Lattice based traffic measurement at a switch in a communication network
AssigneeTelefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (publ)
InventorsOmar Mounaouar, Petko Valtchev, Omar Cherkaoui, Laurent Marchand
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Abstract
A lattice of interconnected concepts is constructed from flow entries. Each concept describes a subset of flows and a subset of the flow attributes. Based on user queries, the lattice is used to build disjoint sets of flows referred to as flowsets. Each user query specifies one or more of the flow attributes to be measured. Each flowset includes one or more of the flows to thereby enable sharing of the hardware counters among the flows. One hardware counter is then assigned to each flowset.
Claims18
A method of assigning hardware counters to flows that pass through a switch in a communication network for performing traffic measurement at the switch, wherein each of the flows is associated with a set of flow attributes, the method comprising the steps of:
- constructing, by a processor, a lattice of interconnected concepts from flow entries available at the switch, each concept describing a subset of the flows and a subset of the flow attributes;
- receiving by the processor a set of user queries, each user query specifying one or more of the flow attributes to be measured;
- identifying disjoint flowsets from the lattice based on the user queries, each flowset comprising one or more of the flows to enable sharing of the hardware counters among the flows;
- and
- assigning one hardware counter to each flowset.
A computing device in a communication network, the computing device to assign hardware counters to flows that pass through a switch for performing traffic measurement at the switch, wherein each of the flows is associated with a set of flow attributes, the computing device comprising:
- input circuitry to receive flow entries available at the switch and a set of user queries, each user query specifying one or more of the flow attributes to be measured;
- a processor coupled to the input circuitry, the processor comprising:
- a concept generator module adapted to construct a lattice of interconnected concepts from the flow entries, each concept describing a subset of the flows and a subset of the flow attributes,
- a flowset builder module adapted to identify disjoint flowsets from the lattice based on the user queries, wherein each flowset comprises one or more of the flows to enable sharing of the hardware counters among the flows, and
- a counter placement module adapted to assign one hardware counter to each flow, and
- output circuitry coupled to the processor to output a mapping between flow identifiers and hardware counter identifiers to the switch for assignment of the hardware counters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.