AT&T Intellectual Property I, LP

Washington University

Abhigyan

Kaustubh Joshi

Oliver Spatscheck

Edward Daniels

Han Q Nguyen

Aleksandr Zelezniak

Matti A Hiltunen

Richard Dale Schlichting

Yoji Ozawa

Wei Zhang

Timothy Wood

Bharath Balasubramanian

A system can include a gateway, a plurality of network function nodes, and a distributed load balancer including load balancer nodes each having a flow table portion stored thereon. The load balancer nodes can form a node chain having a tail and head nodes. A load balancer node can receive a packet from the gateway. In response, the load balancer node can generate a query, directed to the tail node, that identifies the packet and a network function identifier associated with a network function node that is proposed to handle a connection. The tail node can determine whether an entry for the connection exists in a flow table portion associated with the tail node. If not, the tail node can initiate an insert request for writing the entry for the connection via the head node. The entry can then be written to all load balancer nodes in the node chain.

Seamless reconfiguration of distributed stateful network functions

A processing system of an edge exchange point including at least one processor may receive, from a cloud service provider a request to allocate a first tag to communications between the cloud service provider and a first telecommunication network, transmit an acceptance of the request to allocate the first tag to the communications between the cloud service provider and the first telecommunication network, obtaining a first packet containing the first tag from the cloud service provider, and transmit the first packet to the first telecommunication network in accordance with the first tag.

Telecommunication network edge cloud interworking via edge exchange point

A method, computer-readable medium, and apparatus for supporting services for customer traffic using edge clouds are disclosed. For example, a processing system may receive an indication of a set of customer devices of a customer of a network provider and an indication of a service of an edge cloud to be applied to customer traffic of the customer devices, support configuration of a network of the network provider to support a customer segment for the customer including configuration of a gateway of the network and a switch of the network that is associated with the edge cloud, support configuration of a virtual network between the switch and an edge cloud element supporting the service, and support configuration of the switch to support an association of the customer segment and the virtual network for supporting routing of the customer traffic to the service via the virtual network.

Enhancing network services based on edge clouds

Software-based data planes for network function virtualization may use a modular approach in which network functions are implemented as modules that can be composed into service chains. Infrastructures that allow these modules to share central processing unit resources are particularly appealing since they support multi-tenancy or diverse service chains applied to different traffic classes. Systems, methods, and apparatuses introduce schemes for load balancing considering central processing unit utilization of a next hop device when processing a packet that uses a service chain.

Model-based load balancing for network data plane

According to one aspect disclosed herein, a system can include a set of node peers, including a first subset implemented in software and a second subset implemented in hardware. The first subset can include a software node. The second subset can include a hardware node that includes a hardware cache, a processor, and a memory that stores computer-executable instructions. The hardware node can receive, from a network, a packet, and can determine if data that identifies a path associated with the packet is stored in the hardware cache. If not, the hardware node can query the software node to identify the path associated with the packet, and can receive, in response from the software node, the data that identifies the path, which then can be stored in the hardware cache. The hardware node can forward, along the path, the packet to a network element.

Extending distributed hash table-based software network functions to switching hardware

Methods, systems, and apparatuses, among other things, may direct client requests to an Edge Cloud location satisfying application requirements associated with the request. Moreover, a domain name service (DNS) query may be received, one or more requests associated with DNS query may be determined, a server may be identified based on the one or more requests, and the DNS query may be redirected to the identified server.

Edge cloud resource location using enhanced DNS service

Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for creating cross-service chains of virtual network functions in a wide area network. A controller can receive a chain request from a requestor. The chain request can specify functionality that is to be included in a service chain. The functionality can include a first function and a second function. The controller can compute a route associated with the service chain. The route can specify a first site that hosts a first service that provides the first function and a second site that hosts a second service that provides the second function. A first virtual network function can be located at the first site and a second virtual network function can be located at the second site. The controller can configure edge devices and forwarding devices to various entities at the two sites to enable the cross-service virtual network function chain.

Creating cross-service chains of virtual network functions in a wide area network

Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for a distributed stateful load balancer. A first load balancer can store a first portion of a distributed hash table including data over a first range of hash keys. The first load balancer can be in communication with a second load balancer that stores a second portion of the distributed hash table including data over a second range of hash keys. The first load balancer can receive a packet, where a hash value calculated for the packet does not fall in the first range of hash keys. The first load balancer can identify, based on the hash value, that the second load balancer stores data that identifies a path associated with the packet and query the second load balancer to identify the path. The first load balancer can receive the data and forward, along the path, the packet to a network element.

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Newark, NJ, United States of America

Abhigyan