International Business Machines Corporation

Jeremiah D Carlin

William Frederick Berg

Michael T Kalmbach

Mark Douglas Schroeder

Ronald Leroy Billau

Vincenzo V Di Luoffo

George Willard Van Leeuwen

Nicholas Francis Campion

Scott Allen Liebl

Renier Rodriguez Morales

Basestation equipment in a mobile data network is subject to harsh environmental conditions at many remote locations. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has introduced a Mobile Internet Optimization Platform (MIOP) appliance, referred herein as the MIOP@NodeB. This appliance is placed at the edge or basestation of a mobile data network to provide a platform for hosting applications and enhancing mobile network services. The introduction of an edge appliance provides a platform for additional reliability functions. A predictive failure mechanism in the basestation appliance mitigates the effects of predicted failures in a mobile network basestation due to weather conditions. The predictive failure mechanism considers historical data, ambient environmental conditions, weather alerts and weather forecasts to take pre-emptive action to avert partial or total failure of the basestation equipment.

Mitigating effects of predicted failures in a mobile network basestation due to weather

Mobile network services are performed in a mobile data network in a way that is transparent to most of the existing equipment in the mobile data network. The mobile data network includes a radio access network and a core network. A breakout component in the radio access network breaks out data coming from a basestation, and hosts edge applications, including third party edge applications, that perform one or more mobile network services at the edge of the mobile data network based on the broken out data.

Hosting edge applications at the edge of a mobile data network

A secure boot is provided for a breakout system having multiple subsystems at the edge of a mobile data network. The secure boot utilizes two trusted platform modules (TPM) to secure multiple subsystems. Further described is utilizing a first TPM to boot a service processor and then utilizing a second TPM to secure boot two additional subsystems. Booting of the final subsystem is accomplished in a two step process which first loads a boot loader and verifies the boot loader, and then second loads an operating system load image and verifies the operating system code.

Secure boot of a data breakout appliance with multiple subsystems at the edge of a mobile data network

A fail-to-wire (FTW) module preserves a primary data path connection from an upstream computer to a downstream computer if there is any kind of failure in a breakout data path to a breakout system. The FTW module provides switches between the incoming data network data and the breakout system such that when the breakout system encounters a failure, the switches are de-activated to bypass the breakout system. The switches in the FTW module are activated by a system health signal controlled by a health monitor in the breakout system. The health monitor provides intelligent switch control based on alerts from a variety of control points. These control points include firmware, hardware, thermal sensors, subsystem operating systems, subsystem software applications, and appliance tamper logic in order to determine if the FTW module switches should be in an active or inactive state.

Distributed control of a fail-to-wire switch for a network communication link

Techniques are described for distributed placement of a request on one of a plurality of deployment nodes. Embodiments receive a request specifying resource requirements for instantiating the request, and transmit at least an indication of the resource requirements to the plurality of deployment nodes. An indication of suitability is then received from at least two of the plurality of deployment nodes, the indication of suitability describing a suitability of the respective deployment node for instantiating the request. Embodiments select one of the at least two deployment nodes based on the indications of suitability, and transmit the request to the selected deployment node for instantiation.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Jeremiah D Carlin