Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

Julie Ward Drew

Bin Zhang

John Wilkes

Dirk Manfred Beyer

Douglas L Hagerman

Charles D O'Toole

Qi Feng

Ruxian Wang

Simge Kucukyavuz

Puneet Sharma

Ying Zhang

Bernardo A Huberman

Sharad Singhal

Xiaoyun Zhu

Jerry Zhaolin Shan

Krishna Venkatraman

Troy Alexander Shahoumian

Shailendra K Jain

Filippo Balestrieri

Michael Justin O'Sullivan

Jose Luis Beltran Guerrero

Juan Antonio R Garay

Ciprianos Santos

Freddy Chua

Example implementations relate to virtualized network function (VNF) placements. For example, VNF placements may include generating an initial mapping of a plurality of VNFs among a plurality of nodes of a network infrastructure, wherein the initial VNF mapping distributes each of a plurality of service chains associated with the plurality of VNFs to different top-of-rack switches. VNF placement may include generating an alternate VNF mapping of the plurality of VNFs among a portion of the plurality of nodes, wherein the alternate VNF mapping corresponds to a metric associated with node resource utilization and a particular amount of servers utilized by distributing the plurality of service chains according to the alternate VNF mapping. VNF placement may include placing the plurality of VNFs according to a selected placement from the initial VNF mapping and the alternate VNF mapping.

Virtualized network function placements

Example embodiments relate to net utility determinations based on product replacement and coverage decisions of a customer. In example embodiments, a number of net utility values corresponding to each possible product replacement decision and each possible coverage decision in each of a plurality of time periods is determined. An expected net utility attributable to the customer over the plurality of time periods is then determined based on the determined utility values.

Net utility determination based on product replacement and service plan coverage decisions

Link used variables are defined for links related to an interconnection fabric. The links used variables are representative of whether or not a link is used for handling flows between a plurality of hosts and devices. Constraints for links, and hop counts or port counts are also defined. An objective function is used by an integer programming solver to determine connections as a function of the definitions.

Interconnection fabric connection

A method for product portfolio analysis includes selecting a set of solution points along a curve of order benefit as a function of the number of products in a product portfolio and performing a heuristic between an adjacent pair of solution points that approximates the curve between the adjacent pair of solution points. An apparatus that can perform the product portfolio analysis is also described.

Method and apparatus for product management

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to selecting a portfolio. One embodiment of the present invention includes identifying a network comprising a source node, a target node, a first set of intermediate nodes that correspond to a set of objects from which a portfolio is selected, a second set of intermediate nodes, and a plurality of directed links. Also, the embodiment comprises initializing a network flow through the directed links and redistributing the flow through a subset of the plurality of directed links including directed links extending between the source node and the first set of intermediate nodes, between the first set of intermediate nodes and the second set of intermediate nodes. Further, the embodiment includes identifying members of the portfolio by determining which nodes of the first set of intermediate nodes have a network flow from the source node equal to or greater than a threshold value.

System and method for selecting a portfolio

Systems, methods, and machine-readable and executable instructions are provided for profit comparison. Profit comparison can include determining a first profitability function of a flexible duration extended warranty offering with respect to a first plurality of warranty parameters and determining a second profitability function of a fixed duration extended warranty offering with respect to a second plurality of warranty parameters. Profit comparison can also include comparing the first function and the second function for at least one level of at least one of profit lift and flexible duration warranty offering coverage duration. Presenting results of the comparison for a range of values of the first and second plurality of warranty parameters can also be included in profit comparison.

Profit comparison of extended warranties

Embodiments of the present invention pertain to determining top combinations of items to present to a user. According to one embodiment, data that includes information describing a plurality of combinations of records is accessed. Each record describes a plurality of items. The data is analyzed using a branch and bound search procedure to determine top combinations of items based on a specified metric and a specified number. According to one embodiment, the metric is value enabled and the specified number determines how many combinations of items are associated with the top combinations of items.

Determining top combinations of items to present to a user

A method for determining a total benefit derived from a subset of products in a product portfolio includes identifying a set of customer orders having a set of ordered products from the product portfolio and an order benefit and selecting the subset of products from the product portfolio. The method also totals the order benefits from the set of customer orders whose set of ordered products are included within the subset of products from the product portfolio. An apparatus is provided for use in determining a total benefit derived from a subset of products in a product portfolio.

Method and apparatus for product selection

Provided are techniques for determining a state of flow through, or a cut of, a network in which some the capacities of at least some of the conduits are dependent upon a specified parameter. Initially, a derived network is obtained by replacing capacities in the original network that depend upon the parameter. A particular flow state then is identified for that derived network, and this flow state is used to determine either a state of flow through or a cut of the original network.

Determination of a state of flow through or a cut of a parameterized network

A method, system, and apparatus is disclosed for allocating resources to applications. Available resources of a networked computing system may be determined. For each application, required resources of the application may be determined. An assigned subset of the available resources for each application is determined as a function of the required resources of the application and the available resources. The function reduces communication delays between resources of the subset of the available resources in conformance with bandwidth capacity requirements of the application and in conformance with network bandwidth limitations. The applications may then be associated with the assigned subsets of resources.

Method and apparatus for allocating resources to applications using a linearized objective function

To perform forecasting, a first data collection having data values at first intervals is received, and a first forecasting model is built based on the first data collection. A second forecasting model is built based on a second data collection having intervals aggregated from intervals of the first data collection, wherein the second forecasting model is at a different aggregation level than the first forecasting model. At least one metric is computed by performing at least one test based on at least one of the first and second data collections to indicate which of the first and second forecasting models has a better forecast quality.

Indicating which of forecasting models at different aggregation levels has a better forecast quality

A technique is disclosed for reprovisioning an interconnect fabric design for interconnecting a plurality of network nodes. A design for the interconnect fabric specifies an arrangement of elements of the fabric and flow requirements among the network nodes. The invention programmatically reprovisions the design. This may include determining whether the flow requirements are satisfied by the design and whether the design violates constraints on the elements, such as bandwidth capacity and number of available ports. If the design does not satisfy the flow requirements, then the design is modified until the flow requirements are satisfied. Modifications are performed systematically by first attempting those that are least disruptive to the design and, then, attempting modifications that are increasingly more disruptive. As a result, the design is efficiently and cost-effectively reprovisioned to meet the flow the requirements.

Reprovisioning technique for an interconnect fabric design

A technique for verifying and reprovisioning an interconnect fabric design using integer programming techniques. Requirements for the interconnect fabric design to be reprovisioned may be referred to as flow requirements. The flow requirements may include, for example, source and terminal nodes for communication flows and communication bandwidth required for the flows. An existing interconnect fabric design specifies an arrangement of elements of the fabric, such as links and interconnect devices. The invention programmatically verifies whether the existing design satisfies the flow requirements using integer programming techniques. If the existing design does not satisfy the flow requirements, the invention may also be used to reprovision the existing design to satisfy the flow requirements. If any flow(s) cannot be accommodated by the existing design, the integer programming techniques may also be used to identify links that can be added to accommodate the flow(s) Further, a new portion of interconnect fabric may be designed and added to the existing design to accommodate unassigned flows.

Growing community of inventors

Redwood City, CA, United States of America

Julie Ward Drew