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AssigneeVerizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
InventorsDante J. Pacella, Mani Tadayon, Syed A. Ahmad
Estimating the term…
A controller network device, in a network control layer of a service provider network, receives one or more parameters for providing particular services over a service provider network and provides, to a forwarding network device in a network resources layer of the service provider network, a capabilities query. The capabilities query includes a feature type identifier for a feature required to support the parameters. The controller network device receives, from the forwarding network device, a response to the capabilities query, wherein a format for the response is one of a binary response format, a conditional response format, or a value response format. The controller network device compiles the response with responses from other forwarding network devices to define a network map for supporting the particular services.
A method, comprising:
A system, comprising:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing instructions executable by one or more processors, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions to:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service: automatic deployment of services triggered by the service…
Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history: by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up…
Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements: service discovery by the service manager
Digital communication
About 9 years 5 months of term left · ends 17 Mar 2036 (estimated)
In software-defined networking (SDN), network administrators can manage network services through abstraction of lower-level functionality. Control plane devices communicate with forwarding plane devices to direct flows and services.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary network environment in which systems and/or methods described herein may be implemented;
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating exemplary components of a routing device that may correspond to one of the devices of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating exemplary components of a computing device that may correspond to one of the devices of FIG. 1;
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements.
An object of software defined networking (SDN) is decoupling of the network control plane from the network forwarding plane. Communications between the control plane and the forwarding (or resources) plane occur over what may be called a southbound interface. In a network federation, where vendors of multiple network devices may agree on standards, there may be standards defining, for example, communications among devices and/or minimum system requirements. Ideally, network devices within the federation may perform identically, regardless of the manufacturing vendor. However, in practice, generational differences among network devices may occur over time, as well as minor variations between vendor configurations (e.g., hardware and firmware), which may result in differences in network device capabilities.
New service offerings within a network may require that network elements have particular capabilities (e.g., buffer depth, buffer management, queues supported, etc.). Thus, while network elements in an SDN would ideally provide “plug and play” interoperability, more precise tracking of individual network elements within the federation is needed to ensure that a network can optimally support certain types of network services, such as particular service flows. According to implementations described herein, network devices in the resources plane may communicate over a southbound interface to disclose features and performance metadata to network devices in the control plane. These features may be mapped to show the topology and capabilities of a network particularly related to specific services. According to one implementation, multiple virtual topologies may be mapped based on support for particular services.