Vendor-neutral policy based mechanism for enabling firewall service in an MPLS-VPN service network
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsPrasanna Anantharamiah, Venkata Raghavan Chekka, Jimmi Skaria, Vinodh T K Kumar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A technique that simplifies managing and configuring firewalls by provisioning a vendor-neutral firewall in an MPLS-VPN service network. In one example embodiment, this is accomplished by creating a vendor-neutral firewall policy using a service activation tool residing in a host server. One of the one or more VPNs requiring the provisioning of the vendor-neutral firewall in the MPLS-VPN service network is then selected. The created vendor-neutral firewall policy is then transformed to form a vendor-specific firewall policy associated with the selected one of the one or more VPNs.
Claims21
A method for provisioning firewalls in one or more networks comprising:
- creating a vendor-neutral firewall policy;
- selecting one of the one or more networks that requires provisioning a vendor-neutral firewall;
- transforming the created vendor-neutral firewall policy to a vendor-specific firewall policy as a function of the selected one of the one or more networks;
- and
- uploading the vendor-specific firewall policy to at least one router of the selected one of the one or more networks.
A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon such that said instructions, when executed by a computing platform, result in execution of a method for provisioning one or more firewalls associated with one or more Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in a Multi-Protocol Label Switching-Virtual Private Network (MPLS-VPN) service network comprising:
- creating a vendor-neutral firewall policy;
- selecting one of the one or more VPNs that requires provisioning a vendor-neutral firewall;
- and
- transforming the created vendor-neutral firewall policy to a vendor-specific firewall policy as a function of the selected one of the one or more VPNs.
A Multi-Protocol Label Switching-Virtual Private Network (MPLS-VPN) service network comprising:
- a service activation tool residing in a host computer;
- and
- one or more Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that comprise:
- one or more provider edge routers (PEs) that are coupled to a MPLS-VPN network;
- and
- one or more associated customer edge routers (CEs) that are coupled to the associated PEs, wherein the service activation tool is coupled to the one or more PEs that create a vendor-neutral firewall policy, wherein the service activation tool selects one or more VPNs that require provisioning a vendor-neutral firewall, and wherein the service activation tool transforms the created vendor-neutral firewall policy to a vendor-specific firewall policy as a function of the selected one of the one or more VPNs.
A computer system comprising:
- a computer network, wherein the computer network has a plurality of network elements, and wherein the plurality of network elements has a plurality of network interfaces;
- a network interface;
- an input module coupled to the network interface that receives topology data via the network interface;
- a processing unit;
- and
- a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein code associated with provisioning one or more firewalls associated with one or more Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in a Multi-Protocol Label Switching-Virtual Private Network (MPLS-VPN) service network, the code causes the processor to perform a method comprising:
- creating a vendor-neutral firewall policy;
- selecting one of the one or more VPNs that requires provisioning a vendor-neutral firewall;
- and
- transforming the created vendor-neutral firewall policy to a vendor-specific firewall policy as a function of the selected one of the one or more VPNs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.