system 500 relate to embodiments associated with a VIM. Processor(s) 510 can receive a request to perform a threshold monitoring operation from an EM, which can involve threshold creation, threshold deletion, or threshold listing.

[0086] In aspects involving threshold creation at a VIM, processor(s) 510 can receive a request from a VNFM to create a new threshold, can create the new threshold, and can send a response to the VNFM indicating a result of the threshold creation (e.g., a threshold identifier, etc.).

[0087] In aspects involving threshold deletion at a VIM, processor(s) 510 can receive a request from a VNFM to delete a threshold, can delete the threshold, and can send a response to the VNFM indicating a result of the threshold deletion.

[0088] In aspects involving threshold listing at a VIM, processor(s) 510 can receive a request from a VNFM to list one or more thresholds, can generate a list of the one or more thresholds, and can send a response to the VNFM indicating a result of the request to list the one or more thresholds (e.g., a list of the threshold(s), etc.).

[0089] Additionally, processor(s) 510 can detect a threshold crossing associated with an existing threshold, and can send the VNFM a threshold crossing notification based on the detected threshold crossing that can identify the crossed threshold and can provide additional information about the threshold crossing. In some aspects, processor(s) 510 can detect the threshold crossing based on monitoring the VNF related VR PM in connection with the existing threshold. In other aspects, processor(s) 51 0 can detect the threshold crossing based on a notification of the threshold crossing received from a NFVI.

[0090] Referring to FIG. 9, illustrated is a flow diagram of a method 900 that facilitates threshold monitoring operations by a VIM according to various aspects described herein. In some aspects, method 900 can be performed at a VIM. In other aspects, a machine readable medium can store instructions associated with method 900 that, when executed, can cause a VIM to perform the acts of method 900. [0091] At 910, a request can be received from a VNFM to perform a designated threshold monitoring operation (e.g., create, delete, or list one or more thresholds for a VNF related VR PM, etc.).

[0092] At 920, the designated threshold monitoring operation can be performed.

[0093] At 930, a response can be sent to the VNFM indicating the result of the designated threshold monitoring operation.

[0094] At 940, optionally, a threshold crossing can be detected in connection with a threshold (e.g., created at 920 or previously existing) on the VNF related VR PM. The threshold crossing can be detected via a notification received from a NFVI or via monitoring the VNF related VR PM in connection with the threshold.

[0095] At 950, based on the threshold crossing detected at 940, a threshold crossing notification can be sent to the VNFM that can identify the crossed threshold and additional information associated with the threshold crossing.

[0096] Examples herein can include subject matter such as a method, means for performing acts or blocks of the method, at least one machine-readable medium including executable instructions that, when performed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like) cause the machine to perform acts of the method or of an apparatus or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to embodiments and examples described.

[0097] Example 1 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a Network Manager (NM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to: make a determination, wherein the determination is a determination to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a determination to delete a first existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a determination to obtain detailed information of one or more existing thresholds to monitor the VNF related VR PM; send a request to an Element Manager (EM), wherein the request to the EM is: a request to the EM to create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the determination being the determination to create, a request to the EM to delete the first existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the determination being the determination to delete, or a request to the EM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers in response to the determination being the determination to obtain; and receive a response from the EM, wherein the response from the EM is: a response from the EM to indicate a result of a threshold creation in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to create, a response from the EM to indicate a result of a threshold deletion in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to delete, or a response from the EM to indicate details of the one or more existing thresholds in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to list.

[0098] Example 2 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive a VNF related VR performance alarm notification from the EM.

[0099] Example 3 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s)

1 -2, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to create.

[00100] Example 4 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s)

3, wherein the request to the EM comprises an information object class (IOC) instance list (iOCInstanceList) parameter that specifies one or more destination networks (DNs) of one or more ManagedEntity instances whose measurementTypes are to be monitored.

[00101 ] Example 5 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s)

4, wherein the request to the EM comprises an IOC name (iOCName) parameter that specifies a ManagedEntity class name for each of the one or more ManagedEntity instances specified by the iOCInstanceList parameter.

[00102] Example 6 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 3, wherein the request to the EM comprises a threshold information list

(thresholdlnfoList) parameter that specifies the new threshold to one or more specific measurementTypes.

[00103] Example 7 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 -2, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to delete, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a ThresholdMonitor to be stopped and removed.

[00104] Example 8 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 -2, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to list, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity list (monitorldList) parameter that specifies ThresholdMonitors to be listed.

[00105] Example 9 is an apparatus configured to be employed within an Element Manager (EM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to: receive a first request from a Network Manager (NM), wherein the first request from the NM is: a first request from the NM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF

(Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a first request from the NM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a first request from the NM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers; send a second request to a VNF Manager (VNFM), wherein the second request to the VNFM is: a second request to the VNFM to create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to create, a second request to the VNFM to delete the existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to delete, or a second request to the VNFM to list the thresholds that are identified by the list of threshold identifiers in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to list; receive a first response from the VNFM, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to list; and send a second response to the NM, wherein the second response to the NM indicates: a result of the first request to create the new threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being created, a result of the first request to delete the existing threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being deleted, or the details of the one or more thresholds in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the details of one or more thresholds.

[00106] Example 10 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 9, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive a notification from a VNF Manager (VNFM) that a threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM; determine to generate a performance alarm, by adding a VNF related VR performance alarm into an Alarm List; and send a VNF related VR performance alarm notification to the NM. [00107] Example 1 1 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 9-10, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to create and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to create.

[00108] Example 12 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 1 , wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a source selector (sourceSelector) parameter that specifies one or more measurement types.

[00109] Example 13 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 1 , wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a

PerformanceMetric parameter, a thresholdType parameter, and a thresholdDetails parameter, that create the new threshold for monitoring the one or more measurement types specified in the sourceSelector parameter.

[001 10] Example 14 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 1 , wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[001 11 ] Example 15 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 1 , wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a unique identifier of a ThresholdMonitor associated with the new threshold, and comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success'.

[001 12] Example 16 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 9-10, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to delete and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to delete, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success', 'Failure', or 'PartialSuccess'.

[001 13] Example 17 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 9-10, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to list and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to list, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor information list (monitorlnfoList) parameter that comprises returned information of corresponding ThresholdMonitors matching input criteria.

[001 14] Example 18 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 1 -12, wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a PerformanceMetric parameter, a thresholdType parameter, and a thresholdDetails parameter, that create the new threshold for monitoring the one or more measurement types specified in the sourceSelector parameter.

[00115] Example 19 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 1 1 -12 or 18, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00116] Example 20 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to: receive a request from an Element Manager (EM), wherein the request from the EM is: a request from the EM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM

(Performance Measurement), a request from the EM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the EM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers; and send a response to the EM, wherein the response to the EM indicates: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list.

[00117] Example 21 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 20, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect that the VNF related VR PM has crossed a first threshold.

[00118] Example 22 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 21 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to send a notification to the EM that the first threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR

PM.

[00119] Example 23 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 22, wherein the notification comprises an object instance identity

(objectlnstanceld) parameter that identifies the first threshold.

[00120] Example 24 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 22, wherein the notification comprises a thresholdld parameter, a crossingDirection parameter, a performanceMetric parameter, and a performanceValue parameter, that indicate that the first threshold has been crossed.

[00121 ] Example 25 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 21 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect that the VR PM has crossed the first threshold based on a threshold crossing notification received from a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM).

[00122] Example 26 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 20-25, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: send an additional request to a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional request to the VIM indicates the request from the EM to create in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list; and receive an additional response from the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional response from the VIM indicates a result of the request from the EM to create in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create.

[00123] Example 27 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 20-25, wherein the request from the EM is the request from the EM to create, and wherein the response to the EM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdid) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00124] Example 28 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to: process a request from a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM), wherein the request from the VNFM is associated with threshold monitoring of a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) related Virtualization Resource (VR) Performance Measurement (PM), wherein the request from the VNFM is a request from the VNFM to create a new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, a request from the VNFM to delete an indicated existing threshold of a set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the VNFM to list one or more existing thresholds of the set of existing thresholds indicated via a list of threshold identifiers; in response to the request from the VNFM, one of: create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to create, delete the indicated existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to delete, or generate a list of the second set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to list; and send a response to the VNFM that indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to create in response to creating the new threshold, indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to delete in response to deleting the indicated threshold, or indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to list in response to generating the list.

[00125] Example 29 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 28, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to send to the VNFM a threshold crossing notification associated with a crossed existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds, wherein the threshold crossing notification indicates an associated identifier for the crossed existing thresholds.

[00126] Example 30 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 29, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect a threshold crossing associated with the crossed existing threshold, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the threshold crossing.

[00127] Example 31 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 29, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive an additional threshold crossing notification from a Network Function Virtualization

Infrastructure (NFVI), and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the additional threshold crossing notification received from the NFVI.

[00128] Example 32 is a machine readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a Network Manager (NM) to: make a determination, wherein the determination is a determination to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance

Measurement), a determination to delete a first existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a determination to obtain detailed information of one or more existing thresholds to monitor the VNF related VR PM; send a request to an Element Manager (EM), wherein the request to the EM is: a request to the EM to create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the determination being the determination to create, a request to the EM to delete the first existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the determination being the

determination to delete, or a request to the EM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers in response to the determination being the determination to obtain; and receive a response from the EM, wherein the response from the EM is: a response from the EM to indicate a result of a threshold creation in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to create, a response from the EM to indicate a result of a threshold deletion in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to delete, or a response from the EM to indicate details of the one or more existing thresholds in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to list.

[00129] Example 33 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 32, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the NM to receive a VNF related VR performance alarm notification from the EM.

[00130] Example 34 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 32-33, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to create.

[00131 ] Example 35 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 34, wherein the request to the EM comprises an information object class (IOC) instance list (iOCInstanceList) parameter that specifies one or more destination networks (DNs) of one or more ManagedEntity instances whose measurementTypes are to be monitored.

[00132] Example 36 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 35, wherein the request to the EM comprises an IOC name (iOCName) parameter that specifies a ManagedEntity class name for each of the one or more ManagedEntity instances specified by the iOCInstanceList parameter.

[00133] Example 37 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 34, wherein the request to the EM comprises a thresholdlnfoList parameter that specifies the new threshold to one or more specific measurementTypes.

[00134] Example 38 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 32-33, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to delete, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a ThresholdMonitor to be stopped and removed.

[00135] Example 39 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 32-33, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to list, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity list (monitorldList) parameter that specifies ThresholdMonitors to be listed.

[00136] Example 40 is a machine readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause an Element Manager (EM) to: receive a first request from a Network Manager (NM), wherein the first request from the NM is: a first request from the NM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a first request from the NM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a first request from the NM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers; send a second request to a VNF Manager (VNFM), wherein the second request to the VNFM is: a second request to the VNFM to create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to create, a second request to the VNFM to delete the existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to delete, or a second request to the VNFM to list the thresholds that are identified by the list of threshold identifiers in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to list; receive a first response from the VNFM, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to list; and send a second response to the NM, wherein the second response to the NM indicates: a result of the first request to create the new threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being created, a result of the first request to delete the existing threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being deleted, or the details of the one or more thresholds in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the details of one or more thresholds.

[00137] Example 41 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 40, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the EM to:

receive a notification from a VNF Manager (VNFM) that a threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM; determine to generate a performance alarm, by adding a VNF related VR performance alarm into an Alarm List; and send a VNF related VR performance alarm notification to the NM.

[00138] Example 42 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 40-41 , wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to create and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to create.

[00139] Example 43 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 42, wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a sourceSelector parameter that specifies one or more measurement types.

[00140] Example 44 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 42, wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a

[00141 ] Example 45 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 42, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00142] Example 46 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 42, wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a unique identifier of a ThresholdMonitor associated with the new threshold, and comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success'.

[00143] Example 47 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 40-41 , wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to delete and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to delete, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success', 'Failure', or 'PartialSuccess'. [00144] Example 48 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 40-41 , wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to list and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to list, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor information list (monitorlnfoList) parameter that comprises returned information of corresponding ThresholdMonitors matching input criteria.

[00145] Example 49 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 42-43, wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a

[00146] Example 50 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 42-43 or 49, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00147] Example 51 is a machine readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM) to: receive a request from an Element Manager (EM), wherein the request from the EM is: a request from the EM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a request from the EM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the EM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers; and send a response to the EM, wherein the response to the EM indicates: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list.

[00148] Example 52 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 51 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the VNFM to detect that the VNF related VR PM has crossed a first threshold.

[00149] Example 53 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 52, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the VNFM to send a notification to the EM that the first threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM.

[00150] Example 54 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 53, wherein the notification comprises an object instance identity

(objectlnstanceld) parameter that identifies the first threshold.

[00151 ] Example 55 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 53, wherein the notification comprises a thresholdid parameter, a crossingDirection parameter, a performanceMetric parameter, and a performanceValue parameter, that indicate that the first threshold has been crossed.

[00152] Example 56 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 52, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the VNFM to detect that the VR PM has crossed the first threshold based on a threshold crossing notification received from a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM).

[00153] Example 57 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 51 -56, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the VNFM to: send an additional request to a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional request to the VIM indicates the request from the EM to create in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list; and receive an additional response from the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional response from the VIM indicates a result of the request from the EM to create in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create.

[00154] Example 58 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 51 -56, wherein the request from the EM is the request from the EM to create, and wherein the response to the EM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdid) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00155] Example 59 is a machine readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM) to: process a request from a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM), wherein the request from the VNFM is associated with threshold monitoring of a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) related Virtualization Resource (VR) Performance Measurement (PM), wherein the request from the VNFM is a request from the VNFM to create a new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, a request from the VNFM to delete an indicated existing threshold of a set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the VNFM to list one or more existing thresholds of the set of existing thresholds indicated via a list of threshold identifiers; in response to the request from the VNFM, one of: create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to create, delete the indicated existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to delete, or generate a list of the second set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to list; and send a response to the VNFM that indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to create in response to creating the new threshold, indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to delete in response to deleting the indicated threshold, or indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to list in response to generating the list.

[00156] Example 60 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 59, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the VIM to send to the VNFM a threshold crossing notification associated with a crossed existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds, wherein the threshold crossing notification indicates an associated identifier for the crossed existing thresholds.

[00157] Example 61 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 60, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the VIM to detect a threshold crossing associated with the crossed existing threshold, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the threshold crossing.

[00158] Example 62 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 60, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the VIM to receive an additional threshold crossing notification from a Network Function

Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the additional threshold crossing notification received from the NFVI. [00159] Example 63 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a Network Manager (NM), comprising: means for storing instructions; and means for processing configured to execute the instructions to: make a determination, wherein the

determination is a determination to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance

[00160] Example 64 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 63, wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to receive a VNF related VR performance alarm notification from the EM.

[00161 ] Example 65 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 63-64, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to create.

[00162] Example 66 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 65, wherein the request to the EM comprises an information object class (IOC) instance list (iOCInstanceList) parameter that specifies one or more destination networks (DNs) of one or more ManagedEntity instances whose measurementTypes are to be monitored.

[00163] Example 67 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 66, wherein the request to the EM comprises an IOC name (iOCName) parameter that specifies a ManagedEntity class name for each of the one or more ManagedEntity instances specified by the iOCInstanceList parameter.

[00164] Example 68 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 65, wherein the request to the EM comprises a thresholdlnfoList parameter that specifies the new threshold to one or more specific measurementTypes.

[00165] Example 69 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 63-64, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to delete, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a ThresholdMonitor to be stopped and removed.

[00166] Example 70 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 63-64, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to list, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity list (monitorldList) parameter that specifies ThresholdMonitors to be listed.

[00167] Example 71 is an apparatus configured to be employed within an Element Manager (EM), comprising: means for storing instructions; and means for processing configured to execute the instructions to: receive a first request from a Network

Manager (NM), wherein the first request from the NM is: a first request from the NM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a first request from the NM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a first request from the NM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers; send a second request to a VNF Manager (VNFM), wherein the second request to the VNFM is: a second request to the VNFM to create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to create, a second request to the VNFM to delete the existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to delete, or a second request to the VNFM to list the thresholds that are identified by the list of threshold identifiers in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to list; receive a first response from the VNFM, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to list; and send a second response to the NM, wherein the second response to the NM indicates: a result of the first request to create the new threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being created, a result of the first request to delete the existing threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being deleted, or the details of the one or more thresholds in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the details of one or more thresholds.

[00168] Example 72 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 71 , wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to: receive a notification from a VNF Manager (VNFM) that a threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM; determine to generate a performance alarm, by adding a VNF related VR performance alarm into an Alarm List; and send a VNF related VR performance alarm notification to the NM.

[00169] Example 73 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 71 -72, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to create and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to create.

[00170] Example 74 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 73, wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a sourceSelector parameter that specifies one or more measurement types.

[00171 ] Example 75 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 73, wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a

[00172] Example 76 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 73, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00173] Example 77 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 73, wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a unique identifier of a ThresholdMonitor associated with the new threshold, and comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success'.

[00174] Example 78 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 71 -72, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to delete and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to delete, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success', 'Failure', or 'PartialSuccess'.

[00175] Example 79 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 71 -72, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to list and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to list, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor information list (monitorlnfoList) parameter that comprises returned information of corresponding ThresholdMonitors matching input criteria.

[00176] Example 80 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 73-74, wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a

[00177] Example 81 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 73-74 or 80, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00178] Example 82 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM), comprising: means for storing instructions; and means for processing configured to execute the instructions to: receive a request from an Element Manager (EM), wherein the request from the EM is: a request from the EM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a request from the EM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the EM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers; and send a response to the EM, wherein the response to the EM indicates: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list.

[00179] Example 83 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 82, wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to detect that the VNF related VR PM has crossed a first threshold.

[00180] Example 84 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 83, wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to send a notification to the EM that the first threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM.

[00181 ] Example 85 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 84, wherein the notification comprises an object instance identity

(objectlnstanceld) parameter that identifies the first threshold.

[00182] Example 86 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 84, wherein the notification comprises a thresholdld parameter, a

crossingDirection parameter, a performanceMetric parameter, and a performanceValue parameter, that indicate that the first threshold has been crossed.

[00183] Example 87 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 83, wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to detect that the VR PM has crossed the first threshold based on a threshold crossing notification received from a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM).

[00184] Example 88 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 82-87, wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to: send an additional request to a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional request to the VIM indicates the request from the EM to create in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list; and receive an additional response from the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional response from the VIM indicates a result of the request from the EM to create in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create.

[00185] Example 89 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 82-87, wherein the request from the EM is the request from the EM to create, and wherein the response to the EM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

[00186] Example 90 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), comprising: means for storing instructions; and means for processing configured to execute the instructions to: process a request from a

Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM), wherein the request from the VNFM is associated with threshold monitoring of a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) related Virtualization Resource (VR) Performance Measurement (PM), wherein the request from the VNFM is a request from the VNFM to create a new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, a request from the VNFM to delete an indicated existing threshold of a set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the VNFM to list one or more existing thresholds of the set of existing thresholds indicated via a list of threshold identifiers; in response to the request from the VNFM, one of: create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to create, delete the indicated existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to delete, or generate a list of the second set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to list; and send a response to the VNFM that indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to create in response to creating the new threshold, indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to delete in response to deleting the indicated threshold, or indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to list in response to generating the list.

[00187] Example 91 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 90, wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to send to the VNFM a threshold crossing notification associated with a crossed existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds, wherein the threshold crossing notification indicates an associated identifier for the crossed existing thresholds. [00188] Example 92 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 91 , wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to detect a threshold crossing associated with the crossed existing threshold, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the threshold crossing.

[00189] Example 93 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 91 , wherein the means for processing are further configured to execute the instructions to receive an additional threshold crossing notification from a Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the additional threshold crossing notification received from the NFVI.

[00190] Example 94 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a Network Manager (NM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to:

select a threshold monitoring operation in connection with a virtual network function (VNF) related virtualization resource (VR) performance measurement (PM), wherein the selected threshold monitoring operation is one of a creation of a new threshold, a deletion of an existing threshold, or a listing of one or more existing thresholds; send a request to an element manager (EM) to perform the selected threshold monitoring operation; and receive a response from the EM indicating a result of the selected threshold monitoring operation.

[00191 ] Example 95 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 94, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive a VNF related VR performance alarm notification from the EM.

[00192] Example 96 is an apparatus configured to be employed within an Element Manager (EM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to:

receive a first request from a network manager (NM) to perform a designated threshold monitoring operation in connection with a virtual network function (VNF) related virtualization resource (VR) performance measurement (PM), wherein the designated threshold monitoring operation is one of a creation of a new threshold, a deletion of an existing threshold, or a listing of one or more existing thresholds; send a second request to a VNF manager (VNFM) to perform the designated threshold monitoring operation; receive a first response from the VNFM that indicates a result of the designated threshold monitoring operation; and send a second response to the NM that indicates the result of the designated threshold monitoring operation. [00193] Example 97 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 96, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive a notification from a VNF Manager (VNFM) that a threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM; determine to generate a performance alarm, by adding a VNF related VR performance alarm into an Alarm List; and send a VNF related VR performance alarm notification to the NM.

[00194] Example 98 is an apparatus configured to be employed within an Element Manager (EM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to: receive a first request from an element manager (EM) to perform a designated threshold monitoring operation in connection with a VNF related virtualization resource (VR) performance measurement (PM), wherein the designated threshold monitoring operation is one of a creation of a new threshold, a deletion of an existing threshold, or a listing of one or more existing thresholds; send a second request to a virtualization infrastructure manager (VIM) to perform the designated threshold monitoring operation; receive a first response from the VIM that indicates a result of the designated threshold monitoring operation; and send a second response to the EM that indicates the result of the designated threshold monitoring operation.

[00195] Example 99 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 98, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect that the VNF related VR PM has crossed a first threshold.

[00196] Example 100 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a

Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors configured to: receive a request from a virtual network function (VNF) manager (VNFM) to perform a designated threshold monitoring operation in connection with a VNF related virtualization resource (VR) performance measurement (PM), wherein the designated threshold monitoring operation is one of a creation of a new threshold, a deletion of an existing threshold, or a listing of one or more existing thresholds; perform the designated threshold monitoring operation; and send a response to the VNFM that indicates the result of the designated threshold monitoring operation.

[00197] Example 101 comprises the subject matter of any variation of any of example(s) 100, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to send to the VNFM a threshold crossing notification associated with a crossed existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds, wherein the threshold crossing notification indicates an associated identifier for the crossed existing thresholds.

[00198] The above description of illustrated embodiments of the subject disclosure, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. While specific embodiments and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, various modifications are possible that are considered within the scope of such embodiments and examples, as those skilled in the relevant art can recognize.

[00199] In this regard, while the disclosed subject matter has been described in connection with various embodiments and corresponding Figures, where applicable, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments can be used or modifications and additions can be made to the described embodiments for performing the same, similar, alternative, or substitute function of the disclosed subject matter without deviating therefrom. Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims below.

[00200] In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components or structures (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), the terms (including a reference to a "means") used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component or structure which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations. In addition, while a particular feature may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus configured to be employed within a Network Manager (NM), comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors configured to:

make a determination, wherein the determination is a determination to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a determination to delete a first existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a determination to obtain detailed information of one or more existing thresholds to monitor the VNF related VR PM;

send a request to an Element Manager (EM), wherein the request to the EM is: a request to the EM to create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the determination being the determination to create, a request to the EM to delete the first existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the determination being the determination to delete, or a request to the EM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers in response to the determination being the determination to obtain; and

receive a response from the EM, wherein the response from the EM is: a response from the EM to indicate a result of a threshold creation in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to create, a response from the EM to indicate a result of a threshold deletion in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to delete, or a response from the EM to indicate details of the one or more existing thresholds in response to the request to the EM being the request to the EM to list.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive a VNF related VR performance alarm notification from the EM.

3. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -2, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to create.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the request to the EM comprises an information object class (IOC) instance list (iOCInstanceList) parameter that specifies one or more destination networks (DNs) of one or more ManagedEntity instances whose measurementTypes are to be monitored.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the request to the EM comprises an IOC name (iOCName) parameter that specifies a ManagedEntity class name for each of the one or more ManagedEntity instances specified by the iOCInstanceList parameter.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the request to the EM comprises a threshold information list (thresholdlnfoList) parameter that specifies the new threshold to one or more specific measurementTypes.

7. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -2, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to delete, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a ThresholdMonitor to be stopped and removed.

8. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -2, wherein the request to the EM is the request to the EM to list, and wherein the request to the EM comprises a monitor identity list (monitorldList) parameter that specifies ThresholdMonitors to be listed.

9. An apparatus configured to be employed within an Element Manager (EM), comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors configured to:

receive a first request from a Network Manager (NM), wherein the first request from the NM is: a first request from the NM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization

Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a first request from the NM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a first request from the NM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers;

send a second request to a VNF Manager (VNFM), wherein the second request to the VNFM is: a second request to the VNFM to create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to create, a second request to the VNFM to delete the existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to delete, or a second request to the VNFM to list the thresholds that are identified by the list of threshold identifiers in response to the first request from the NM being the first request from the NM to list;

receive a first response from the VNFM, wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the second request to the VNFM being the second request to the VNFM to list; and

send a second response to the NM, wherein the second response to the NM indicates: a result of the first request to create the new threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being created, a result of the first request to delete the existing threshold in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the one or more identifiers of the one or more thresholds being deleted, or the details of the one or more thresholds in response to the first response from the VNFM comprising the details of one or more thresholds.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

receive a notification from a VNF Manager (VNFM) that a threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM;

determine to generate a performance alarm, by adding a VNF related VR performance alarm into an Alarm List; and

send a VNF related VR performance alarm notification to the NM.

1 1 . The apparatus of any of claims 9-10, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to create and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to create.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 1 , wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a source selector (sourceSelector) parameter that specifies one or more measurement types.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 1 , wherein the second request to the VNFM comprises a PerformanceMetric parameter, a thresholdType parameter, and a thresholdDetails parameter, that create the new threshold for monitoring the one or more measurement types specified in the sourceSelector parameter.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 1 , wherein the first response from the VNFM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 1 , wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor identity (monitorld) parameter that specifies a unique identifier of a

ThresholdMonitor associated with the new threshold, and comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success'.

16. The apparatus of any of claims 9-10, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to delete and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to delete, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a status parameter that has a value of 'Success', 'Failure', or 'PartialSuccess'.

17. The apparatus of any of claims 9-10, wherein the first request from the NM is the first request from the NM to list and the second request to the VNFM is the second request to the VNFM to list, and wherein the second response to the NM comprises a monitor information list (monitorlnfoList) parameter that comprises returned information of corresponding ThresholdMonitors matching input criteria.

18. An apparatus configured to be employed within a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM), comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors configured to:

receive a request from an Element Manager (EM), wherein the request from the EM is: a request from the EM to create a new threshold to monitor a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) related VR (Virtualization Resource) PM (Performance Measurement), a request from the EM to delete an existing threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the EM to list thresholds that are identified by a list of threshold identifiers; and

send a response to the EM, wherein the response to the EM indicates: one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being created in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, one or more identifiers of one or more thresholds being deleted in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or details of one or more thresholds in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect that the VNF related VR PM has crossed a first threshold.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to send a notification to the EM that the first threshold has been crossed on the VNF related VR PM.

21 . The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the notification comprises an object instance identity (objectlnstanceld) parameter that identifies the first threshold.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the notification comprises a thresholdld parameter, a crossingDirection parameter, a performanceMetric parameter, and a performanceValue parameter, that indicate that the first threshold has been crossed.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect that the VR PM has crossed the first threshold based on a threshold crossing notification received from a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM).

24. The apparatus of any of claims 18-23, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

send an additional request to a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional request to the VIM indicates the request from the EM to create in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the request from the EM being the request from the EM to list; and

receive an additional response from the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), wherein the additional response from the VIM indicates a result of the request from the EM to create in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create, indicates the request from the EM to delete in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to delete, or indicates the request from the EM to list in response to the additional request to the VIM indicating the request from the EM to create.

25. The apparatus of any of claims 18-23, wherein the request from the EM is the request from the EM to create, and wherein the response to the EM comprises a threshold identity (thresholdld) parameter that indicates an identifier of the new threshold that has been created.

26. An apparatus configured to be employed within a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM), comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors configured to:

process a request from a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) Manager (VNFM), wherein the request from the VNFM is associated with threshold monitoring of a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) related Virtualization Resource (VR) Performance Measurement (PM), wherein the request from the VNFM is a request from the VNFM to create a new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM, a request from the VNFM to delete an indicated existing threshold of a set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM, or a request from the VNFM to list one or more existing thresholds of the set of existing thresholds indicated via a list of threshold identifiers;

in response to the request from the VNFM, one of: create the new threshold to monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to create, delete the indicated existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to delete, or generate a list of the second set of existing thresholds that monitor the VNF related VR PM in response to the request from the VNFM being the request from the VNFM to list; and

send a response to the VNFM that indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to create in response to creating the new threshold, indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to delete in response to deleting the indicated threshold, or indicates the result of the request from the VNFM to list in response to generating the list.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to send to the VNFM a threshold crossing notification associated with a crossed existing threshold of the set of existing thresholds, wherein the threshold crossing notification indicates an associated identifier for the crossed existing

thresholds.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect a threshold crossing associated with the crossed existing threshold, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the threshold crossing.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive an additional threshold crossing notification from a Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), and wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the threshold crossing notification in response to the additional threshold crossing notification received from the NFVI.