Use Cases and Requirements of Dynamic Service Control based on Performance Monitoring in ACTN Architecture
draft-xu-actn-perf-dynamic-service-control-02

Network Working Group                                       Yunbin Xu 
Internet Draft                                                   CATR 
Intended status: Informational     
Expires: April, 25, 2015 
                                                         Guoying Zhang 
                                                                   CATR 
                                                                       
                                                         Weiqiang Cheng 
                                                                   CMCC 
                                                                       
                                                          Haomian Zheng 
                                                                 Huawei 
                                                                       
                                                       October 25, 2014 
 
                                      
       Use Cases and Requirements of Dynamic Service Control based on 
                Performance Monitoring in ACTN Architecture 
             draft-xu-actn-perf-dynamic-service-control-02.txt 

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Abstract 

   This document introduces the dynamic creation, modification and 
   optimization of services based on the performance monitoring in the 
   Abstraction and Control of Transport Networks (ACTN) architecture. 

Table of Contents 

    
   1. Introduction ....................................... 3 
   2. Use Cases and Requirements for Dynamic Service Control based on 
   Performance Monitoring .................................. 3 
      2.1. Dynamic Service Control based on Traffic Monitoring..... 3 
      2.2. Dynamic Service Control based on SLA monitoring........ 4 
   3. Workflows of ACTN Control Modules ....................... 5 
      3.1. Workflows for Traffic Monitoring based Dynamic Service 
      Control ........................................... 5 
      3.2. Workflows for SLA monitoring based Dynamic Service control6 
   4. Requirement for ACTN Interface ......................... 8 
      4.1. Interface Requirements for Dynamic Service Control Based on 
      Traffic Monitoring ................................... 8 
      4.2. Interface Requirements of Dynamic Service Control based on 
      SLA monitoring ...................................... 9 
      4.3. Discussion .................................... 10 
   5. Security Considerations .............................. 10 
   6. IANA Considerations ................................. 10 
   7. References ........................................ 10 
      7.1. Informative References........................... 10 
    
    

    

    

 
 
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1. Introduction 

   The rapid growth of Internet traffic and the emerging applications 
   such as cloud computing, datacenter interconnection, IP and optical 
   integration, LTE backhauling, are driving the transport network to 
   provide dynamic service provisioning based on the customer 
   requirement and high quality services with guaranteed performance.  

   For datacenter interconnection services, IP network transit links, 
   LTE backhauling services or some business customer services, the 
   traffic vary over time. However, traditional optical network could 
   only provide connection based on the maximum bandwidth needed. Based 
   on flow traffic monitoring, it is possible to adjust the connection 
   bandwidth according to the real bandwidth needed, create new 
   connections or increase bandwidth when network traffic exceeds some 
   certain threshold or reduce connection bandwidth when traffic drops 
   down, thus helping the customers to save cost. 

   On the other hand, customers have different SLA requirements. Some 
   customers such as financial service companies need ultra-low-latency 
   transmission, some other customers has strict requirements on bit 
   error rate (BER). In order to provide high quality services 
   according to customer SLA, network provider needs to measure the 
   service performance, and dynamically provision and optimize services 
   based on the performance monitoring result.  

   The optical transport networks support various performance  
   monitoring  mechanisms, such as traffic flow statistics, packet 
   delay, delay variation, throughput and packet-loss rate for MPLS-TP 
   and packet OTN networks, BER, FEC error correction counters for OTN 
   and DWDM networks, etc. These mechanisms can be used to support 
   dynamic service control based on performance monitoring. 

   The Abstraction and Control of Transport Networks (ACTN) described 
   in [ACTN-FWK] provides a centralized control architecture and open 
   interfaces that can transmit the customer requirements and policies 
   to the network, and provide customers with the network status to 
   make a decision. This draft mainly discusses the use cases and 
   requirements of dynamic service control based on performance 
   monitoring in ACTN architecture, the requirements for southbound and 
   northbound interface are also discussed. 

2. Use Cases and Requirements for Dynamic Service Control based on 
   Performance Monitoring 

2.1. Dynamic Service Control based on Traffic Monitoring 

   For LTE backhauling based on MPLS-TP packet transport networks(PTN) 
   or packet OTN, it is required that real time or semi-real time 
 
 
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   traffic monitoring of the network should be conducted so as to 
   resize or optimize traffic and do load balance. In IP and optical 
   network integration scenario, the optical network can bypass IP 
   transit traffic as far as the transit traffic bandwidth is large 
   enough to occupy the granularity of an ODUk. Network traffic 
   monitoring is important to facilitate automatic discovery of the 
   imbalance of network traffic, and initiate the network optimization, 
   thus helping the network operator or the virtual network service 
   provider to use the network more efficiently and save CAPEX/OPEX. 

   For datacenter interconnection or enterprise leased line services, 
   the traffic may vary over time and the customer want to pay for the 
   bandwidth they really used. Therefore, it is important to provide 
   some mechanism to monitor the network traffic, adjust and optimize 
   the services dynamically to help the customers save expenses.  

   In order to support these scenarios, the customers or client layer 
   network controllers need to send traffic monitoring and control 
   policies to the network, while the transport network should report 
   the traffic monitoring results and dynamically control and adjust 
   network connections based on the traffic optimization policy. The 
   service adjustment or network optimization operations normally 
   should be initiated with the decision of the customer. 

    

2.2. Dynamic Service Control based on SLA monitoring 

   Customer services have various SLA requirements, such as service 
   availability, latency, latency jitter, packet loss rate, BER, etc. 
   The transport network can satisfy service availability and BER 
   requirements by providing different protection and restoration 
   mechanisms. However, for other performance parameters, there are no 
   such mechanisms.  

   In order to provide high quality services according to customized 
   SLAs, one possible solution is to measure the service SLA related 
   performance parameters, and dynamically optimize service 
   provisioning based on the performance monitoring results.  

   When the network performance deterioration that violates the SLA is 
   detected, service optimization operations such as service rerouting, 
   creation of new connections could be automatically started. 

   In order to support this requirement, the customer should be able to 
   send its SLA information to the network, and the transport network 
   should determine which performance parameters need to be monitored 
   and the strategy of service optimization. When the service 
   performance degradation is detected, the transport network can 
 
 
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   notify the customer and immediately start the service optimization 
   procedure, so as to reduce the impact on the service. 

3. Workflows of ACTN Control Modules  

   In the ACTN architecture [ACTN-FWK], centralized controllers 
   including Physical Network Controller (PNC), Virtual Network 
   Controller (VNC), Customer Network Controller, and interfaces 
   between them have been defined. 

   For different use cases and scenarios the workflows across the 
   Customer Network Controller, VNC and PNC are different. 

3.1. Workflows for Traffic Monitoring based Dynamic Service Control 

   Figure 1 shows the workflows for dynamic service control based on 
   traffic monitoring. 

   In order to realize dynamic service creation, adjustment and 
   optimization based on traffic monitoring, the Customer Network 
   Controller should send traffic monitoring and traffic optimization 
   strategies to Virtual Network Controller (VNC). VNC sends the 
   corresponding path traffic monitoring request to PNC. Traffic 
   monitoring parameters and monitoring cycle need to be carried in 
   this request. 

   PNC gets the traffic monitoring results from the underlying physical 
   networks, translates the monitoring results of the physical topology 
   to the performance information of the abstract topology, and then 
   reports to VNC. According to the traffic optimization strategy 
   obtained from the Customer Network Controller, VNC determines the 
   optimization procedure, which may include but not limited to 
   adjusting an existing service, or creating a new connection for load 
   balance. If it needs to, then VNC send the traffic monitoring 
   results to the Customer Network Controller, indicating that the 
   services that need adjustment. 

   Customer Network Controller firstly confirms whether the service can 
   be optimized, and then sends a service adjustment request to VNC. 
   VNC will convert it into path modification or creation request, and 
   send it to PNC to complete the service optimization. After that, PNC 
   returns the optimization results to VNC, and VNC passes the results 
   to the Customer Network Controller. 

   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   | Customer   +-----------------------------+     | 
   | Network    | Dynamic Service Control APP |     | 
   | Controller +-----------------------------+     | 
 
 
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   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   1.Traffic|  /|\4.Traffic           | /|\ 
   Monitor& |   |  Monitor            |  | 8.Traffic 
   Optimize |   |  Result   5.Service |  | modify & 
   Policy   |   |             modify& |  | optimize 
           \|/  |       optimize Req.\|/ | result 
   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   | Virtual    +-------------------------------+   | 
   | Network    |Dynamic Service Control Agent  |   | 
   | Controller +-------------------------------+   | 
   |      +---------------+ +-------------------+   | 
   |      | Flow Optimize | | vConnection Agent |   | 
   |      +---------------+ +-------------------+   | 
   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   2. Path  |  /|\3.Traffic           |  | 
   Monitor  |   | Monitor             |  |7.Path 
   Request  |   | Result     6.Path   |  | modify & 
            |   |            modify&  |  | optimize 
           \|/  |       optimize Req.\|/ | result 
   +--------------------------------------------------------------+ 
   | Physical   +----------------------+ +----------------------+ | 
   | Network    | Network Provisioning | |Abstract Topology Gen.| | 
   | Controller +----------------------+ +----------------------+ | 
   |            +------------------+ +--------------------+       | 
   |            |Network Monitoring| |Physical Topology DB|       | 
   |            +------------------+ +--------------------+       | 
   +--------------------------------------------------------------+ 
    
      Figure 1 Workflows for dynamic service control based on traffic 
                                monitoring 

3.2. Workflows for SLA monitoring based Dynamic Service control  

   Figure 2 shows the workflows for dynamic service control based on 
   SLA related performance monitoring. 

   Customer Network Controller sends the customer service SLA 
   information and the performance based optimization strategy to VNC. 

   VNC will convert the SLA information to path performance monitoring 
   request, which carries the performance monitoring parameters such as 
   delay, jitter, packet loss, bit error rate and monitoring cycle, and 
   then send it to the PNC. 

 
 
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   PNC starts the performance monitoring in the underlying physical 
   networks, collects the results of related path, translates the 
   performance results of the physical topology to the performance 
   information of the abstract topology, and reports to VNC. VNC 
   determines whether the relevant performance parameters can satisfy 
   the SLA agreements. If the performance degradation seriously 
   influences the service, for example the service packet delay exceeds 
   the performance threshold, the VNC will immediately start the 
   optimization procedure for adjustment. Then the performance 
   monitoring results as well as the optimizing or adjusting results 
   will be send to the Customer Network Controller. 

   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   | Customer   +-----------------------------+     | 
   | Controller | Dynamic Service Control APP |     | 
   |            +-----------------------------+     | 
   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   1. SLA&  |  /|\6.SLA               | 
   Optimize |   |  Monitor, modify &  |   
   Policy   |   |  Optimize           | 
            |   |  Result             | 7.Ack 
           \|/  |                    \|/ 
   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   | Virtual    +-------------------------------+   | 
   | Network    |Dynamic Service Control Agent  |   | 
   | Controller +-------------------------------+   | 
   |      +---------------+ +-------------------+   | 
   |      | Flow Optimize | | vConnection Agent |   | 
   |      +---------------+ +-------------------+   | 
   +------------------------------------------------+ 
   2. Path  |  /|\3.SLA               | /|\ 
   Monitor  |   | Monitor             |  |5.Path 
   Request  |   | Result     4.Path   |  | Modify & 
            |   |            Modify&  |  | Optimize 
           \|/  |       Optimize Req.\|/ | Result 
   +--------------------------------------------------------------+ 
   | Physical   +----------------------+ +----------------------+ | 
   | Network    | Network Provisioning | |Abstract Topology Gen.| | 
   | Controller +----------------------+ +----------------------+ | 
   |            +------------------+ +--------------------+       | 
   |            |Network Monitoring| |Physical Topology DB|       | 
   |            +------------------+ +--------------------+       | 
   +--------------------------------------------------------------+ 

 
 
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        Figure 2 Workflows for dynamic service control based on SLA 
                                monitoring 

    

4. Requirement for ACTN Interface 

   ACTN Interfaces defined in [ACTN-FWK] includes the following: 

   o Consumer-VNC Interface (CVI): an interface between a Customer 
      Network Controller and a virtual network controller. 

   o VNC-PNC Interface (VPI): an interface between a virtual network 
      controller and a physical network controller. 

4.1. Interface Requirements for Dynamic Service Control Based on 
   Traffic Monitoring 

   According to the work flow of dynamic service control based on 
   performance monitoring, the information carried in CVI interface 
   mainly relates to the traffic monitoring and control strategy, while 
   the VPI interface mainly relates to transports path related traffic 
   monitoring parameters and results. 

   1. CVI Interface 

   The following information used by the Customer Network Controller 
   should besent to VNC through the CVI. 

   o Customer service performance monitoring strategy, including the 
      traffic monitoring object (the service need to be monitored), 
      monitoring parameters (e.g., transmitted and received bytes per 
      unit time), traffic monitoring cycle (e.g., 15 minutes, 24 hours), 
      threshold of traffic monitoring (e.g., high and low threshold), 
      etc. 

   o Customer service optimization strategy, such as enabling service 
      creation or modification when traffic exceeds the threshold. 

   The following information used by VNC should be sent to the Customer 
   Network Controller through VPI. 

   o Traffic monitoring results, to indicate if the traffic exceeds 
      the bandwidth threshold. 

   2. VPI Interface 

   The following parameters used by the VNC should be sent to PNC 
   through VPI. 
 
 
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   o Traffic monitoring parameters, monitoring object, monitoring cycle, 
      performance threshold. 

   The following information used by the PNC should be sent to VNC 
   through VPI. 

   o Traffic monitoring results. These results must be translated from 
      the physical topology to abstract topology by the Abstract 
      Topology Generalization module firstly. 

4.2. Interface Requirements of Dynamic Service Control based on SLA 
   monitoring 

   According to the work flow of dynamic service control based on SLA 
   monitoring, the information in VCI interface mainly contains the SLA 
   related information and measurement strategy, while the VPI 
   interface mainly transports path related performance monitoring 
   parameters and results. 

   1. CVI Interface 

   The following information used by the Customer Network Controller 
   should be sent to the VNC through CVI. 

   o SLA related performance requirement information, including the 
      required quality of service parameters (e.g., BER, delay, delay 
      jitter, packet loss rate, throughput, etc.). 

   o Service optimization strategy, including the service performance 
      degradation thresholds and the consequent operations that are 
      allowed (e.g., rerouting). 

   The following information is used by the Customer Network Controller 
   to send to VNC through CVI. 

   o Monitoring results of service performance, including performance 
      monitoring parameters, and the services that have been influenced.  

   o Service optimization results based on performance. 

   2. VPI Interface 

   The following information  used by VNC should be sent to PNC through 
   VPI. 

   o The path performance monitoring request parameters, monitoring 
      cycle and threshold. 

   The following information  of PNC should be sent  to VNC via VPI. 
 
 
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   o Path performance monitoring results. 

4.3. Discussion 

   Performance monitoring in a large scale network could generate a 
   huge amount of performance information. Therefore, the appropriate 
   way to deliver the information in CVI and VPI interfaces should be 
   carefully considered.  

5. Security Considerations 

   This document raises no new security issues. 

6. IANA Considerations 

   No new IANA considerations are raised by this document. 

7. References 

7.1. Informative References 

   [ACTN-FWK] Daniele C., Luyuan Fang, Yong Lee and Diego Lopez, 
             "Framework for Abstraction and Control of Transport 
             Networks",draft-ceccarelli-actn-framework-03. 

 

Authors' Address 

   Yunbin Xu 
   China Academy of Telecom Research 
   NO.52 Huayuan Beilu, Haidian District, Beijing, China 
   Email: xuyunbin@catr.cn 
    
   Guoying Zhang 
   China Academy of Telecom Research 
   NO.52 Huayuan Beilu, Haidian District, Beijing, China 
   Email: zhangguoying@catr.cn 
    
   Weiqiang Cheng 
   China Mobile Communication Company 
    
   Email:chengweiqiang@chinamobile.com 
    
   Haomian Zheng 
   Huawei Technologies 
   F3-1-B R&D Center, Bantian, Longgang District Shenzhen, China 
   Email: zhenghaomian@huawei.com 
    
 
 
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