KR101521475B1 - Method and apparatus for virtualized value-add service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a virtual added value service method and apparatus. The disclosed virtual added value service method comprises the steps of: providing a value added service on a first virtual machine to provide a value added service; monitoring the status of a value added service instance by activating a health checker on a second virtual machine; And the health checker determines the number of value-added service instances and adjusts the scale. Accordingly, since the state of the value added service instance running on the virtual machine can be monitored and the scale can be adjusted according to the result, if the application is applied to the NFV environment for the mobile value added service, the value added service instance can be additionally added There is an advantage.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VIRTUALIZED VALUE-ADD SERVICE [0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a virtual added-value service method and apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing a communication service through a value-added service network.

As will be appreciated, value-added services are used for basic communication services such as transmission in a value-added communication network, such as circuit switching, packet switching, protocol conversion, code conversion, communication rate conversion, information accumulation and transmission, media conversion, And the like.

This value added service is considered to be an opportunity for monetization of the next generation network in the field of mobile communication service. Currently, various mobile services such as mobile video optimization, WAN (Wide Area Network) acceleration, web optimization, security, Value-added services.

Prior art value-added service devices for providing such mobile value-added services have been implemented as physical appliances.

Thus, after provisioning, physical location changes or network configuration changes (e.g., IP address changes, etc.), performance / capacity changes, and function changes are virtually impossible.

By incorporating NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) technology into the value-added service device and implementing it in software in virtualization and cloud environments, it is possible to optimize resource usage by sharing hardware resources among network functions , It can be expected that new equipment can be introduced only by installing software without installing hardware.

However, in the NFV environment for mobile value-added services, a value-add service instance must be scaled-out at a time according to customer demand, which can not be supported.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2013-0101414, published on September 13, 2013.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the related art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a virtual value-added service instance capable of monitoring the state of a Value- A service method and apparatus are provided.

The problems to be solved by the present invention are not limited to those mentioned above, and another problem to be solved can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

A virtual added value service method according to one aspect of the present invention includes the steps of: providing a value added service by running a value added service instance on a first virtual machine; Monitoring a status of the value-added service instance by activating a health checker on a second virtual machine; And the health checker may adjust the scale by determining the number of the value-added service instances according to a result of the monitoring.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a virtual added value service apparatus comprising: a value added service unit including a value added service instance driven on a first virtual machine to provide a value added service; And a scale adjuster that is driven on a second virtual machine to monitor the status of the value added service instance and adjusts the scale by determining the number of the value added service instances according to a result of the monitoring.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the status of the value-added service instance running on the virtual machine can be monitored and the scale adjusted according to the result.

Therefore, if applied to the NFV environment for mobile value-added services, additional value-added service instances can be added at any time according to customer demand.

Furthermore, by creating and operating additional value-added service preliminary instances, it provides a fault-tolerance function that can continuously service even in the event of a value-added service instance failure. In addition, there is an effect that high-availability is guaranteed by restarting the value-added service instance that has been restored.

1 is a block diagram of a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a structural diagram showing a physical layout of a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a scale adjustment process by a virtual added value service method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a corresponding process at the time of occurrence of a failure by the virtual added value service method according to the embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a network configuration diagram illustrating an example of applying a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention to a mobile communication service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention and the manner of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. To fully disclose the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The following terms are defined in consideration of the functions in the embodiments of the present invention, which may vary depending on the intention of the user, the intention or the custom of the operator. Therefore, the definition should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The virtual added value service apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a value added service unit 110, a scale adjustment unit 120, and the like.

The value added service unit 110 includes one or more value added service instances that are operated on a virtual machine to provide value added services. The value added service unit 110 may include a value added service instance 111, a value added service instance 112, and a value added service instance 113 as illustrated in FIG. As such, the inclusion of three value added service instances is only an example, the number of which is determined by the scale adjustment unit 120, and the value added service instances 111, 112, and 113 can be added or removed.

In addition, the value added service unit 110 may further include a value added service provision instance 114. [ This value added service preliminary instance 114 is driven at the time of failure of any one of the value added service instances 111, 112 and 113, and provides a value added service in succession by switching the service session of the value added service instance in which the failure occurs.

The scale adjustment unit 120 includes a health checker 121 that is driven on a virtual machine and monitors the status of the value added service instances 111, 112, and 113. The health checker 121 adjusts the scale by determining the number of value-added service instances 111, 112 and 113 according to the result of monitoring for the value-added service instances 111, 112 and 113.

1, the virtual added value service apparatus 100 may further include a load adjustment unit 130 when the value added service unit 110 includes a plurality of value added service instances 111, 112, and 113 .

When the plurality of value added service instances 111, 112, and 113 are plural, the load adjusting unit 130 is driven on a virtual machine to perform mutual load balancing to distribute the load.

2 is a structural diagram showing a physical arrangement of a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown therein, the value added service instance 1 111, the value added service instance 2 112, the value added service instance 3 113, the value added service reserved instance 114, the health checker 121 and the load balancer 131 And are driven on different virtual machines 251 to 256. [

In addition, the value added service instance 1 111, the value added service instance 2 112 and the value added service instance 3 113 may be driven on the same physical node or on different physical nodes. 2 illustrates a case where the value added service instance 1 111 and the value added service instance 2 112 are driven on the physical node 1 211 and the value added service instance 3 113 is driven on the physical node 2 212 .

The value added service provision instance 114 is then run on a physical node different from the service instance 1 111, the value added service instance 2 112 and the value added service instance 3 113. [ FIG. 2 illustrates the case where only the value-added service provisional instance 114 is run on physical node 3 213. FIG.

A host operating system 221, 222, 223, hypervisors 231, 232, 233, and the like are disposed on the physical node 1 211, the physical node 2 212, Virtual machines 241, 242 and 243, virtual machines 251, 252, 253, 254, 255 and 256 and guest operating systems 261, 262, 263, 264, 265 and 266, Are sequentially arranged. Value added service instance 1 (111), Value added service instance 2 (112), Value added service instance 3 (113), Value added service reserved instance (114) are added to different guest operating systems (261, 262, 263, 264, 265, A health checker 121, and a load balancer 131 are disposed.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a scale adjustment process by a virtual added value service method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown therein, the virtual added value service method includes a step (301) of running a value added service instance on a virtual machine to provide a value added service, a step (303) of running a health checker on a virtual machine to monitor the status of a value added service instance, .

And adjusting (305, 307) the scale by further adding value-added service instances by determining the number of value-added service instances when load balancing is required according to a result of the monitoring.

In addition, when the plurality of value-added service instances are created, the load balancer further includes balancing the service load by balancing the service load (step 309).

Thereafter, the method further includes monitoring (311, 313) load status while providing value-added services through a plurality of value-added service instances.

In addition, if the load concentration is possible according to a result of the monitoring, the health checker further includes a step (315, 317) of adjusting the scale by removing the added value service instance added at step 307.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a corresponding process at the time of occurrence of a failure by the virtual added value service method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

As shown therein, the virtual added value service method includes steps (401, 403) of creating a value added service spare instance, and monitoring (405) a value added service instance providing value added service.

The method further includes steps (407 to 411) for continuously providing value-added services by switching the service session to the value-added service spare instance when a failure occurs in the value-added service instance during monitoring.

The method further includes a step 413 of using the value added service instance recovered from the failure as a value added service spare instance by re-driving.

Hereinafter, a virtual added value service method performed by a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG.

First, when the virtual added value service apparatus 100 is activated, the health checker 121 of the scale adjustment unit 120 is created, and the operator creates the value added service instance 111 by using the health checker 121. Then, the value added service is provided by the value added service unit 110 including the value added service instance 1 (111) running on the virtual machine (301).

Here, a representative IP address is assigned to the virtual machine in which the value added service instance 1 (111) is running.

At this time, the health checker 121 is driven on the virtual machine to monitor the state of the value added service instance 111 (303).

The health checker 121 further determines 307 the value-added service instance by determining the number of value-added service instances when the load distribution is required (305) according to the monitoring result. For example, a value-added service instance 2 (112) is additionally generated to adjust the scale.

Here, the health checker 121 can determine the number of value-added service instances according to at least one of throughput, transaction per seconds (TPS), central processing unit (CPU) load or memory load. For example, scale can be adjusted on the basis of throughput for large capacity traffic processing, scale can be adjusted on the basis of TPS for a large amount of signal processing, For services, the scale can be adjusted based on the central processing unit load or the memory load.

In this manner, when there are a plurality of value-added service instances, the load balancer 131 of the load adjustment unit 130 performs load balancing to distribute the service load to the value added service instance 1 (111) and the value added service instance 2 (112) .

Here, when there are a plurality of value-added service instances, a representative IP address is assigned to the virtual machine in which the load balancer 131 is running. This is so that when a plurality of virtual added value service apparatuses 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention form a service chain, the service chain is maintained without changing a rule for forming a service chain .

Thereafter, the load status is monitored (313) while the value added service is provided 311 through the value added service instance 1 (111) and the value added service instance 2 (112).

If the load concentration is possible according to the result of the monitoring in step 313, the health checker 121 removes the added value service instance 112 added in step 307 and adjusts the scale (317). That is, the lifecycle of the value-added service instance is determined and managed by the health checker 121.

On the other hand, the health checker 121 generates the value-added service provisional instance 114 while the value-added service unit 110 provides the value added service, and adds value-added service instances, for example, the value added service instance 1 111, (405).

Here, the plurality of value-added service instances 111, 112, and 113 and the value-added service spare instance 114 may share a state through synchronization using mirroring. Alternatively, the state may be shared using a shared database to minimize network overhead due to synchronization.

Then, when a failure occurs in the value-added service instance 1 (111) during the monitoring of step 405 (407), the service session is switched 409 to the value-added service spare instance 114 to continuously provide the value-added service 411.

In addition, the value added service instance 1 111 restored from the failure is restarted to wait for use as a new value added service spare instance 413. That is, if a failure occurs in the value added service provisional instance 114 providing the value added service by step 409, the value added service can be continuously provided through the pending value added service instance 1 (111).

5 is a network configuration diagram illustrating an example of applying a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention to a mobile communication service.

The virtual added value service apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention can be applied to the SGi / Gi interface apparatus 510 disposed between the core network 501 and the packet data network 503 in the mobile communication service system . 515 and 516 constituting the SGi / Gi interface apparatus 510. These virtual added value service apparatuses 514, 515 and 516 can be applied to mobile video optimization, WAN Acceleration, web optimization, security, firewall, and so on. Traffic is input to the software-defined networking (SDN) switch unit 512 in FIG. 5 and traffic is transferred to the virtual packet analyzing apparatus 513 or the virtual added value service apparatuses 514, 515, 516, respectively. The virtual packet analyzing apparatus 513 may analyze a packet of traffic to obtain a DNS (domain name system) name or the like, and may also be implemented by applying a virtual added value service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the status of the value added service instance running on the virtual machine can be monitored and the scale can be adjusted according to the result.

Therefore, if applied to the NFV environment for mobile value-added services, additional value-added service instances can be added at any time according to customer demand.

Furthermore, by additionally creating and operating a value-added service preliminary instance, it provides a fault-tolerance function that can continuously service even in the event of a value-added service instance failure. In addition, it re-drives the fault-recovered value-added service instance to guarantee high usability.

Each block of the block diagrams attached hereto and combinations of steps of the flowchart diagrams may be performed by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded into a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus so that the instructions, which may be executed by a processor of a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, And means for performing the functions described in each step are created. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer usable or computer readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to implement the functionality in a particular manner so that the computer usable or computer readable memory It is also possible for the instructions stored in the block diagram to produce a manufacturing item containing instruction means for performing the functions described in each block or flowchart of the block diagram. Computer program instructions may also be stored on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment so that a series of operating steps may be performed on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to create a computer- It is also possible that the instructions that perform the processing equipment provide the steps for executing the functions described in each block of the block diagram and at each step of the flowchart.

Also, each block or each step may represent a module, segment, or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function (s). It should also be noted that in some alternative embodiments, the functions mentioned in the blocks or steps may occur out of order. For example, two blocks or steps shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently, or the blocks or steps may sometimes be performed in reverse order according to the corresponding function.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are intended to illustrate rather than limit the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the status of the value added service instance running on the virtual machine can be monitored and the scale adjusted according to the result.

The present invention can be applied to the field of mobile virtual added value services of the NFV environment for mobile value-added services and the system. For example, it can be used when implementing an SGi interface or a Gi interface between a core network and a packet data network.

100: virtual added value service apparatus 110: value added service unit
111: Value-added service instance 1 112: Value-added service instance 2
113: Value-added service instance 3 114: Value-added service spare instance
120: Scale adjustment unit 121: Health checker
130: load adjustment unit 131: load balancer

Claims (11)

Adding a value-added service instance on a first virtual machine to provide a value-added service;
Monitoring a status of the value-added service instance by activating a health checker on a second virtual machine;
Adjusting the scale by determining the number of the value-added service instances according to a result of the monitoring;
Performing load balancing among the plurality of value-added service instances when load balancers are driven on a third virtual machine;
The virtual value added service method comprising: delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the number of value-added service instances is determined according to at least one of throughput, transaction per seconds (TPS), central processing unit (CPU) load, or memory load. The method according to claim 1,
When the value-added service instance fails, activating a value-added service spare instance on the fourth virtual machine to switch the service session of the value-added service instance to provide the value-added service;
Wherein the virtual value added service method further comprises: 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the value-added service preliminary instance is run on a physical node different from the physical node on which the value-added service instance is running. 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the value added service instance and the value added service spare instance share a state using a synchronization using mirroring or a shared database. The method according to claim 1,
And a representative IP address is assigned to the first virtual machine in which the value-added service instance is running. The method according to claim 1,
And a representative IP address is assigned to the third virtual machine in which the load balancer is running. A value added service unit including a value-add service instance running on a first virtual machine for providing value-added services;
A scale adjusting unit driven on a second virtual machine to monitor the status of the value added service instance and to adjust the scale by determining the number of value added service instances according to a result of the monitoring;
A load adjustment unit driven on a third virtual machine to perform load balancing among the plurality of value added service instances;
And a virtual value added service device. delete 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the scale adjustment unit includes a health checker for generating a value added service spare instance that continuously provides the value added service by switching a service session when a failure occurs in the value added service instance.

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