CN104219127B

CN104219127B - A kind of creation method and equipment of virtual network example

Info

Publication number: CN104219127B
Application number: CN201410438897.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李世涛; 狄龙
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2014-08-30
Filing date: 2014-08-30
Publication date: 2018-06-26
Anticipated expiration: 2034-08-30
Also published as: CN104219127A; WO2016029821A1

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for creating a virtual network instance and relates to the field of electronic information. It can solve the problem that when there are multiple paths for data to choose between the virtual network units inside the network service, because it is not possible to determine which path to transmit, the problem of service interruption is caused. The specific solution is: obtain the network service description information, use the virtual network unit that needs to create an instance as the virtual network unit that needs to create an instance according to the network service description information, and use the resource demand information and connection information of the virtual network unit that needs to create an instance Send the information to the lower layer device, send the path information to the network device of the lower layer device, or send the path information to each virtual network unit in the virtual network unit, when the data is transmitted between the virtual network units, according to The path information selects a transmission path. The invention is used to create a virtual network instance.

Description

Virtual network instance creating method and equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of electronic information, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for creating a virtual network instance.

Background

NFV (Network Function Virtualization) implements functions of some dedicated devices in a Network by using general hardware devices and Virtualization technologies, so that Network services do not depend on dedicated hardware devices any more, thereby reducing the cost of deploying the dedicated devices.

In the prior art, by creating an instance for an NS (Network Service), a virtual Network Service architecture may be implemented on physical hardware, for example, to define a VNF (virtual Network Function) unit in the NS and describe a connection relationship between VNF units. When the NS is applied by the user, data can be transmitted in the virtual network through the defined VNF units and the connection relations between the VNF units.

However, in implementing the above method, the inventor found that when there are multiple paths between VNF units for data to be selected, traffic interruption may result because it cannot be determined from which path to transmit.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for creating a virtual network instance, which can solve the problem that when multiple paths of data between VNF units are selectable, service interruption is caused because it cannot be determined from which path the data is transmitted.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect, a method for creating a virtual network instance is applied to a network management device, and includes:

acquiring network service description information, wherein the network service description information comprises path information, connection information and resource demand information of each virtual network unit in the virtual network units, the path information is used for indicating a transmission path of data between the virtual network units, the connection information is used for indicating a connection relation between the virtual network units, and the resource demand information of each virtual network unit is used for respectively indicating resources required for creating an instance for each virtual network unit;

determining a virtual network unit needing to create an instance according to the network service description information, and taking the virtual network unit needing to create the instance as a first virtual network unit;

sending the resource demand information of the first virtual network element to lower-layer equipment so that the lower-layer equipment can create an instance for the first virtual network element;

sending the connection information to a lower layer device so that the lower layer device establishes connection between the first virtual network units or establishes connection between the first virtual network units and other virtual network units;

and sending the path information to the lower-layer equipment so as to be convenient for the lower-layer equipment to store the path information.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the sending the path information to the lower layer device specifically includes:

sending the path information to the network equipment of the lower layer equipment so that the network equipment of the lower layer equipment can store the path information; or,

sending the path information to each of the virtual network elements, so that each of the virtual network elements stores the path information.

With reference to the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,

the resource demand information of each virtual network unit in the virtual network units comprises at least one of processing speed information of the virtual network unit corresponding to the resource demand information and storage space information of the virtual network unit;

the connection information includes at least one of a connection type and bandwidth information between the virtual network elements.

With reference to the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

determining a virtual network unit needing to create an instance according to the network service description information, and taking the virtual network unit needing to create the instance as the virtual network unit needing to create the instance, wherein the method comprises the following steps:

querying in the already stored state information whether each of the virtual network elements has created an instance;

and if the state information indicates that the virtual network unit corresponding to the state information does not create the instance, determining the virtual network unit as the virtual network unit needing to create the instance.

With reference to the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the path information further includes a policy for selecting a path, where the policy includes a condition for selecting a transmission path.

With reference to the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner, the condition for selecting the transmission path includes selecting the transmission path according to a traffic type of the data.

In a second aspect, a method for creating a virtual network instance is applied to a lower layer device, and includes:

receiving resource demand information of a virtual network unit needing to create an instance, which is sent by network management equipment, and creating the instance for the virtual network unit needing to create the instance according to the resource demand information, wherein the resource demand information is used for indicating resources needed by creating the instance for one virtual network unit;

receiving connection information sent by the network management equipment, and establishing connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instances according to the connection information, or establishing connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instances and other virtual network units, wherein the connection information is used for indicating the connection relationship between the virtual network units;

receiving path information sent by the network management device, and storing the path information in the network device, or storing the path information in a storage space of each of the virtual network units, where the path information is used to indicate a transmission path of data between the virtual network units.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner, the path information further includes a policy for selecting a path, where the policy includes a condition for selecting a transmission path.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the second possible implementation manner further includes:

receiving data, and determining a transmission path of the data as a first transmission path according to the stored path information;

determining the identifier of the next virtual network unit for data transmission according to the transmission path of the data determined by the path information;

transmitting the data to the next virtual network element according to the identity of the next virtual network element.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

the condition for selecting the transmission path includes selecting the transmission path according to a traffic type of the data.

In a third aspect, a network management device includes:

the network operation and maintenance module is used for acquiring network service description information, wherein the network service description information comprises path information, connection information and resource demand information of each virtual network unit in the virtual network units, the path information is used for indicating a transmission path of data between the virtual network units, the connection information is used for indicating a connection relation between the virtual network units, and the resource demand information of each virtual network unit is used for respectively indicating resources required for creating an instance for each virtual network unit;

the network operation and maintenance module is further configured to determine a virtual network unit requiring instance creation according to the network service description information, and use the virtual network unit requiring instance creation as a first virtual network unit;

the lower-layer basic device management module is configured to receive the resource demand information and the connection information of the first virtual network unit transmitted by the network operation and maintenance module, and send the resource demand information acquired by the network operation and maintenance module to a lower-layer device, so that the lower-layer device creates an instance for the first virtual network unit, and sends the connection information to the lower-layer device, so that the lower-layer device establishes a connection between the first virtual network units, or establishes a connection between the first virtual network unit and another virtual network unit;

the lower-layer basic device management module is further configured to send the path information acquired by the network operation and maintenance module to the lower-layer device, so that the lower-layer device stores the path information. With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementation manner,

the sending of the path information to the lower layer device by the lower layer basic device management module specifically includes:

the lower-layer basic device management module is used for sending the path information to the network device of the lower-layer device so that the network device of the lower-layer device can store the path information; or,

the lower-layer infrastructure device management module is configured to send the path information to each of the virtual network units, so that each of the virtual network units stores the path information.

With reference to the third aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,

With reference to the third aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

the network management equipment also comprises a database module used for storing state information;

the network operation and maintenance module is further configured to query whether each of the virtual network units has created an instance in the state information already stored by the database module, and if the state information indicates that the virtual network unit corresponding to the state information does not create an instance, determine the virtual network unit as a virtual network unit requiring creation of an instance.

With reference to the third aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner,

the path information further includes a policy for selecting a path, the policy including a condition for selecting a transmission path.

With reference to the third aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner,

In a fourth aspect, an underlayer apparatus, comprising:

the system comprises a receiving module, a creating module and a processing module, wherein the receiving module is used for receiving resource demand information of a virtual network unit needing to create an example and sent by network management equipment, and transmitting the resource demand information to the example creating module, wherein the resource demand information is used for indicating resources needed by creating the example for one virtual network unit;

the instance creating module is configured to create an instance for the virtual network element needing to create the instance according to the resource requirement information, where the virtual network element needing to create the instance is a virtual network element that is determined by the network management device and needs to create the instance in the virtual network element;

the receiving module is further configured to receive connection information sent by the network management device, and transmit the connection information to the connection establishing module, where the connection information is used to indicate a connection relationship between the virtual network elements;

a connection establishing module, configured to establish a connection between the virtual network elements that need to create the instance according to the connection information, or establish a connection between the virtual network element that needs to create the instance and another virtual network element;

the receiving module is further configured to receive path information sent by the network management device, where the path information is used to indicate a transmission path of data between the virtual network elements;

and the storage module is used for storing the path information.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner,

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,

the receiving module is further used for receiving data;

the lower layer device also comprises a path selection module and a forwarding module,

the path selection module is configured to determine, according to the stored path information, that the transmission path of the data is a first transmission path, and determine, according to the transmission path of the data determined by the path information, an identifier of a next virtual network unit for data transmission;

and the forwarding module is used for transmitting the data to the next virtual network unit according to the identifier of the next virtual network unit.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

The method and the device for creating the virtual network instance provided by the embodiment of the invention can acquire the network service description information comprising the path information, determining the virtual network unit needing to create the instance according to the network service description information including the path information, creating instances for the virtual network elements requiring instances to be created according to the resource requirement information of the virtual network elements requiring instances to be created, establishing connections between the virtual network elements requiring instances to be created according to the connection information, or establishing connections between the virtual network element for which an instance needs to be created and other virtual network elements, storing path information contained in the network description information, and when data is transmitted between VNF elements within the network service, a transmission path is selected according to the path information, thereby solving the problem of service interruption caused by incapability of determining which transmission path to transmit from when a plurality of transmission paths exist.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an application scenario of a method for creating a virtual network instance according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for creating a virtual network instance according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method for creating another virtual network instance according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a method for creating a virtual network instance according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a data transmission path according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a VNF unit connection relationship according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of another VNF unit connection provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a lower layer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another lower-layer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

An embodiment of the present invention provides an NFV (Network Function Virtualization) system, which is configured as shown in fig. 1 and is capable of instantiating a Network Service (NS). Network services refer to applications running in a network, such as web services, video services, and the like.

The NFV technology replaces a dedicated network management device with a general purpose hardware device, creates an instance for a network service to implement virtualization of the network service, so that the network service no longer depends on the dedicated hardware device.

An OSS/BSS (Operation Support System/Business Support System) of the operator network.

The network management device includes: NFVO (Network Virtualization editor), which is responsible for allocating and managing resources uniformly, including allocating resources for Network services during instantiation of the Network services, increasing or decreasing resources for instantiated Network services, and removing resources occupied by instantiated Network services.

Catalog, database, which is used to receive and store the information such as NSD information and information of existing VNF instance contained in the instantiation application proposed by OSS/BSS of the operator network.

VNFM (VNF Manager, management module) responsible for the management of one or more VNF instances.

The VIM (virtualized information management Manager, a management module of a virtualized lower-layer device) applies for resources required for creating an instance for a Network service from NFVI (Network Functions virtualization Infrastructure) in the process of creating an instance for a Network service.

The underlying devices may be NFVI, including computing resources, storage resources, network resources, and the like. An instance is created for the network service by applying for resources to the lower level device.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for creating a virtual network instance, which is optionally applied to the network management device in the NFV system shown in fig. 1, and as shown in fig. 2, the method includes the following steps:

201. and acquiring the network service description information.

The Network Service Description information NSD (Network Service Description) is used to describe a Network Service (NS). Optionally, the network management device may obtain the NSD in a network service application sent by the network service user device, where the network service application is an application sent to the network management device when the network service user device needs to deploy and instantiate a certain network service.

A Network service includes at least one Virtualized Network Function (VNF) element, and the Network management device creates an Instance for the VNF element, where the instantiated VNF element is referred to as a VNF Instance (VNF Instance). Optionally, the network service application provided by the network service user equipment to the network management equipment is used to apply for instantiating VNF units in the network service, and perform operations such as upgrading, changing, requesting to increase or decrease resources for some instantiated VNF units. The specific content of the instantiation application of the network service includes NSD of the network service, and specifically, the NSD includes path information, connection information, and description information of each of VNF units included in the network service.

Wherein the path information is used for indicating a transmission path of data between at least two VNF units. During data transmission, a target VNF unit for data transmission may be determined by querying the path information, and then data is transmitted to the target VNF unit.

The connection information is used to indicate a connection relationship between at least two VNF units, and includes a connection type and bandwidth information between the at least two VNF units. Alternatively, the connection type may be IPv4 or IPv 6.

The Description information of each VNF unit is referred to as a VNFD (VNF Description, VNF unit Description), and each VNFD includes information of software and platform that the corresponding VNF needs to run, and resource requirement information of the VNF. The resource requirement information is used to indicate resources, including computing resources, storage resources, etc., required to create an instance for the VNF unit.

202. And determining the virtual network unit needing to create the instance according to the network service description information.

The network management device determines which VNF units need to create the instance according to each VNFD, and uses the VNF units need to create the instance as the first VNF unit.

Specifically, taking a certain VNFD in the NSD as an example, querying a VNF unit that has created an instance in the database, and if the VNF1 exists and the idle resource of the VNF1 satisfies the description of the VNFD, the network management device may allocate the VNF1 to the network service without re-instantiating the VNF unit described by the VNFD. If VNF1 is not present in an existing VNF instance, the VNF unit described by this VNFD needs to be instantiated.

Optionally, the network service includes at least one VNF unit, and the first VNF unit may have one first VNF unit or may have a plurality of first VNF units.

203. And sending the resource requirement information of the virtual network unit needing to create the instance to the lower-layer equipment, so that the lower-layer equipment can create the instance for the virtual network unit needing to create the instance.

The network management device sends the resource demand information of the first VNF unit to the lower layer device, requests the lower layer device to allocate resources for the first VNF unit, and creates an instance for the first VNF unit.

Optionally, when there are multiple first VNF units, the network management device instantiates each first VNF unit respectively. Further optionally, the resource requirement information may be included in the instantiation creation request and sent to the lower layer device.

204. And sending the connection information to the lower layer equipment so that the lower layer equipment can establish connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instances or establish connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instances and other virtual network units.

After the instantiation of the first VNF unit, the first VNF unit needs to establish a connection with other VNF units within the network service. Specifically, the lower layer device establishes connection between the virtual network elements requiring creation of the instance according to the connection relationship described by the connection information, or establishes connection between the virtual network elements requiring creation of the instance and other virtual network elements.

In one application scenario, when allocating resources for a network service, a network management device allocates one or more existing VNF instances to the network service, and if a connection satisfying connection information is already established between the existing VNF instances allocated to the network service, the network service may directly use the existing connection without establishing a new connection. If a connection satisfying the connection information has not been established between the existing VNF instances allocated to the network service, the connection is established for the existing VNF instances allocated to the network service according to the connection relationship.

205. And sending the path information to the network equipment of the lower layer equipment so that the network equipment of the lower layer equipment stores the path information, or sending the path information to each virtual network unit in the virtual network units so that each virtual network unit in the virtual network units stores the path information.

Alternatively, the Network device may be a router or an SDN (Software Defined Network) controller. After acquiring the NSD, the network management device sends the path information to the network device of the lower layer device, and the network device of the lower layer device stores the path information, or sends the path information to each virtual network unit in the virtual network units, and each virtual network unit in the virtual network units stores the path information. In this way, when data is transmitted between VNF units included in the network service, a transmission path of the data can be selected by the network device of the lower layer device or each of the virtual network units according to the stored path information.

The method for creating a virtual network instance provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the steps of obtaining network service description information including path information, determining a virtual network unit needing to create an instance according to the network service description information containing the path information, sending resource requirement information of the virtual network unit needing to create the instance to a lower layer device, so that the lower layer device creates the instance for the virtual network unit needing to create the instance, sending connection information to the lower layer device, so that the lower layer device establishes connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instance, or establishes connection between the virtual network unit needing to create the instance and other virtual network units, and sending path information to a network device of the lower layer device, so that the network device of the lower layer device stores the path information, or sends the path information to each virtual network unit in the virtual network units, such that each of the virtual network elements stores path information. When data is transmitted between VNF units included in a network service, a transmission path is selected according to the path information, and the problem of service interruption caused by incapability of determining which transmission path to transmit from when a plurality of transmission paths exist is solved.

An embodiment of the present invention provides another method for creating a virtual network instance, which is optionally applied to a lower layer device in the system shown in the NFV shown in fig. 1, where preferably, the lower layer device is an NFVI, and as shown in fig. 3, the method includes the following steps:

301. receiving resource demand information of the virtual network unit needing to create the instance, which is sent by the network management equipment, and creating the instance for the virtual network unit needing to create the instance according to the resource demand information.

The resource requirement information is used for indicating resources required by creating an instance for a virtual network element;

the virtual network unit needing to create the instance is the virtual network unit needing to create the instance in the virtual network unit determined by the network management device. The resource allocation request includes resource requirement information of the virtual network element requiring creation of the instance, the resource requirement information indicating resources required for creation of the instance for one virtual network element.

The underlying devices include the resources required to create the virtual network instance, including computing resources, storage resources, and the like. And the lower layer equipment allocates resources for the virtual network unit needing to create the instance according to the resource demand information of the virtual network unit needing to create the instance, which is included in the received resource allocation request, and instantiates the virtual network unit needing to create the instance.

302. And receiving connection information sent by the network management equipment, and establishing connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instances according to the connection information, or establishing connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instances and other virtual network units.

The connection information is used to indicate a connection relationship between at least one virtual network element, and the connection information is included in the NSD.

Optionally, after the instantiation of the virtual network element requiring creation of the instance is completed, the lower layer device receives a request for establishing connection sent by the network management device, and establishes connection between the virtual network elements requiring creation of the instance according to connection information included in the request, or establishes connection between the virtual network element requiring creation of the instance and other virtual network elements.

303. And receiving path information sent by the network management equipment, and storing the path information in the network equipment or storing the path information in a storage space of each virtual network unit in the virtual network units.

The path information is used to indicate a transmission path of data between VNF units included in the network service when the network service processes traffic. And storing the path information, inquiring the path information in the data transmission process, and transmitting data according to the transmission path indicated by the path information.

The method for creating the virtual network instance provided by the embodiment of the present invention creates an instance for a virtual network element that needs to create the instance according to resource requirement information, receives connection information sent by a network management device, establishes a connection between the virtual network elements that need to create the instance according to the connection information, or establishes a connection between the virtual network element that needs to create the instance and other virtual network elements, receives path information sent by the network management device, and stores the path information in the network device, or stores the path information in a storage space of each virtual network element in the virtual network elements. When data is transmitted between VNF units included in a network service, a transmission path is selected according to the path information, and the problem of service interruption caused by incapability of determining which transmission path to transmit from when a plurality of transmission paths exist is solved.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for creating a virtual network instance, optionally, applying to the NFV system shown in fig. 1, and preferably, in this embodiment, taking NFVO, Catalog, VNFM, VIM, and NFVI in the NFV system as examples to describe a method for creating a virtual network instance, which, of course, is merely an example and does not represent that the present invention is limited thereto, and as shown in fig. 4, includes the following steps:

401. the NFVO obtains the web service description information.

The network service comprises at least one virtual network unit, and the network service description information comprises path information, connection information and resource requirement information of each virtual network unit in the virtual network unit. The path information is used for indicating transmission paths of data among the virtual network units, the connection information is used for indicating connection relations among the virtual network units, and the resource requirement information of each virtual network unit is used for respectively indicating resources required by creating an instance for each virtual network unit.

Specifically, the NFVO receives an On-registration (On-paging) request for network services sent by the OSS/BSS. The registration request includes specific description information NSD of the network service that needs to be instantiated and an identification of the NSD. One network service comprises at least one VNF unit, and the NSD comprises the VNFD of each of the at least one VNF unit.

For example, referring to fig. 5, the present embodiment takes the first network service as an example, and explains the path information. The first network service is used for providing HTTP web browsing, video and communication services in mobile communication, and the specific function and structure of the first network service may not be exactly the same as the actual situation, and is used for illustration only. The first Network service includes a plurality of VNF units, which are LB (Load Balancing), Web Proxy (Web Proxy), FW (Firewall), Router ACL (Router Access Control List), Video Optimizer (Video Optimizer), and NAT (Network Address Translation), respectively. There are three transmission paths for data between VNF units within the first network service. When the first network service processes the HTTP web browsing traffic, the data transmission path is: LB-Web Proxy-FW-NAT. When the first network service processes the video service, the data transmission path is as follows: video Optimizer-FW. When the first network service processes fmc (fixed Mobile switching) Mobile private network access service, the data transmission path is: the Router ACL, which is only one VNF unit in the transmission path, represents that data enters the first network service and then passes through only one VNF unit, i.e., the Router ACL, and is sent out of the first network service. Each data transmission path corresponds to the policy of the data transmission path, including the conditions for selecting the data transmission path. Specifically, taking a data transmission path of the HTTP Web browsing service as an example, for data received from outside the first network service, if the data meets a policy of the data transmission path of the HTTP Web browsing service, the data is transmitted to the LB, and the data is output from the first network service after passing through the Web Proxy, the FW, and the NAT in sequence.

Optionally, this embodiment provides five forms of NSD. In the first form of NSD described in XML (Extensible Markup Language), three parts of < Types >, ServiceTemplate, and < servicelinking >. Wherein < Types > includes the following:

< Types > a node type (nodeType) and a relationship type (relationship type) are defined. The node type is used for type attributes that are fixed to the VNF unit. The relationship type is used for defining relationship attributes between two VNF units, and includes a connection relationship between the two VNF units, a connection type, bandwidth information, and the like.

The ServiceTemplate includes the VNFD of each VNF unit in the first network service, a connection relationship between every two adjacent VNF units, and a data forwarding relationship.

A VNFD is a node template (NodeTemplate), and specifically, taking a VNF unit LB included in the first network service as an example, a VNFD of the LB is:

where the statement id ═ LB "defines the identity of the VNFD as LB, the node type is LoadBalanceType, which has been defined in < Types >, and is referred to herein. Properties are used to define parameters of the VNF unit, including software and mirror information run by the VNF unit, and resource demand information and the like, where the resource demand information includes processing speed information of the VNF unit, storage space information of the VNF unit, and the like. Alternatively, the Processing speed information may include a clock frequency of a Central Processing Unit (CPU), the number of cores, and the like.

A connection relationship and a data forwarding relationship between two adjacent VNF units are described by a relationship template (relationship template), and taking a relationship template describing a connection relationship and a data forwarding relationship between an LB and a Web Proxy as an example, the details are as follows:

the statement id ═ Link1 "defines the identifier of the relationship template as Link1, the statement type ═ followby" defines the relationship type of Link1 as followby, and the followby is the specific name of the relationship type. The relationship type named FollowedBy is defined in < Types > and is used for describing a data transmission relationship between two adjacent nodes, and a statement SourceElement ref ═ LB "and a statement TargetElement ref ═ Web Proxy are used for defining the data transmission relationship represented by Link1, specifically, from LB to Web Proxy.

The < ServiceChaining > includes path information, each data transmission path is described by a ServiceChaining template, and the ServiceChaining template describes a forwarding relation of data in one data transmission path and a Policy (Policy) of the data transmission path, that is, a condition for selecting the data transmission path. Taking the servicechainingttemplate marked as FG1 as an example, the specific contents are as follows:

the data transmission path described by servicechainingttemplate identified as FG1 includes three connections, Link1, Link2 and Link3, Link1, Link2 and Link3 are respectively identifiers of three relationship templates in the service templates, the data transmission relationships described by the three service templates are respectively transmitted from LB to Web Proxy, from Web Proxy to FW and from FW to NAT, then the transmission path described by Link1, Link2 and Link3 is: LB-Web Proxy-FW-NAT, i.e. the data transmission path when the first Web service handles an HTTP Web browsing traffic. The policy of this transmission path is policyf 1 defined by the statement policyRef ═ policyf 1, and the specific content of policyf 1 is defined in Type, which is herein incorporated by reference. Optionally, this embodiment provides a definition of policyf 1, which includes the following specific contents:

if the protocol type of the data is HTTP and the type of the payload is HTML, the data is HTTP web browsing traffic data, and the data is transmitted through a transmission path described in FG 1. Of course, the present invention is only an example of the HTTP web browsing service data transmission path policy, and the specific definition of the HTTP web browsing service data transmission path policy is not limited in the present invention.

Meanwhile, in < ServiceChaining >, ServiceChaining template identified as FG2 describes a data transmission path of video traffic and a policy FG2 of the data transmission path, and ServiceChaining template identified as FG3 describes a data transmission path of FMC mobile ad hoc network access traffic and a policy FG3 of the data transmission path. As with policyFG1, the specifics of policyFG2 and policyFG3 are also defined in < Types >, which are incorporated herein by reference.

Optionally, this embodiment provides a definition of policyf 2, which includes the following specific contents:

if the protocol type of the data is RTP and the type of the payload is 31, 32, 33 or 34, the data is video service data, the data is transmitted through a transmission path described in FG 2. Of course, the present invention is only an example of the video service data transmission path policy, and the specific definition of the video service data transmission path policy is not limited in the present invention.

Optionally, this embodiment provides a definition of policyf 3, taking the case where the FMC dedicated access network segment is 10.138.

If the sending address of the data sender belongs to the network segment, the data is FMC mobile private network access service data, and then the data is transmitted through a transmission path described by FG 3. Of course, the present invention is only an example of the transmission path policy of the video service data, and the specific definition of the transmission path policy of the FMC mobile private network access service data is not limited in the present invention.

In the first form of NSD, a data transmission relationship between two adjacent VNF units is described by a relationship type named FollowedBy, and a complete data transmission path is described by ServiceChainingTemplate. Optionally, one transmission path may include more than one connection with a relationship type of FollowedBy, and a data transmission path is formed by these connections, and one transmission path may also include only one VNF unit, which represents that data is sent out of the network service after entering the network service through only one VNF unit. Specifically, for a case where one transmission path only includes one VNF unit, taking a data transmission path of the FMC mobile private network access service as an example, description information of the path is specifically as follows:

the data transmission path of the FMC mobile private network access service identified as FG3 includes only one Router ACL, and in the description about the data transmission path in the path information, only the Router ACL is included and there is no description about the data forwarding relationship, which means that the data enters the first network service and then passes through only one VNF unit, i.e., the Router ACL, and then is sent out of the first network service.

Alternatively, embodiments of the present invention provide a second form of NSD described in XML, which includes two parts, the < Types > and the ServiceTemplate. Compared with the first form of NSD, the second form of NSD adds a new node type named ServiceChaining type to < Types >, and in ServiceTemplate, describes path information of the first network service by a node of which one node type is ServiceChaining type and which is named ServiceChaining, the path information being included in an element named < forwarding paths properties >, the path information including descriptions of three data transmission paths in the first network service, and a policy of each data transmission path. In the < forwarding Path properties > element, one Path element describes one data transmission Path, including the data forwarding relationship and the policy of the data transmission Path. Taking a Path element identified as FP1 as an example, the specific content is as follows:

the transmission Path described by the Path element identified as FP1 includes links identified as Link1, Link2 and Link3, and the statements < source ref ═ LB "> and < target ret ═ Web Proxy" > define the data transmission relationship represented by Link1, specifically, data is transmitted from LB to FW, taking Link1 as an example. In addition, the connection identified as Link2 describes a data transfer relationship for transferring from Web Proxy to FW, and the connection identified as Link3 describes a data transfer relationship for transferring from FW to NAT. The transmission Path described by the Path element identified as FP1 is the HTTP Web browsing traffic data transmission Path LB-Web Proxy-FW-NAT, which has policy policyf 1. Wherein the VNFD of each VNF unit is the same as in the first form of NSD and is not described in detail here.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present invention provides an NSD in a third form described by XML, and describes a data transmission relationship between two adjacent VNF units through a relationship type named FollowedBy, where a specific definition of the relationship type named FollowedBy is the same as that in the NSD in the first form. Through the node type named as ServiceChainingType, a complete data transmission Path is described through a Path element in the node template. Taking HTTP web browsing service data transmission path as an example, the description information of the data transmission path as an example is specifically as follows:

the connection with the identifiers of Link1, Link2 and Link3 respectively describes the data transmission relations of LB transmission to Web Proxy, Web Proxy transmission to FW and FW transmission to NAT for the relationship type of FollowedBy. The Path described by Path labeled FP1 is LB-Web Proxy-FW-NAT, and the policy is policyFG 1. The definition of each VNFD and the transmission relationship between adjacent VNFs is the same as that in the first form of NSD, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present invention provides an NSD in a fourth form described in XML, where in the < ServiceChaining > element, each ServiceChaining template describes a complete data transmission path, respectively, including a data forwarding relationship between adjacent VNF units and a policy of the data transmission path. Taking HTTP web browsing service data transmission path as an example, the description information of the data transmission path as an example is specifically as follows:

the difference from the description of the path information by the < ServiceChaining > element in the first form of the NSD is that the data transfer relationship between two adjacent VNF units is not defined by a relationship template but is defined in ServiceChaining template. Taking the connection identified as Link1 as an example, the statements < source ref ═ LB "> and < target ret ═ Web Proxy" > define the data transfer relationship represented by Link1 as data is transferred from LB to FW. In addition, the connection identified as Link2 describes a data transfer relationship for transferring from Web Proxy to FW, and the connection identified as Link3 describes a data transfer relationship for transferring from FW to NAT. The data transmission Path described by the Path element identified as FP1 is: LB-Web Proxy-FW-NAT, the policy of the data transmission path is policyFG 1. When the data transmission path includes only one VNF, the path information includes only one Link and the Link includes only "source" parameter, and here, taking the data transmission path of the FMC mobile private network access service as an example, the description information of the data transmission path is specifically as follows:

optionally, in the fifth form of NSD, the first network service is described by YAML data description language. The path information is described in the node template by the node type named tosca. Specifically, each Path includes a description of a transmission Path and a Policy (Policy) of the transmission Path in the node template. In one transmission path, the data transmission relationship between two VNF units is defined by Link, where a "source" parameter in Link indicates a VNF unit that transmits data, and a "target" parameter in Link indicates a VNF unit that receives data. Optionally, if only one VNF unit is included in one transmission Path, the Path only includes one Link, and the Link only includes the "source" parameter. Alternatively, one transmission path may include one Link or be formed by combining a plurality of links. Taking HTTP web browsing service data transmission path as an example, the description information of the data transmission path as an example is specifically as follows:

in the five forms of NSD provided in this embodiment, a data transmission relationship between two adjacent VNF units is described, and a complete transmission path is further described by the data transmission relationship between two adjacent VNF units.

402. After receiving a network service registration request sent by an OSS/BSS, the NFVO sends the NSD to a database for storage, and optionally, in an application scenario of cloud computing, the database is specifically a Catalog.

403. After the NSD is stored in the database, the NFVO sends a registration request confirmation message to the OSS/BSS to confirm that the NSD is successfully stored.

404. The OSS/BSS sends a request to the NFVO to instantiate a network service, including an identification of the NSD.

405. And the NFVO sends a query request comprising the NSD identification to the database according to the NSD identification, wherein the query request is used for querying the database about which instances need to be created and which instances do not need to be created in VNF units included in the network service. The database records state information of VNF units of which instances are created, queries in the state information according to the NSD, determines whether each VNF unit included in the network service has created an instance according to the state information, and if one VNF unit included in the network service does not create an instance, the VNF unit is used as a virtual network unit of which an instance needs to be created.

Specifically, the database finds the stored NSD according to the NSD identifier, and confirms each VNFD included in the NSD according to the status information. For VNFD1 included in the NSD, if VNF1 exists in an existing VNF instance and the idle resources of VNF1 meet the requirements for resources in the description of VNFD1, VNF1 may be allocated to the network service without re-instantiating the VNF unit described by VNFD 1. If it is determined from the state information that no VNF1 exists in the existing VNF instance, the VNF unit described by the VNFD needs to be instantiated.

406. The database will take the VNF unit that needs to create the instance as the first VNF unit and send the indication of VNFD of the first VNF unit to the NFVO. Optionally, the network service includes at least one VNF unit, where there may be one first VNF unit or multiple first VNF units.

Through steps 404 and 406, the network management device takes the virtual network unit that needs to create the instance as the virtual network unit that needs to create the instance.

407. The NFVO sends a request to instantiate the first VNF unit to the VNFM, the request including the VNFD indication of the first VNF unit.

408. The VNFM requests the VNFD of the first VNF unit from the database according to the VNFD designation of the first VNF unit.

409. The database returns the VNFD of the first VNF unit to the VNFM.

410. And the VNFM sends a resource allocation request to the NFVO according to the resource demand information included by the VNFD.

411. The NFVO sends the resource allocation request to the VIM requesting to create an instance for the first VNF unit.

412. And the VIM applies for the needed resources from the NFVI according to the resource allocation request and establishes needed images for the VNF units.

413. And the NFVI sends a resource allocation confirmation message to the VIM after the resource allocation is successful, and indicates that the resource allocation is successful. Wherein the resource allocation acknowledgement message comprises address information of the allocated resources for the first VNF unit.

414. The VIM sends the resource allocation acknowledge message to the NFVO.

415. The NFVO sends the resource allocation confirm message to the VNFM.

416. The VNFM creates an instance for the first VNF unit based on the address information of the allocated resource for the first VNF unit.

417. The VNFM sends a first VNF unit instance creation acknowledgement message to the NFVO indicating that the first VNF unit instance creation is successful.

418. When there are multiple first VNF units, step 407-417 is repeated. Alternatively, the NFVO may send requests to instantiate the first VNF units to different VNFMs, respectively, and the different VNFMs may create the instances for the plurality of first VNF units, respectively.

Through step 407 and 418, the lower layer device receives the resource requirement information of the virtual network unit that needs to create the instance and is sent by the network management device, and creates the instance for the virtual network unit that needs to create the instance according to the resource requirement information.

419. The NFVO sends a request to the VIM to establish a connection between VNF units included in the network service according to the description of the NSD. The request includes connection information acquired from the NSD, and the connection information is used to indicate a connection relationship between VNF units included in the network service. Optionally, the connection information includes a connection type and a required bandwidth. Specifically, the connection type may be IPv4(Internet Protocol Version 4, fourth Version of Internet Protocol) or IPv6(Internet Protocol Version 6, sixth Version of Internet Protocol).

420. The VIM sends a request for establishing a connection, received from the NFVO, to the NFVI, requesting to establish a connection between VNF units included in the network service according to the NSD.

421. The NFVI establishes a connection for the first VNF unit according to the request to establish a connection received from the VIM. With reference to step 405, in an application scenario, when determining which VNF units included in a network service need to create an instance and which VNF units do not need to create an instance, a result returned by the database to the NFVO indicates that VNF1 exists in an existing VNF instance, redundant resources of VNF1 satisfy description of VNFD1, and a network management device allocates a VNF1 instance to the network service. The network management device may assign a plurality of existing VNF instances to the network service, and between the existing VNF instances assigned to the network service, if a connection satisfying the connection information has already been established, the existing connection may be directly used without establishing a new connection. And if the existing VNF instances distributed to the network service have not established connection satisfying the connection information, establishing connection for the existing VNF instances according to the connection relation.

Through step 419 and 421, the lower layer device receives the connection information sent by the network management device, and establishes a connection between the virtual network units that need to create the instance according to the connection information, or establishes a connection between the virtual network unit that needs to create the instance and other virtual network units. The NFVI then returns a message to the VIM that the connection establishment was successful.

422. The VIM returns a message to the NFVO confirming the connection setup is complete.

423. The path information is stored.

The lower layer device receives the path information sent by the network management device and stores the path information in the network device or stores the path information in a storage space of each of the virtual network units. The network device of the lower layer device may be a router or an SDN controller.

The path information in the NSD is used to indicate a transmission path of data between VNF units included in the network service when the network service processes traffic. And storing the path information, inquiring the path information in the data transmission process, and transmitting data according to the transmission path indicated by the path information.

Optionally, the present embodiment provides two ways of storing path information.

In the first way of storing path information, the path information is stored in the network device of the NFVI, and when data is transmitted between VNF units inside the network service, the network device of the NFVI selects a transmission path according to a policy of the transmission path. Specifically, after the first VNF unit Instance is successfully created, or an existing VNF Instance is allocated to the network service, the VNFM sends an Instance identifier (Instance ID) of the VNF Instance to the NFVO. Wherein, the instance identifier is used for indicating data transmission to a certain VNF instance in the data transmission process. And the NFVO replaces each VNFD identification in the path information with the instance identification of the VNF instance corresponding to the VNFD, sends the path information to the network equipment of the NFVI through the VIM, and stores the path information by the network equipment of the NFVI.

Optionally, in combination with step 417-.

In a second way of storing path information, the path information contained in the NSD is stored in the storage space of each VNF unit, and when data is transmitted between VNF units within the network service, the VNF instance selects to which VNF unit to transmit the data according to the policy of the transmission path. The path information storage process specifically includes, after connection between VNF units included in the network service is established, replacing, by the NFVO, each VNFD identifier in the path information with an instance identifier of a VNF instance corresponding to the VNFD, and for each VNF unit, separating, from the path information, path information related to the VNF unit, and then sending the path information to a corresponding VNF instance for storage through the VNFM. Here, taking the first network service as an example, the separation of the path information for each VNF unit is exemplified. The first network service comprises three transmission paths in total, which are respectively:

the policy is HTTP Web browsing service data transmission path of policy FG1, LB-Web Proxy-FW-NAT;

video service data transmission path with policy fg 2: video Optimizer-FW;

the strategy is FMC mobile private network access service data transmission path of policyFG 3: router ACL.

For LB, the separated path information is: the LB sends the data meeting the policy FG1 to the Web Proxy;

for the Web Proxy, the separated path information is: web Proxy sends data satisfying policy FG1 to FW;

and aiming at FW, after the data of HTTP web browsing service and the data of video service pass through the data received by FW and FW, judging according to the strategy of HTTP web browsing service transmission path and the strategy of video service transmission path, and selecting corresponding data transmission path according to the judgment result. With reference to the policy definition of the HTTP web browsing service transmission path in step 401:

the FW sends the data with the protocol type of HTTP and the payload type of HTML to the NAT.

In combination with the definition of the policy for the video service transmission path in step 401:

the FW sends out the first network service data with a protocol type of RTP and a payload type of 31, 32, 33 or 34.

Similarly, the path information of each VNF unit in the first network service is separated, and is not described herein again.

After storing the path information separated for each VNF unit in the corresponding VNF unit, the VNFM sends an indication message that the path information is successfully stored to the NFVO.

424. After the connection between VNF units included in the network service is established and the path information is stored, the NFVO returns a message that the network instance establishment is completed to the OSS/BSS.

Based on the above embodiment corresponding to fig. 4, an embodiment of the present invention provides a data transmission method, which combines two ways of storing path information in step 423, as shown in fig. 6, and includes the following steps:

601. and the lower layer equipment receives the data and determines the transmission path of the data as a first transmission path according to the stored path information.

The policy of a transmission path in the path information is the condition for selecting the transmission path. After the network service instantiation is completed, after the lower-layer equipment receives the data, analyzing the data, judging the analyzed data according to the strategy in the stored path information, and if the analyzed data meets the strategy of a certain transmission path, the transmission path is the first transmission path.

Optionally, the path information is stored in the network device of the NFVI, and the network device of the NFVI parses the data and selects a transmission path of the data according to the stored path information.

Optionally, the path information is stored in a storage space of each VNF unit included in the network service, and when data transmission is performed inside the network service, the VNF instance parses the data and selects a transmission path of the data according to the stored path information.

Optionally, the policy of the data transmission path selects different transmission paths according to different service types. Specifically, taking the first network service as an example, after receiving the data, the first network service analyzes the data to determine the service type of the data, and if the analyzed data meets policy fg1, that is, the data is HTTP Web browsing service data, the first transmission path is LB-Web Proxy-FW-NAT. If the parsed data satisfies policyFG2, that is, the data is video service data, the first transmission path is: video Optimizer-FW. If the analyzed data meets policyFG3, that is, the data is FMC mobile private network access service data, the first transmission path is: router ACL. In this embodiment, a video service data transmission path is used as a first transmission path, and a process of transmitting data between VNF units of a first network service is described.

602. And the lower layer equipment determines the identifier of the next virtual network unit for data transmission according to the path information and transmits the data to the next virtual network unit according to the identifier of the next virtual network unit.

And the lower layer equipment determines the next VNF unit of the data transmission according to the transmission relation of the data in the first transmission path among different VNF units, and further determines the identification of the VNF unit. Alternatively, the identifier of the VNF unit may be an Instance identifier (Instance ID) of the VNF unit, and the Instance identifier is obtained from the stored path information.

Optionally, in an application scenario in which the path information is stored in the network device of the NFVI, in combination with the embodiment corresponding to fig. 4, a connection relationship described by the NSD of the first network service is shown in fig. 7, where LB, Web Proxy, FW, RouterACL, VideoOptimizer, and NAT are all connected to the network device of the NFVI. After the instantiation of the first network service is completed, data is transmitted to the network device of the NFVI through a GW (gateway ), the network device of the NFVI performs judgment according to a policy of a transmission path, determines that a next VNF unit for data transmission is a Video Optimizer, and transmits the data to the Video Optimizer according to an instance identifier of the Video Optimizer. And the Video Optimizer transmits the processed data back to the network equipment of the NFVI, the network equipment of the NFVI judges according to the strategy of the transmission path again, determines the next VNF unit of the data transmission as FW, and transmits the data to the FW according to the instance identifier of the FW. The FW transmits the processed data back to the network device of the NFVI, and the network device of the NFVI transmits the data to the GW after determining according to the policy of the transmission path, and then the data is output from the first network service. To this end, after data is input to the first network service, the data is output from the first network service via the first transmission path.

Optionally, in a scenario where the path information is stored in a storage space of each VNF unit included in the network service, in combination with the embodiment corresponding to fig. 4, a connection relationship described by the NSD of the first network service is as shown in fig. 8, where LB, Web Proxy, FW, routeraacl, VideoOptimizer, and NAT are all connected to a network device in NFVI. Since the path information is stored in the storage space of each VNF unit, the network device of the NFVI only transmits data to the next VNF unit according to the instance identifier of the next VNF unit included in the received data. For data received from outside the first network service, the instance identifier of the VNF unit that receives the data is not included in the data, and the network device of the NFVI cannot forward the data, so the NSD of the first network service further includes the VNFD of the ingress VNF unit, and the ingress VNF unit is connected to the network device of the NFVI and configured to forward the data received from outside the network service for the first time.

Data sent from outside the first network service to the first network service is first sent to the entry VNF unit, and the entry VNF unit determines the next VNF unit for data transmission according to the stored path information. The path information stored in the entry VNF unit is the path information separated from the entry VNF unit, and specifically, if the analyzed data satisfies policyf 1, the next VNF unit for data transmission is LB. If the parsed data satisfies policyFG2, the next VNF unit for data transfer is the Video Optimizer. If the parsed data satisfies policyFG3, the next VNF element of the data transfer is a Router ACL. After the ingress VNF unit determines the next VNF unit for data transmission, the identifier of the next VNF unit is added to the data, and the data is transmitted to the next VNF unit through the NFVI switch. Similarly, each VNF unit in the first network service determines the received data according to the path policy, determines the next VNF unit for data transmission, adds the identifier of the next VNF unit to the data, and transmits the data to the next VNF unit through the NFVI switch. Optionally, the identifier of the VNF unit is an instance identifier of the VNF unit.

In this embodiment, the entry VNF unit determines that the next VNF unit for data transmission is a Video Optimizer, adds an instance identifier of the Video Optimizer to the data, and transmits the data to the Video Optimizer through the NFVI switch. And the Video Optimizer judges according to the strategy of the transmission path, determines that the next VNF unit for data transmission is FW, adds an instance identifier of the FW in the data, and transmits the data to the FW through the NFVI switch. Similarly, the FW transmits the data to the entry VNF unit, and the entry VNF unit transmits the data to the first network service, so that the data is output from the first network service through the first transmission path after being input to the first network service.

In the method for creating a virtual network instance provided by the embodiment of the present invention, path information is added to the NSD, where the path information describes a data transmission relationship between every two adjacent VNF units in the network service and a transmission path between VNF units included in the network service, and according to the NSD including the path information, a process of creating a virtual network instance is completed, and the path information is stored. In this way, when data is transmitted between VNF units included in the network service, a transmission path of the data is selected according to the path information, thereby solving the problem of service interruption caused by incapability of determining which path the data is transmitted from when a plurality of paths between the VNF units can be selected.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a network management device, which is optionally applied to the NFV system shown in fig. 1 to complete the functions of NFVO, Catalog, VNFM, and VIM. Referring to fig. 9, the network management device 901 includes a network operation and maintenance module 9011 and a lower-layer infrastructure device management module 9012.

The network operation and maintenance module 9011 is configured to acquire network service description information, where the network service description information includes path information, connection information, and resource requirement information of each of the virtual network units, where the path information is used to indicate a transmission path of data between the virtual network units, the connection information is used to indicate a connection relationship between the virtual network units, and the resource requirement information of each of the virtual network units is used to respectively indicate resources required to create an instance for each of the virtual network units.

The network operation and maintenance module 9011 is further configured to determine, according to the network service description information, a virtual network unit that needs to create an instance, and use the virtual network unit that needs to create the instance as a first virtual network unit.

The lower-layer infrastructure device management module 9012 is configured to receive the resource requirement information and the connection information of the first virtual network unit transmitted by the network operation and maintenance module, and send the resource requirement information acquired by the network operation and maintenance module to the lower-layer device, so that the lower-layer device creates an instance for the first virtual network unit, and sends the connection information to the lower-layer device, so that the lower-layer device establishes connection between the first virtual network units, or establishes connection between the first virtual network unit and another virtual network unit.

The lower-layer infrastructure device management module 9012 is further configured to send the path information acquired by the network operation and maintenance module 9011 to the lower-layer device, so that the lower-layer device stores the path information.

Optionally, the lower-layer infrastructure device management module 9012 is further configured to send the path information to a network device of the lower-layer device, so that the network device of the lower-layer device stores the path information; or,

the lower layer infrastructure device management module 9012 is configured to send the path information to each of the virtual network units, so that each of the virtual network units stores the path information.

Optionally, the resource requirement information of each of the virtual network elements includes at least one of processing speed information of the virtual network element corresponding to the resource requirement information and storage space information of the virtual network element.

The connection information includes at least one of a connection type between the virtual network elements and bandwidth information.

Optionally, the network management device 901 further includes a database module 9013, configured to store the status information.

The network operation and maintenance module 9011 is further configured to query, in the state information already stored in the database module 9013, whether each of the virtual network units has already created an instance, and if the state information indicates that the virtual network unit corresponding to the state information has not created an instance, use the virtual network unit as a virtual network unit that needs to create an instance.

Optionally, the path information further includes a policy for selecting a path, where the policy includes a condition for selecting a transmission path.

Optionally, the condition for selecting the transmission path includes selecting the transmission path according to a traffic type of the data.

The network management device provided by the embodiment of the invention determines the virtual network unit needing to create the instance according to the network service description information containing the path information by acquiring the network service description information containing the path information, sends the resource requirement information of the virtual network unit needing to create the instance to the lower layer device so that the lower layer device creates the instance for the virtual network unit needing to create the instance, sends the connection information to the lower layer device so that the lower layer device establishes connection between the virtual network units needing to create the instance, or establishes connection between the virtual network unit needing to create the instance and other virtual network units, and sends the path information to the network device of the lower layer device so that the network device of the lower layer device stores the path information, or sends the path information to each virtual network unit in the virtual network units, such that each of the virtual network elements stores path information. When data is transmitted between VNF units included in a network service, a transmission path is selected according to the path information, and the problem of service interruption caused by incapability of determining which transmission path to transmit from when a plurality of transmission paths exist is solved.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a lower layer device, which is optionally applied to the NFV system shown in fig. 1 to complete the function of NFVI. Referring to fig. 10, the network management device 1001 includes a receiving module 1011, an instance creating module 1012, a connection establishing module 1013, and a storing module 1014.

The receiving module 1011 is configured to receive resource requirement information of a virtual network unit that needs to create an instance and is sent by the network management device 1011, and transmit the resource requirement information to the instance creating module 1012, where the resource requirement information is used to indicate a resource needed to create an instance for one virtual network unit.

An instance creating module 1012, configured to create an instance for the virtual network element that needs to create the instance according to the resource requirement information, where the virtual network element that needs to create the instance is the virtual network element that needs to create the instance in the virtual network elements determined by the network management device 1011.

The receiving module 1011 is further configured to receive connection information sent by the network management device 1011 and transmit the connection information to the connection establishing module 1013, where the connection information is used to indicate a connection relationship between the virtual network units.

A connection establishing module 1013, configured to establish a connection between the virtual network units that need to create the instance according to the connection information, or establish a connection between the virtual network unit that needs to create the instance and another virtual network unit.

The receiving module 1011 is further configured to receive path information sent by the network management device 1011, where the path information is used to indicate a transmission path of data between virtual network elements.

The storage module 1014 is configured to store the path information.

Optionally, the receiving module 1011 is further configured to receive data.

The lower layer device also includes a path selection module 1015 and a forwarding module 1016,

the path selecting module 1015 is configured to determine that the transmission path of the data is the first transmission path, and determine, according to the stored path information, an identifier of a next virtual network unit for data transmission.

A forwarding module 1016 for transmitting the data to the next virtual network element according to the identification of the next virtual network element.

Optionally, the forwarding module 1016 is further configured to add an identifier of a next virtual network element to the data.

Optionally, the storage module 1014 is specifically configured to store the path information in a storage space of each of the virtual network units.

The lower layer device provided by the embodiment of the present invention creates an instance for a virtual network unit that needs to create an instance, establishes a connection between the virtual network units that need to create an instance according to the connection information, or establishes a connection between the virtual network unit that needs to create an instance and another virtual network unit, receives path information sent by the network management device, and stores the path information in the network device, or stores the path information in a storage space of each virtual network unit in the virtual network unit. When data is transmitted between VNF units included in a network service, a transmission path is selected according to the path information, and the problem of service interruption caused by incapability of determining which transmission path to transmit from when a plurality of transmission paths exist is solved.

An embodiment of the present invention provides another network management device 1101, shown with reference to fig. 11, which may be embedded in or be a microprocessor computer itself, such as: a portable device such as a general-purpose computer, a client customizing machine, a mobile phone terminal or a tablet, an ethernet terminal, a terminal device such as a storage device terminal, and the like, the network management device 1101 includes: at least one processor 1111, memory 1112, bus 1113, transmitter 1114, and receiver 1115, the at least one processor 1111, memory 1112, transmitter 1114, and receiver 1115 are coupled via bus 1113 and configured to communicate with each other.

The bus 1113 may be an ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus, a PCI (Peripheral Component interconnect) bus, a PCIe bus, an EISA (extended Industry Standard Architecture) bus, or the like. The bus 1113 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 11, but does not indicate only one bus or one type of bus. Wherein:

the memory 1112 is used for executing the application program code of the inventive arrangements, which is stored in the memory and controlled for execution by the processor 1111.

The memory may be, but is not limited to, a read only memory ROM or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory RAM or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read only memory EEPROM, a compact disc CD-ROM or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, FPGA (field programmable gate array), or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. These memories are connected to the processor via a bus.

The processor 1111 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1111, or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention.

The processor 1111 is configured to call the program code in the memory 1112 to execute the operations of the network operation and maintenance module, the lower-layer basic device management module, and the database module in the device embodiment corresponding to fig. 9, where specific description refers to the device embodiment corresponding to fig. 9, and details are not described here again.

An embodiment of the present invention provides another underlying device 1201, which may be embedded in or be a microprocessor computer itself, as shown in fig. 12, such as: a portable device such as a general-purpose computer, a client customizing machine, a mobile phone terminal, or a tablet, a terminal device such as an ethernet terminal, or a storage device terminal, and the lower layer device 1201 includes: at least one processor 1211, a memory 1212, a bus 1213, a transmitter 1214 and a receiver 1215, the at least one processor 1211, the memory 1212, the transmitter 1214 and the receiver 1215 being coupled via the bus 1213 and being in communication with each other.

The bus 1213 may be an ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus, a PCI (Peripheral Component interconnect) bus, a PCIe bus, an EISA (extended Industry Standard Architecture) bus, or the like. The bus 1213 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 12, but does not indicate only one bus or one type of bus. Wherein:

the memory 1212 is used for executing the application program code of the present invention, and the application program code for executing the present invention is stored in the memory and controlled by the processor 1211 to be executed.

Processor 1211 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention.

The processor 1211 is configured to call the program code in the memory 1212, so as to execute the operations of the remote unit and the near-end unit in the apparatus embodiment corresponding to fig. 10, which is described in detail with reference to the apparatus embodiment corresponding to fig. 10 and is not described herein again.

From the above description of the embodiments, it is clear to those skilled in the art that the present invention can be implemented by hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, the functions described above may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limiting: the computer-readable medium may include RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically erasable programmable Read Only Memory), CD-ROM (Compact Read Only Memory) or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Furthermore, the method is simple. Any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is transmitted from a website, a server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, a fiber optic cable, a twisted pair, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, the coaxial cable, the fiber optic cable, the twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the fixation of the medium. Disk and Disc, as used herein, includes CD (Compact Disc), laser Disc, optical Disc, DVD Disc (Digital Versatile Disc), floppy disk and Blu-ray Disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The above description is only for the specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A virtual network instance creation method is applied to a network management device and comprises the following steps:

sending the path information to the lower layer equipment so that the lower layer equipment can store the path information; the path information comprises a policy for selecting a path, the policy comprises a condition for selecting a transmission path, and the condition for selecting the transmission path comprises selecting the transmission path according to the service type of the data.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sending the path information to the lower layer device specifically includes:

3. The method of claim 1,

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the virtual network element whose instance needs to be created according to the network service description information, and taking the virtual network element whose instance needs to be created as the virtual network element whose instance needs to be created comprises:

5. A virtual network instance creation method is applied to lower-layer equipment and comprises the following steps:

receiving path information sent by the network management equipment, and storing the path information in the network equipment, or storing the path information in a storage space of each of the virtual network units, wherein the path information is used for indicating a transmission path of data between the virtual network units; the path information comprises a policy for selecting a path, the policy comprises a condition for selecting a transmission path, and the condition for selecting the transmission path comprises selecting the transmission path according to the service type of the data.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

7. A network management device, comprising:

the lower-layer basic device management module is used for receiving the resource demand information and the connection information of the first virtual network unit transmitted by the network operation and maintenance module, and sending the resource demand information acquired by the network operation and maintenance module to lower-layer devices so that the lower-layer devices create instances for the first virtual network unit and send the connection information to the lower-layer devices so that the lower-layer devices can establish connection between the first virtual network units or establish connection between the first virtual network unit and other virtual network units;

the lower-layer basic device management module is further configured to send the path information acquired by the network operation and maintenance module to the lower-layer device, so that the lower-layer device stores the path information; the path information comprises a policy for selecting a path, the policy comprises a condition for selecting a transmission path, and the condition for selecting the transmission path comprises selecting the transmission path according to the service type of the data.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the sending, by the lower-layer infrastructure device management module, the path information to the lower-layer device specifically includes:

the lower-layer basic device management module is further configured to send the path information to a network device of the lower-layer device, so that the network device of the lower-layer device stores the path information; or,

the lower-layer infrastructure device management module is further configured to send the path information to each of the virtual network units, so that each of the virtual network units stores the path information.

9. The apparatus of claim 7,

10. The apparatus of claim 7,

11. An underlying device, comprising:

the storage module is used for storing the path information; the path information comprises a policy for selecting a path, the policy comprises a condition for selecting a transmission path, and the condition for selecting the transmission path comprises selecting the transmission path according to the service type of the data.

12. The apparatus of claim 11,

the receiving module is further used for receiving data;