WO2017189015A1 - Virtualisation des fonctions réseau - Google Patents

Virtualisation des fonctions réseau Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2017189015A1
WO2017189015A1 PCT/US2016/030268 US2016030268W WO2017189015A1 WO 2017189015 A1 WO2017189015 A1 WO 2017189015A1 US 2016030268 W US2016030268 W US 2016030268W WO 2017189015 A1 WO2017189015 A1 WO 2017189015A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
value
parameter
time parameter
vdu
conditions
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2016/030268
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Meghashree Dattatri Kedalagudde
Muthaiah Venkatachalam
Wu-Chi Feng
Original Assignee
Intel IP Corporation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Intel IP Corporation filed Critical Intel IP Corporation
Priority to CN201680084433.7A priority Critical patent/CN109074280B/zh
Priority to PCT/US2016/030268 priority patent/WO2017189015A1/fr
Priority to TW106109384A priority patent/TWI722145B/zh
Publication of WO2017189015A1 publication Critical patent/WO2017189015A1/fr

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
    • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
    • G06F9/46—Multiprogramming arrangements
    • G06F9/50—Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
    • G06F9/5083—Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
    • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
    • G06F9/46—Multiprogramming arrangements
    • G06F9/50—Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
    • G06F9/5061—Partitioning or combining of resources
    • G06F9/5077—Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources

Definitions

  • Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of networks, and more particularly, to apparatuses and methods for network function virtualization in cellular networks.
  • Network orchestration is the management of physical and virtual devices to meet deployment and operational requirements of a network.
  • Telecommunications Standards Institute ETSI
  • network function virtualization NFV
  • management and orchestration MANO
  • MANO management and orchestration
  • Figure 1 illustrates an NFV architecture and reference points in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 2 illustrates parts of the NFV architecture of Figure 1 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 3 illustrates the deployment template descriptor data model for a network service descriptor in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 4 illustrates an architecture of a host device in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 5 illustrates a process flow for reactive monitoring in an NFV management plane in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 6 illustrates a first level of a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 7 illustrates an overutilization process of a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 8 illustrates an underutilization process of a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 9 illustrates a sub process of the underutilization process of Figure 8 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 10 illustrates a network using a coexistent deployment model in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 11 illustrates a computer system that may be used to practice various embodiments.
  • FIG. 12 illustrates an Ethernet controller in accordance with some embodiments.
  • Figure 13 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure of a host device according to some embodiments.
  • Figure 14 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure of a host device according to some embodiments.
  • Figure 15 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure of a virtual network function manager according to some embodiments.
  • Figure 16 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure of an element manager or network manager according to some embodiments.
  • Figure 17 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure of a network function virtualization orchestrator according to some embodiments.
  • Figure 18 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure of an operation support system or a business support system according to some embodiments.
  • Figure 19 illustrates an example computer-readable media in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates an NFV architecture 100 and reference points in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the NFV architecture 100 may be employed in a network that operates in compliance with 3 rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP, specifications.
  • the NFV architecture 100 may include an NFV-MANO system 104 coupled with core-network, CN, service system 108 as shown.
  • Each module shown in the NFV architecture 100 may represent a module designed to provide discrete operations, including, for example, management, orchestration, and communication operations, that are to facilitate provision of network services by the CN service system 108.
  • Network service may be achieved through any combination of virtual network functions, VNFs, and physical network functions, PNFs, which may be chained together.
  • the network service may be any type of service provided by core-network elements of a cellular network such as, but not limited to, a mobility management entity, MME, a packet data network gateway, PDN-GW, a serving gateway, S-GW, a policy charging and rules function, PCRF, a home location register, HLR, a visitor location register, VLR, a home subscriber server, HSS, a serving general packet radio service support node, SGSN, a gateway general packet radio service support node, GGSN, etc.
  • MME mobility management entity
  • PDN-GW packet data network gateway
  • S-GW serving gateway
  • PCRF policy charging and rules function
  • HLR home location register
  • HLR visitor location register
  • VLR visitor location register
  • HSS home subscriber server
  • SGSN Serving General packet radio service support node
  • GGSN gateway general packet radio service support node
  • the modules of the NFV architecture 100 will be briefly described. However, unless otherwise described, operation of the modules of the NFV architecture 100 may be consistent with descriptions in European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, Group Specification, GS, NFV-Management and Orchestration, MAN, 001 VI .1.1 (2014- 12).
  • various computer systems may be adapted to provide the operations described with respect to the modules of the architecture 100.
  • Some specifically adapted computer systems are described herein with respect to modules implementing operations of various embodiments. However, operations described with respect to other modules may be performed by similar computer systems adapted based on the objectives and implementation details associated with the particular modules.
  • the modules of the NFV architecture 100 are shown coupled with one another by various reference points. In some embodiments, specific implementations of the NFV architecture 100 may result in some of the modules being combined with others. In such cases, the reference point coupling the combined modules may be internalized.
  • the NFV-MANO system 104 may provide management and orchestration operations to facilitate provision of virtualized network functions by the CN service system 108.
  • the NFV-MANO system 104 may include a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, 112 coupled with a virtual network function manager, VNFM, 116.
  • the NFVO 112 may be further coupled with a number of data repositories such as, but not limited to, a network service, NS, catalog 122, a virtual network function, VNF, catalog 124, a network function virtualization, NFV, instances repository 128, and an NFV infrastructure, NFVI, repository 132.
  • the NFVO 112 may provide network service orchestration by coordinating the lifecycle of VNFs that jointly realize a network service. This may include managing the associations between different VNFs and the topology of a network service, NS, and VNF forwarding graph descriptors, VNFFGs, associated with the network service. It may be desirable for the NFVO 112 to be aware of all the resources available for reservation allocation at NFVI for an NS instance.
  • the NFVO 112 may be coupled with a VNF manager, VNFM, 116 by an Or-Vnfm reference point.
  • the VNFM 116 may be responsible for managing lifecycles of VNF instances.
  • the VNFM 116 may provide traditional management operations such as, but not limited to, fault management, configuration management, accounting management, performance management, and security management.
  • the VNFM 116 may also provide scaling operations to change a configuration of virtualized resources.
  • the scaling operations may include, but are not limited to, scaling up (for example, adding a central processing unit, CPU), scaling down (for example, removing a CPU or releasing some virtualized resources), scaling out (for example, adding a new virtual machine, VM), and scaling in (for example, shutting down and removing a VM instance).
  • scaling up for example, adding a central processing unit, CPU
  • scaling down for example, removing a CPU or releasing some virtualized resources
  • scaling out for example, adding a new virtual machine, VM
  • scaling in for example, shutting down and removing a VM instance
  • the VNFM 116 may include a global monitor 118.
  • the global monitor 118 may be a background process that collects measurements related to performance metrics of VMs operating on the VNFs, for example, VNF 144.
  • the NS catalog 122 may represent a repository of all on-boarded network services to support creation and management of NS deployment templates.
  • the NS deployment templates may include, but are not limited to, network service descriptor, NSD, virtual link descriptor, VLD, a VNF descriptor, VNFD, and a VNF forwarding graph descriptor, VNFFGD.
  • the VNF catalog 124 may represent a repository of all on-boarded VNF packages.
  • the VNF package may include, for example, a VNFD, software images, manifest files, etc.
  • the information in the VNF catalog 124 may support creation and management of the VNF packages via interface operations exposed by the NFVO 112.
  • the VNF catalog 124 may be coupled with the NFVO 112 and the VNFM 116 via respective reference points.
  • the NFVO 112 or the VNFM 116 may query the VNF catalog 124 to find and retrieve a VNFD to support operations such as, but not limited to, validation, checking instantiation feasibility, etc.
  • the NFV instances repository 128 may hold information of all VNF and NS instances.
  • Each VNF/NS instance may be represented by a VNF/NS record that is updated during the lifecycle of the respective instances to reflect changes resulting from execution of VNF/NS lifecycle management operations.
  • the NFVI resources repository 132 may hold information about available, reserved, and allocated NFVI resources as abstracted by a virtualized infrastructure manager, VIM, 120 coupled with the VNFM 116.
  • the VIM 120 may control and manage the NFVI resources, for example, compute, storage, and network resources used for NFV. In some embodiments, the VIM 120 may manage only a subset of one or more types of NFVI resources (for example, compute- only, storage-only, or networking-only). In other embodiments, the VIM 120 may manage a plurality of types of NFVI resources.
  • the VIM 120 may also be coupled with the NFVO 112 by an Or-Vi reference point.
  • the CN service system 108 may include an operations support system/business support system (OSS/BSS) 136, which may be composed of one or more devices to manage and orchestrate legacy systems by providing functions such as, but not limited to, network inventory, service provisioning, network configuration, and fault management.
  • OSS/BSS operations support system/business support system
  • the OSS/BSS 136 may have full end-to-end visibility of services provided by legacy network systems.
  • the OSS/BSS 136 may be coupled with the NFVO 112 by an Os-Ma-nfvo reference point.
  • the OSS/BSS 136 may be further coupled with an element manager, EM, 140 that may be responsible for fault, configuration, performance, and security, FCAPS, management functionality for a VNF, for example, VNF 144.
  • the EM 140 may provide a number of management operations with respect to the network functions provided by the VNF 144. These management operations may include, but are not limited to, configuration, fault management, accounting, collection of performance measurement results, and security management.
  • the EM 140 may be coupled with the VNFM 116 over a Ve-Vnfm-em reference point in order to collaborate with the VNFM 116 to perform functions that rely on exchanges of information regarding the NFVI resources associated with the VNF 144.
  • the VNF 144 may be a software implementation of a network function that is capable of running on NFVI 148.
  • the deployment and operational behavior of the VNF 144 may be described in a corresponding VNFD that may be stored in the VNF catalog 124.
  • the VNF 144 may be coupled with the VNFM 116 by a Ve-Vnfm-vnf reference point.
  • the Ve-Vnfm-vnf reference point may support the exchange of messages that provide VNF instantiation, queries, updates, scaling, verification, configuration, etc.
  • the NFVI 148 may represent the hardware (for example, compute, storage, and networking circuitry) and software (for example, hypervisors) components that collectively provide the infrastructure resources where the VNF 144 is deployed.
  • the NFVI 148 may also include partially virtualized NFs that have part of their functionality virtualized and other parts embodied in a physical network function (PNF) (for example, built in silicon) due to, for example, physical constraints or vendor design choices.
  • PNF physical network function
  • the NFVI 148 may be coupled with the VIM 120 by an Nf-Vi reference point.
  • Nf-Vi reference point may support the exchange of VM management messages to provide/update VM resources allocation, migrate/terminate VMs, manage connections between VMs, etc.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates selected modules of the NFV-MANO system 104 in further detail in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the NFVO 112 is shown with functional units including an NS Record (NSR) manager 204, a prediction engine 208, a policy catalog 212, and a monitoring module 216.
  • the functional units of the NFVO 112 may allow for collection of metrics as part of resource and service orchestration to enable near real-time event trigger in decision-making. This may involve orchestration carried out at multiple levels. Abstractions may be created at every management layer and a high- level coarse view of the system resources and service state may be propagated back to the FVO 112.
  • the monitor module 216 may collect measurements and performance parameters for each V F from the V FM 116 and the VIM 120.
  • the measurement and performance parameters may include, for example, a request arrival rate, an average response time, calls per second, etc.
  • the measurements collected may be a combination of both system metrics and application-specific metrics per VNF/virtual link.
  • the monitor module 216 may receive the measurement and performance parameters from the policy catalog 212.
  • the measurement and performance parameters may be referred to as "monitoring parameters.”
  • the monitoring parameters may be a combination of system metrics at VIM level and application metrics (referred to as counters in 3 GPP network functions management specifications) at VNFM level.
  • monitoring may be a multi-level operation with operations performed at NFVO 112, VNFM 116, and VIM 120.
  • the monitor module 216 may maintain an overview of the performance on network- service level as decisions for resource assignment may be routed through the NFVO 112.
  • the monitor module 216 may be coupled with the VNFM 116 to instantiate VNFs and verify resource availability when additional resources are requested for an instantiated VNF.
  • the policy catalog 212 may be a repository that stores information related to NSD, VNFD, VLD, VNFFG, NFVI resource catalog, and NFVI instances when a network service is on-boarded. This information may be referred to as on-boarding descriptors and, in some embodiments, may be loaded to the policy catalog 212 from appropriate distributed respositories, e.g., NS catalog 120, when a network service is on-boarded. On- boarding an NSD may be done by the OSS/BSS 136 as part of an NS instantiation. In some embodiments, the on-boarding descriptors may be provided to the policy catalog 212 through a profile engine 220 that interfaces with the OSS/BSS 136.
  • the policy catalog 212 may provide the VNFM 116 with on-boarding descriptors to facilitate VNF instantiation and lifecycle management.
  • An initial deployment resource requirement for a given NS may be obtained by profiling various deployment test cases on test networks, although there may be alternative ways to obtain this data.
  • the monitoring parameters, scaling policy, and NS deployment flavor may be incorporated as information elements in an NSD.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates a deployment template descriptor data model 300 for an NSD 304 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the NSD 304 may be a descriptor file that describes an NS that is to be deployed.
  • the NS may be orchestrated by the NFVO 112 and may compose one or more VNFs, PNFs, VNFFGs.
  • the NSD 304 may include (or include references to) VNFDs, VLDs, VNFFGDs, and monitoring parameters that support a service level agreement, SLA, for the NS.
  • the descriptor files may be stored in a repository that is accessed by the modules of the NFV-MANO 104 depending on a state of deployment.
  • the NSD, VNFFGD, VLD, and its lifecycle management may be handled by the NFVO 112, while the VNFD and its lifecycle management may be managed by the VNFM 116.
  • the NSD 304 may include (or include references to) VNFD 308, VNFD 312, VNFD 316, VLD 320, VLD 324, VNFFGD 328, and VNFFGD 332.
  • the VNFDs may describe a VNF in terms of deployment and operational behavior requirements.
  • a VNFD may include or otherwise reference initiation and termination scripts and internal and external connectivity.
  • the VNFD may also contain connectivity, interface, and key performance indicator, KPI, parameters that may be used by modules of the NFV-MANO system 104 to establish appropriate virtual links, VLs, within the NFVI between VNFC instances, or between a VNF instance and an endpoint interface to other network functions.
  • VNFFGDs may describe a topology of some or all of the NS by referencing VNFs and PNFs, and the VLs that connect them.
  • a VLD may describe an associated VL.
  • the VLD may provide resource requirements that may be needed for a VL between VNFs, PNFs, and endpoints of the NS, which could be met by various link options that are available in the NFVI.
  • the VLD may describe the basic topology of connectivity between one or more VNFs coupled with the VL and other desired parameters (for example, bandwidth and quality of service (QoS) class).
  • QoS quality of service
  • Each VNFD may be associated with one or more virtualized deployment units
  • VDUs virtual network function components
  • VNFCs virtual network function components
  • a VNFC may be a module mapped to a single VM and designed to perform discrete sub-functions of a VNF.
  • the VNFC may be an internal component providing a VNF provider defined sub-set of that VNF functionality.
  • VDU and VNFC may be used interchangeably since VDU is an information model representation of VNFC.
  • VNFD 308 may be associated with VDU 336, VDU 340, and the VDU 344;
  • VNFD 312 may be associated with VDU 348 and VDU 352; and
  • VNFD 316 may be associated with VDU 356 and VDU 360.
  • Each VDU may be associated with various VM resources that are to be used to support the functions of the corresponding VNFC and, possibly, VM metrics to be monitored.
  • VDU 336 may be associated with compute resources 364, which may be expressed in terms of virtual central processing units (vCPUs); network resources 368, which may be expressed in terms of virtual network bandwidth, vNBW; and storage/memory resources 372, which may be expressed in terms of virtual memory, vMEM.
  • the VDU 352 may be associated with compute resources 376, network resources 380, and storage/memory resources 384; and VDU 360 may be associated with compute resources 388, network resources 392, and storage/memory resources 396.
  • the prediction engine 208 may receive a record log from the monitor module 216.
  • the record log may include sampled values for the parameters monitored by the NFVO 112.
  • the prediction engine 208 may use these values, along with other historical data, to enable proactive decision-making.
  • the prediction engine 208 may provide the NSR manager 204 with proactive actions for the NSR manager 204 to implement.
  • the NSR manager 204 may create, update, delete NS records based on NS descriptor requirements and may respond to queries from the monitor module 216 regarding resources reserved in NFVI for a given NS instance.
  • FIG. 4 illustrates an architecture of a host device 400 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the host device 400 may include platform hardware 404 that may generally correspond to NFVI resources.
  • the platform hardware may include, but is not limited to, compute circuitry 408, storage/memory circuitry 412, and network circuitry 416.
  • circuitry may refer to, be part of, or include any combination of integrated circuits (for example, a field-programmable gate array, FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit, ASIC, etc.), discrete circuits, combinational logic circuits, system on a chip, SOC, system in a package, SiP, that provides digital, analog, mixed-signal, or radio-frequency functions.
  • the compute circuitry 408 may include various processing units (shared, dedicated, or group). In some embodiments, the compute circuitry 408 may include, for example, one or more single or multi-core central processing units, CPUs.
  • the compute circuitry 408 may include a variety of other processing units such as, but not limited to, digital signal processors, peripheral interfaces, accelerators, memory interfaces, controllers, etc.
  • the storage/memory circuitry 412 may include any type of volatile or non-volatile storage to store information (for example, data, computer-readable instructions arranged as executable code, etc.).
  • the compute circuitry 408 may execute the computer-readable instructions stored in the storage/memory circuitry 412 to implement the modules of the host device 400 and perform various operations associated with respective modules.
  • the storage/memory circuitry 412 may include flash memory, dynamic random access memory, DRAM, static random access memory, SRAM, etc.
  • the network circuitry 416 may include circuitry to connect the host device with one or more other devices over wired or wireless networks.
  • the network circuitry 416 may include appropriate compute circuitry and storage/memory circuitry to provide desired network connectivity.
  • the network circuitry 416 may provide one or more interfaces to interface with a network such as, for example, Ethernet, evolved universal terrestrial radio access network, EUTRAN, etc.
  • circuitry of the platform hardware 404 may be arranged in any of a number of architectures, many of which may provide various combinations of components of the respective circuitries.
  • Parts of the compute circuitry 408, storage/memory circuitry 412, and network circuitry 416 may be integrated with one another and/or distributed among a variety of platforms, modules, chipsets, devices, servers, etc.
  • the platform hardware 404 may implement a hypervisor 420, which may also be referred to as a virtual machine manager, VMM, to create and run various VMs on the host device 400.
  • a hypervisor 420 which may also be referred to as a virtual machine manager, VMM, to create and run various VMs on the host device 400.
  • the hypervisor 420 may be a hosted hypervisor that runs on an operating system
  • the OS, 424 (similar to other computer programs of the host device 400). This may, in some instances, be referred to as a Type-2 hypervisor.
  • the hypervisor 420 may be a native, bare-metal, or Type-1 hypervisor that runs directly on the platform hardware 404.
  • the host device 400 may include a number of logical domains with each domain operating independently of one another. For example, operating systems running inside a logical domain may be started, stopped, and rebooted independent of the operating systems in other logical domains.
  • Each logical domain may be designed for a particular role.
  • a logical domain may be, for example, a control domain, service domain, an input/output (I/O) domain, a root domain, or a guest domain.
  • I/O input/output
  • the control domains may control the logical domain environment and may be used to configure machine resources and guest domains and provide services to be used in domain operation.
  • the host device 400 may include a controller domain 0 428.
  • the controller domain 0 428 may include an open Vswitch, OVS, 432 and a layer 2, L2, agent 436.
  • the OVS 432 may be an implementation of a distributed virtual multilayer switch that is to provide a switching stack for hardware virtualization environments.
  • the OVS 432 may support a number of management interfaces and protocols and may support transparent distribution across multiple physical servers.
  • OVS 432 is shown as one example of a virtual multilayer switch, other embodiments may include other virtual multilayer switches.
  • the L2 agent 436 may create L2 connectivity of resource nodes, for example, compute nodes, storage/memory nodes, and network nodes.
  • the resource nodes may be virtualized resources provided by circuitry on the host device 400 and/or other devices.
  • a compute node may include a portion of compute circuitry 408 as well as a portion of compute circuitry of another device allocated for use by one or more VMs.
  • the L2 agent 436 may create the L2 connectivity by configuring local virtual switches or bridges.
  • the L2 agent 436 may configure two software bridges, an integration bridge, br-int, and a tunneling bridge, br-tun.
  • the integration bridge may be used for tagging and untagging traffic directed to, or received from, VMs. Traffic may be tagged by use of a local virtual local area network, VLAN, identifier, ID, to assign the traffic to a VLAN.
  • the tunneling bridge may be used to translate the VLAN ID into segmentation that may be used for tunneling through, for example, generic routing encapsulation, GRE, tunnels.
  • the controller domain 0 428 may be coupled with a plurality of VNF applications that are to provide corresponding VNFs.
  • the host device 400 may include VNF application 440 and VNF application 444.
  • Each VNF application may include one or more VNFCs to provide discrete sub- functions associated with the VNF.
  • VNF application 440 may include VNFC 448, VNFC 452, and VNFC 456.
  • VNF application 444 may include VNFC 460, VNFC 464, and VNFC 468.
  • Each VNFC may be associated with a corresponding VM.
  • the VNFC 448 may be associated with the VM 472
  • VNFC 452 may be associated with VM 474
  • VNFC 456 may be associated with VM 476
  • VNFC 460 may be associated with VM 478
  • VNFC 464 may be associated with VM 480
  • VNFC 468 may be associated with VM 482.
  • each VNFC may be additionally/alternatively associated with a virtual container.
  • Each VNF application may also have a local monitor running on it.
  • VNF application 440 may include local monitor 484 and VNF application 444 may include local monitor 486.
  • Local monitor 484 may be associated with VM 488 and local monitor 486 may be associated with VM 490.
  • the local monitors may measure performance of the VMs interworking to fulfill the functions of the VNF.
  • Each local monitor may measure and report, in a measurement report, metrics related to various system parameters back to a global monitor, for example, global monitor 118 running at VNFM 116, or a monitor module, for example, monitor module 216 of the NFVO 112.
  • the local monitors may be responsible for monitoring values of a variety of system parameters of the VMs over a sampling interval, S. These system parameters, which may also be referred to as performance metrics, may include, but are not limited to, compute utilization, memory utilization, network bandwidth, queue time, service time, and response time. In various embodiments, the local monitors may generate a measurement report after one or more sampling intervals to be sent to the global monitor.
  • the local monitors may be additionally/alternatively responsible for running a decision algorithm with respect to a lifecycle management of individual VMs supporting a given VNF.
  • the decision algorithm may facilitate a decision to decide whether to instantiate a new VM (for example, scale in), shut down a VM (for example, scale out), or scale up/down a given VM in terms of virtual CPUs, vMemories, vLinks, etc.
  • a local monitor may verify availability with the NFVO 112, either directly, or through the VNFM 116.
  • profiling may be used to provide an initial configuration picture of a target under study.
  • System parameters may be profiled by sampling their state at timed intervals. These samples may be the basis for providing threshold values of the system parameters. Threshold values may also be referred to as "initial values.”
  • the threshold values for system parameters desired to support a particular deployment flavor of the VNF/VNFC may be acquired through sandbox profiling.
  • Sandbox profiling may capture system parameter measurements of the VNF/VNFC when it is run as a standalone entity. For example, consider a network-attach subfunction of an MME that is performed by VNFC 448. The compute, network, and storage/memory resources needed for a user equipment, UE, connection may be determined, through sandbox profiling, as ⁇ CI, Nl, Ml), respectively. Total system resources desired by the VNFC 448 for 'Jf UE connections may then be given by ⁇ CI, N1, M1) * X.
  • VNFC system parameters for all the VNFCs performing sub- functions of the VNF may be obtained and included in compute resources, network resources, and storage/memory resources information elements of a corresponding NSD.
  • VNFD 308 is used to describe the VNF provided by VNF application 440
  • VDU 336 may be used to describe deployment and operational behavior requirements of VNFC 448.
  • the network attach sub-function performed by the VNFC 448 may have threshold values for system parameters defined in compute resources 364, network resources 368, and storage/memory resources 372.
  • the threshold values determined from the sandbox profiling of the VNFs may be included in the corresponding VNF descriptors.
  • the VNFM 116 may provide the threshold values to a local monitor once the corresponding VNF is instantiated by the VNFM 116.
  • threshold values for queue time, service time, and response time may be also be determined.
  • sandbox profiling may provide five system parameters to monitor for each VNFC. The monitoring of these system parameters may serve as a set of inputs for a performance decision algorithm in some embodiments.
  • the first set of five system parameters obtained through sandbox profiling during deployment of a VNFC may be represented by Ini QT (initial value of the queue time), Ini ST (initial value of the service time), Ini CC (initial value of compute cycles), Ini NB (initial value of the network bandwidth), and Ini VU (initial value of the virtual memory).
  • the initial values represent the threshold values for these parameters for a given deployment flavor.
  • an MME VNF may have a deployment flavor for a number of UE connections supported set to 1000 calls per second.
  • the threshold values for the system parameters may be received by the profile engine 220 when a VM that is to be monitored is instantiated as part of a network service.
  • local monitors may, as part of their monitoring
  • 'S' represent a time interval over which monitored parameters are sampled. For example, sample a number of incoming requests for a VDU every second (or every minute, 10 minutes, 10 hours, etc.). For a given interval, a VDU's mean queue length, Q L , may be given by:
  • a corresponding mean queue time, Q T may be given by: where t is the inter-arrival time of the messages during the sampling interval.
  • the mean total response time, R may be given by:
  • Req t is a request arrival time and Resp t is a response dispatch time.
  • S T may represent a mean service time, which is the time spent by the VDU servicing a request.
  • the service time may account for processing time of the request at the VM excluding network delays.
  • the service time may be the time between arrival of the last fragment of a request to a departure of a first fragment of the response and may be represented by:
  • the mean queue time, mean total response time, and mean service time may be calculated by a local monitor for every time interval ⁇ to determine new values.
  • the parameters used in the performance decision algorithm may be described as follows.
  • the system parameters may be measured by the local monitor over a given sampling interval, S, to determine real-time values, or "new values," of the system parameters.
  • the new values may be represented by New QT (new value of the queue time), Ini ST (new value of the service time), New CC (new value of compute cycles), New NB (new value of the network bandwidth), and New_VU (new value of the virtual memory).
  • FIG. 5 illustrates a process flow 500 for reactive monitoring in an FV management plane in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the process flow 500 may include, at 504, the monitor module 216 of the FVO 112 sending a request to the global monitor 118 of the V FM 116 to instantiate VNFs to provide functions of a network service instance. While 504 shows the monitor module 216 sending a request to the global monitor 118, in other embodiments other parts of the NFVO 112 may send the request to other parts of the VNFM 116.
  • the VNFs may be instantiated by the VNFM 116 providing instructions to one or more host devices, for example, host device 400, to execute associated VNF applications such as, for example, VNF application 440.
  • the global monitor 118 may verify that all the VNFs to be instantiated are on boarded in the VNF catalog 124. If this is verified, the global monitor 118 may cause the VNFs to be instantiated at 508. In some embodiments, the global monitor 118 may cause the VNF to be instantiated by signaling over a Ve-Vnfm-vnf reference point. If the global monitor 118 does not verify that all the VNFs to be instantiated are on boarded in the VNF catalog 124, the global monitor 118 may send out an error report to the monitor module 216.
  • the process flow 500 may further include, at 512, the global monitor 118 sending threshold values of the system parameters that are to be monitored to the local monitors of the VNF applications.
  • the global monitor 118 may send the threshold values to the local monitor 484 of VNF application 440.
  • the process flow 500 may further include, at 516, the local monitors obtaining new values for the system parameters from the VMs that are executing the VNFCs of a given VNF application.
  • the local monitor 484 may obtain the new values for the system parameters from the VM 472, VM 474, and VM 476.
  • the local monitor 484 may obtain these new values in real time as the VNFCs are performing respective sub-functions of the VNF.
  • the local monitor 484 may obtain the new values every time interval.
  • the process flow 500 may further include, at 520, the local monitor 484 engaging in performance monitoring and management.
  • performance monitoring and management may be provided by implementing a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure based on the threshold values received from the global monitor 118 at 512 and the new values obtained from the VMs 472, 474, and 476 at 516.
  • the performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure which may be described in further detail in association with Figures 6-9, may identify an overutilization or underutilization of resources associated with a VNFC and may further determine a VM management action that is to at least partially address the identified overutilization or underutilization.
  • the VM management action may include scaling up/down a VM, instantiating a new VM, shutting down an executing VM, etc.
  • the local monitor 484 may perform the monitoring and report the monitored values to the VNFM 120.
  • the VNFM 120 may then engage in the performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure of Figures 6-9 to determine whether a VM
  • the process flow 500 may further include, at 524, the local monitor 484 sending a request for the VM management action to be taken.
  • the request may be sent to the global monitor 118 in the VNFM 116.
  • the global monitor 118 may check for availability of resources for the VM management action to be taken on the VNF by sending, at 528, a resource availability request to the monitor module 216 of the NFVO 112.
  • the process flow 500 may further include, at 532, the global monitor 216 checking an NS record to ensure that the requested resource is available for reservation by the NS instance.
  • An NS record may be created with an NS that is instantiated in accordance with an NSD.
  • the NS record may include information about a value of maximum resources that may be allocated to a particular instance of the NS.
  • the global monitor 216 may, at
  • the process flow 500 may include the monitor module 216 sending a notification of resource availability to the global monitor 118 at 536.
  • the process flow 500 may further include, at 540, the global monitor 118 sending a request to allocate resources based on the requested action to the VIM 120.
  • the VIM 120 may allocate infrastructure resources to be used to complete the requested action.
  • the VIM 120 may send a notification, to the global monitor 118 that the requested resources have been allocated.
  • the global monitor 118 may, at 548, forwarded notification to the local monitor
  • the local monitor 484 may repeat the obtaining of new values every time interval, S, and continually run the performance algorithm, either using the threshold values provided at 512 or an updated version of the threshold values.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates a first level 600 of a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure that may be provided by the host device 400 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the first level 600 may include, at 604, instantiating VM 472 to run VNFC 448 and VM 488 to run local monitor 484.
  • the VMs 472 and 488 may be instantiated by executing the program code associated with VNF application 440 by the compute circuitry 408 of the platform hardware 404.
  • the execution of the program code of VNF application 440 may be initiated based on instructions from VNFM 116.
  • VMs 474 and 476 may also be instantiated and monitored in ways similar to VM 472. However, for simplicity, the present description is focused on the monitoring and management of VM 472/VNFC 448.
  • the first level 600 may include, at 608, obtaining initial and new values of system parameters.
  • the initial values of the system parameters may be obtained from the global monitor 118 such as that described above with respect to 512 of Figure 5.
  • the new values of the system parameters may be obtained in real-time from the VM 472 as it runs the VNFC 448. In some embodiments, the new values may be obtained from the VM 472 every sampling interval.
  • the first level 600 may include, at 612, determining whether all of the new system parameters are equal to the initial system parameters. If all of the new system parameters are equal to the initial system parameters the local monitor 484 may determine that a proper amount of resources are dedicated to the VM 472 to allow the V FC 448 to efficiently perform its associated sub-functions.
  • the first level 600 may include the local monitor 484 determining, at 616, whether any of the new system parameters are greater than the initial system parameters.
  • the local monitor 484 may identify an overutilization of resources associated with the VNFC 448 at 620.
  • the local monitor 484 may identify an underutilization of resources associated with the VNFC 448 at 624.
  • Figure 7 illustrates an overutilization process 700 of a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure that may be provided by the host device 400 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the overutilization process 700 may begin with the local monitor 484 identifying an overutilization of resources associated with the VNFC 448 at 620 as described with respect to Figure 6.
  • the overutilization process 700 may include the local monitor 484 detecting, at 704, whether an initial value of the queue time parameter (Init QT) is greater than a new value of the queue time parameter (New QT) and an initial value of the service time parameter (Init ST) is less than a new time of the service time parameter (New ST).
  • the local monitor may determine whether an initial value of the compute cycles parameter (Ini CC) is less than a new value of the compute cycles parameter (New CC). If, at 708, it is determined that the initial value of the compute cycles parameter is less than a new value of the compute cycles parameter, the local monitor 484 may, at 712, perform an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU.
  • the performance of the overutilization management action by the local monitor 484 may include, for example, sending a request to the VNFM 116 to add the vCPU.
  • the local monitor 484 may perform an overutilization management action to add the vCPU to the VDU.
  • the overutilization process 700 may advance to 716.
  • the local monitor 484 may determine whether an initial value of the queue time is less than the new value of the queue time and an initial value of the service time is greater than the new value of the service time. If the conditions at 716 are satisfied, the local monitor 484 may perform an overutilization management action to instantiate a new VDU at 720. For example, in this embodiment the local monitor 484 may determine that a first VDU (corresponding to VNFC 448 and the VM 472) is overutilized and may, therefore, instantiate a new VDU such as, for example, VNFC 452 and VM 474. The VNFC 452 may perform the same sub-function as VNFC 448. Incoming tasks associated with the sub-function may be distributed between VNFC 452 and VNFC 448. In various embodiments, the newly instantiated VDU may be in another VNF application, on another host platform, etc.
  • the local monitor 484 may determine whether an initial value of the network bandwidth is less than the new value of network bandwidth at 724.
  • the overutilization process 700 may also make the determination of 724 following an action performed with respect to block 712.
  • the local monitor 484 may perform an over utilization management action to increase throughput of a virtual link by a certain value, x, at 728.
  • throughput of a virtual link may be increased by adding an additional virtual network interface controller, vNIC, to the VM on which the VNF is instantiated.
  • the overutilization process may advance to 732 at which point the local monitor 484 may determine whether an initial value of a virtual memory is less than a new value of the virtual memory. If it is determined that the initial value of virtual memory is less than the new value of virtual memory, the local monitor 484 may perform an overutilization management action to add a certain number x of blocks of memory to the VDU at 736.
  • x blocks of memory for example, random access memory (RAM)
  • RAM random access memory
  • the overutilization process may advance to the determination of block 716.
  • the overutilization process 700 may end at 740.
  • FIG 8 illustrates an underutilization process 800 of a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure that may be provided by the host device 400 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the underutilization process 800 may begin with the local monitor 484 identifying an underutilization of resources associated with the V FC 448 at 624 as described with respect to Figure 6.
  • the underutilization process 800 may include the local monitor 484 determining, at 804, whether both an initial value of a queue time is greater than a new value of the queue time and an initial value of the service time is greater than a new value of the service time.
  • 800 may advance to 824.
  • the local monitor 484 may determine, at 808, whether a new value of a queue time is less than a predetermined minimum threshold value of the queue time (Threshfi in) QT) and a new value of the service time is less than a predetermined minimum threshold value of the service time (Thresh ⁇ in) ST).
  • the local monitor 484 may perform an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU at 812.
  • the VDU may be shut down by closing out the VM 472 and releasing any resources allocated to it.
  • the underutilization process 800 may advance to sub-process D at 900.
  • Sub-process D is illustrated in Figure 9 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the local monitor 484 may determine whether another VDU hosts the same sub-function as the target VDU. If not, the sub-process D may return to the calling process, for example, the underutilization process 800, at 916. If, at 904 it is determined that another VDU hosts the same sub-function as the target VDU, the local monitor 484 may obtain monitoring parameters for the other VDU, which may be referred to as the selected VDU (VDU_N), at 908 and then return to the calling process at 912. In some embodiments, the local monitor 484 may obtain the monitoring parameters for the selected VDU from a global monitor 118 or directly from a local monitor of another V F (either on the host device or on another host device).
  • VDU_N the selected VDU
  • the local monitor 484 may, at 816, determine whether both an initial value of the queue time is greater than a new value of a queue time plus a new value of a queue time of the selected VDU
  • New QT N (if available) and an initial value of service time is greater than a new value of the service time plus a new value of the service time of the selected VDU (New ST N) (if available).
  • the local monitor may perform an underutilization action to migrate subfunctions provided by the VDU to the selected VDU and shut down the VDU at 820.
  • the subfunctions provided by the VDU may be migrated to the selected VDU by updating routing tables or other call routines associated with the VNF.
  • the local monitor 484 may determine, at 824, whether a new value of virtual memory is less than a predetermined minimum threshold of virtual memory. If so, the local monitor 484 may perform an underutilization action to remove a certain number 'x ' blocks of memory from the VDU at 828. Following 828, the underutilization process may advance to 832.
  • the underutilization process 800 may advance to 832.
  • the local monitor 484 may determine whether a new value of compute cycles is less than a predetermined minimum threshold value of compute cycles. If so, the local monitor may perform an underutilization action to remove a certain number ' ' blocks of memory from the VDU at 836. Following 836, the underutilization process may advance to 840.
  • the underutilization process may advance to
  • the local monitor 484 may determine whether a new value of a network bandwidth is less than a predetermined minimum threshold of the network bandwidth. If so, the local monitor 484 may perform an underutilization action to decrease the throughput of a virtual link associated with the VDU by a certain value ' ' at 844.
  • the underutilization process may advance to 848.
  • some networks may solely rely on physical network infrastructure, solely rely on NFV infrastructure, or use a combination of physical network infrastructure and NFV infrastructure.
  • the deployment of network services may be based on a metro region to be served and capacity requirement of the metro region. Based on the capacity requirement and the traffic variation of the region, the infrastructure required to support the region may be decided. For example, in some situations a completely vertically integrated model (similar to that already existing today in
  • telecommunication networks may be decided to be the appropriate network model. This may not have an impact on 3 GPP management architecture defined for telecommunication networks.
  • Some embodiments may include a coexistent deployment model in which network service orchestration is based on complete end-to-end infrastructure information, for example, both vertically integrated PNFs and virtualized-infrastructure-based VNFs.
  • the orchestrator may be responsible for deployment and lifecycle management of network services across both the physical and virtual network functions.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates a network 1000 using a coexistent deployment model in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the network 1000 may include an OSS/BSS 1004 that is to provide high-level operation and business service management similar to that described above with respect to OSS/BSS 136.
  • the network 1000 may include various layers that provide FCAPS operations.
  • the physical deployment side may include a network manager 1008 that is coupled with one or more element managers (EMs) such as, for example, EM 1012 and EM 1016.
  • EMs element managers
  • the EMs 1012 and 1016 may, in turn, be coupled with physical network infrastructure 1020.
  • EM 1012 may be coupled with network elements
  • NEs, 1024 and 1028 and EM 1016 may be coupled with NE 1032.
  • the NEs 1024, 1028, and 1032 may each be a discreet telecommunications entity that may be managed over a specific interface, for example, a radio network controller, RNC, interface.
  • the NEs 1024, 1028, and 1032 may each provide a respective PNF.
  • the network manager (NM) 1008 may primarily deal with network configuration (for example, configuring network routing tables), testing, and traffic analysis.
  • the NM 1008 may provide a package of end-user functions with the responsibility for the management of the network supported, for example, by the EMs 1012 and 1016.
  • the EMs 1012 and 1016 may be responsible for logging, backup, and maintenance of the hardware and software of the physical network infrastructure 1020.
  • the EMs 1012 and 1016 may also be responsible for fault handling in some situations.
  • the EMs 1012 and 1016 may provide a package of end-user functions for management of a set of closely related types of network elements. These functions may include elements management functions for managing individual network elements and sub-network management functions related to a network model first set of network elements that comprise the subnetwork.
  • the NEs 1024, 1028, and 1032 may be the physical network infrastructure 1020 embodied in devices that were specifically built to perform a function associated with a particular network service.
  • the EMs 1012 and 1016 may monitor the performance of the PNFs provided by NEs 1024, 1028, and 1032 through counters that track performance measurements related to the PNFs .
  • the performance measurements may relate to the function provided by the associated PNFs and may include, but are not limited to, equipment measurements, mobility management (MM) measurements, general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) measurements, Internet protocol, IP, management measurements, inter-radio access technology handover (IRATH) measurements, quality of service measurements, security measurements, session management (SM) measurements, subscriber management measurements, etc.
  • MM measurements may include measurements related to MME procedures such as, but not limited to, evolved packet system, EPS, attach procedures (for example, a number of attempted, successful, and failed attach procedures), UE-initiated EPS detach procedures (for example, attempted and successful), MME-initiated EPS detach procedures (for example, attempted and successful), HSS-initiated EPS detach procedures (for example, attempted and successful), tracking area update procedures with or without serving gateway changes (for example, attempted, successful, and failed), EPS paging procedures (for example, attempted, successful, and failed), MME control of overload related measurements for EPC (for example, attempted overload start/stop procedures), EPS mobility management, ⁇ ,-registered subscribers (for example, mean/maximum number of subscribers), handovers (for example, incoming/outgoing attempted and successful inter-radio access technology, RAT, handovers), routing area updates with MME interaction and with/without S-GW change (attempted and successful), combined tracking/location area update procedures (for example,
  • MM measurements may further include measurements related to PDN-GW for a GTP based S5/S8 interface such as, but not limited to, PDN-GW initiated dedicated bearer creation (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); PDN-GW initiated dedicated bearer deletion (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); PDN-GW initiated dedicated bearer modification with or without QoS update procedure (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); active EPS bearers related measurements for EPC (for example, mean/max number of active EPS bearers); UE requested bearer resource modification related measurements for EPC (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); PDN connections related measurements for EPC (for example, mean/max number of PDN connections per access point name, APN); and number of EPS bearers (for example, mean/max number of EPS bearers).
  • PDN-GW initiated dedicated bearer creation for example, attempted, successful, and failed
  • PDN-GW initiated dedicated bearer deletion for example, attempted, successful, and failed
  • SM measurements may include measurements related to MME procedures such as, but not limited to, mean/max number of dedicated EPS bearers in active mode, dedicated bearer set up time; MME initiated dedicated bearer activation (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); MME initiated dedicated bearer deactivation (for example, attempted and successful); MME initiated EPS bearer modification (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); total EPS service request (for example, attempted, successful, or failed).
  • MME procedures such as, but not limited to, mean/max number of dedicated EPS bearers in active mode, dedicated bearer set up time; MME initiated dedicated bearer activation (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); MME initiated dedicated bearer deactivation (for example, attempted and successful); MME initiated EPS bearer modification (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); total EPS service request (for example, attempted, successful, or failed).
  • SM measurements may further include measurements related to S- GW procedures such as, for example, S4/S11 interface measurements including, for example, EPS default/dedicated bearer creation related measurements (for example, attempted and successful); S5/S8 interface measurements including, for example, EPS default/dedicated bearer creation (for example, attempted and successful) and EPS default/dedicated bearer modification (for example, attempted and successful); EPS bearer deletion related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed); and bearer resource usage related measurements (for example, Max/mean number of active EPS bearers).
  • SM measurements may further include measurements related to multimedia broadcast/multicast services, MBMS, GW procedures such as, for example, MBMS session creation related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed).
  • SM measurements may further include measurements related to PCRF procedures such as, but not limited to, gateway control session establishment related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed gateway control session establishments).
  • Subscriber management measurements may include measurements related to other MME procedures such as, but not limited to, attempted insert subscriber data requests received from an HSS; attempted delete subscriber data requests received from an HSS; number of subscribers in ECM-IDLE state; and number of subscribers in ECM- CONNECTED state.
  • IP management measurements may include measurements related to other MME procedures such as, but not limited to, SI -MME data volume related measurements including, for example, number of incoming IP data packets on the SI -MME interface from the eNB to MME, number of outgoing IP data packets on the SI -MME interface from MME to eNB; number of octets of incoming IP data packets on the SI -MME interface from the eNB to MME; and number of octets of outgoing IP data packets on the SI -MME interface from MME to eNB.
  • SI -MME data volume related measurements including, for example, number of incoming IP data packets on the SI -MME interface from the eNB to MME, number of outgoing IP data packets on the SI -MME interface from MME to eNB; number of octets of incoming IP data packets on the SI -MME interface from the eNB to MME.
  • IP management measurements may further include measurements related to PDN-
  • IP management measurements may further include measurements related to PCRF procedures such as, for example, IP-connectivity access network, IP-CAN, session establishment/modification related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed) and IP-CAN session termination related measurements (for example, attempted and successful IP-CAN session terminations).
  • PCRF procedures such as, for example, IP-connectivity access network, IP-CAN, session establishment/modification related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed) and IP-CAN session termination related measurements (for example, attempted and successful IP-CAN session terminations).
  • the equipment measurements may include, for example, MME processor usage (for example, mean/peak processor usage).
  • the IRATH measurements may include, for example, S6a related measurements such as, but not limited to, update location related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed) and authentication related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed).
  • S6a related measurements such as, but not limited to, update location related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed) and authentication related measurements (for example, attempted, successful, and failed).
  • GTP measurements may include measurements related to S-GW procedures such as, but not limited to, GTP S5/S8, S4, S12, and Sl-U interface measurements.
  • the GTP S5/S8 interface measurements may include, but are not limited to, a number of outgoing/incoming GTP data packets on the S5/S8 interface, a number of octets of outgoing/incoming GTP data packets on the S5/S8 interface, a number of
  • the GTP S4 interface measurements may include data volume related measurements such as, but not limited to, a number of octets of outgoing/incoming GTP packets on the S4 interface.
  • the GTP S12 interface measurements may include data volume related measurements such as, but not limited to, a number of octets of outgoing/incoming GTP data packets on the S 12 interface.
  • the Sl-U interface measurements may include data volume related measurements
  • GTP measurements such as, but not limited to, a number of outgoing/incoming GTP data packets on the Sl-U interface and number of octets of outgoing/incoming GTP data packets on the Sl-U interface.
  • GTP measurements may further include measurements related to MBMS GW procedures such as Ml data volume related measurements (for example, number of octets of outgoing/incoming GTP data packets on the Ml interface).
  • QoS measurements may include measurements related to PCRF procedures such as, but not limited to, authorization of QoS resources related measurements (for example, attempted/successful resource authorization procedures at session
  • Subscriber management measurements may include measurements related to PCRF procedures such as, but not limited to, credit reauthorization procedure related measurements (attempted, successful, and failed).
  • the EMs 1012 in 1016 may report values of the performance measurements to the NM 1008.
  • the NM 1008 may, in turn, provide a report including the performance measurements to the OSS/BSS 1004.
  • the values of the performance measurements would not be monitored in real time; instead, they would be logged into reports that may be evaluated by a network operator at a later time.
  • the network 1000 may include an FVO 1036 coupled with a VNFM 1040 over an Or-Vnfm reference point and further coupled with a VIM 1044 over an Or-Vi reference point.
  • the VNFM 1040 may be coupled with the VFM 1044 over a Vi-Vnfm reference point.
  • Both the VNFM 1040 and the VIM 1044 may be coupled with NFVI 1048 that includes platform hardware 1052 (for example, compute, storage/memory, and network resources) to provide a virtualization layer 1056 to implement VNFs such as, for example, VNF 1060 and VNF 1064.
  • platform hardware 1052 for example, compute, storage/memory, and network resources
  • the VNFM 1040 is shown coupled with VNF 1064 over a Ve-Vnfm reference point and the VIM 1044 is shown coupled with the platform hardware 1052 over an Nf-Vi reference point. Except as otherwise described, the components of the virtualized deployment side may be similar to, and operate in a similar manner, as like-named components in Figures 1, 2, and 4. In the coexistent deployment model such as that illustrated in Figure 10, network service orchestration may be based on complete end-to-end physical and virtualized deployment sides. The NFVO 1036 may be responsible for deployment and lifecycle management of the network service across both the physical and virtual network functions.
  • monitoring values of system parameters associated with the PNFs of NEs 1024, 1028, and 1032 may be done in real time, or near real-time to allow the virtualized deployment side to scale resources in a manner in which the overall system is to provide desired and efficient delivery of the network service. This may be done by providing an interface, configured to provide for an exchange of performance management data related to operations provided by the PNFs of NEs 1024, 1028, and 1032, between the EMs 1012 and 1016 and the VNFM 1040; the NM 1008 and the NFVO 1036; or the OSS/BSS 1004 and the NFVO 1036. Details of operations of these embodiments will be described in further detail with respect to Figures 13-15.
  • Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented into a system using any suitable hardware and/or software to configure as desired.
  • Figure 11
  • Figure 11 illustrates, for one embodiment, an example computer system 1100 having processor circuitry 1104, system memory 1108, nonvolatile memory, NVM,/storage 1112, and communication circuitry 1116.
  • the system 1100 may further include interface circuitry 1 120 coupled to processor circuitry 1104, system memory 1108, NVM/storage 1112, and communication circuitry 1116 as shown.
  • system 1100 may be capable of functioning as an NFVO, VNFM, VIM, host device, OSS/BSS, or other device implementing the
  • the system 1100 may be implemented as a server or device to be operated in conjunction with the server in a 3GPP network.
  • the system 1100 may be a server within a core network (or an evolved packet core, EPC, in system architecture evolution, SAE,) of a 3 GPP network.
  • EPC evolved packet core
  • SAE system architecture evolution
  • Interface circuitry 1120 for one embodiment may include any suitable
  • the interface controllers may include, but are not limited to, memory controllers, storage controllers (for example, redundant array of independent disk (RAID) controllers, baseboard management controllers (BMCs), input/output controllers, etc.
  • the connectors may include, for example, busses (for example, peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) busses), ports, slots, jumpers, interconnect modules, etc.).
  • PCIe peripheral component interconnect express
  • the processor circuitry 1104 may include any type or combination of configurable or non-configurable circuit that is designed to perform basic arithmetic, logical, control, or input/output operations specified by instructions of the computer program.
  • the processor circuitry 1104 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors that operate as a clock-driven, register-based programmable electronic device that accepts digital data as input and processes it according to instructions stored in the system memory 1108 and/or NVM/storage 1112 in order to provide an output to enable operations described in various parts of the present description.
  • the processor circuitry 1104 may be coupled with the system memory 1108 and/or NVM/storage 1112 and configured to execute instructions stored therein to enable various applications (for example, VNF applications 440 and 444), operating systems (for example, OS 424), hypervisor (for example, hypervisor 420) running on the system 1 100.
  • applications for example, VNF applications 440 and 444
  • operating systems for example, OS 424
  • hypervisor for example, hypervisor 420
  • the processor circuitry 1104 may include any combination of general -purpose processors and dedicated processors.
  • the processor circuitry 1104 may include a central processing unit, an application processor, communication processor, microprocessor, ASIC, reduced instruction set computer (RISC), digital signal processor, DSP, co-processor, combinational logic circuit, controller (e.g., memory, bridge, bus, etc.), etc.
  • RISC reduced instruction set computer
  • DSP digital signal processor
  • controller e.g., memory, bridge, bus, etc.
  • processor circuitry 1104 may be packaged together with logic for one or more controller(s) of interface circuitry.
  • processors of the processor circuitry 1104 may be packaged together with logic for one or more controller(s) of interface circuitry.
  • processors of the processor circuitry 1104 may be packaged together with logic for one or more controller(s) of interface circuitry.
  • processors of the processor circuitry 1120 may be packaged together with logic for one or more controllers of the interface circuitry 1120 to form a System in Package, SiP.
  • processors of the processor circuitry 1120 may be integrated on the same die with logic for one or more controllers of the interface circuitry 1120 to form a System on Chip.
  • System memory 1108 may be used to load and store data and/or instructions, for example, for the system 1100.
  • System memory 1108 for one embodiment may include any suitable volatile memory, such as suitable DRAM or SRAM, for example.
  • the system memory 1108 may include double data rate type four
  • DDR4 SDRAM synchronous dynamic random-access memory
  • the NVM/storage 1112 may be used to store data and/or instructions, for example.
  • NVM/storage 1112 may include any suitable non-volatile memory, such as flash memory, for example, and/or may include any suitable non-volatile storage device(s), such as one or more hard disk drive(s), HDD(s), one or more compact disc, CD, drive(s), RAIDs, and/or one or more digital versatile disc, DVD, drive(s), for example.
  • the NVM/storage 1112 may include a storage/memory resource physically part of a device on which the system 1100 may be installed or it may be accessible by, but not necessarily a part of, the device.
  • the NVM/storage 1100 may be accessed over a network via the communications circuitry 1116.
  • Communication circuitry 1116 may provide an interface for system 1100 to communicate over one or more network(s) and/or with any other suitable device.
  • the system 1100 may communicate with the one or more components of a network in accordance with any of one or more network standards and/or protocols.
  • the communication circuitry 1116 may provide signal processing according to the appropriate communication network protocols.
  • the communication circuitry 1116 may include an Ethernet controller that implements Ethernet protocols of, for example, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 1000BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, or 10BASE-T standards. This embodiment is described in further detail with respect to Figure 12.
  • processor circuitry 1104 may correspond to compute circuitry 408, system memory 1108 and NVM/Storage 1112 may correspond to storage/memory circuitry 412, and communication circuitry 1116 may correspond to network circuitry 416.
  • FIG 12 illustrates an Ethernet controller 1200 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may be implemented in the system 1100 to provide wired connectivity.
  • the communication circuitry 1116 implemented within the communication circuitry 1116. In some embodiments, the
  • Ethernet controller 1200 may be especially suitable for embodiments utilizing virtualized resources such as, for example, host device 400.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may include a host interface 1212 to couple the Ethernet controller 1200 with a host platform through, for example, interface circuitry 1120.
  • the host interface 1212 may be a bus interface to couple with a serial expansion bus such as a PCIe bus.
  • the host interface 1212 may be a PCIe endpoint with single root input-output virtualization, SR-IOV, to allow isolation of the PCIe resources for manageability and performance reasons. This may allow different virtual machines in a virtual environment to share a single PCIe hardware interface.
  • the host interface 1212 may be a PCIe endpoint with multiple root input/output virtualization that allows a PCIe bus to share resources among different virtual machines on different physical machines.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may include queue management and scheduling, QMS, circuitry 1216.
  • the QMS circuitry 1216 which may also be referred to as a network or packet scheduler, may employ a queuing/scheduling algorithm to control the
  • the QMS circuitry 1216 may manage a sequence of network packets in transmit and receive queues of the Ethernet controller 1200.
  • the QMS circuitry 1216 may include a number of different queues, with each queue holding packets of one flow according to configured packet classification rules. For example, packets may be divided into flows by their source and destination IP addresses, quality of service requirements, etc.
  • the QMS circuitry 1216 may be used by the Ethernet controller 1200 to perform receive side scaling to spread incoming packets across available processing cores of the host platform.
  • the QMS circuitry 1216 may further provide flow direction functionality that includes intelligent offloading to place incoming packets directly to the right core, to avoid packets being directed to an available processing core even though another core is running an application, for example, a V F application, that is the target of the packet.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may further include protocol acceleration/offload, A/O, circuitry 1220.
  • the protocol A/O circuitry 1220 may offload, from a host processor, processing of specific protocols or functions of specific protocols.
  • the protocol A/O circuitry 1220 may include a transmission control protocol, TCP, offload engine to offload processing of a TCP/IP stack from the host platform to the Ethernet controller 1200. This may be especially useful in high-speed network interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
  • the offloaded processing may include actions associated with the connection-oriented nature of TCP such as, but not limited to, transport layer connection establishment, acknowledgment of received packets, checksum and sequence number calculations, sliding window calculations, and transport layer connection termination.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may further include traffic classifiers 1224.
  • the traffic classifiers 1224 may implement a process to categorize traffic according to various parameters (for example, port number, protocol, etc.) into a number of traffic classes. Each traffic class may be treated differently in order to differentiate the service provided by the Ethernet controller 1200.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may further include media access controller 1228 to perform MAC layer operations for the Ethernet controller 1200 using, for example, carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) protocols.
  • CSMA/CD carrier sense multiple access with collision detection
  • the media access controller 1228 may include a number of full-duplex Ethernet MAC ports that may be configured to operate at different speeds, for example, 40 Gb/s, 10 Gb/s, 1 Gb/s.
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may further include PHY 1232 to perform Ethernet PHY layer operations.
  • the PHY 1232 may include interfaces directly connected with a communication medium (for example, a backplane or direct attached twin-axial copper cable assemblies) or through the Ethernet interface, which may be considered an external PHY in some instances.
  • the PHY 1232 may interface between an analog domain of an Ethernet's line modulation and the digital domain of link-layer packet signaling performed by the media access controller 1228.
  • the PHY circuitry may include multi-rate medium attachment unit interfaces (MAUIs) that can be figured for operation and a number of different link speeds, for example, 40 Gb/s, 10 Gb/s, 1 Gb/s or 100 Mb/s.
  • MAUIs multi-rate medium attachment unit interfaces
  • the Ethernet controller 1200 may further include in-band management circuitry 1236 having controllers or processors to perform various on-chip management functions.
  • the in-band management circuitry 1236 may interface with an off-chip management controller through a system management bus, SMBus; network controller sideband interface, NC-SI; or the connection of the host interface 1212 using, for example, management component transport protocol, MCTP, to communicate over the PCIe.
  • SMBus system management bus
  • NC-SI network controller sideband interface
  • MCTP management component transport protocol
  • the in-band management circuitry 1236 may include a baseboard management controller or an embedded management processor unit that handles management duties that are to be carried out by the Ethernet controller, but are not performed by other circuitry, for example, device drivers of the Ethernet controller. In some embodiments, these duties may include performing parts of the power on sequence, handling AQ commands, initializing ports, participating in various fabric configuration protocols such as data center bridging capabilities exchange, DCBX, and other link layer discovery protocols, LLDPs, and processing configuration requests received by management interfaces.
  • these duties may include performing parts of the power on sequence, handling AQ commands, initializing ports, participating in various fabric configuration protocols such as data center bridging capabilities exchange, DCBX, and other link layer discovery protocols, LLDPs, and processing configuration requests received by management interfaces.
  • Figure 13 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure of the host device 400 according to some embodiments.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1300 may be engaged by a local monitor such as local monitor 484 of the host device 400.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1300 may include, at 1304, instantiating a first VM to run a VNFC to perform a sub-function of a network function.
  • the hypervisor 420 of the host device 400 may instantiate a VM 472 to run VNFC 448 as described above.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1300 may further include, at 1308, instantiating a second VM to run a local monitor to monitor performance of the first VM, for example, VM 472, and determine a VM management action based on the monitored performance.
  • the hypervisor 420 of the host device 400 may instantiate VM 488 to run local monitor 484.
  • the local monitor 484 may engage a performance monitoring and management operation flow/algorithmic structure as described herein to provide the monitoring and determination of block 1308.
  • the monitoring of the performance of the VM may be done over a predetermined sample interval and may identify an overutilization or an
  • the VM management action may at least partially address the overutilization or
  • underutilization of the resources by, for example, instantiating a new VM, shutting down the VM 472, or scaling up/down the VM 472.
  • Figure 14 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure 1400 of the host device 400 according to some embodiments.
  • the operation is asymmetricalgorithmic structure 1400 of the host device 400 according to some embodiments.
  • the operation is asymmetricalgorithmic structure 1400 of the host device 400 according to some embodiments.
  • the operation is asymmetricalgorithmic structure 1400 of the host device 400 according to some embodiments.
  • the operation is a diagram
  • flow/algorithmic structure 1400 may be engaged by a local monitor such as local monitor 484 of the host device 400.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1400 may include, at 1404, determining first values of system parameters that correspond to operation of a VDU that provides virtualized network functionality.
  • the VDU may correspond to VM 472/VNFC 448.
  • the first values which may also be referred to as the initial or threshold values, may be included in the NSD descriptor and may be, at least originally, obtained from sandbox profiling.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1400 may include receiving second values of the system parameters.
  • the second values which may also be referred to as new values, may represent real time or near real time operational statistics of the VDU.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1400 may include comparing the second values to the first values.
  • the comparing of the first/second values may be similar to processes described above with respect to Figures 6-8 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1400 may include performing an underutilization or overutilization management action based on the comparing that was performed at 1412.
  • the management actions may include sending a request to a global monitor, for example, global monitor 118 of the V FM 116.
  • the request may be a request to perform an overutilization management action to add a vCPU to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate another VDU to offload at least some of the operations of the VDU.
  • Figure 15 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure 1500 of a VNFM according to some embodiments.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1500 may be engaged by a global monitor of VNFM 1040, for example.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1500 may include, at 1504, receiving a report that includes performance measurements.
  • the performance measurements may be related to operations provided by PNFs in a coexistence network model such as that shown in Figure 10.
  • the global monitor of the VNFM 1040 may receive the report from element managers 1012 and 1016 over a VeEn-Vnfm reference point.
  • the report may include an NS identifier, a PNF identifier, and one or more values of the performance measurements.
  • a signal structure, corresponding to the report, may include an NS identifier field, a PNF identifier field, and one or more measurement fields for the one or more values of the performance measurements.
  • the signal structure may comply with a protocol of the VeEn-Vnfm reference point.
  • the global monitor may make decisions based on the values of the performance measurements for the lifecycle management of the network functions of a system. Then, at 1508, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1500 may include the global monitor transmitting one or more requests for a management action. For example, the global monitor may determine whether system resources are overutilized or underutilized based on the values of the performance measurements and may determine whether to perform a corresponding overutilization or underutilization management action. Similar to the description above with respect to Figures 6-9, the overutilization/underutilization management actions may include instantiating a new VNF, removing an existing VNF, or scaling up/down an existing VNF (by increasing/decreasing resources allocated to the VMs of the VNF). In some embodiments, the transmitted requests may include a request from the VNFM 1040 to the NFVO 1036 to verify resource availability to instantiate new VNF or scale up an existing VNF when supporting the physical deployment side of the network 1000.
  • Figure 16 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure 1600 of an EM or an NM according to some embodiments.
  • the operation is described in detail below.
  • flow/algorithmic structure 1600 may be engaged by EM 1016 or NM 1008, for example.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1600 may include, at 1604, receiving and processing an indicator of a performance measurement.
  • the performance measurement may be related to services provided by PNF of the NE 1032, for example.
  • the indicator may be received by the NM 1008 in a report received from the EM 1016 over an Os-Nfvo reference point. Alternatively, the indicator may be received by the EM 1016 from the PNF of the NE 1032.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1600 may further include, at 1608, updating one or more counters.
  • the counters may be logic or circuitry on the NM 1008 or EM 1016 that is configured to temporarily store information related to the performance measurements.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1600 may further include, at 1612, detecting an occurrence of a predetermined reporting event.
  • the NM 1008 or EM 1016 may monitor the counters in order to determine whether the predetermined reporting event occurs.
  • the predetermined reporting event may be that at least one counter has a value that is greater than a threshold reporting value.
  • the report may be a periodic report with the predetermined reporting event being an expiration of a timer.
  • the predetermined reporting event may be a request received from another entity, for example, from the VNFM 1040 or the NFVO 1036.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1600 may further include, at 1616, transmitting a report.
  • the transmitting of the report may be from the EM 1016 to the VNFM 1040 over a VeEn-Vnfm reference point, or from the NM 1008 to the NFVO 1036 over the Os-Nfvo reference point.
  • Figure 17 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure 1700 of an NFVO according to some embodiments.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1700 may be engaged by the NFVO 1036, for example.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1700 may include, at 1704, receiving a report that includes performance measurements.
  • the performance measurements may be related to services provided by PNF 1032, for example.
  • the report may be received by the FVO 1036 from the NM 1008 over the Os-Nfvo reference point.
  • the report may be received by the NFVO 1036 from the OSS/BSS 1004.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1700 may further include, at 1708, performing a management action with respect to a VDU.
  • the management action may include instructing the V FM 1040 to initiate an overutilization or underutilization VM management action in the virtual deployment side to at least partially address an overutilization or underutilization of system resources on the physical deployment side.
  • the management action performed by the NFVO 1036 may include determining availability of resources and sending a request to a global monitor, for example, global monitor 118 of the VNFM 116.
  • the request may be a request to perform an overutilization management action to add a vCPU to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate another VDU to offload at least some of the operations of the VDU.
  • Figure 18 illustrates an example operation flow/algorithmic structure 1800 of an OSS/BSS according to some embodiments.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1800 may be engaged by the OSS/BSS 1004, for example.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1800 may include, at 1804, receiving a report that includes performance measurements.
  • the performance measurements may be related to services provided by PNF of NE 1032, for example.
  • the report may be received by the OSS/BSS 1004 from the NM 1008.
  • the operation flow/algorithmic structure 1800 may further include, at 1808, transmitting the report to, for example, NFVO 1036.
  • the transmitting of the report may be based upon a detection of an occurrence of a
  • the OSS/BSS 1004 may monitor counters in order to determine whether the predetermined reporting event occurs.
  • the predetermined reporting event may be that at least one counter has a value that is greater than a threshold reporting value.
  • the report may be a periodic report with the predetermined reporting event being an expiration of a timer.
  • the predetermined reporting event may be a request received from another entity, for example, from the NFVO 1036.
  • the OSS/BSS 1004 may forward the report to the NFVO 1036 as soon as it received the report from the NM 1008.
  • Figure 19 illustrates an example computer-readable media 1904 that may be suitable for use to store instructions that cause an apparatus, in response to execution of the instructions by the apparatus, to practice selected aspects of the present disclosure.
  • the computer-readable media 1904 may be non-transitory.
  • computer-readable storage medium 1904 may include programming instructions 1908.
  • Programming instructions 1908 may be configured to enable a device, for example, an NFVO, a VNFM, a global monitor, a host device, an OSS/BSS, an NM, an EM, or similar computing devices, in response to execution of the programming instructions 1908, to implement (aspects of) any of the methods or elements described throughout this disclosure related to VM monitoring and management.
  • the programming instructions 1908 may be configured to enable a device, in response to execution of the programming instructions 1908, to implement (aspects of) any of the methods or elements described throughout this disclosure related to lifecycle management operations performed by PNFs, VNFs, VNFCs, and VMs and performing actions to instantiate new VM/VNFCs (VDUs), shut down existing VM/VNFCs (VDUs), or scale VM/VNFCs (VDUs) up or down.
  • programming instructions 1908 may be disposed on computer-readable media 1904 that is transitory in nature, such as signals.
  • the computer-usable or computer-readable media may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable media would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, RAM, ROM, an erasable programmable read-only memory (for example, EPROM, EEPROM, or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage device.
  • the computer-usable or computer-readable media could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.
  • a computer-usable or computer-readable media may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
  • the computer- usable media may include a propagated data signal with the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave.
  • the computer- usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, radio frequency, etc.
  • Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages.
  • the program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.
  • the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
  • LAN local area network
  • WAN wide area network
  • Internet Service Provider for example, AT&T, MCI, Sprint, EarthLink, MSN, GTE, etc.
  • These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement the function/act specified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.
  • the computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.
  • Example 1 includes an apparatus comprising: means for instantiating a first virtual machine, VM, to run a virtual network function component, VNFC, the VNFC to perform a sub-function of a network function to be provided by a virtual network function, VNF, application, and a second VM to run a local monitor, the local monitor to: monitor performance of the first VM over a predetermined sample interval to identify an overutilization or undemtilization of resources associated with the VNFC; and determine, based on the monitored performance, a VM management action to at least partially address the overutilization or undemtilization of the resources associated with the VNFC; and means for communicating with one or more components of a network to execute the VM management action.
  • Example 2 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the VM management action is to instantiate a third VM to assist the first VM to at least partially address the overutilization of the resources or shut down the first VM to at least partially address the undemtilization of the resources.
  • Example 3 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1-2, wherein the VM management action is to scale operational resources provided to the first VM.
  • Example 4 includes the apparatus of example 3, wherein to scale operational resources includes to change a number of virtual central processing units, vCPUs, virtual memories, or virtual links available to the first VM.
  • Example 5 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1-4, wherein the local monitor is to send a request, via the means for communicating, to a global monitor in a virtual network function manager, VNFM, to verify resource availability for the VM management action.
  • the local monitor is to send a request, via the means for communicating, to a global monitor in a virtual network function manager, VNFM, to verify resource availability for the VM management action.
  • VNFM virtual network function manager
  • Example 6 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1-5, wherein the local monitor is to: generate a measurement report based on the monitored performance; and transmit the measurement report to a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, after the predetermined sample interval.
  • the local monitor is to: generate a measurement report based on the monitored performance; and transmit the measurement report to a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, after the predetermined sample interval.
  • Example 7 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 1-6, wherein the local monitor is to: determine a first value of a system parameter; determine a second value of the system parameter based on the monitored performance; and determine the VM management action based on a comparison of the second value to the first value.
  • Example 8 includes the apparatus of Example 7, wherein the system parameter is a queue time, service time, number of compute cycles, network bandwidth, or virtual memory.
  • Example 9 includes the apparatus of Example 7 or 8, wherein the first value is to be determined by sampling a state of the system parameter at timed intervals.
  • Example 10 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 7-9, wherein the first value is to be determined by sandbox profiling.
  • Example 11 includes the apparatus of Example 7 or 8, wherein the local monitor is to determine the first value based on a message received from a global monitor of a virtual network function manager, V FM.
  • Example 12 includes an apparatus comprising: means for providing a local monitor to: determine one or more first values of one or more system parameters that corresponds to operation of a virtual data unit, VDU, that provides virtualized network
  • Example 13 includes the apparatus of Example 12, wherein to perform the underutilization or overutilization management action, the local monitor is to: send a request, via the means for communicating, to a global monitor of a virtual network function manager, VNFM.
  • the local monitor is to: send a request, via the means for communicating, to a global monitor of a virtual network function manager, VNFM.
  • Example 14 includes the apparatus of Example 12 or 13, wherein the local monitor is to perform an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate another VDU.
  • Example 15 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 12-14, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a compute cycles parameter, and the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; and a first value of the compute cycles parameter being less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU.
  • the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a compute cycles parameter
  • the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than
  • Example 16 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 12-14, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, and a network bandwidth parameter, and the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; and a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being less than a second value of the network
  • bandwidth parameter perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the overutilization management action to increase throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 17 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 12-14, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, a network bandwidth parameter, and a virtual memory parameter, and the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being not less than a second value of the network bandwidth parameter; and a first value of the virtual memory parameter being less than a second value of the virtual memory parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the overutilization management action to add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU.
  • the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value
  • Example 18 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 12-14, wherein the VDU is a first VDU and the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, a network bandwidth parameter, and a virtual memory parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being not less than a second value of the network bandwidth parameter; a first value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a second value of the virtual memory parameter; and both the first value of the queue time parameter being less than the second value of the queue time parameter and the first value of the service time parameter being greater than the second value of the service time parameter; and perform, based
  • Example 19 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 12-14, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter and a service time parameter, and the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not less than a second value of the service time parameter; and both the first value of the queue time parameter being less than the second value of the queue time parameter and the first value of the service time parameter being greater than the second value of the service time parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not less than a second value of the service time parameter; and both the first value of the queue time parameter being less than the second value of the queue time parameter and the first value of the service time parameter being greater than the second value of the service time
  • overutilization management action to instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 20 includes the apparatus of Example 12 or 13, wherein the local monitor is to perform an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • the local monitor is to perform an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 21 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter and a service time parameter and the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being greater than a second value of the service time parameter; and both the second value of the queue time parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the queue time parameter and the second value of the service time parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the service time parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to shut down the VDU.
  • Example 22 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the VDU is a first VDU, the one or more system parameters are first system parameters that include a first queue time parameter and a first service time parameter, and the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the first queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the first queue time parameter and a first value of the first service time parameter being greater than a second value of the first service time parameter; and the second value of the first queue time parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the queue time parameter or the second value of the first service time parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the service time parameter; and determine, based on detection of the first set of conditions, whether a second VDU is performing a same sub- function as the first VDU; and if determined that a second VDU is performing the same sub-function as the first VDU, obtain one or more first values of one or more second system parameters of the second VDU, the one or more second system parameters to
  • Example 23 includes the apparatus of Example 22, wherein the local monitor is further to: detect a second set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include both the first value of the first queue time parameter being greater than the second value of the first queue time parameter plus the second value of the second queue time parameter and the first value of the first service time parameter being greater than the second value of the first service time parameter plus the second value of the second service
  • Example 24 includes the apparatus of Example 22, wherein the one or more first system parameters includes a first virtual memory parameter and the local monitor is further to: detect a second set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include: the first value of the first queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the first queue time parameter plus the second value of the second queue time parameter or the first value of the first service time parameter being not greater than the second value of the first service time parameter plus the second value of the second service time parameter; and a second value of the first virtual memory parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the first virtual memory parameter; and perform, based on detection of the second set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more blocks of memory from the first VDU.
  • Example 25 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a virtual memory parameter and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include the first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the queue time parameter or the first value of the service time parameter being not greater than the second value of the service time parameter, and a second value of the virtual memory parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU.
  • the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a virtual memory parameter and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include the first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the queue time parameter or the first value of the service time parameter being not greater than the
  • Example 26 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a virtual memory parameter and a compute cycles parameter, and the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include; a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not greater than a second value of the service time parameter; a second value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; and a second value of the compute cycles parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the compute cycles parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more virtual central processing units from the VDU.
  • the local monitor is further to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include; a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not
  • Example 27 includes the apparatus of Example 20, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a virtual memory parameter, a compute cycles parameter, and a network bandwidth parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not greater than a second value of the service time parameter; a second value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; a second value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the compute cycles parameter; and a second value of the network bandwidth parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the network bandwidth; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 28 includes an apparatus to implement a virtual network function manager, V FM, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from an element manager, a report that includes performance measurements of a physical network function, PNF, that belongs to a network service; and means for transmitting , to a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, a request for a management action with respect to a virtual data unit, VDU, that provides virtualized network functionality for the network service.
  • V FM virtual network function manager
  • Example 29 includes the apparatus of Example 28, wherein the management action is an underutilization or overutilization management action.
  • Example 30 includes the apparatus of Example 28 or 29, wherein the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 31 includes the apparatus of Example 28 or 29, wherein the request for the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • the request for the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 32 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 28-31, wherein the means for receiving is to receive the report over a VeEn-Vnfm interface.
  • Example 33 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 28-32, wherein the performance measurements includes mobility management measurements, general packet radio service tunneling protocol, GTP, measurements, Internet protocol, IP, management measurements, inter-radio access technology handover measurements, quality of service measurements, security measurements, session management measurements, or subscriber management measurements.
  • the performance measurements includes mobility management measurements, general packet radio service tunneling protocol, GTP, measurements, Internet protocol, IP, management measurements, inter-radio access technology handover measurements, quality of service measurements, security measurements, session management measurements, or subscriber management measurements.
  • Example 34 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 28-33, wherein the report includes a network service identifier that corresponds to the network service, a PNF identifier that corresponds to the PNF, and one or more values that correspond to the performance measurements.
  • Example 35 includes an element manager comprising: means for communicating with a network element that is to perform a physical network function, PNF, of a network service and a virtual network function manager, VNFM; and means for updating a counter based on an indicator of a performance measurement related to the PNF, the indicator to be received from the network element; and means for detecting an occurrence of a predetermined reporting event, wherein the means for communicating is to transmit a report based on the indicator to a virtual network function manager upon detection of the occurrence.
  • PNF physical network function
  • VNFM virtual network function manager
  • Example 36 includes the element manager of Example 35, wherein the means for detecting the occurrence is further to: determine, based on the indicator, a first value of a system parameter; compare the first value of the system parameter to a predetermined threshold; and detect the occurrence of the predetermined reporting event based on comparison of the first value of the system parameter to the predetermined threshold.
  • Example 37 includes the element manager of Example 35 or 36, wherein the predetermined reporting event is a periodic reporting event.
  • Example 38 includes the element manager of any one of Examples 35-37, wherein the means for communicating is to receive the indicator from the network element.
  • Example 39 includes the element manager of any one of Examples 35-38, wherein the report includes a network service identifier that corresponds to the network service, a PNF identifier that corresponds to the PNF, and a value that corresponds to the indicator of the performance measurement.
  • Example 40 includes a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, comprising: means for receiving, from a network manager, a report that includes performance measurements of a physical network function, PNF, of a network service; and means for performing a management action with respect to a virtual data unit, VDU, that provides virtualized network functionality for the network service.
  • NFVO network function virtualization orchestrator
  • Example 41 includes the NFVO of Example 40, wherein the management action is an underutilization or overutilization management action.
  • Example 42 includes the NFVO of Example 40 or 41, wherein the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 43 includes the NFVO of Example 40 or 41, wherein the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 44 includes the NFVO of any one of Examples 40-43, wherein the means for receiving the report is to receive the report over an Os-Nfvo interface.
  • Example 45 includes the NFVO of any one of Examples 40-44, wherein the report includes a network service identifier that corresponds to the network service, a PNF identifier that corresponds to the PNF, and a value that corresponds to an indicator of the performance measurement.
  • Example 46 includes a network manager comprising: means for processing an indicator of a performance measurement related to a physical network function, PNF, of a network service, the indicator received from an element manager; means for updating a counter based on the indicator; means for detecting an occurrence of a predetermined reporting event; and means for transmitting, based on the detected occurrence, a report based on the indicator to a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO.
  • a network manager comprising: means for processing an indicator of a performance measurement related to a physical network function, PNF, of a network service, the indicator received from an element manager; means for updating a counter based on the indicator; means for detecting an occurrence of a predetermined reporting event; and means for transmitting, based on the detected occurrence, a report based on the indicator to a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO.
  • Example 47 includes the network manager of Example 46, wherein the indicator is received via an Itf-N interface between the network manager and the element manager.
  • Example 48 includes the network manager of Example 46 or 47, wherein the network manager is to transmit the report via an Os-Nfvo interface between the network manager and the NFVO.
  • Example 49 includes the network manager of any one of Examples 46-48, wherein the means for detecting the occurrence is to: determine, based on the indicator, a first value of a system parameter; compare the first value of the system parameter to a predetermined threshold; and detect the occurrence of the predetermined reporting event based on comparison of the first value of the system parameter to the predetermined threshold.
  • Example 50 includes the network manager of any one of Examples 46-48, wherein the predetermined reporting event is a periodic reporting event.
  • Example 51 includes a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, comprising: means for receiving, from a device of an operation support system or a business support system, OSS/BSS, a report that includes performance measurements of a physical network function, PNF, that belongs to a network service; and means for performing a management action with respect to a virtual data unit, VDU, that provides virtualized network functionality for the network service.
  • NFVO network function virtualization orchestrator
  • Example 52 includes the NFVO of Example 51, wherein the management action is an underutilization or overutilization management action.
  • Example 53 includes the NFVO of Example 51 or 52, wherein the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 54 includes the NFVO of Example 51 or 52, wherein the request for the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • the request for the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 55 includes the NFVO of any one of Examples 51-54, wherein the means for performing the management action is to: transmit an action request to a virtual network function manager, VNFM.
  • Example 56 includes an apparatus of operations support system, OSS, or a business support system, BSS, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from a network manager, NM, a message that includes an indicator of a performance
  • NFVO network function virtualization orchestrator
  • Example 57 includes the apparatus of Example 56, further comprising: means for determining, based on the indicator, a first value of a system parameter; means for comparing the first value of the system parameter to a predetermined threshold; and means for identifying the detected occurrence based on comparison of the first value of the system parameter to the predetermined threshold.
  • Example 58 includes the apparatus of Example 56 or 57, wherein the detected occurrence is a periodic reporting event.
  • Example 59 includes the apparatus of any one of Examples 56-58, wherein the report includes a network service identifier that corresponds to the network service, a PNF identifier that corresponds to the PNF, and a value that corresponds to the indicator of the performance measurement.
  • Example 60 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a device to: instantiate a first virtual machine, VM, to run a virtual network function component, V FC, the V FC to perform a sub-function of a network function to be provided by a virtual network function, V F, application; instantiate a second VM to run a local monitor, the local monitor to: monitor performance of the first VM over a predetermined sample interval to identify an overutilization or underutilization of resources associated with the VNFC; and determine, based on the monitored performance, a VM management action to at least partially address the overutilization or underutilization of the resources associated with the VNFC.
  • Example 61 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 60, wherein the VM management action is to instantiate a third VM to assist the first VM to at least partially address the overutilization of the resources or shut down the first VM to at least partially address the underutilization of the resources.
  • Example 62 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 60-61, wherein the VM management action is to scale operational resources provided to the first VM.
  • Example 63 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 62, wherein to scale operational resources includes to change a number of virtual central processing units, vCPUs, virtual memories, or virtual links available to the first VM.
  • Example 64 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of
  • Examples 60-63 wherein the local monitor is to send a request to a global monitor in a virtual network function manager, VNFM, to verify resource availability for the VM management action.
  • VNFM virtual network function manager
  • Example 65 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 60-64, wherein the local monitor is to: generate a measurement report based on the monitored performance; and transmit the measurement report to a network function virtualization orchestrator, FVO, after the predetermined sample interval.
  • FVO network function virtualization orchestrator
  • Example 66 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 60-65, wherein the local monitor is to: determine a first value of a system parameter; determine a second value of the system parameter based on the
  • Example 67 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 66, wherein the system parameter is a queue time, service time, number of compute cycles, network bandwidth, or virtual memory.
  • Example 68 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 66 or 67, wherein the first value is to be determined by sampling a state of the system parameter at timed intervals.
  • Example 69 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 66-68, wherein the first value is to be determined by sandbox profiling.
  • Example 70 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 66 or 67, wherein the local monitor is to determine the first value based on a message received from a global monitor of a virtual network function manager, V FM.
  • Example 71 includes a method comprising instantiating a first virtual machine, VM, to run a virtual network function component, V FC, the V FC to perform a sub- function of a network function to be provided by a virtual network function, V F, application; and instantiating a second VM to run a local monitor, the local monitor to: monitor performance of the first VM over a predetermined sample interval to identify an overutilization or underutilization of resources associated with the VNFC;
  • a VM management action to at least partially address the overutilization or underutilization of the resources associated with the VNFC.
  • Example 72 includes the method of Example 71, wherein the VM management action is to instantiate a third VM to assist the first VM to at least partially address the overutilization of the resources or shut down the first VM to at least partially address the underutilization of the resources.
  • Example 73 includes the method of Example 71 or 72, wherein the local monitor is to send a request to a global monitor in a virtual network function manager, VNFM, to verify resource availability for the VM management action.
  • VNFM virtual network function manager
  • Example 74 includes the method of any one of Examples 71-73, wherein the local monitor is to: generate a measurement report based on the monitored performance; and transmit the measurement report to a network function virtualization orchestrator,
  • Example 75 includes the method of any one of Examples 71-74, wherein the local monitor is to: determine a first value of a system parameter; determine a second value of the system parameter based on the monitored performance; and determine the VM management action based on a comparison of the second value to the first value.
  • Example 76 includes the method of Example 75, further comprising sampling a state of the system parameter at timed intervals to determine the first value.
  • Example 77 includes the method of Example 75 or 76, further comprising determining the first value by sandbox profiling.
  • Example 78 includes the method of Example 76 or 77, wherein the local monitor is to determine the first value based on a message received from a global monitor of a virtual network function manager, V FM.
  • Example 79 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a local monitor to: determine one or more first values of one or more system parameters that corresponds to operation of a virtual data unit, VDU, that provides virtualized network functionality; receive one or more second values of the one or more system parameters from the VDU; compare a second value of the one or more second values to a first value of the one or more first values, the first and the second value corresponding to a first system parameter of the one or more system parameters; and perform an underutilization or overutilization
  • Example 80 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 79, wherein to perform the underutilization or overutilization management action, the local monitor is to: send a request to a global monitor of a virtual network function manager, VNFM.
  • VNFM virtual network function manager
  • Example 81 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 79 or 80, wherein the local monitor is to perform an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate another VDU.
  • Example 82 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 79-81, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a compute cycles parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; and a first value of the compute cycles parameter being less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a compute cycles parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than
  • Example 83 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 79-81, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, and a network bandwidth parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; and a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being less than a second value of the network bandwidth parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the overutilization management action to increase throughput of a virtual link.
  • the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, and a network bandwidth parameter
  • the instructions when executed, further cause the local monitor to:
  • Example 84 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of
  • Examples 79-81 wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, a network bandwidth parameter, and a virtual memory parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being not less than a second value of the network bandwidth parameter; and a first value of the virtual memory parameter being less than a second value of the virtual memory parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the overutilization management action to add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU.
  • Example 85 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 79-81, wherein the VDU is a first VDU and the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, a network bandwidth parameter, and a virtual memory parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being not less than a second value of the network bandwidth parameter; a first value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a second value of the virtual memory parameter; and both the first value of the queue time parameter being less than the second value of the queue time parameter and the first value of the service time parameter being greater than the second value of the service
  • Example 86 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 79-81, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter and a service time parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not less than a second value of the service time parameter; and both the first value of the queue time parameter being less than the second value of the queue time parameter and the first value of the service time parameter being greater than the second value of the service time parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the
  • overutilization management action to instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 87 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 79 or 80, wherein the local monitor is to perform an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • the local monitor is to perform an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 88 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 87, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter and a service time parameter and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being greater than a second value of the service time parameter; and both the second value of the queue time parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the queue time parameter and the second value of the service time parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the service time parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to shut down the VDU.
  • Example 89 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 87, wherein the VDU is a first VDU, the one or more system parameters are first system parameters that include a first queue time parameter and a first service time parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the first queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the first queue time parameter and a first value of the first service time parameter being greater than a second value of the first service time parameter; and the second value of the first queue time parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the queue time parameter or the second value of the first service time parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the service time parameter; determine, based on detection of the first set of conditions, whether a second VDU is performing a same sub-function as the first VDU; and if determined that a second VDU is performing the same sub-function as the first VDU, obtain one or more first values of one or more second system parameters
  • Example 90 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 89, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a second set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include both the first value of the first queue time parameter being greater than the second value of the first queue time parameter plus the second value of the second queue time parameter and the first value of the first service time parameter being greater than the second value of the first service time parameter plus the second value of the second service time parameter; and perform, based on detection of the second set of conditions, the underutilization management action to migrate operations of the first VDU to the second VDU and shut down the first VDU.
  • Example 91 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 89, wherein the one or more first system parameters includes a first virtual memory parameter and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a second set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include the first value of the first queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the first queue time parameter plus the second value of the second queue time parameter or the first value of the first service time parameter being not greater than the second value of the first service time parameter plus the second value of the second service time parameter; and a second value of the first virtual memory parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the first virtual memory parameter; and perform, based on detection of the second set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more blocks of memory from the first VDU.
  • Example 92 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 87, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a virtual memory parameter and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include the first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the queue time parameter or the first value of the service time parameter being not greater than the second value of the service time parameter, and a second value of the virtual memory parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU.
  • the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a virtual memory parameter and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include the first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the queue time parameter or the first value of
  • Example 93 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 87, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a virtual memory parameter and a compute cycles parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not greater than a second value of the service time parameter; a second value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; and a second value of the compute cycles parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the compute cycles parameter; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more virtual central processing units from the VDU.
  • the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a virtual memory parameter and a compute cycles parameter
  • the instructions when executed, further cause the local monitor to
  • Example 94 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 87, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a virtual memory parameter, a compute cycles parameter, and a network bandwidth parameter, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to: include a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of first queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not greater than a second value of first service time parameter; a second value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; a second value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the compute cycles parameter; and a second value of the network bandwidth parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the network bandwidth; and perform, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the instructions, when executed, further cause the local monitor to: detect a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to: include a first value
  • Example 95 includes a method of operating a local monitor comprising:
  • VDU virtual data unit
  • Example 96 includes the method of Example 95, wherein performing the underutilization or overutilization management action comprises: sending a request to a global monitor of a virtual network function manager, V FM.
  • Example 97 includes the method of Example 95 or 96, further comprising performing the overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate another VDU.
  • Example 98 includes the method of any one of Examples 95-97, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a compute cycles parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; and a first value of the compute cycles parameter being less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; and performing, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU.
  • Example 99 includes the method of any one of Examples 95-97, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, and a network bandwidth parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; and a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being less than a second value of the network
  • Example 100 includes the method of any one of Examples 95-97, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, a network bandwidth parameter, and a virtual memory parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being not less than a second value of the network bandwidth parameter; and a first value of the virtual memory parameter being less than a second value of the virtual memory parameter; and
  • overutilization management action to add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU.
  • Example 101 includes the method of any one of Examples 95-97, wherein the VDU is a first VDU and the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a compute cycles parameter, a network bandwidth parameter, and a virtual memory parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being less than a second value of the service time parameter; a first value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a second value of the compute cycles parameter; a first value of the network bandwidth parameter being not less than a second value of the network bandwidth parameter; a first value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a second value of the virtual memory parameter; and both the first value of the queue time parameter being less than the second value of the queue time parameter and the first value of the service time parameter being greater than the second value of the service time parameter; and performing, based on detection of the first set
  • Example 102 includes the method of any one of Examples 95-97, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter and a service time parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not less than a second value of the service time parameter; and both the first value of the queue time parameter being less than the second value of the queue time parameter and the first value of the service time parameter being greater than the second value of the service time parameter; and performing, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the overutilization management action to instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 103 includes the method of Example 95 or 96, wherein the method comprises performing the underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 104 includes the method of Example 95, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter and a service time parameter and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the queue time parameter and a first value of the service time parameter being greater than a second value of the service time parameter; and both the second value of the queue time parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the queue time parameter and the second value of the service time parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the service time parameter; and performing, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to shut down the VDU.
  • Example 105 includes the method of Example 95, wherein the VDU is a first VDU, the one or more system parameters are first system parameters that include a first queue time parameter and a first service time parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include: both a first value of the first queue time parameter being greater than a second value of the first queue time parameter and a first value of the first service time parameter being greater than a second value of the first service time parameter; and the second value of the first queue time parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the queue time parameter or the second value of the first service time parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the service time parameter; determining, based on detection of the first set of conditions, whether a second VDU is performing a same sub-function as the first VDU; and if determined that a second VDU is performing the same sub-function as the first VDU, obtaining one or more first values of one or more second system parameters of the second VDU, the one or more second system
  • Example 106 includes the method of Example 97, wherein the method further comprises: detecting a second set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include both the first value of the first queue time parameter being greater than the second value of the first queue time parameter plus the second value of the second queue time parameter and the first value of the first service time parameter being greater than the second value of the first service time parameter plus the second value of the second service time parameter; and performing, based on detection of the second set of conditions, the underutilization management action to migrate operations of the first VDU to the second VDU and shut down the first VDU.
  • Example 107 includes the method of Example 97, wherein the one or more first system parameters includes a first virtual memory parameter and the method further comprises: detecting a second set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include: the first value of the first queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the first queue time parameter plus the second value of the second queue time parameter or the first value of the first service time parameter being not greater than the second value of the first service time parameter plus the second value of the second service time parameter; and a second value of the first virtual memory parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the first virtual memory parameter; and performing, based on detection of the second set of conditions, the
  • underutilization management action to remove one or more blocks of memory from the first VDU.
  • Example 108 includes the method of Example 95, wherein the one or more system parameters include a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, and a virtual memory parameter and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the first set of conditions to include the first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than the second value of the queue time parameter or the first value of the service time parameter being not greater than the second value of the service time parameter, and a second value of the virtual memory parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; and performing, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU.
  • Example 109 includes the method of Example 95, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a virtual memory parameter and a compute cycles parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include: a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the service time parameter being not greater than a second value of the service time parameter; a second value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; and a second value of the compute cycles parameter being less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the compute cycles parameter; and performing, based on detection of the first set of conditions, the underutilization management action to remove one or more virtual central processing units from the VDU.
  • Example 110 includes the method of Example 95, wherein the one or more system parameters includes a queue time parameter, a service time parameter, a virtual memory parameter, a compute cycles parameter, and a network bandwidth parameter, and the method further comprises: detecting a first set of conditions, the second set of conditions to include: a first value of the queue time parameter being not greater than a second value of the queue time parameter or a first value of the first service time parameter being not greater than a second value of the first service time parameter; a second value of the virtual memory parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the virtual memory parameter; a second value of the compute cycles parameter being not less than a predetermined minimum threshold for the compute cycles parameter; and a second value of the network bandwidth parameter being less than a
  • Example 111 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a virtual network function manager, V FM, to: receive, from an element manager, a report that includes
  • Example 112 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 111, wherein the management action is an underutilization or overutilization management action.
  • Example 113 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 111 or 112, wherein the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 114 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 111 or 112, wherein the request for the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • the request for the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 115 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 11 1-114, wherein the VNFM is to receive the report over a VeEn-Vnfm interface.
  • Example 116 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 111-115, wherein the performance measurements include mobility management measurements, general packet radio service tunneling protocol, GTP, measurements, Internet protocol, IP, management measurements, inter-radio access technology handover measurements, quality of service measurements, security measurements, session management measurements, or subscriber management measurements.
  • the performance measurements include mobility management measurements, general packet radio service tunneling protocol, GTP, measurements, Internet protocol, IP, management measurements, inter-radio access technology handover measurements, quality of service measurements, security measurements, session management measurements, or subscriber management measurements.
  • Example 117 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 1 11-116, wherein the report includes a network service identifier that corresponds to the network service, a PNF identifier that corresponds to the PNF, and one or more values that correspond to the performance measurements.
  • Example 118 includes a signal structure comprising: a network service, NS, field for an NS identifier that corresponds to a network service; a physical network function, PNF, field for a PNF identifier that corresponds to a PNF; and one or more measurement fields for one or more values of performance measurements associated with the PNF.
  • NS network service
  • PNF physical network function
  • Example 119 includes the signal structure of Example 118, wherein the signal structure complies with a protocol of a VeEn-Vnfm or an Os-Nfvo reference point.
  • Example 120 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause an element manager to: receive an indicator of a performance measurement related to a physical network function, PNF; update a counter based on the indicator; detect an occurrence of a predetermined reporting event; and transmit, based on the detected occurrence, a report based on the indicator to a virtual network function manager.
  • Example 121 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 120, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the element manager to: determine, based on the indicator, a first value of a system parameter; compare the first value of the system parameter to a predetermined threshold; and detect the occurrence of the predetermined reporting event based on comparison of the first value of the system parameter to the predetermined threshold.
  • Example 122 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 120 or 121, wherein the predetermined reporting event is a periodic reporting event.
  • Example 123 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of
  • Examples 120-122 wherein the element manager is to receive the indicator from a network element.
  • Example 124 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of
  • Example 125 includes an element manager comprising: interface circuitry to communicatively couple the element manager to a network element that is to perform a physical network function, PNF, of a network service and to a virtual network function manager, V FM; and control circuitry coupled with the interface circuitry, the control circuitry to: receive, via the interface circuitry, an indicator of a performance measurement related to the PNF; update a counter based on the indicator; detect an occurrence of a predetermined reporting event; transmit, via the interface circuitry based on the detected occurrence, a report based on the indicator to a virtual network function manager.
  • Example 126 includes the element manager of Example 125, wherein the control circuitry is further to: determine, based on the indicator, a first value of a system parameter; compare the first value of the system parameter to a predetermined threshold; and detect the occurrence of the predetermined reporting event based on comparison of the first value of the system parameter to the predetermined threshold.
  • Example 127 includes the element manager of Example 125 or 126, wherein the predetermined reporting event is a periodic reporting event.
  • Example 128 includes the element manager of any one of Examples 125-127, wherein the control circuitry is to receive the indicator from the network element.
  • Example 129 includes the element manager of any one of Examples 125-128, wherein the report includes a network service identifier that corresponds to the network service, a PNF identifier that corresponds to the PNF, and a value that corresponds to the indicator of the performance measurement.
  • Example 130 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, to: receive, from a network manager, a report that includes performance measurements of a physical network function, PNF, of a network
  • VDU virtualized network functionality
  • Example 131 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 130, wherein the management action is an underutilization or overutilization management action.
  • Example 132 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 130 or 131, wherein the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 133 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 130 or 131, wherein the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 134 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 130-133, wherein the NFVO is to receive the report over an Os-Nfvo interface.
  • Example 135 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a network manager to: process an indicator of a performance measurement related to a physical network function, PNF, of a network service, the indicator received from an element manager; update a counter based on the indicator; detect an occurrence of a predetermined reporting event; and transmit, based on the detected occurrence, a report based on the indicator to a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO.
  • PNF physical network function
  • NFVO network function virtualization orchestrator
  • Example 136 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 135, wherein the indicator is received via an Itf-N interface between the network manager and the element manager.
  • Example 137 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 135 or 136, wherein the network manager is to transmit the report via an Os-Nfvo interface between the network manager and the NFVO.
  • Example 138 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of
  • Examples 135-137 wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the network manager to: determine, based on the indicator, a first value of a system parameter;
  • Example 139 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 135-137, wherein the predetermined reporting event is a periodic reporting event.
  • Example 140 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO, to: receive, from a device of an operation support system or a business support system, OSS/BSS, a report that includes performance measurements of a physical network function, PNF, that belongs to a network service; and perform a management action with respect to a virtual data unit, VDU, that provides virtualized network functionality for the network service.
  • NFVO network function virtualization orchestrator
  • Example 141 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 140, wherein the management action is an underutilization or overutilization management action.
  • Example 142 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 140 or 141, wherein the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • the management action is an overutilization management action to add a virtual central processing unit to the VDU, increase throughput of a virtual link, add one or more blocks of memory to the VDU, or instantiate an additional virtual machine for the VDU.
  • Example 143 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 140 or 141, wherein the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • the management action is an underutilization management action to shut down the VDU, migrate operations of the VDU to another VDU and shut down the VDU, remove one or more blocks of memory from the VDU, remove one or more virtual central processing units, vCPUs, from the VDU, or decrease throughput of a virtual link.
  • Example 144 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 140 or 141, wherein to perform the management action the FVO is to:
  • V FM virtual network function manager
  • Example 145 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a device of an operations support system, OSS, or a business support system, BSS, to: receive, from a network manager, M, a message that includes an indicator of a performance measurement of a physical network function, PNF, that belongs to a network service; and transmit, based on a detected occurrence, a report based on the indicator to a network function virtualization orchestrator, NFVO.
  • OSS operations support system
  • BSS business support system
  • Example 146 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 145, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the OSS/BSS to: determine, based on the indicator, a first value of a system parameter; compare the first value of the system parameter to a predetermined threshold; and identify the detected occurrence based on comparison of the first value of the system parameter to the predetermined threshold.
  • Example 147 includes the one or more computer-readable media of Example 145 or 146, wherein the detected occurrence is a periodic reporting event.
  • Example 148 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of Examples 145-147, wherein the report includes a network service identifier that corresponds to the network service, a P F identifier that corresponds to the P F, and a value that corresponds to the indicator of the performance measurement.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Software Systems (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)

Abstract

Certains modes de réalisation de la présente invention concernent des procédés et des appareils pour une architecture et une opération de virtualisation des fonctions réseau.
PCT/US2016/030268 2016-04-29 2016-04-29 Virtualisation des fonctions réseau WO2017189015A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN201680084433.7A CN109074280B (zh) 2016-04-29 2016-04-29 网络功能虚拟化
PCT/US2016/030268 WO2017189015A1 (fr) 2016-04-29 2016-04-29 Virtualisation des fonctions réseau
TW106109384A TWI722145B (zh) 2016-04-29 2017-03-21 網路功能虛擬化

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/US2016/030268 WO2017189015A1 (fr) 2016-04-29 2016-04-29 Virtualisation des fonctions réseau

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2017189015A1 true WO2017189015A1 (fr) 2017-11-02

Family

ID=56027190

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/US2016/030268 WO2017189015A1 (fr) 2016-04-29 2016-04-29 Virtualisation des fonctions réseau

Country Status (3)

Country Link
CN (1) CN109074280B (fr)
TW (1) TWI722145B (fr)
WO (1) WO2017189015A1 (fr)

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US10785089B2 (en) 2018-05-07 2020-09-22 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Service-level resiliency in virtualization environments
US20210328941A1 (en) * 2019-09-27 2021-10-21 Intel Corporation Changing a time sensitive networking schedule implemented by a softswitch
US11418386B2 (en) 2018-03-06 2022-08-16 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Virtual network function creation system
US11563677B1 (en) * 2018-06-28 2023-01-24 Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Systems and methods for secure network management of virtual network function

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN109714239B (zh) * 2018-12-27 2021-04-27 新华三技术有限公司 一种管理消息的下发方法、vnfm设备和服务器
CN114070764B (zh) * 2020-08-07 2024-06-18 中国电信股份有限公司 网络功能虚拟化nfv测试方法、装置和系统
TWI760948B (zh) * 2020-11-30 2022-04-11 中華電信股份有限公司 用於管理電信等級虛擬網路服務之加速資源分配之系統、方法及電腦可讀取儲存媒體
US11200096B1 (en) * 2021-03-26 2021-12-14 SambaNova Systems, Inc. Resource allocation for reconfigurable processors

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20120117246A1 (en) * 2009-07-16 2012-05-10 Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique Method And System For The Efficient And Automated Management of Virtual Networks
EP2648391A1 (fr) * 2012-04-04 2013-10-09 Cisco Technology, Inc. Superposition de réseau à l'échelle automatique avec surveillance heuristique dans un environnement de nuage hybride
WO2015099035A1 (fr) * 2013-12-27 2015-07-02 株式会社Ｎｔｔドコモ Système de gestion, nœud de gestion de fonction de communication virtuelle et procédé de gestion
WO2016029974A1 (fr) * 2014-08-29 2016-03-03 Nec Europe Ltd. Procédé de fonctionnement d'une infrastructure de réseau virtuelle

Family Cites Families (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7548964B2 (en) * 2005-10-11 2009-06-16 International Business Machines Corporation Performance counters for virtualized network interfaces of communications networks
US8566447B2 (en) * 2006-04-10 2013-10-22 Bank Of America Corporation Virtual service switch
JP5428075B2 (ja) * 2009-04-17 2014-02-26 株式会社日立製作所 性能モニタリングシステム、ボトルネック判定方法及び管理計算機
EP2531917B1 (fr) * 2010-02-04 2019-11-27 Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) Moniteur de performances de réseau pour machines virtuelles
CN102156665B (zh) * 2011-04-13 2012-12-05 杭州电子科技大学 一种虚拟化系统竞争资源差异化服务方法
US9515869B2 (en) * 2012-01-18 2016-12-06 Dh2I Company Systems and methods for server cluster application virtualization
WO2015126430A1 (fr) * 2014-02-24 2015-08-27 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Gestion de fonction de réseau virtuel avec des machines virtuelles désactivées
EP2955631B1 (fr) * 2014-06-09 2019-05-01 Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy Commande de fonctions de réseau virtualisées à usage dans un réseau de communication
US9806975B2 (en) * 2014-06-12 2017-10-31 Futurewei Technologies, Inc. Methods and systems for managing capacity in a virtualized network
US9742690B2 (en) * 2014-08-20 2017-08-22 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Load adaptation architecture framework for orchestrating and managing services in a cloud computing system

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20120117246A1 (en) * 2009-07-16 2012-05-10 Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique Method And System For The Efficient And Automated Management of Virtual Networks
EP2648391A1 (fr) * 2012-04-04 2013-10-09 Cisco Technology, Inc. Superposition de réseau à l'échelle automatique avec surveillance heuristique dans un environnement de nuage hybride
WO2015099035A1 (fr) * 2013-12-27 2015-07-02 株式会社Ｎｔｔドコモ Système de gestion, nœud de gestion de fonction de communication virtuelle et procédé de gestion
EP3089031A1 (fr) * 2013-12-27 2016-11-02 NTT Docomo, Inc. Système de gestion, noeud de gestion de fonction de communication virtuelle et procédé de gestion
WO2016029974A1 (fr) * 2014-08-29 2016-03-03 Nec Europe Ltd. Procédé de fonctionnement d'une infrastructure de réseau virtuelle

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
NFV-MANAGEMENT AND ORCHESTRATION, December 2014 (2014-12-01)

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US11418386B2 (en) 2018-03-06 2022-08-16 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Virtual network function creation system
US10785089B2 (en) 2018-05-07 2020-09-22 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Service-level resiliency in virtualization environments
US11394600B2 (en) 2018-05-07 2022-07-19 At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. Service-level resiliency in virtualization environments
US11563677B1 (en) * 2018-06-28 2023-01-24 Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Systems and methods for secure network management of virtual network function
US11855890B2 (en) 2018-06-28 2023-12-26 Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Systems and methods for secure network management of virtual network function
US20210328941A1 (en) * 2019-09-27 2021-10-21 Intel Corporation Changing a time sensitive networking schedule implemented by a softswitch

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
TWI722145B (zh) 2021-03-21
CN109074280A (zh) 2018-12-21
CN109074280B (zh) 2023-11-17
TW201810991A (zh) 2018-03-16

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
CN109074280B (zh) 网络功能虚拟化
CN107925588B (zh) 用于平台处理核心配置的方法、设备、装置及介质
US10033595B2 (en) System and method for mobile network function virtualization
US10756999B2 (en) Virtualized network function information obtaining method, apparatus, and system
JP6538869B2 (ja) ネットワーク管理
CN109362085B (zh) 通过openflow数据平面在云计算机中实现epc
DE102020132078A1 (de) Ressourcenzuteilung basierend auf anwendbarem service level agreement
US11477125B2 (en) Overload protection engine
US20190045000A1 (en) Technologies for load-aware traffic steering
EP3583743A1 (fr) Procédé et appareil d'auto-organisation de fonction virtuelle
JP6546340B2 (ja) クラウド展開における自動兆候データ収集
US11561816B2 (en) Elastic container platform architecture
US20180109959A1 (en) Technique for extending capacities of a radio access network
TWI835205B (zh) 5g網路中之封包酬載資料之選擇性壓縮
WO2016197301A1 (fr) Procédé et appareil de coordination de politiques dans un système nfv
CN108965147B (zh) 网络控制方法、装置及网络设备
KR20200105499A (ko) 가상화된 네트워크 기능들
US11678402B2 (en) Efficient session management
CN107360015B (zh) 切换共享存储的方法和设备
WO2018082533A1 (fr) Systèmes et procédés de gestion de réseau hiérarchique
US11809890B2 (en) Managing quality of storage service in virtual network
US11843545B1 (en) Method and system for containerized network function management service
CN110417568B (zh) Nfv策略协商方法及系统
CN116389309A (zh) 一种仿真网络的连通性探测方法、装置及电子设备
FERRETTI Analysis of virtual network functions for 5G networks through a fault injection approach

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
WWE Wipo information: entry into national phase

Ref document number: 201680084433.7

Country of ref document: CN

NENP Non-entry into the national phase

Ref country code: DE

121 Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application

Ref document number: 16724186

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A1

122 Ep: pct application non-entry in european phase

Ref document number: 16724186

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A1