WO2017206793A1

WO2017206793A1 - Method and system for creating service function chaining

Info

Publication number: WO2017206793A1
Application number: PCT/CN2017/085907
Authority: WO
Inventors: 克里斯⋅马里斯; 克罗尔⋅朱塞佩; 卢克⋅克里斯汀; 王岩
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2016-06-03
Filing date: 2017-05-25
Publication date: 2017-12-07
Also published as: CN106130894B; CN106130894A

Abstract

Provided is a method for creating a service function chaining, specifically comprising: an SFC orchestrator receives an SFC definition message delivered by a service manager; the SFC orchestrator determines, according to the SFC definition message and a current communication restriction condition, a controller corresponding to a network function, and sends the SFC definition message to the controller; the controller generates a valid sub-path set according to the SFC definition message, installs each valid sub-path in the valid sub-path set, assigns a path identifier ID to each valid sub-path, and sends an installation completion message to the SFC orchestrator; the SFC orchestrator determines an end-to-end service function chaining according to the installation completion message, and sends a binding message to the controller according to the determined end-to-end service function chaining; the controller binds, according to the binding message, a valid sub-path selected from the valid sub-path set, and sends a binding success message to the SFC orchestrator; and the SFC orchestrator determines successful creation of the service function chaining according to the binding success message, and reports the successful creation of the service function chaining to the service manager.

Description

Method and system for creating business function chain

This application claims the priority of the Chinese Patent Application filed on June 3, 2016, the Chinese Patent Office, the application number is CN201610390879.4, and the invention name is "a method and system for creating a business function chain", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference. Combined in this application.

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and system for creating a service function chain.

Background technique

The traditional business function chain (English name: Service Function Chaining, English abbreviation: SFC) is composed of a series of proprietary network functions, including firewalls, load balancers and application controllers. Under the new service requirements, some network functions must be deployed and interconnected in a certain order, which will make the deployment of the business function chain complex and time-consuming. The topology changes require careful consideration and require high operations. Cost, and the development of network function virtualization (English name: Network Function Virtualization, English abbreviation: NFV) brings new opportunities and development to SFC technology. Through NFV, service providers can create a virtual SFC. The environment, eliminating the traditional proprietary hardware deployment, makes it more convenient to cascade the required network functions in a virtual environment in a certain order.

The current SFC technology solution is: adopting a unified structure, only processing the data path uniformly at the system entry, forming a complete data path, and a network service data packet header for each data path (English full name: Network Service) Header, English abbreviation: NSH) is managed at the entrance of the system. Under the SFC technology scheme, the data packet transmission process is: at the system entrance, the data packet arrives at the data center (English full name: Data Center, English abbreviation: DC), assuming DC1, the data packet first enters the DC1 classifier for classification. The classifier allocates a network service packet header (English full name: Network Service Header, English abbreviation: NSH) to the data packet, and the NSH is a forward forwarding identifier of the data packet in the system, and the NSH is a service function path created in DC1. (English full name: Service Function Path, English abbreviation: SFP), one of the pre-allocated multiple NSHs, through which the data packet received by the system will automatically transmit data; after DC1, the data packet will be compressed. (At this time, the data packet also carries the NSH), and receives a virtual extensible LAN identifier (English full name: Virtual Extensible LAN Identifier, English abbreviation: VXLAN ID), the VXLAN ID is used to indicate the transmission to the next data center DC2. Path; when the data reaches DC2, the VXLAN ID will be deleted on the first conversion node of DC2, and then based on the NSH letter in the packet. Make further data processing and transmission.

The SFC technology solution does not consider the difference of the internal network topology of each data center. By default, all network environments are the same. The network between the data center internal network and the data center has no difference and is treated uniformly. However, in fact, the data center internal network has low latency, high capacity, virtualization, and no internal connection cost characteristics, and the network between data centers has a delay that is at least an order of magnitude larger than the delay of the internal network of the data center, and the capacity is limited. There is a certain cost, so there is a difference between the network between the data center internal network and the data center. The unified processing obviously affects the data that needs to be transmitted in real time.

Summary of the invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a method and a system for creating a service function chain, which can reduce the impact on data that needs to be transmitted in real time through a sub-path in a data transmission process.

In view of this, the first aspect of the present invention provides a method for creating a service function chain, which is applied to a service function chain creation system, where the system includes a service function chain SFC orchestrator and at least two controllers, including:

The SFC orchestration device receives an SFC definition message delivered by the service manager, where the SFC definition message includes a network function of an end-to-end service function chain to be created and an arrangement order of the network function on the service function chain. ;

Determining, by the SFC definition message, the controller corresponding to the network function according to the SFC definition message and the current communication restriction condition, and sending the SFC definition message to the controller;

The controller generates a set of valid sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, installs each valid sub-path in the set of valid sub-paths, and assigns a path identifier ID to each valid sub-path, after the installation is completed, Sending an installation completion message to the SFC orchestrator, the installation completion message including a set of valid sub-paths having a path identification ID;

The SFC orchestrator determines, according to the installation completion message, an end-to-end service function chain, and sends a binding message to the controller according to the determined end-to-end service function chain, where the binding message is Contains the valid subpath selected;

The controller binds the selected valid sub-path from the set of valid sub-paths according to the binding message, and sends a binding success message to the SFC orchestrator after the binding is successful;

Determining, by the SFC orchestration device, that the service function chain is successfully created according to the binding success message, and reporting that the service function chain is successfully created to the service manager, so that the service manager determines that the service function chain is created. success.

Optionally, the SFC orchestrator may be pre-introduced to perform processing on each valid sub-path, so that the valid sub-paths determined according to the binding message are linked into a completed service function chain, and the SFC definition message may be divided into multiple sub-sub-categories. Message.

Optionally, the SFC definition message may further include a starting point and a ending point of the network function on the service function chain.

Optionally, the communication restriction condition may be delay, load balancing, or the like.

Optionally, the controller may further generate a corresponding forwarding rule, where the forwarding rule is used to determine whether the controller transmits the data stream to the corresponding network function or data center.

It can be seen that the controller generates all possible sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, and sends all possible sub-path messages to the SFC orchestrator, so that the SFC orchestrator decides a complete business function chain. Each sub-path has a separate controller that is managed and controlled locally, reducing the impact on data that needs to be transmitted in real time.

In some possible implementations, if the controller is a first controller, and the first controller is corresponding to the first classifier, the method further includes: if the binding message does not carry the second category The first controller is in communication connection with the second controller corresponding to the second classifier to obtain an IP address of the second classifier.

In another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving, by the controller, a first message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the first message is adding a first network function to the controller a message in a local path of the associated data center; the controller generates a first local sub-path in a local path of the data center according to the second message, and adds the first network function to the In the first local subpath.

In other possible implementations, the method further includes: the controller transmitting a network service packet header NSH associated with the first local sub-path to a classifier corresponding to the controller.

In other possible implementations, the method further includes: the controller modifying network topology information of the first network function.

In another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the controller receiving a second message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the second message is to associate a second network function from the controller a message removed in a second local subpath of the data center; the controller removing a network service packet header NSH associated with the second local subpath in a classifier corresponding to the controller so that Removing the second network function.

In another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: when the third network function fails, the controller receives a third message, where the third message is a message that the third network function is invalid; The controller determines a third local sub-path according to the third message, where the third local sub-path is used to replace the local sub-path corresponding to the third network function.

It can be seen that 1. SFC orchestrator has different controllers and classifiers at the data center level. Each data center is relatively independent and has no influence on each other: different data centers have different solutions; in a data center Scalability does not affect other data centers; load balancing within the data center is transparent and perceptible to other data centers. 2. Each controller maintains a reduced data path. One sub-path may serve multiple end-to-end paths, so the data link maintained by the entire path is reduced. 3. High availability, such as a sub-path failure, the embodiment of the present invention does not need to propagate fault information to other data centers, and can be solved in the local data center without affecting other data centers. 4. Highly robust, because the local data center responds faster to the processing when the function fails, and the communication delay inside the data center does not affect the high availability operation. 5. Reduce the signaling overhead caused by NSH. In the prior art, there is a total of 106 bits of overhead in a 1500-byte data packet, and the overhead is 7%. In the embodiment of the present invention, a total of only 280 bytes of data packets has a total cost of 28 bytes, which is equivalent to The overhead is only 1.86%, which obviously reduces the signaling overhead.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a system for creating a service function chain, including:

Business function chain SFC orchestrator and at least two controllers;

The SFC orchestrator is configured to receive an SFC definition message delivered by the service manager, determine, according to the SFC definition message and the current communication restriction condition, a controller corresponding to the network function, and send the SFC definition message to the controller The SFC definition message includes a network function of an end-to-end service function chain to be created and an arrangement order of the network function on the service function chain;

The controller is configured to generate a set of valid sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, install each sub-path in the set of valid sub-paths, and assign a path identification ID to each valid sub-path, after the installation is completed, The SFC orchestrator sends an installation complete message, the installation complete message including a set of valid sub-paths having a path identification ID;

The SFC orchestrator is further configured to: according to the installation completion message, determine an end-to-end service function chain, and send a binding message to the controller according to the end-to-end service function chain of the decision, the binding The message contains the valid subpath selected;

The controller is further configured to bind the selected valid sub-path from the set of valid sub-paths according to the binding message, and send a binding success message to the SFC orchestrator after the binding is completed. ;

The SFC orchestrator is further configured to determine that the service function chain is successfully created according to the binding success message, and report that the service function chain is successfully created to the service manager, so that the service manager determines the service. The function chain was created successfully.

In some possible implementations, if the controller is a first controller, the first controller is corresponding to a first classifier, and the controller is further configured to: if the binding message does not carry a second The Internet Protocol IP address of the classifier is in communication connection with the second controller corresponding to the second classifier to obtain an IP address of the second classifier.

In other possible implementations, the controller is further configured to receive a first message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the first message is to add a first network function to the controller. a message in a local path of the data center; generating a first local sub-path in a local path of the data center according to the first message, and adding the first network function to the first local sub-path.

In other possible implementations, the controller is further configured to send a network service data packet header NSH associated with the first local sub-path to a classifier corresponding to the controller.

In other possible implementations, the controller is further configured to modify network topology information of the first network function.

In other possible implementations, the controller is further configured to receive a second message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the second message is a data center that associates a second network function from the controller. a message removed in the second local subpath; removing a network service packet header NSH associated with the second local subpath in a classifier corresponding to the controller to remove the second network Features.

In another possible implementation manner, the controller is further configured to: when the third network function fails, receive a third message, where the third message is a message that the third network function is invalid; according to the third The message determines a third local subpath that is used to replace the local subpath corresponding to the third network function.

Optionally, the system may further include a classifier and a data center, each data center has a local decision classifier and a controller, and the data center deploys some network functions, each network function corresponding to a repeater SW, each There are multiple SWs under the classifier.

It can be seen from the above technical solution that the embodiment of the present invention has the following advantages: the controller generates all possible sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, and sends all possible sub-path messages to the SFC orchestrator, so that the SFC orchestrator makes a complete decision. Business function chain. Each sub-path has a separate controller that is only managed and controlled locally, thereby reducing the impact on data that needs to be transmitted in real time during data transmission.

DRAWINGS

1 is a system architecture diagram of an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a method for creating a service function chain according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for creating a service function chain according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of adding a network function to a data center according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of adding a network function to a data center according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of deleting a network function according to the embodiment; FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of fault processing of a network function according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a system for creating a service function chain according to an embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The embodiment of the invention provides a method and a system for creating a service function chain, which can reduce the impact on data that needs to be transmitted in real time through a sub-path.

The terms "first", "second", "third", "fourth", etc. (if present) in the specification and claims of the present invention and the above figures are used to distinguish similar objects without having to use To describe a specific order or order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate so that the embodiments described herein can be implemented in a sequence other than what is illustrated or described herein. In addition, the terms "comprises" and "comprises" and "the" and "the" are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, for example, a process, method, system, product, or device that comprises a series of steps or units is not necessarily limited to Those steps or units may include other steps or units not explicitly listed or inherent to such processes, methods, products or devices.

The invention can be applied to all current communication systems, including second generation mobile communication (English full name: Second Generation, English abbreviation: 2G), 3G, long term evolution (English full name: Long Term Evolution, English abbreviation: LTE), wireless protection Real (English name: WIreless-Fidelity, English abbreviation: WI-FI), etc., the application system architecture can be as shown in Figure 1, Figure 1 is a hybrid deployment application architecture, which has multiple data centers, each The data center contains different network functions. The service function chain links different network functions together to serve specific services. The following logic can be implemented: management of business function chains, including dynamic deployment and operation; data flow classification; Packet routing on the service function chain; load balancing processing; reliability guarantee.

The method for creating a service function chain in the embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to specific embodiments:

Referring to FIG. 2, an embodiment of a method for creating a service function chain in an embodiment of the present invention includes:

101. The SFC orchestrator receives the SFC definition message delivered by the service manager.

In this embodiment, the SFC orchestration device receives the SFC definition message delivered by the service manager, and the SFC definition message may include a service model to be deployed, and the service model may include each network function of an end-to-end service function chain to be created. And the order of each network function in the business function chain, and may also include the starting point and the ending point of each network function in the business function chain. The starting point and the ending point are used to determine which data center participates in the SFC deployment.

It should be noted that the SFC orchestrator can be pre-introduced for the processing of each valid sub-path, so that the effective sub-paths determined according to the binding message are linked into a complete service function chain. The SFC definition message can be divided into multiple sub-messages, and each sub-message can correspond to one controller.

102. The SFC orchestrator determines, according to the SFC definition message and the current communication restriction condition, a controller corresponding to the network function, and sends an SFC definition message to the controller.

In this embodiment, the communication restriction condition may be a delay, a load balancing, or the like, and may be other, which is not limited herein.

It should be noted that the SFC definition message may be divided into multiple sub-messages, each sub-message corresponding to one controller, and each sub-message is correspondingly transmitted by the corresponding controller. The above-mentioned sending of the SFC definition message to the controller may also be understood as Send each sub-message to the appropriate controller.

103. The controller generates a set of valid sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, and installs a set of valid sub-paths. Each valid sub-path, and assigning a path identification ID to each valid sub-path, after the installation is completed, sending an installation completion message to the SFC orchestrator, the installation completion message containing a set of valid sub-paths having a path identification ID;

In this embodiment, after each controller generates a set of valid sub-paths, each valid sub-path is installed, and a path identification ID is assigned to each valid sub-path. After the installation is completed, an installation completion message is sent to the SFC orchestrator. The installation complete message contains a set of valid sub-paths, each valid sub-path in the set of valid sub-paths having an identification ID.

The message of the set of valid sub-paths includes the identifier ID of each valid sub-path in the set, and the start point and the end point of each valid sub-path are respectively the network function in the service model on the service function chain to be created. Start and end points. The set of valid subpaths can be all possible valid subpaths.

It should be noted that each controller may also generate a set of valid sub-paths according to the SFC definition message and the local domain.

It should be noted that the local domain refers to multiple transponders attached to each controller.

104. The SFC orchestrator determines an end-to-end service function chain according to the installation completion message, and sends a binding message to the controller according to the end-to-end service function chain of the decision;

In this embodiment, after the SFC obtains all available valid sub-paths sent by each controller, the SFC orchestrator determines a complete end-to-end service function chain from all available valid sub-paths to the corresponding controller respectively. Send the binding message, the binding message can be a "binding SFC" message, the binding message contains the selected valid sub-path, and can also include the network service data packet header of the selected valid sub-path (English full name: Network Service Header, English abbreviation: NSH) and the IP address of the corresponding controller,

105. The controller binds the selected valid sub-path from the set of valid sub-paths according to the binding message, and sends a binding success message to the SFC orchestrator after the binding is successful;

After receiving the binding message sent by the SFC orchestrator, the controller binds the corresponding valid sub-path and generates a new rule of the classifier. The new rule of the classifier also determines how to transmit the data stream to other domains or data centers. That is, the end-to-end business function chain is created. After the creation is completed, each controller sends a corresponding message to inform the SFC orchestrator.

Optionally, if the controller is the first controller, the first controller corresponds to the first classifier, and further includes:

If the binding message does not carry the IP address of the second classifier, the first controller performs a communication connection with the second controller corresponding to the second classifier to obtain the IP address of the second classifier.

It should be noted that if the binding message carries the IP address of the second classifier, the optional step in step 105 may be skipped.

The SFC orchestration device determines that the service function chain is successfully created according to the binding success message, and reports that the service function chain is successfully created to the service manager, so that the service manager determines that the service function chain is successfully created.

In this embodiment, the SFC waits for the binding success message to confirm that the end-to-end service function chain is successfully created, and then sends a message to inform the service manager that the service function chain is successfully created.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the number of controllers is at least two, and each controller generates a corresponding valid sub-path and reports it to the SFC orchestrator. The SFC orchestrator reports the valid sub-paths reported by the controllers. The message determines a complete business function chain, and the corresponding controller is notified by message to create the service function chain. After the controller is successfully created, the SFC orchestrator is notified of the successful creation message, and the SFC orchestrator sends the successful creation message to the SFC orchestrator. Service manager.

In this embodiment, the controller generates all possible sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, and sends all possible sub-path messages to the SFC orchestrator, so that the SFC orchestrator decides a complete service function chain. Each sub-path has a separate controller that is managed and controlled locally, reducing the impact on data that needs to be transmitted in real time.

It should be noted that after the service function chain is created, the data packet transmission process may be: at the system entry, the data packet arrives at the data center DC1, and the data packet first enters the DC1 classifier for classification, and the classifier allocates the data packet. An NSH is a forward forwarding identifier of a data packet in the system. The NSH is one of a plurality of NSHs pre-allocated when the SFP is created in the DC1. The data packet received by the system is automatically transmitted through the NSH identifier. After DC1, the packet will not carry the NSH in DC1, the packet will be compressed, and a virtual scalable LAN identifier is received, which is used to indicate the transmission to the next data center DC2. Path; when the data packet arrives at DC2, the virtual scalable local area network identifier will be deleted on the conversion node, and then the DC2 classifier classifies the data packet and assigns another data NSH to the data packet, which is pre-defined when the SFP is created in DC2. One of the assigned multiple NSHs, the data packet will be further processed and transmitted based on the DC2 assigned NSH.

It should be noted that, in the transmission process of the data packet of the existing solution, the NSH allocated by the system entry does not change in the data center 1 and the data center 2, and the NSH allocated by the system entry in the transmission process of the current solution data packet passes the data in the data packet. After the center 1 is discarded, after the data packet arrives at the data center 2, the data center 2 classifier re-allocates an NSH. When the data packet of the solution is abnormal during the transmission process, the data center 1 entry is not backtracked for unified processing. Adjusting only at the sub-path level without affecting the entire path can obviously reduce the impact on data that needs to be transmitted in real time.

For ease of understanding, the following describes the number of controllers as two. For details, refer to FIG. 3, which is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for creating a service function chain;

201. The SFC orchestrator receives an SFC definition message, where the SFC definition message includes a first sub-message and a second sub-message.

The SFC definition message, the first sub-message and the second sub-message comprise the network function of the end-to-end service function chain to be created and the order of the network functions on the end-to-end service function chain to be created, and the starting point and the ending point.

202. The SFC orchestrator determines the controller 1 and the controller 2, and the controller 1 and the controller 2 respectively transmit the first sub-message and the second sub-message;

203, the first sub-message is sent to the controller 1, the second sub-message is sent to the controller 2;

204. The controller 1 generates all possible sub-paths according to the local domain and the first sub-message decision sub-path. Similarly, the controller 2 performs a similar operation.

For details, please refer to 204a and 204b in FIG.

205. The controller 1 assigns an identifier ID to each sub-path. The identifier ID is deployed on the forwarder node corresponding to the controller 1 through a communication protocol. Similarly, the controller 2 performs a similar operation.

The repeaters are the repeater 1 and the repeater 2, respectively.

206. The controller 1 and the controller 2 respectively send a message to the orchestrator to generate all possible sub-paths;

207. The SFC orchestrator makes a complete SFC decision;

208. The SFC orchestrator sends a binding SFC message to the controller 1 and the controller 2 respectively.

209. The controller 1 and the controller 2 respectively bind the corresponding sub-path according to the binding SFC message, and generate a new ruler rule.

210 (optional), the controller 1 and the controller 2 perform a communication connection, the controller 1 acquires an IP address of a classifier corresponding to the controller 2, or the controller 2 acquires an IP address of a classifier corresponding to the controller 1;

211. The controller 1 and the controller 2 respectively send a message to notify the SFC orchestrator that the SFC is successfully created.

212. The SFC orchestrator sends a message to inform the service manager that the SFC is successfully created.

In the existing solution, when the operation of adding or deleting a network function is performed, or when the fault of the network function is processed, the number of modification points involved is relatively large, and a large number of operations are designed, which increases the complexity of management, in order to solve the problem. On the basis of the foregoing embodiment of the method for creating a service function chain, the present invention solves the problem by using the following embodiments. Referring to FIG. 4, an embodiment of the network function added to the data center in the embodiment of the present invention includes:

301: The controller receives a message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the message is a message that adds the first network function to a local path of a data center associated with the controller;

302. The controller generates a first local sub-path in the local path of the data center according to the message, and adds the first network function to the first local sub-path.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 5, a specific embodiment of adding a network function to a data center in the embodiment of the present invention includes:

401. The controller receives a notification message that the network function is to be added to the system.

The source may come from the orchestrator, the data preamble repeater, or the network function itself. For this notification message, it is better from the orchestrator and network functions, because it can also be included compared with the data preamble forwarder. Additional information, such as the type of network function.

402. The controller determines a new subpath according to the notification message.

After receiving the notification message, the controller adds the network function to the system and modifies the topology information of the network function. Based on the modified topology information, the controller decides a new subpath to handle the specific operation. First, the new sub-path includes the generation of new network functions; second, it is decided which sub-path is reserved and retained in parallel with the existing sub-path.

403. The controller configures an NSH identifier for the new subpath, and transmits a new forwarding rule to the corresponding forwarder.

404. The controller sends the new classifier rule to the classifier.

The controller sends the new classifier rules to the classifier so that part of the data stream can be directed to the new subpath and can load a specific payload onto the network function.

Referring to FIG. 6, an embodiment of deleting a network function in the embodiment of the present invention includes:

501: The controller receives a message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the message is a message that removes the network function from a local sub-path of the data center associated with the controller;

502. The controller removes the NSH associated with the local subpath in a classifier corresponding to the controller to remove the network function.

The controller receives a notification message that the network function will be removed, and the controller removes the incoming NSH in the classifier. When the incoming data stream is completed, the controller informs the data center that the orchestrator has removed the Network function.

It can be seen that 1. SFC orchestrator has different controllers and classifiers at the data center level. Each data center is relatively independent and has no influence on each other: different data centers have different solutions; in a data center Scalability does not affect other data centers; load balancing within the data center is transparent and perceptible to other data centers. 2. Each controller maintains a reduced data path. A subpath may serve multiple end-to-end paths, so the whole The data link for path maintenance is reduced. 3. High availability, such as a sub-path failure, the embodiment of the present invention does not need to propagate fault information to other data centers, and can be solved in the local data center without affecting other data centers. 4. Highly robust, because the local data center responds faster to the processing when the function fails, and the communication delay inside the data center does not affect the high availability operation. 5. Reduce the signaling overhead caused by NSH. In the prior art, there is a total of 106 bits of overhead in a 1500-byte data packet, and the overhead is 7%. In the embodiment of the present invention, a total of only 280 bytes of data packets has a total cost of 28 bytes, which is equivalent to The overhead is only 1.86%, which obviously reduces the signaling overhead.

Compared with the prior art, the sub-path concept is added, and the SFC orchestrator is added, which is responsible for receiving the subscription service information, and issuing a control command to each sub-path controller to evaluate the path status uploaded by each sub-path controller. To organize each sub-path to form a complete end-to-end business function chain.

For an end-to-end business function chain, it is divided into several sub-paths. Each sub-path has a separate controller and classifier, which only manages and controls the local. The addition or deletion of sub-paths does not affect other sub-paths. Packets being transmitted between data centers are not discarded, increasing reliability and reducing complexity.

The fault is handled only in the local data center, and the response is rapid, which increases the robustness of the system. Compared with the prior art, the total number of data paths is greatly reduced and easy to manage. Differentiating the network topology, the virtual scalable LAN between the data centers only transmits the necessary packet data, reducing the data overhead.

Referring to FIG. 7, an embodiment of the fault handling of the network function in the embodiment of the present invention includes:

601. When the network function fails, the controller receives the message, where the message is a message that the network function is invalid;

602. The controller determines, according to the message, a local sub-path, where the local sub-path is used to replace the local sub-path corresponding to the network function.

In this embodiment, for the occurrence of a fault on the sub-path, only processing on the sub-path, the response speed, finding an alternative path, and not affecting other data centers, for data packets transmitted on other sub-paths in the service function chain, Not affected, no packet loss occurs. In the prior art, when a network function of a data path fails, all end-to-end data paths through the network function will be re-planned, which requires a large amount of calculation and message notification, resulting in complicated management problems, obviously, The embodiments of the present invention effectively simplify management.

Referring to FIG. 8, an embodiment of a service function chain creation system in an embodiment of the present invention includes:

a service function chain SFC arranger 701 and at least two controllers 702;

The SFC editor 701 is configured to receive an SFC definition message sent by the service manager, determine a controller corresponding to the network function according to the SFC definition message and the current communication restriction condition, and send an SFC definition message to the controller 702; the SFC definition message includes The network function of an end-to-end business function chain created and the order in which network functions are arranged on the business function chain;

The controller 702 is configured to generate a set of valid sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, install each sub-path in the set of valid sub-paths, and assign a path identification ID to each valid sub-path. After the installation is completed, the SFC orchestrator 701 is configured. Sending an installation complete message, the installation complete message including a set of valid sub-paths having a path identification ID;

The SFC orchestrator 701 is further configured to determine an end-to-end service function chain according to the installation completion message, and send a binding message to the controller according to an end-to-end service function chain of the decision, where the binding message includes the selected valid sub-path ;

The controller 702 is further configured to bind the selected valid sub-path from the set of valid sub-paths according to the binding message, where After the binding is complete, the binding success message is sent to the SFC orchestrator;

The SFC orchestrator 701 is further configured to determine that the service function chain is successfully created according to the binding success message, and report that the service function chain is successfully created to the service manager, so that the service manager determines that the service function chain is successfully created.

Optionally, if the controller 702 is the first controller, the first controller is corresponding to the first classifier, and the controller 702 is further configured to: if the binding message does not carry the Internet Protocol IP address of the second classifier, The second controller corresponding to the second classifier performs a communication connection to obtain an IP address of the second classifier.

Optionally, the controller 702 is further configured to receive a first message delivered by the SFC orchestrator 701, where the first message is a message that adds the first network function to a local path of the data center associated with the controller 702; The first message generates a first local subpath in a local path of the data center and adds the first network function to the first local subpath.

Optionally, the controller 702 is further configured to send the network service data packet header NSH associated with the first local sub-path to the classifier corresponding to the controller 702.

Optionally, the controller 702 is further configured to modify network topology information of the first network function.

Optionally, the controller is further configured to receive a second message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the second message is a message that removes the second network function from the second local subpath of the data center associated with the controller; The network service packet header NSH associated with the second local subpath is removed from the classifier corresponding to the controller to remove the second network function.

Optionally, the controller 702 is further configured to: when the third network function fails, receive the third message, where the third message is a message that the third network function is invalid; and determine, by the third message, the third local sub-path, the third local sub- The path is used to replace the local subpath corresponding to the third network function.

Optionally, referring to FIG. 8, FIG. 8 may further include a classifier 703 and a data center 704. Each data center 701 has a classifier 703 and a controller 702 that can be locally determined. The data center 704 deploys some network functions. For example, NF1.1, NF1.2, NF1.3, NF2.1, NF2.2, NF2.3, and NF2.4, each network function corresponds to a repeater SW. It should be noted that there are multiple SWs under each classifier.

For the beneficial effects of the embodiment, reference may be made to the beneficial effects of the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not described herein again.

A person skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of the description, the specific working process of the system, the device and the unit described above can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus, and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of the unit is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be another division manner, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or Can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interface, device or unit, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The above integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a standalone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, which is essential or contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution, may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium. A number of instructions are included to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The foregoing storage medium includes: a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, and the like. .

The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, and are not intended to be limiting; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art will understand that The technical solutions described in the embodiments are modified, or the equivalents of the technical features are replaced by the equivalents of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

A method for creating a service function chain, which is characterized in that it is applied to a service function chain creation system, the system includes a service function chain SFC orchestrator and at least two controllers, and the method includes:

The SFC orchestration device receives an SFC definition message delivered by the service manager, where the SFC definition message includes a network function of an end-to-end service function chain to be created and an arrangement order of the network function on the service function chain. ;

Determining, by the SFC definition message, the controller corresponding to the network function according to the SFC definition message and the current communication restriction condition, and sending the SFC definition message to the controller;

The controller generates a set of valid sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, installs each valid sub-path in the set of valid sub-paths, and assigns a path identifier ID to each valid sub-path, after the installation is completed, Sending an installation completion message to the SFC orchestrator, the installation completion message including a set of valid sub-paths having a path identification ID;

The SFC orchestrator determines, according to the installation completion message, an end-to-end service function chain, and sends a binding message to the controller according to the determined end-to-end service function chain, where the binding message is Contains the valid subpath selected;

The controller binds the selected valid sub-path from the set of valid sub-paths according to the binding message, and sends a binding success message to the SFC orchestrator after the binding is successful;

Determining, by the SFC orchestration device, that the service function chain is successfully created according to the binding success message, and reporting that the service function chain is successfully created to the service manager, so that the service manager determines that the service function chain is created. success.
The method according to claim 1, wherein if the controller is a first controller, the first controller corresponds to a first classifier, the method further comprises:

If the binding message does not carry the Internet Protocol IP address of the second classifier, the first controller performs a communication connection with the second controller corresponding to the second classifier to obtain the second category. The IP address of the device.
The method of claim 1 further comprising:

Receiving, by the controller, a first message delivered by the SFC orchestrator, where the first message is a message that adds a first network function to a local path of a data center associated with the controller;

The controller generates a first local sub-path in a local path of the data center according to the first message, and adds the first network function to the first local sub-path.
The method of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises:

The controller transmits a network service packet header NSH associated with the first local sub-path to a classifier corresponding to the controller.
The method of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises:

The controller modifies network topology information of the first network function.
The method of claim 1 further comprising:

Receiving, by the controller, a second message delivered by the SFC orchestrator, where the second message is a message that removes a second network function from a second local sub-path of a data center associated with the controller;

The controller removes a network service packet header NSH associated with the second local subpath in a classifier corresponding to the controller to remove the second network function.
The method of claim 1 further comprising:

When the third network function fails, the controller receives a third message, where the third message is a message that the third network function is invalid;

The controller determines a third local sub-path according to the third message, where the third local sub-path is used to replace the local sub-path corresponding to the third network function.
A system for creating a business function chain, comprising:

Business function chain SFC orchestrator and at least two controllers;

The SFC orchestrator is configured to receive an SFC definition message delivered by the service manager, determine, according to the SFC definition message and the current communication restriction condition, a controller corresponding to the network function, and send the SFC definition message to the controller; The SFC definition message includes a network function of an end-to-end service function chain to be created and an arrangement order of the network function on the service function chain;

The controller is configured to generate a set of valid sub-paths according to the SFC definition message, install each sub-path in the set of valid sub-paths, and assign a path identification ID to each valid sub-path, after the installation is completed, The SFC orchestrator sends an installation complete message, the installation complete message including a set of valid sub-paths having a path identification ID;

The SFC orchestrator is further configured to: according to the installation completion message, determine an end-to-end service function chain, and send a binding message to the controller according to the end-to-end service function chain of the decision, the binding The message contains the valid subpath selected;

The controller is further configured to bind the selected valid sub-path from the set of valid sub-paths according to the binding message, and send a binding success message to the SFC orchestrator after the binding is completed. ;

The SFC orchestrator is further configured to determine that the service function chain is successfully created according to the binding success message, and report that the service function chain is successfully created to the service manager, so that the service manager determines the service. The function chain was created successfully.
The system according to claim 8, wherein if the controller is a first controller, the first controller corresponds to a first classifier, and the controller is further configured to: if the binding message If the Internet Protocol IP address of the second classifier is not carried, the second controller corresponding to the second classifier is connected to obtain the IP address of the second classifier.
The system according to claim 8, wherein the controller is further configured to receive a first message delivered by the SFC orchestrator, the first message is to add a first network function to the control a message in a local path of the associated data center; generating a first local sub-path in the local path of the data center according to the first message, and adding the first network function to the first local In the sub path.
The system of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to transmit a network service data packet header NSH associated with the first local sub-path to a classifier corresponding to the controller.
The system according to claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to modify network topology information of the first network function.
The system according to claim 8, wherein the controller is further configured to receive a second message sent by the SFC orchestrator, where the second message is related to the second network function from the controller. a message removed from a second local subpath of the associated data center; removed from the classifier corresponding to the controller and the second local subpath The associated network service packet header NSH is used to remove the second network function.
The system according to claim 8, wherein the controller is further configured to: when the third network function fails, receive a third message, where the third message is a message that the third network function is invalid; The third message determines a third local sub-path, and the third local sub-path is used to replace the local sub-path corresponding to the third network function.