CN105812217A - Virtual network division method and multi-controller agent device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for dividing a virtual network. The method includes: a multi-controller agent device acquires new application demand information; the multi-controller agent device reads resource occupation information and virtual network division information; the multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the new application requirement information, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network to generate a configuration information; the multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation. The invention also discloses a multi-controller agent device at the same time.

Description

A virtual network division method and multi-controller agent device

technical field

The present invention relates to a software-defined network (SDN, Software Defined Network), in particular to a method for dividing a virtual network and a multi-controller agent device.

Background technique

In a software-defined network, the forwarding policy is notified to the OpenFlow router by the controller (Controller) through the form of the flow table, and the router forwards and processes the data packet according to the rules formulated by the flow table. It can be seen that the flow table is the network forwarding data packet. Important reference.

In the usual state, the data packets sent by multiple applications in the upper layer have different requirements for service indicators (QoS, Quality of Service) indicators such as network bandwidth. For these different applications, they can be delivered through the flow table definitions in multiple controllers. Resource control requests for network devices. As shown in Figure 1, when there are multiple controllers in the OpenFlow network, the FlowVisor function is usually used to allow multiple controllers to control an OpenFlow switch at the same time, but each controller can only control a certain number of controllers passing through the OpenFlow switch. A virtual network (that is, Slice), so that FlowVisor can complete the isolation and division of different virtual network resources between the controller and the network.

The above method of accessing the network has the following disadvantages: 1), FlowVisor divides the physical network into multiple logical networks, assigns each logical network to different applications, and isolates traffic to a certain extent, which can meet the QoS for specific services , but from another point of view, this method of network segmentation also reduces the efficiency of the overall network: that is, a single Slice network only carries a certain type of service, even if the virtual network capacity is still idle, other services cannot be used ; 2) Although the allocation method of the virtual network can be re-planned by configuring FlowVisor and the controller, the planned multiple virtual networks still cannot meet the changing upper-level applications in real time. For example, after the overall network is divided by FlowVisor, it supports The number of virtual networks with end-to-end delay in a specific time is fixed. If a new application request needs to meet the same delay requirement at a certain moment, it cannot meet the demand in the current virtual network division scenario. .

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the embodiment of the present invention provides a software-defined network and a multi-controller agent device to solve at least one problem in the prior art, which can improve the utilization rate of network resources and meet the needs of new application requirements after the arrival of new applications. Implementation and deployment of network resources, thereby avoiding the problem that Flowvisor fixedly allocates the virtual network and cannot adjust it in real time.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the present invention is realized like this:

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for dividing a virtual network, the method comprising:

The multi-controller agent device obtains the requirement information of the new application;

The multi-controller agent device reads the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor;

The multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network, and generates configuration information;

The multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation.

In the second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a multi-controller agent device, the multi-controller agent device includes an acquisition unit, a read unit, a generation unit, and a sending unit, wherein:

The acquiring unit is configured to acquire demand information of a new application;

The reading unit is used to read the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor;

The generating unit is configured to combine or arrange virtual networks according to the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network, and the division information of the virtual network, and generate configuration information;

The sending unit is configured to send the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a software-defined network and a multi-controller agent device, wherein the multi-controller agent device obtains the demand information of a new application; the multi-controller agent device reads the resource occupancy of an existing virtual network from FlowVisor information and virtual network division information; the multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the demand information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network , generating configuration information; the multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation; thus, It can improve the utilization rate of network resources, and at the same time, it can meet the deployment requirements of network resources after the arrival of new application requirements, thereby avoiding the problem that Flowvisor fixedly allocates virtual networks and cannot be adjusted in real time.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an SDN network control architecture in the related art;

2 is a schematic diagram of the positional relationship between a multi-controller agent device and each network element in an existing network architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a first implementation flow of a method for dividing a virtual network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram of the composition and structure of a multi-controller agent device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a second schematic diagram of the implementation flow of a method for dividing a virtual network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The technical solutions of the present invention will be further elaborated below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

Aiming at the problems existing in the above-mentioned prior art, the embodiment of the present invention provides a virtual network division method, which can make full use of the controller (Controller) and FlowVisor architecture in the prior art, and only needs to add the existing controller, FlowVisor Add a device to the architecture (this device will be referred to as a multi-controller agent (Broker) device for software-defined network in the following), or perform some functions on the existing controller and the controller in the FlowVisor architecture (the added functions It can also be called a multi-controller agent device). In the specific implementation process, the software-defined network multi-controller agent device can be implemented in the form of software, and of course it can also be implemented by calling the program through the processor in the controller. It should be noted that the processor in the actual application A logic circuit can be used instead, and the processor includes a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor (MPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and the like. Through the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the real-time deployment of network resources and virtual networks can be realized more flexibly, and the deficiencies of the existing OpenFlow technology are further improved.

The following introduces the multi-controller proxy device provided by the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the positional relationship between the multi-controller proxy device according to the embodiment of the present invention and each network element in the existing network architecture. As shown in FIG. 2 , multiple The controller proxy device is located between the application and the controller/FlowVisor. The network elements in this network architecture mainly include: multi-controller proxy devices, controllers and FlowVisor, where the role of the controller is to transfer the network bandwidth in the controller The flow table generated by the intelligent allocation unit is written into the routing table of the OpenFlow switch, where the flow table is used to indicate the information of the data packet transmission path, so as to control the switch to forward the data packet; FlowVisor is located in a group of switches and software-defined networks or Between multiple networks, FlowVisor is used to manage bandwidth, processor utilization and flow meters.

Among them, the multi-controller agent device can be implemented as an independent entity, or it can be realized by relying on the controllers in the prior art. The main functions of the multi-controller agent device include: 1) Read the division information of the virtual network by FlowVisor ; Specifically, read the division information of the virtual network from the Controller/FlowVisor, the division information of the virtual network includes the number of divided virtual networks, and the carrying capacity of each virtual network, wherein the carrying capacity of the virtual network includes bandwidth, time delay request etc. 2) Combining or arranging the virtual networks according to the read division information of the virtual networks. Wherein, combination or orchestration mainly includes the combination of bearer capabilities, for example, the combination of bandwidth.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 2 , FlowVisor can virtualize the network into slices (Slice) according to the application requirements of the upper layer, that is, to obtain a virtual network. The service flow of one or more applications corresponds to a virtual network, and the virtual network becomes a dedicated network serving a specific application. When new application requirements appear, the application can notify the multi-controller agent device, and the multi-controller agent device will extract and allocate resources according to the existing virtual network resource occupation information divided by Flowvisor, for the use of new application requirements. On the one hand It further improves the utilization rate of network resources. On the other hand, it also meets the deployment requirements of network resources after the arrival of new application requirements, and avoids the problem that the original virtual network fixedly allocated by Flowvisor cannot be adjusted in real time.

Based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a method for dividing a virtual network is provided below. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an implementation flow diagram of the method for dividing a virtual network according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the method includes:

Step 301, the multi-controller agent device obtains the requirement information of the new application;

Here, the application requirement information includes at least bandwidth, and may also include delay information and the like in addition to bandwidth.

Step 302, the multi-controller agent device reads the resource occupancy information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor;

Here, the division information of the virtual network includes the number of divided virtual networks, and the carrying capacity of each virtual network, where the carrying capacity of the virtual network includes bandwidth, delay requirements, and the like.

Step 303, the multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network, and generates configuration information;

Here, step 303 includes: the multi-controller agent device determines unoccupied resource information according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network;

The multi-controller agent device generates configuration information according to the unoccupied resource information and the requirement information of the new application.

Step 304, the multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation.

In the embodiment of the present invention, before the multi-controller agent device obtains the requirement information of the new application, the method further includes:

Step S311, the multi-controller agent device monitors whether there is a new application requirement;

Step S312, when there is a new application requirement, the multi-controller agent device acquires the requirement information of the new application;

Step S313, when there is no new application requirement, the multi-controller agent device continues to monitor whether there is a new application requirement.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the method also includes:

Step S321, the multi-controller agent device judges whether the divided virtual network can meet the QoS requirements of each existing application;

Step S322, when the divided virtual network cannot meet the QoS requirements of the existing applications, the multi-controller agent device reads the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor;

Step S323, the multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network, and generates configuration information;

Step S324, the multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation.

Based on the foregoing virtual network division method, an embodiment of the present invention provides a multi-controller agent device. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the composition and structure of a multi-controller agent device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 400 includes an acquiring unit 401, a reading unit 402, a generating unit 403, and a sending unit 404, wherein:

The acquiring unit 401 is configured to acquire demand information of a new application;

Here, the application requirement information includes at least bandwidth, and may also include delay information and the like in addition to bandwidth.

The reading unit 402 is configured to read the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor;

Here, the division information of the virtual network includes the number of divided virtual networks and the carrying capacity of each virtual network, wherein the carrying capacity of the virtual network includes bandwidth and delay requirements.

The generating unit 403 is configured to combine or arrange the virtual network according to the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network, and generate configuration information;

The sending unit 404 is configured to send the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the multi-controller agent device further includes a monitoring unit, which is used to monitor whether there is a new application requirement; when there is a new application requirement, trigger the acquisition unit; when there is no new application requirement, the The monitoring unit continues to monitor whether there is a new application requirement.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the multi-controller agent device further includes a judging unit for judging whether the divided virtual network can meet the QoS requirements of each existing application; when the divided virtual network cannot meet the QoS requirements of each existing application When required, trigger the reading unit;

Correspondingly, the reading unit is configured to read the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor;

The generating unit is configured to combine or organize virtual networks according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network to generate configuration information;

The sending unit is configured to send the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the generation unit includes a determination module and a generation module, wherein:

The determination module is configured to determine unoccupied resource information according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network;

The generating module is configured to generate configuration information according to the unoccupied resource information and the requirement information of the new application.

Based on the above-mentioned Figure 2, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for dividing a virtual network, and Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the second implementation process of the method for dividing a virtual network according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Figure 5, the method includes:

Step 501, FlowVisor divides virtual network slices according to application requirements;

Step 502, the multi-controller agent device judges whether the divided virtual network can meet the QoS requirements of each application, if yes, enter step 503; if not, enter step 504;

Step 503, the multi-controller agent device monitors in real time whether there is a new application requirement, if yes, go to step 504; if not, go back to step 503;

Step 504, the multi-controller agent device obtains the demand information of the new application, and reads the resource occupancy information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor; or, the multi-controller agent device reads the existing virtual network from FlowVisor Network resource occupation information and virtual network division information;

Step 505, the multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network, and the division information of the virtual network to obtain configuration information; or, the multi-controller The server agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network to obtain configuration information.

Here, the combination or arrangement of the virtual network by the multi-controller agent device according to the demand information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network is actually a secondary allocation of network resources .

Step 506, the multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and FlowVisor;

Here, the configuration information refers to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network to combine or organize the virtual network, wherein the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network may be bandwidth occupation, and the virtual network Network division information includes several virtual networks in the existing network, each virtual network includes several nodes, and the bandwidth between nodes, etc.; combination, generally speaking, can be a recombination of bandwidth links/paths information.

Step 507, the controller and FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information for resource allocation; then send the flow table to the OpenFlow switch;

In step 508, the OpenFlow switch forwards and processes the data packet according to the acquired latest flow table.

As shown in Table 1 below, if the network is sliced by Flowvisor, five virtual networks 51 to 55 are constructed, wherein each virtual network in virtual network 51 to virtual network 55 has 5 bandwidths, and in virtual network 51 The single-channel bandwidth is 1Mbps, the single-channel bandwidth in the virtual network 52 is 2Mbps, the single-channel bandwidth in the virtual network 53 is 3Mbps, the single-channel bandwidth in the virtual network 54 is 4Mbps, and the single-channel bandwidth in the virtual network 55 is 5Mbps. In the virtual network 51, the number of bandwidths occupied by applications is 3, therefore, there are still 2 bandwidths in the virtual network 51 available for applications to use. In the virtual network 52, the number of bandwidths occupied by applications is 2, therefore, there are still 3 bandwidths in the virtual network 52 available for applications to use. In the virtual network 53, the number of bandwidth bars occupied by applications is 5, therefore, there is no remaining bandwidth in the virtual network 53 for applications to use. In the virtual network 54, the number of bandwidths occupied by the application is 4, therefore, there is still 1 bandwidth in the virtual network 54 available for the application to use. In the virtual network 55, the number of bandwidth bars occupied by applications is 5, therefore, there is no remaining bandwidth in the virtual network 55 for applications to use.

Table 1

It can be seen from the above that the bandwidth of 5 Mbps in the virtual network 55 has been fully occupied by applications, and the five bandwidths of 3 Mbps in the virtual network 53 have also been fully occupied by applications. At this time, if the new application requires a bandwidth of 5 Mbps, there will be no new bandwidth available for the new application in the virtual network 55. In other words, if the current virtual network isolation and division method is used, the new application cannot be satisfied. needs. However, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention can meet the bandwidth requirements of new applications. In the embodiment of the present invention, the multi-controller agent device can read the current virtual network occupation from Flowvisor, and then On the basis of virtual network division, allocate idle links of other virtual networks for this application to meet new application requirements. For example, use the 1M bandwidth in virtual network 1 to superimpose the 4M bandwidth in virtual network 54 to meet new applications. need.

It should be pointed out here that: the description of the above device embodiment is similar to the description of the above method embodiment, and has similar beneficial effects as the method embodiment, so it will not be repeated here. For the technical details not disclosed in the device embodiments of the present invention, please refer to the description of the method embodiments of the present invention for understanding, and to save space, details are not repeated here.

It should be understood that reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic related to the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that in various embodiments of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its functions and internal logic, rather than by the embodiment of the present invention. The implementation process constitutes any limitation.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods may be implemented in other ways. The device embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as: multiple units or components can be combined, or May be integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored, or not implemented. In addition, the coupling, or direct coupling, or communication connection between the components shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units may be electrical, mechanical or other forms of.

The units described above as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units; they may be located in one place or distributed to multiple network units; Part or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present invention can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can be used as a single unit, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit; the above-mentioned integration The unit can be realized in the form of hardware or in the form of hardware plus software functional unit.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that all or part of the steps to realize the above method embodiments can be completed by hardware related to program instructions, and the aforementioned programs can be stored in computer-readable storage media. When the program is executed, the execution includes The steps of the above-mentioned method embodiments; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes such as removable storage devices, read-only memory (ReadOnlyMemory, ROM), magnetic disks or optical disks.

Alternatively, if the above-mentioned integrated units of the present invention are implemented in the form of software function modules and sold or used as independent products, they can also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for Make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) execute all or part of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program codes such as removable storage devices, ROMs, magnetic disks or optical disks.

The above is only a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Anyone skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention. Should be covered within the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (12)

1. A virtual network division method, characterized in that the method comprises: The multi-controller agent device obtains the requirement information of the new application; The multi-controller agent device reads the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor; The multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network, and generates configuration information; The multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, before the multi-controller agent device obtains the requirement information of a new application, the method further comprises: The multi-controller agent device monitors whether there is a new application requirement; When there is a new application requirement, the multi-controller agent device acquires the requirement information of the new application. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises: The multi-controller proxy device judges whether the divided virtual network can meet the QoS requirements of existing applications; When the divided virtual network cannot meet the QoS requirements of existing applications, the multi-controller agent device reads the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor; The multi-controller agent device combines or arranges the virtual network according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network, and generates configuration information; The multi-controller agent device sends the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation. 4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the method further comprises: When there is no new application requirement, the multi-controller agent device continues to monitor whether there is a new application requirement. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the division information of the virtual network includes the number of divided virtual networks and the bearing capacity of each virtual network, wherein the bearing capacity of the virtual network includes bandwidth, time delay request. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the multi-controller agent device is based on the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the The virtual network division information combines or orchestrates virtual networks to generate configuration information, including: The multi-controller agent device determines unoccupied resource information according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network; The multi-controller agent device generates configuration information according to the unoccupied resource information and the requirement information of the new application. 7. A multi-controller proxy device, characterized in that, the multi-controller proxy device includes an acquisition unit, a reading unit, a generation unit and a sending unit, wherein: The acquiring unit is configured to acquire demand information of a new application; The reading unit is used to read the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor; The generating unit is configured to combine or arrange virtual networks according to the requirement information of the new application, the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network, and the division information of the virtual network, and generate configuration information; The sending unit is configured to send the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation. 8. The multi-controller agent device according to claim 7, characterized in that, the multi-controller agent device also includes a monitoring unit for monitoring whether there is a new application requirement; when there is a new application requirement, trigger The acquisition unit. 9. The multi-controller agent device according to claim 7, wherein the multi-controller agent device further comprises a judging unit for judging whether the divided virtual network can meet the QoS requirements of existing applications; When the divided virtual network cannot meet the QoS requirements of each existing application, the reading unit is triggered; Correspondingly, the reading unit is configured to read the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network from FlowVisor; The generating unit is configured to combine or organize virtual networks according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network to generate configuration information; The sending unit is configured to send the configuration information to the controller and the FlowVisor, so that the controller and the FlowVisor generate a flow table according to the configuration information, and then complete resource allocation. 10. The multi-controller agent device according to claim 8, wherein the monitoring unit is further configured to continue to monitor whether there is a new application requirement when there is no new application requirement. 11. The multi-controller agent device according to claim 7, wherein the division information of the virtual network includes the number of divided virtual networks and the bearing capacity of each virtual network, wherein the bearing capacity of the virtual network Including bandwidth and delay requirements. 12. The multi-controller agent device according to any one of claims 7 to 11, wherein the generating unit includes a determining module and a generating module, wherein: The determination module is configured to determine unoccupied resource information according to the resource occupation information of the existing virtual network and the division information of the virtual network; The generating module is configured to generate configuration information according to the unoccupied resource information and the requirement information of the new application.