# US 2014/0195849 A1 · Protection against a failure in a computer network

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- Number: US 2014/0195849 A1
- Document ID: US20140195849A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/116,224
- Filed: 2012-06-22
- Published: 2014-07-10
- Earliest claimed: 2011-06-27
- Assignees: Alcatel Lucent
- Inventors: Giorgio Parladori; Pasquale Donadio
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140195849A1

## CPC

- G06F 11/1415: {at system level}
- G06F 11/0709: {in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems}
- G06F 11/0793: {Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40)}
- G06F 11/3006: {where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50)}
- G06F 11/3051: {Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs (verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247)}
- H04L 41/0661: {by reconfiguring faulty entities}
- H04L 41/0663: Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
- H04L 43/0805: by checking availability
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

It is disclosed a method for protecting a computer network against a failure. The method comprises: identifying a number of possible failures which might occur within the computer network, the number of possible failures comprising at least one possible failure; and, based on detected availability of resources in the computer network, determining a protection state of the computer network allowing to circumvent the possible failure and dynamically updating the determined protection state based on changes of the detected availability. The method further comprises, upon occurrence of the failure, if the occurred failure corresponds to the possible failure, bringing the computer network into an operative protection state corresponding to the determined and dynamically updated protection state.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for protecting a computer network against a failure, said method comprising:
a) identifying a number of possible failures which might occur within the computer network, said number of possible failures comprising at least one possible failure;
b) based on detected availability of resources, IR in said computer network, determining a protection state of said computer network allowing to circumvent said possible failure and dynamically updating said determined protection state based on changes of said detected availability;
said method further comprising, upon occurrence of said failure;
c) if said occurred failure corresponds to said possible failure, bringing said computer network into an operative protection state corresponding to said determined and dynamically updated protection state.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein said resources, IR comprise network resources and/or information technology resources.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein at said step a) said number of possible failures are identified based on topology information on said computer network.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein said step b) further comprises identifying at least one resource, IR whose configuration shall be changed for bringing said computer network into said protection state.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method according to claim 4, wherein said step b) further comprises determining a set of configuration parameters of said at least one identified, IR.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method according to claim 5, wherein said set of configuration parameters is determined based on information on the topology of said computer network.

### Claim 7 (depends on 4)

The method according to claims 4, wherein said step b) comprises:
determining at least two protection states of said computer network allowing to circumvent said possible failure and dynamically updating said determined at least two protection states based on changes of said detected availability; and
selecting one of said determined and dynamically updated at least two protection states by taking into account at least one constraint which said computer network shall fulfill.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method according to claim 7, wherein said at least one constraint comprises at least one of the following constraints:
constraint on a power consumption of the computer network;
constraint on said at least one resource, IR involved in said selected protection state; and
constraint on the time for recovering from said failure possible.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions for performing, when the program is run on a computer, the steps of the method according to claim 1.

### Claim 10

A protection manager for a computer network, said protection manager comprising:
a monitoring unit configured to:
identify a number of possible failures which might occur within the computer network, said number of possible failures comprising at least one possible failure;
based on detected availability of resources, IR in said computer network, determine a protection state of said computer network allowing to circumvent said possible failure and dynamically update said determined protection state based on changes of said detected availability;
an actuation unit configured to, if said occurred failure corresponds to said possible failure, bring said computer network into an operative protection state corresponding to said determined and dynamically updated protection state.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The protection manager according to claim 10, wherein said monitoring unit is further configured to identify at least one resource, IR whose configuration shall be changed for bringing said computer network into said protection state.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The protection manager according to claim 11, wherein said monitoring unit is further configured to determine a set of configuration parameters of said at least one identified resource, IR.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The protection manager according to claim 12, wherein it further comprises a storage unit configured to store said determined and dynamically updated protection state and said determined set of configuration parameters of said at least one identified resource, IR.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

A computer network comprising a protection manager according to claim 10.