WO2019129371A1

WO2019129371A1 - Network architecture and associated communication method

Info

Publication number: WO2019129371A1
Application number: PCT/EP2017/084848
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nick ROURKE
Original assignee: Atos Uk International It Services Limited
Priority date: 2017-12-29
Filing date: 2017-12-29
Publication date: 2019-07-04

Abstract

This invention relates to a network architecture comprising : customer locations (1 to 4) on different geographical areas, a private cloud (8) including a MPLS (7) communication service and linking said customer locations (1 to 4) together, a SD-WAN control platform (5), Internet access (6), said SD-WAN control platform (5): assessing at least: a criticality parameter of communications between said customer locations (1 to 4), an Internet availability parameter to transfer said communications, deciding, at least based on said criticality parameter and on said Internet availability parameter, which communications will go over MPLS (7) and which communications will go over Internet (6), so that: more critical communications go over MPLS (7) and less critical communications go over Internet (6), the better said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over Internet (6), the worse said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over MPLS (7).

Description

NETWORK ARCHITECTURE AND ASSOCIATED

COMMUNICATION METHOD

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to network architectures and associated communication methods. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a classical network, when several customer locations are on different geographical areas and want to communicate together, for example to exchange data with each other, either they can use a private network, for example using MPLS (multi protocol label switching), which is secure and safe but which is expensive, or they can use Internet, for example VoIP (voice over Internet), which is cheaper but which is not as secure and which does not always present sufficient quality of service and sufficiently low latency, especially for communications considered as critical by the customer locations sending them.

According to a prior art, it is known to use the private network as much as it remains available and to use Internet for extra communications when the private network becomes saturated. This presents the drawback that critical communications may be compelled to be sent through Internet, because private network is already saturated, especially if private network has already been widely used for non-critical communications.

The remaining technical problem to be solved can be summarized as follows: how to better distribute traffic communication between performing and secure link on the one side and Internet less performing and less secure but cheaper on the other side, even when future communication criticality is not easily predictable? SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A solution could be to keep part of private network capability in reserve for critical communications. But, according to the invention, this possible solution would not be optimized, since first it is not that easy to permanently anticipate which part of private network capability would be needed to be kept in reserve, although probabilities can be assessed and especially by observing network behavior in the course of time, and second, even if private network is not saturated and remains available for each critical communication, using private network is usually much more expensive than using Internet.

According to the invention, to reduce the global cost of inter customer locations communications, Internet is used more often, preferably as often as possible, and therefore to still guarantee satisfactory quality of service and latency, the choice between using private network or Internet is no more made by customer location but is shifted toward a network element which is more aware, at a given time, of the level of quality of service or of latency, more generally speaking the level of Internet availability, for transferring correctly and in a reasonable time frame communications between customer locations, and therefore more efficient in making this choice.

This network element deciding the sending of the inter customer locations communications is chosen as being a SD WAN control platform, because of its good compromise between efficiency and flexibility. The future communication criticality being often not easily predictable, the flexibility of the SD WAN control platform will be especially interesting. The SD WAN control platform will intrinsically know much better about Internet availability than the customer locations themselves, all the more than this SD WAN control platform is not isolated within the private network but is linked to Internet, preferably integrated within a public cloud on Internet. The object of the present invention is to alleviate at least partly the above mentioned drawbacks.

More particularly, the invention aims at a proposed solution which uses a virtualized platform in order to decide that more critical inter customer locations communications go over MPLS private cloud whereas less or non critical inter customer locations communications go over Internet, while at the same time, the rate of communications going over MPLS private cloud rather than over Internet increases when Internet availability decreases, and the rate of communications going over Internet rather than over MPLS private cloud increases when Internet availability increases.

First, this proposed solution goes against a prejudice of man skilled in the art who wants to keep control on the relative criticality of his different communications, therefore at level of customer location sending these communications, and to decide on how to treat them, and not to dispatch this decision to another entity which is not under his control.

Second, this proposed solution is indeed advantageous since the SD WAN control platform will know better, and often notably better, than the control and management of a private cloud, if and when a given quality of service or a given latency can be respected through Internet or not, more generally speaking about the Internet availability, and therefore if it is better or not to send a given communication through MPLS or if it is worthwhile taking the risk to send it through Internet because the probability is high enough that a minimal threshold of quality of service or of latency will be respected or not. Of course, the private cloud knows well about quality of service and latency through MPLS at a given time, but not about quality of service and latency through Internet.

SD WAN stands for Software Defined Wide Area Network.

MPLS stands for Multi Protocol Label Switching.

This object is achieved with a network architecture comprising : customer locations on different geographical areas, a private cloud including a MPLS communication service and linking said customer locations together, a SD-WAN control platform, Internet access, said SD-WAN control platform: assessing at least: a criticality parameter of communications between said customer locations, an Internet availability parameter to transfer said communications, deciding, at least based on said criticality parameter and on said Internet availability parameter, which communications will go over MPLS and which communications will go over Internet, so that: more critical communications go over MPLS and less critical communications go over Internet, the better said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over Internet, the worse said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over MPLS.

This object is also achieved with a communication method : within a network architecture comprising: customer locations on different geographical areas, a private cloud including a MPLS communication service and linking said customer locations together, a SD-WAN control platform, Internet access, comprising steps performed by said SD-WAN control platform which are: a step of assessing at least: a criticality parameter of communications between said customer locations, an Internet availability parameter to transfer said communications, a step of deciding, at least based on said criticality parameter and on said Internet availability parameter, which communications will go over MPLS and which communications will go over Internet, so that: more critical communications go over MPLS and less critical communications go over Internet, the better said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over Internet, the worse said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over MPLS.

Preferred embodiments comprise one or more of the following features, which can be taken separately or together, either in partial combination or in full combination, with any of preceding objects of the invention. Preferably, said Internet availability parameter is a quality of service of communication over Internet between said customer locations, the better said quality of service is the more communications go over Internet, the worse said quality of service is the more communications go over MPLS.

Preferably, said quality of service is a latency of communication over

Internet between said customer locations, the shorter said latency is the more communications go over Internet, the longer said latency is the more communications go over MPLS.

This is an advantageous way to take into account quality of service and latency through Internet before making the choice whether sending a given communication between customer locations through MPLS or through Internet.

Preferably, said SD-WAN control platform: favors transfer of said communications over Internet rather than over MPLS, preferably decides transfer of said communications over Internet each time it is possible while respecting requirements of said communications.

Thereby, a more profitable tactic is used. Indeed, most of the time or even each time a communication may be transferred over Internet, it is, MPLS being only used as a substitute path, being much more expensive than Internet, whereas in prior art, MPLS was used as a default communication path, Internet being used only for extra capacity, once MPLS was saturated.

Preferably, said SD-WAN control platform: supports multiple connection types, among which preferably Multi Protocol Label Switching, frame relay and Long Term Evolution, wireless communications, does dynamic path selection, preferably to share load and to increase resiliency, supports Virtual Private Networks and other services like preferably WAN optimization controllers, firewalls and web gateways, presents an interface which can preferably be configured and managed directly from user terminals. Thereby, not only are resilience, security and Quality of Service improved, but also deployment is made more flexible and administration is simplified.

Preferably, said SD WAN control platform is integrated within a WAN cloud.

Preferably, said WAN cloud is a public cloud.

Thereby, the SD WAN control platform is more integrated in Internet and thereby more knowledgeable about Internet availability, quality of service or latency.

Preferably, there is a firewall between said private cloud and Internet.

Thereby, the security of communications passing only by private cloud is kept at a high level and presents little risk of undergoing piracy coming from Internet.

Preferably, said Internet availability parameter is a quality of service of communication over Internet between said customer locations, the better said quality of service is the more communications go over Internet, the worse said quality of service is the more communications go over MPLS.

Preferably, said quality of service is a latency of communication over Internet between said customer locations, the shorter said latency is the more communications go over Internet, the longer said latency is the more communications go over MPLS.

Preferably, customer locations start by asking said SD WAN control platform whether, at a given time, they should send a given communication through MPLS or through Internet, customer locations then send said given communication through the path which has been recommended by said SD WAN control platform.

Thereby, for critical communications which will eventually be sent through private cloud, only some parameters of the critical communication, like timing, volume, etc..., go outside the private cloud, but not their content which therefore remains fully secure.

Preferably, said MPLS quality of service and/or latency are communicated to said SD WAN control platform, and are supplementary parameters on which said deciding which communications will go over MPLS and which communications will go over Internet is based on.

That way, both quality of service and/or both latencies between MPLS and Internet can be taken into account and compared so as to optimize the decision.

Preferably, the communication method according to any embodiment of the invention may be performed within a network architecture according to any embodiment of the invention.

Further features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description of embodiments of the invention, given as non limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings listed hereunder. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 shows a first example of an implementation of network architecture according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 shows a second example of an implementation of network architecture according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAIFED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

There are 4 different customer locations 1, 2, 3 and 4, which need to communicate together, for instance to exchange data, or to send requests and receive answers. Those customer locations can be user terminals, private branch exchanges, private sub-networks, private data centers, customer buildings, or a combination thereof. Those customer locations are preferably in different geographical areas, or at least some of them are not all in the same geographical area, otherwise it might be simpler to include them in a same and wider customer location.

Communications between customer locations may be transferred either via MPLS 7 (Multi Protocol Label Switching) through a private network 8, or via VoIP 6 (Voice over Internet Protocol) in a classical way through Internet. The choice is not made by the customer location 1 to 4, before transferring communication but by a SD WAN control platform 5 with a single unified portal which can be accessed by any customer location 1 to 4.

This SD WAN control platform 5 with a single unified portal, once accessed by any customer location 1 to 4, will decide whether the communication requested will be transferred either via MPLS 7 or via VoIP 6. There is a firewall 9 between this SD WAN control platform 5 and the private cloud 8 on the one side and the rest of Internet on the other side, for security reasons. As long as the communication sent by the customer location 1 to 4 is not oriented toward VoIP 6, it remains protected by the firewall 9.

Depending upon the criticality of the communication to be transferred, the more critical it is the more MPLS 7 will be used rather than VoIP 6, and depending upon Internet availability, at a given time, for a communication transfer between 2 specific customer locations, for example from customer location 1 to customer location 3, the more Internet is available, the highest the quality of service over Internet is and the lowest the latency over Internet is, the more VoIP 6 will be used rather than MPLS 7.

For example, for a communication to be transferred from customer location 1 to customer location 3, this communication being highly critical and Internet latency at that time for this path being rather high, the SD WAN control platform 5 will choose sending this communication via MPLS 7 through private cloud 8.

For example, for a communication to be transferred from customer location 2 to customer location 4, this communication being little critical and Internet latency at that time for this path being still rather high, the SD WAN control platform 5 will choose sending this communication via VoIP 6 through Internet.

For example, for a communication to be transferred from customer location 2 to customer location 1, this communication being intermediately critical and Internet latency at that time for this path being quite low, the SD WAN control platform 5 will choose sending this communication via VoIP 6 through Internet, despite intermediate criticality of communication because of low latency of Internet at that time for this path, guaranteeing with a high probability a safe transfer in time through Internet.

For example, for a communication to be transferred from customer location 3 to customer location 4, this communication being rather highly critical and Internet latency at that time for this path being very low, the SD WAN control platform 5 will choose sending this communication via VoIP 6 through Internet, despite rather highly criticality of communication because of very low latency of Internet at that time for this path, guaranteeing with a high probability a safe transfer in time through Internet of this communication which would otherwise according to prior art have been transferred via MPLS through private cloud whatever Internet latency, simply because of rather high criticality of communication.

For example, for a communication to be transferred from customer location 4 to customer location 1, this communication being top critical and Internet latency at that time for this path being quite low, the SD WAN control platform 5 will still choose sending this communication via MPLS 7 through private cloud 8, despite favorable latency of Internet at that time for this path, because of top criticality of communication to be transferred.

Communications between customer locations may be transferred either via MPLS 7 (Multi Protocol Label Switching) through a private network 8, which is preferably a private cloud 8, or via Internet or VoIP 6. The choice is not made by the customer location 1 to 4, before transferring communication, but by a SD WAN control platform 5 with a single unified portal which can be accessed by any customer location 1 to 4. The customer locations 1 to 4 first ask the SD WAN control platform 5 through its single unified portal whether, for the contemplated communication between two specific customer locations and at a given time and taken into account the intrinsic criticality of the communication, it should be transferred either via MPLS 7 through private cloud 8 or through Internet 6. This demand is represented by dotted arrows.

This SD WAN control platform 5 with a single unified portal, once asked by any customer location 1 to 4, will decide whether the communication requested will be transferred either via MPLS 7 or via VoIP 6. Depending upon the criticality of the communication to be transferred, the more critical it is the more MPLS 7 will used rather than VoIP 6, and depending upon Internet availability, at a given time, for a communication transfer between 2 specific customer locations, for example from customer location 1 to customer location 3, the more Internet is available, the highest the quality of service over Internet is and the lowest the latency over Internet is, the more VoIP 6 will be used rather than MPLS 7.

The SD WAN control platform 5 gives its answer to the requesting customer location 1 to 4, recommending one path or the other. This answer is represented by a dotted arrow too (in the reverse direction than the demand).

Then the customer location 1 to 4 transfers its communication either via MPLS 7 through private cloud 8 or via Internet 6, according to SD WAN control platform 5 recommendation.

There is a firewall 9 between the private cloud 8 on the one side and the rest of Internet 6 on the other side, for security reasons. As long as the communication sent by the customer location 1 to 4 is not oriented toward Internet 6, it remains protected by the firewall 9. The demand sent to the SD WAN control platform 5 already goes into Internet and is no more protected by the firewall 9, but it does not contain the content of the communication to be transferred, it only contains some parameters related to this communication, parameters as size, criticality of content, type of data, etc...

Examples would work the same way as they have been described with respect to figure 1. The invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments. However, many variations are possible within the scope of the invention.

Claims

1) Network architecture comprising:

customer locations (1 to 4) on different geographical areas, a private cloud (8) including a MPLS (7) communication service and linking said customer locations (1 to 4) together,

a SD-WAN control platform (5),

Internet access (6),

said SD-WAN control platform (5):

o assessing at least:

^■ a criticality parameter of communications between said customer locations (1 to 4),

^■ an Internet availability parameter to transfer said communications,

o deciding, at least based on said criticality parameter and on said Internet availability parameter, which communications will go over MPLS (7) and which communications will go over Internet (6), so that:

^■ more critical communications go over MPLS (7) and less critical communications go over Internet (6),

^■ the better said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over Internet (6), the worse said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over MPLS (7).

2) Network architecture according to claim 1, wherein:

said Internet availability parameter is a quality of service of communication over Internet (6) between said customer locations (1 to 4), the better said quality of service is the more communications go over Internet (6), the worse said quality of service is the more communications go over MPLS (7).

3) Network architecture according to claim 2, wherein:

said quality of service is a latency of communication over Internet (6) between said customer locations (1 to 4),

the shorter said latency is the more communications go over Internet (6), the longer said latency is the more communications go over MPLS (7).

4) Network architecture according to any of preceding claims, wherein said SD-WAN control platform (5) favors transfer of said communications over Internet (6) rather than over MPLS (7), preferably decides transfer of said communications over Internet (6) each time it is possible while respecting requirements of said communications.

5) Network architecture according to any of preceding claims, wherein: said SD-WAN control platform (5):

o supports multiple connection types, among which preferably Multi Protocol Label Switching (7), frame relay and Long Term Evolution, wireless communications,

o does dynamic path selection, preferably to share load and to increase resiliency,

o supports Virtual Private Networks and other services like preferably WAN optimization controllers, firewalls (9) and web gateways,

o presents an interface which can preferably be configured and managed directly from user terminals. 6) Network architecture according to any of preceding claims, wherein said SD WAN control platform (5) is integrated within a WAN cloud. 7) Network architecture according to claim 6, wherein said WAN cloud is a public cloud.

8) Network architecture according to any of preceding claims, wherein there is a firewall (9) between said private cloud (8) and Internet (6).

9) Communication method:

within a network architecture comprising:

o customer locations (1 to 4) on different geographical areas, o a private cloud (8) including a MPLS (7) communication service and linking said customer locations (1 to 4) together, o a SD-WAN control platform (5),

o Internet access (6),

comprising steps performed by said SD-WAN control platform (5) which are:

o a step of assessing at least:

^■ an Internet availability parameter to transfer said communications,

o a step of deciding, at least based on said criticality parameter and on said Internet availability parameter, which communications will go over MPLS (7) and which communications will go over Internet (6), so that:

^■ more critical communications go over MPLS (7) and less critical communications go over Internet (6), ^■ the better said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over Internet (6), the worse said Internet availability parameter is the more communications go over MPLS (7).

10) Communication method according to claim 9, wherein:

said Internet availability parameter is a quality of service of communication over Internet (6) between said customer locations (1 to 4),

the better said quality of service is the more communications go over Internet (6), the worse said quality of service is the more communications go over MPLS (7).

11) Communication method according to claim 10, wherein:

12) Communication method according to any of claims 9 to 11, wherein said SD-WAN control platform (5) favors transfer of said communications over Internet (6) rather than over MPLS (7), preferably decides transfer of said communications over Internet (6) each time it is possible while respecting requirements of said communications.

13) Communication method according to any of claims 9 to 12, wherein: customer locations (1 to 4) start by asking said SD WAN control platform (5) whether, at a given time, they should send a given communication through MPLS (7) or through Internet (6), customer locations (1 to 4) then send said given communication through the path which has been recommended by said SD WAN control platform (5).

14) Communication method according to any of claims 9 to 13, wherein: said MPLS (7) quality of service and/or latency are communicated to said SD WAN control platform (5),

and are supplementary parameters on which said deciding which communications will go over MPLS (7) and which communications will go over Internet (6) is based on.

15) Communication method according to any of claims 9 to 14, performed within a network architecture according to any of claims 1 to 8.