SELF-MIGRATING MICRO-SERVICES

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of distributed computing; and more specifically, to a process and system for an automated auctioning to place autonomous and self- migrating micro-services with distributed computing resources.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Distributed computing paradigms parcel tasks and functions such that they can be executed and moved to be executed to available computing resources that may be local or remote including distribution to computing systems that are connected to one another via interconnects (e.g., multi-processor systems) and networks (e.g., cloud computing). These distributed computing paradigms and architectures can rely on various complimentary technologies including virtualization. Virtualization is the abstraction of computing architecture, software and hardware such that software tasks and functions can be executed within virtual machines, containers or similar environments that can then be easily moved to available computing resources within a distributed system.

[0003] Cloud computing is an example distributed computing architecture that relies on distributed computing, virtualization and related technologies. Cloud computing offers a set of remote computing resources to tenants who contract with a cloud provider to utilize the computing resources that are shared with other tenants and managed by the cloud provider. Autonomic computing automates the process through which the cloud provider can provision resources on demand from the tenant. Automation speeds up the process, reduces labor costs and reduces the possibility of human errors. Cloud computing adopts concepts from Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA) that helps breaks down problems faced by prospective tenants into services that can be integrated to provide a solution. Cloud computing provides all of its resources as services, and uses standards and best practices defined by SOA.

[0004] There are similar and inter-related technologies such as Fog computing that also provide a distributed computing paradigm and cloud-like services. In the case of Fog computing these services are provide at the edge of the network and attempts to seamlessly integrates edge computing devices as well as cloud resources along with its own infrastructure. Fog computing benefits from the edge devices' close proximity to users to avoid "local" resource contention. Fog computing coordinates the use of geographically distributed edge devices, while leveraging the on-demand scalability of cloud resources. [0005] A Hybrid cloud is another distributed computing paradigm. Hybrid clouds are compositions of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public clouds). The constituent cloud infrastructures remain unique entities. The constituent cloud infrastructures are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds).

[0006] However, with all of these technologies where a user is using distributed computing resources external to its own computing resources, such as the resources made available in a cloud, fog or hybrid cloud, the available resources are determined based on a contract or service agreement between the user (i.e., the tenant) and the service provider (e.g., the cloud provider). The negotiation of the service contract is a manual process between administrators or business people from the respective organizations. This service agreement may have a fixed duration and limits the user/tenant to those services provided by the contracted service provider.

SUMMARY

[0007] In one embodiment, a method is implemented by a computing device for an auction engine that brokers services offered by a set of providers to an autonomous workload as part of an auction as a service. The auction engine receives a selection of at least one provider in the set of providers from the autonomous workload from which to solicit bids. The auction engine receives a set of bids for handling the autonomous workload form the selected at least one provider. The auction engine receives a selection of at least one bid of the selected at least one provider. Further, the auction engine notifies the selected at least one provider of the bid selection.

[0008] In another embodiment, a network device implements the method for the auction engine that brokers services offered by a set of providers to the autonomous workload as part of the auction as a service. The network device includes a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein the auction engine, and a processor coupled to the non-transitory computer readable medium. The processor is configured to execute the auction engine. The auction engine receives a selection of at least one provider in the set of providers from the autonomous workload from which to solicit bids, receives a set of bids for handling the autonomous workload form the selected at least one provider, receives a selection of at least one bid of the selected at least one provider, and notifies the selected at least one provider of the bid selection.

[0009] In one embodiment, a computing device implements the method for the auction engine that brokers services offered by a set of providers to an autonomous workload as part of an auction as a service. The computing device executes a plurality of virtual machines for implementing network function virtualization (NFV). The computing device includes a non- transitory computer readable medium having stored therein the auction engine, and a processor coupled to the non-transitory computer readable medium. The processor is configured to execute the plurality of virtual machines. The plurality of virtual machines execute the auction engine. The auction engine receives a selection of at least one provider in the set of providers from the autonomous workload from which to solicit bids, receives a set of bids for handling the autonomous workload form the selected at least one provider, receives a selection of at least one bid of the selected at least one provider, and notifies the selected at least one provider of the bid selection.

[0010] In a further embodiment, a control plane device is configured to implement a control plane of a software defined networking (SDN) network including a network device in a network with a plurality of network devices, wherein the control plane device is configured to implement the method for the auction engine that brokers services offered by a set of providers to the autonomous workload as part of the auction as a service. The control plane device includes a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein the auction engine, and a processor coupled to the non-transitory computer readable medium. The processor is configured to execute the auction engine. The auction engine receives a selection of at least one provider in the set of providers from the autonomous workload from which to solicit bids, receives a set of bids for handling the autonomous workload form the selected at least one provider, receives a selection of at least one bid of the selected at least one provider, and notifies the selected at least one provider of the bid selection.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] The invention may best be understood by referring to the following description and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrate embodiments of the invention. In the drawings:

[0012] Figure 1 is a diagram of one embodiment of a distributed computing network.

[0013] Figure 2 is a diagram of one embodiment of a network with an auction engine.

[0014] Figure 3A is a diagram of one embodiment of an auction engine process for initiation.

[0015] Figure 3B is a flowchart of one embodiment of the auction engine initiation process.

[0016] Figure 4A is a diagram of one embodiment of an auction engine resource selection process.

[0017] Figure 4B is a diagram of one embodiment of an auction engine resource selection process.

[0018] Figure 5 is a flowchart of one embodiment of an auction engine bidding process. [0019] Figure 6 is a diagram of one embodiment of a workload migration process.

[0020] Figure 7A illustrates connectivity between network devices (NDs) within an exemplary network, as well as three exemplary implementations of the NDs, according to some

embodiments of the invention.

[0021] Figure 7B illustrates an exemplary way to implement a special-purpose network device according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0022] Figure 7C illustrates various exemplary ways in which virtual network elements (VNEs) may be coupled according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0023] Figure 7D illustrates a network with a single network element (NE) on each of the NDs, and within this straight forward approach contrasts a traditional distributed approach (commonly used by traditional routers) with a centralized approach for maintaining reachability and forwarding information (also called network control), according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0024] Figure 7E illustrates the simple case of where each of the NDs implements a single NE, but a centralized control plane has abstracted multiple of the NEs in different NDs into (to represent) a single NE in one of the virtual network(s), according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0025] Figure 7F illustrates a case where multiple VNEs are implemented on different NDs and are coupled to each other, and where a centralized control plane has abstracted these multiple VNEs such that they appear as a single VNE within one of the virtual networks, according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0026] Figure 8 illustrates a general-purpose control plane device with centralized control plane (CCP) software 850), according to some embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The following description describes methods and apparatus for an automated auction engine that is able to automatically place an "autonomic workload" with distributed computing resource providers. The auction engine is part of an Auction as a Service (AaaS) system that enables both distributed resource providers and entities seeking to have their workloads serviced to communicate their requirements, request, receive and select multiple offers in real time as well as trigger a self-migration of the workloads to the selected resource provider(s). Thus, the methods and apparatus enable more cost effective and efficient selection of resources available from multiple possible providers and avoid an entity seeking services having to be locked into a single provider and service agreement. At a system level this is a more efficient use of computing resources and providers can have dynamic cost schemes in relation to the loads or available resources that are anticipated for the time of the request.

[0028] The following description, numerous specific details such as logic implementations, opcodes, means to specify operands, resource partitioning/sharing/duplication implementations, types and interrelationships of system components, and logic partitioning/integration choices are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be appreciated, however, by one skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without such specific details. In other instances, control structures, gate level circuits and full software instruction sequences have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art, with the included descriptions, will be able to implement appropriate functionality without undue experimentation.

[0029] References in the specification to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0030] Bracketed text and blocks with dashed borders (e.g., large dashes, small dashes, dot- dash, and dots) may be used herein to illustrate optional operations that add additional features to embodiments of the invention. However, such notation should not be taken to mean that these are the only options or optional operations, and/or that blocks with solid borders are not optional in certain embodiments of the invention.

[0031] In the following description and claims, the terms "coupled" and "connected," along with their derivatives, may be used. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. "Coupled" is used to indicate that two or more elements, which may or may not be in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, co-operate or interact with each other. "Connected" is used to indicate the establishment of communication between two or more elements that are coupled with each other.

[0032] An electronic device stores and transmits (internally and/or with other electronic devices over a network) code (which is composed of software instructions and which is sometimes referred to as computer program code or a computer program) and/or data using machine-readable media (also called computer-readable media), such as machine-readable storage media (e.g., magnetic disks, optical disks, read only memory (ROM), flash memory devices, phase change memory) and machine-readable transmission media (also called a carrier) (e.g., electrical, optical, radio, acoustical or other form of propagated signals - such as carrier waves, infrared signals). Thus, an electronic device (e.g., a computer) includes hardware and software, such as a set of one or more processors coupled to one or more machine-readable storage media to store code for execution on the set of processors and/or to store data. For instance, an electronic device may include non- volatile memory containing the code since the non-volatile memory can persist code/data even when the electronic device is turned off (when power is removed), and while the electronic device is turned on that part of the code that is to be executed by the processor(s) of that electronic device is typically copied from the slower nonvolatile memory into volatile memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM)) of that electronic device. Typical electronic devices also include a set or one or more physical network interface(s) to establish network connections (to transmit and/or receive code and/or data using propagating signals) with other electronic devices. One or more parts of an embodiment of the invention may be implemented using different combinations of software, firmware, and/or hardware.

[0033] A network device (ND) is an electronic device that communicatively interconnects other electronic devices on the network (e.g., other network devices, end-user devices). Some network devices are "multiple services network devices" that provide support for multiple networking functions (e.g., routing, bridging, switching, Layer 2 aggregation, session border control, Quality of Service, and/or subscriber management), and/or provide support for multiple application services (e.g., data, voice, and video).

[0034] "Moving to the cloud" or similar distributed computing paradigms are gaining traction and expanding across most industrial verticals and market sectors. The term distributed computing is used herein to refer to any type of shared computing resources administered by a service provider. As discussed above, such distributed computing systems can include cloud computing systems (public or private), fog computing and similar distributed computing systems. Users that seek to utilize these resources, make a contract or service agreement with the service providers and thereby become 'tenants' of the service provider.

[0035] The embodiments change this arrangement to enable a user to dynamically shop with an automated process and use the computing resources offered by multiple service providers on an as needed or autonomic workload basis. An autonomic workload, as used herein, refers to a job or function that can be processed independently and without external management thereby enabling the workload to be passed to and executed by the service provider.

[0036] The embodiments enable any user or tenant to request, select and access in real time, the best available deals on available computing resources from the available distributed computing systems, which match its workload requirements. The tenants' requests may be shopped to as many cloud providers (CPs) or similar service providers as possible (or that participate) and in real time. The example of resource providers being a cloud provider is used herein by way of clarity and conciseness. However, one skilled in the art would understand that there are other processes, systems and services that are consistent with the principles, process and structures described herein with relation to cloud providers.

[0037] The embodiments enable as many cloud providers as possible to be able to advertise in real time their (counter)-offers for workload requests. The embodiments provide a system and process such that the user or tenant does not rely on any cloud provider infrastructure to monitor and/or initiate request(s) nor discuss or manage migration processes on its behalf. Instead, and for better transparency, such intelligence and authority may reside in the workload itself (e.g., as a set of micro-services).

[0038] To gain such properties, the micro-service provides a certain level of autonomy enabling it to advertise its current/expected requirements when needed, make a final selection from a pool of accepted offerings then negotiate its own terms with the selected cloud provider or similar provider infrastructure, and finally initiate self-migration of the workload with the micro- services. In other embodiments, the user/tenant can configure these parameters or can be involved in the negotiation of any of these aspects of the resource selection and placement. However, a completely autonomous workload provides a more efficient process and system.

[0039] Figure 1 is a diagram of one embodiment of a distributed computing network. The diagram illustrates an example hybrid cloud computing environment including both public and private cloud computing components and with fog computing infrastructure available. One skilled in the art would understand that the principles, structures, and processes discussed herein are applicable to architectures with any one of these components, any subset of the components and any permutation thereof.

[0040] In this example, there are a set of tenants 151, e.g., entities responsible for monitoring a set of workloads while running in a particular cloud provider datacenter. A 'set,' as used herein refers to any positive whole number of items including one item. The tenants can be composed of any number of individual computing devices, user equipment, networks and similar architectural components of a computer network. The tenants are in communication with the overall network 105 (e.g., a wide area network such as the Internet) and able to identify and (re)- configure workload requirements for each workload that is generated by the tenant and to be serviced by available computing resources via the network 105 and the available providers. The tenants 151 are able to monitor ongoing auctions and optionally to take an active role in the auctioning process. [0041] Tenants 151 submit autonomous workloads (AWs), e.g., a set of autonomous micro- services (AMS) running at a single provider datacenter or spread across providers. The

Autonomous workloads may have the following features, the associated AMS should be able to continuously auto-assess and predict performance for the workload at a given provider and compare this performance to a pre-installed performance metric or similar measurement. In one embodiment, an AMS is able to bypass the local tenant orchestration system whenever needed to improve the efficiency of the servicing of the associated workload, e.g., by joining an Auction as a Service (AaaS). The AMS can make local decisions to state the requirements of its workload at a particular time, negotiate offers from the AaaS, and self-migrate to a selected provider. In some embodiments, the AMS can discover and securely communicate (e.g., via the auction engine (AE)) with remote orchestration systems. Orchestrations systems are components of providers that manage the handling and allotment of workloads to available resources. The AMS can be delegated authority to decide on behalf of other micro-service(s) in some cases. A micro- service can be a container, unikernel, tinyVM, and can include features similar to "serverless"- types of services.

[0042] The network 105 provides an architecture for communication with varying types of providers including cloud providers (CPs) 101, 103. The cloud providers 101, 13 represents one or multiple public 101 or private 103 and/or distributed (micro)-datacenters operating under the same authority. The cloud providers can register with the AaaS (e.g., specifically with an auction engine (AE)) in order to advertise computing resources, to respond to workload requests in real time and also compete with other cloud providers.

[0043] Other resources in the network 105 can include fog computing 107 resources that can similarly register with the AaaS to enable tenants to make use of their available resources. Fog computing 107 resources may be edge computing devices and networks with spare capacity or dedicated capacity to service autonomous workloads.

[0044] Similarly, the network 105 can enable communication with any number of other types of distributed computing platforms that can participate in an AaaS to provide computing resources that can compete with other providers to service requests from the set of tenants 151. The example of cloud computing providers participating in the AaaS and communicating with the auction engine is primarily discussed herein for sake of clarity. However, one skilled in the art would understand that any number of other types of providers can similarly participate in the AaaS.

[0045] The AaaS and its constituent computing devices can be in communication with the network 105 and the tenants 151 and in some embodiments, can be implemented or executed by any of the providers or can be independently implemented or executed. In some embodiments, the AaaS is limited to a subset of available providers depending on relationships between the AaaS and the providers.

[0046] Figure 2 is a diagram of one embodiment of a network with an auction engine. The primary components of the AaaS 203 are shown in communication with varying types of tenant autonomous workloads 209 and providers 201 (e.g., cloud providers CP 1-4). The AaaS 203 can include any number of auction engines 205, databases 207 and similar components. These components can communicate with both tenants (e.g., autonomous workloads) and with providers via any communication protocols or medium.

[0047] The auction engine 205 communicates directly with an autonomous workload 209 (e.g., in a container, unikernal, tinyVM, virtual machine (VM) or similar form) and with any cloud provider 201 that is subscribed to the AaaS 203. Multiple auction engines 205 can be included in the AaaS 203, e.g., a set of auction engines 205 can be distributed across different geographic areas to minimize latency. The auction engine 205 component allows different entities (e.g., tenants) to express and register their interests in particular services and for the cloud providers to 'bid' on performing/providing these services. The auction engine 205 presents the received bids for servicing the autonomous workloads to the respective autonomous workload, which then decides which of the bids best suits its requirements. The auction engine 205 may be notified of the selection, which it can relay to the corresponding cloud provider 201. The cloud providers 201 that are not selected can also be notified such that they do not hold or restrict their resources in anticipation of receiving the autonomous workload.

[0048] Figure 3A is a diagram of one embodiment of an auction engine process for initiation. During an initiation phase, the autonomous workload 301 initiates communication with the auction engine 205 and a secure connection is established. The auction engines 205 may be geographically distributed and the autonomous workload 301 can connect to the lowest latency auction engine 205. Auction engine 205 discovery can be included in the AaaS system, which can advertise the location(s) of auction engines 205 (step 1).

[0049] After connecting to the auction engine 205, the autonomous workload 301 publishes a list of interest(s) and requirements (e.g., as a "manifest," "subscription to services," or similar data structure) (step 2), which gets stored in the AaaS database 207. In some embodiments, the autonomous workload includes an AW agent, which can be either a separate entity inside the workload or integrated in each container. The AW agent can handle much of the negotiation with the auction engine 205.

[0050] The manifest or similar request from the AW agent can include any parameters or requirements of the autonomous workload 301. A non-exhaustive list of parameters that can be expressed in a manifest would include compute and storage resource requirements, pricing range, timing range (to start and/or complete), location and latency, network function virtualization (NFV) requirements, connectivity requirements, Quality of Experience (QoE) requirements, subscription to one or multiple CPs, and similar parameters. New parameters can be added as the AW capabilities evolve and the AaaS supports them.

[0051] The auction engine 205 may check its databases 207 for providers that would match the parameters of the manifest (step 3). The providers that match the manifest requirements and/or any additional providers that may be determined to be relevant can then be published or advertised to the autonomous workload 301 (step 4_. The auction engine 205 will provide a copy of the autonomous workload' s manifest to each of the available providers or to a set of providers specified by the manifest (step 5). With the completion of initiation phase, the autonomous workloads and providers have a general knowledge about each other's parameters.

[0052] The operations in the flow diagrams will be described with reference to the exemplary embodiments of the other figures. However, it should be understood that the operations of the flow diagrams can be performed by embodiments of the invention other than those discussed with reference to the other figures, and the embodiments of the invention discussed with reference to these other figures can perform operations different than those discussed with reference to the flow diagrams.

[0053] Figure 3B is a flowchart of one embodiment of the auction engine initiation process. The flowchart further clarifies the operation of the auction engine with relation to the initiation process. The process begins with the establishing of a connection between the autonomous workload and the auction engine (Block 351). The connection can be a secure connection such as an encrypted protocol, secure socket, TCP/IP or similar connection. The establishing of the connection in some cases may be preceded by the auction engine or the AaaS advertising the address or location of the auction engines to enable tenants to generate autonomous workloads that can independently contact a selected auction engine.

[0054] The auction engine then receives a manifest or similar data structure from the autonomous workload that provides a set of parameters about the autonomous workload and a desired set of resources to be provided by a provider (Block 353). The auction engine uses the parameters of the manifest to search local databases of providers to identify those providers that have previously advertised parameters that may match those of the manifest (Block 355). The databases can be local or remote to the auction agent and can be continuously updated by the auction agents or other components of the AaaS as information and advertisements are received from providers to keep the databases as up to date as possible. In other embodiments, the auction engine or other component of the AaaS regularly poll the providers to obtain status information and similar parameters to enable the databases to have up to date information. [0055] The provider information found to match the manifest parameters or that approximates those parameters within thresholds that can be AaaS or tenant defined are then published to the autonomous workload (Block 357). Similarly, those identified providers can be sent a copy of the manifest from the autonomous workload (Block 359). In some embodiments, at this point the providers can then respond with bidding information if they are interested in servicing the autonomous workload (Block 361). In some embodiments, the providers maintain constant pricing information with the AaaS, while in other embodiments, the pricing is dynamically solicited as each manifest is sent to a set of providers. The providers can publish advertisements or biddings that would address each of the requirements in each manifest. In some embodiments, providers are able to see other competitors' biddings and be able to modify/replace their own in real time. In other embodiments, the bidding process begins after an initial selection of providers by the autonomous workload.

[0056] Figure 4A is a diagram of one embodiment of an auction engine resource selection process. After the initiation phase, the autonomous workload 301 can select one or more of the providers 201 and send a list of selected providers to the auction engine (step 6). This selection can be based on any algorithm or requirement matching process. The selected providers are those that will be allowed to bid on the provision of services to the autonomous workload 301.

[0057] After the selection of providers by the autonomous workload 301, the providers 201 can begin sending bids to the auction engine. The auction engine 205 may provide a notice of selection to the selected providers 201 or may expect that all providers that have been given a manifest will provide at least an initial bid or participate in initial bidding (step 7).

[0058] Figure 4B is a diagram of one embodiment of an auction engine bidding process. In the next stage, the providers 201 provide their bids and receive notifications about competing bids (step 8). In response, the providers 201 can update or change their bids. The auction engine 205 forwards these bids from the providers 201 to the autonomous workload 301 (step 9). In some embodiments, all bids are forwarded to the autonomous workload 301, while in other

embodiments, only a subset of the bids are forwarded. Where a provider 201 has updated its bid, rescinded a bid, been significantly outbid or under similar circumstances the auction engine 205 may decide not to forward a particular bid that has been rendered obsolete. The bidding may continue for a defined time period, until the bidding and rebidding halts or until the autonomous workload 301 selects a received bid.

[0059] The autonomous workload 301 can select any of the bids that it received based on any criteria, parameter or algorithm (step 10). The autonomous workload 301 selects the bid it determines to best fit its selection process and notifies the auction engine 205 of the decision. The autonomous workload 301 can take any period of time to make its selection and can decide to filter any subset of the received bids before consideration based on any parameter or criteria. Once the selection is made the associated provider can be notified by the auction engine 205 or the autonomous workload 301 can initiate communication. The auction engine 205 can also notify those providers 201 that were not selected by the autonomous workload 301. In some embodiments, the notification to the non-selected providers includes information about the successful to enable analysis of successful bid information by each provider 201.

[0060] Figure 5 is a flowchart of one embodiment of an auction engine bidding process. The process is for facilitating the auctioning process between the providers and the autonomous workload. The auction engine begins this phase with the receipt from the autonomous workload of a selection of a set of providers from which bids are to be obtained (Block 501). The autonomous workload may select any subset or all of the available providers. The autonomous workload may select those providers that match a set of parameters, criteria or similar characteristics.

[0061] If the selected providers have not already been provided a manifest with the characteristics or parameters of the autonomous workload, then the manifest is sent to each of the selected providers (Block 503). In some embodiments, the auction engine may also notify the providers that have not been selected. The providers can then begin to send their bids to the auction engine (Block 505). The bids can have any format, content or characteristics. The bids may include pricing, timing, location and similar aspects of the projected execution of the autonomous workload by the respective provider. The manifest may specify requirements of the bid information to be provided. The auction engine can, in some embodiments, filter those bids that do not meet the requirements of the manifest.

[0062] Bids may be received for a set duration of time, until all bids have been received or until the autonomous workload selects a provider. The bids may be forwarded as they are received and at the time they are received or may be held by the auction engine until finalized by the providers (Block 507). The providers can also receive notification from the auction engine of competing bids such that the providers can update their bids or similarly modify their bids. This process can continue, in some embodiments, until a final bid is received from each of the participating providers.

[0063] Once all of the bids have been forwarded to the autonomous workload, then the autonomous workload can apply its selection criteria or process to select one of the bidding providers. The autonomous workload can then send this selection to the auction engine

(Block 509). The autonomous workload can execute any selection process and use any supplied information or criteria to select at least one provider. In some cases, multiple providers can be selected and the autonomous workload can be distributed amongst the selected providers. [0064] The auction engine can pass the selection notification to the selected provider(s) (Block 511). The selection notification can include any information to identify the autonomous workload that has selected the provider as well as the agreed upon resources to be utilized by the autonomous workload. In some embodiments, the auction engine also notifies those providers that were not selected to enable them to keep their resources free for other bids or tasks (Block 513).

[0065] Figure 6 is a diagram of one embodiment of an autonomous workload migration process. The autonomous workload can initiate its migration to the selected providers after the selection process completes. The autonomous workload can confirm acceptance of the selection by the provider by any combination of exchanged messages between the provider and the autonomous workload (step 11). An orchestrator 601 can manage the migration from the provider side. In some embodiments, the provider can implement a software defined network (SDN) that works in conjunction with the orchestrator to receive the autonomous workload and to distribute it to the agreed upon resources. The autonomous workload can be transferred to the provider upon completion of the negotiations with the orchestrator (step 12) and returned to the tenant upon completion of the execution by the provider. The autonomous workload can remain resident on a tenant machine until migrating to a provider. In other embodiments, the autonomous workload can be resident at or transfer through the AaaS system.

[0066] Figure 7A illustrates connectivity between network devices (NDs) within an exemplary network, as well as three exemplary implementations of the NDs, according to some

embodiments of the invention. Figure 7A shows NDs 700A-H, and their connectivity by way of lines between 700A-700B, 700B-700C, 700C-700D, 700D-700E, 700E-700F, 700F-700G, and 700A-700G, as well as between 700H and each of 700A, 700C, 700D, and 700G. These NDs are physical devices, and the connectivity between these NDs can be wireless or wired (often referred to as a link). An additional line extending from NDs 700A, 700E, and 700F illustrates that these NDs act as ingress and egress points for the network (and thus, these NDs are sometimes referred to as edge NDs; while the other NDs may be called core NDs).

[0067] Two of the exemplary ND implementations in Figure 7 A are: 1) a special-purpose network device 702 that uses custom application-specific integrated-circuits (ASICs) and a special-purpose operating system (OS); and 2) a general purpose network device 704 that uses common off-the-shelf (COTS) processors and a standard OS.

[0068] The special-purpose network device 702 includes networking hardware 710 comprising compute resource(s) 712 (which typically include a set of one or more processors), forwarding resource(s) 714 (which typically include one or more ASICs and/or network processors), and physical network interfaces (NIs) 716 (sometimes called physical ports), as well as non- transitory machine readable storage media 718 having stored therein networking software 720. A physical NI is hardware in a ND through which a network connection (e.g., wirelessly through a wireless network interface controller (WNIC) or through plugging in a cable to a physical port connected to a network interface controller (NIC)) is made, such as those shown by the connectivity between NDs 700A-H. During operation, the networking software 720 may be executed by the networking hardware 710 to instantiate a set of one or more networking software instance(s) 722. Each of the networking software instance(s) 722, and that part of the networking hardware 710 that executes that network software instance (be it hardware dedicated to that networking software instance and/or time slices of hardware temporally shared by that networking software instance with others of the networking software instance(s) 722), form a separate virtual network element 730A-R. Each of the virtual network element(s)

(VNEs) 730A-R includes a control communication and configuration module 732A-R

(sometimes referred to as a local control module or control communication module) and forwarding table(s) 734A-R, such that a given virtual network element (e.g., 730A) includes the control communication and configuration module (e.g., 732A), a set of one or more forwarding table(s) (e.g., 734A), and that portion of the networking hardware 710 that executes the virtual network element (e.g., 73 OA).

[0069] In some embodiments, the autonomous workloads 765A-R or agent engine(s) 767 A-R may be executed on or resident at any special purpose network device 702 and executed as part of a virtual network element 760A-R or similarly implemented. The associated code can be part of the networking software 720 or similar software in the non-transitory machine-readable media 718. The autonomous workloads 767 A-R can encompass containers, virtual machines, micro- services and similar structures and execution environments. The autonomous

workloads 765A-R may be present on devices 702 of the tenant, AaaS or providers dependent on the migration of the autonomous workloads 765A-R. The agent engines 767 A-R are present on devices of the AaaS.

[0070] The special-purpose network device 702 is often physically and/or logically considered to include: 1) a ND control plane 724 (sometimes referred to as a control plane) comprising the compute resource(s) 712 that execute the control communication and configuration

module(s) 732A-R; and 2) a ND forwarding plane 726 (sometimes referred to as a forwarding plane, a data plane, or a media plane) comprising the forwarding resource(s) 714 that utilize the forwarding table(s) 734A-R and the physical NIs 716. By way of example, where the ND is a router (or is implementing routing functionality), the ND control plane 724 (the compute resource(s) 712 executing the control communication and configuration module(s) 732A-R) is typically responsible for participating in controlling how data (e.g., packets) is to be routed (e.g., the next hop for the data and the outgoing physical NI for that data) and storing that routing information in the forwarding table(s) 734A-R, and the ND forwarding plane 726 is responsible for receiving that data on the physical NIs 716 and forwarding that data out the appropriate ones of the physical NIs 716 based on the forwarding table(s) 734A-R.

[0071] Figure 7B illustrates an exemplary way to implement the special-purpose network device 702 according to some embodiments of the invention. Figure 7B shows a special- purpose network device including cards 738 (typically hot pluggable). While in some embodiments the cards 738 are of two types (one or more that operate as the ND forwarding plane 726 (sometimes called line cards), and one or more that operate to implement the ND control plane 724 (sometimes called control cards)), alternative embodiments may combine functionality onto a single card and/or include additional card types (e.g., one additional type of card is called a service card, resource card, or multi-application card). A service card can provide specialized processing (e.g., Layer 4 to Layer 7 services (e.g., firewall, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) / Transport Layer Security (TLS), Intrusion Detection System (IDS), peer-to-peer (P2P), Voice over IP (VoIP) Session Border Controller, Mobile Wireless Gateways (Gateway General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (GGSN), Evolved Packet Core (EPC) Gateway)). By way of example, a service card may be used to terminate IPsec tunnels and execute the attendant authentication and encryption algorithms. These cards are coupled together through one or more interconnect mechanisms illustrated as backplane 736 (e.g., a first full mesh coupling the line cards and a second full mesh coupling all of the cards).

[0072] Returning to Figure 7A, the general-purpose network device 704 includes

hardware 740 comprising a set of one or more processor(s) 742 (which are often COTS processors) and network interface controller(s) 744 (NICs; also known as network interface cards) (which include physical NIs 746), as well as non-transitory machine readable storage media 748 having stored therein software 750. During operation, the processor(s) 742 execute the software 750 to instantiate one or more sets of one or more applications 764A-R. While one embodiment does not implement virtualization, alternative embodiments may use different forms of virtualization. For example, in one such alternative embodiment the virtualization layer 754 represents the kernel of an operating system (or a shim executing on a base operating system) that allows for the creation of multiple instances 762A-R called software containers that may each be used to execute one (or more) of the sets of applications 764A-R; where the multiple software containers (also called virtualization engines, virtual private servers, or jails) are user spaces (typically a virtual memory space) that are separate from each other and separate from the kernel space in which the operating system is run; and where the set of applications running in a given user space, unless explicitly allowed, cannot access the memory of the other processes. In another such alternative embodiment the virtualization layer 754 represents a hypervisor (sometimes referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM)) or a hypervisor executing on top of a host operating system, and each of the sets of applications 764A-R is run on top of a guest operating system within an instance 762A-R called a virtual machine (which may in some cases be considered a tightly isolated form of software container) that is run on top of the hypervisor - the guest operating system and application may not know they are running on a virtual machine as opposed to running on a "bare metal" host electronic device, or through para- virtualization the operating system and/or application may be aware of the presence of virtualization for optimization purposes. In yet other alternative embodiments, one, some or all of the applications are implemented as unikernel(s), which can be generated by compiling directly with an application only a limited set of libraries (e.g., from a library operating system (LibOS) including drivers libraries of OS sendees) that provide the particular OS services needed by the application. As a unikernel can be implemented to run directly on hardware 740, directly on a hypervisor (in which case the unikernel is sometimes described as running within a LibOS virtual machine), or in a software container, embodiments can be implemented fully with unikernels running directly on a hypervisor represented by virtualization layer 754, unikernels running within software containers represented by instances 762A-R, or as a combination of unikernels and the above-described techniques (e.g., unikernels and virtual machines both run directly on a hypervisor, unikernels and sets of applications that are run in different software containers).

[0073] The instantiation of the one or more sets of one or more applications 764A-R, as well as virtualization if implemented, are collectively referred to as software instance(s) 752. Each set of applications 764 A-R, corresponding virtualization construct (e.g., instance 762A-R) if implemented, and that part of the hardware 740 that executes them (be it hardware dedicated to that execution and/or time slices of hardware temporally shared), forms a separate virtual network element(s) 760A-R.

[0074] In some embodiments, the autonomous workloads 765A-R or agent engine(s) 767 A-R may be executed on or resident at any general purpose network device 704 and executed as part of a virtual network element 760A-R or similarly implemented. The associated code can be part of the software 750 or similar software in the non-transitory machine-readable media 748. The autonomous workloads 767 A-R can encompass containers, virtual machines, micro-services and similar structures and execution environments. The autonomous workloads 765 A-R may be present on devices 704 of the tenant, AaaS or providers dependent on the migration of the autonomous workloads 765A-R. The agent engines 767 A-R are present on devices of the AaaS. [0075] The virtual network element(s) 760A-R perform similar functionality to the virtual network element(s) 730A-R - e.g., similar to the control communication and configuration module(s) 732A and forwarding table(s) 734A (this virtualization of the hardware 740 is sometimes referred to as network function virtualization (NFV)). Thus, NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which could be located in Data centers, NDs, and customer premise equipment (CPE). While embodiments of the invention are illustrated with each instance 762A-R corresponding to one VNE 760A-R, alternative embodiments may implement this correspondence at a finer level granularity (e.g., line card virtual machines virtualize line cards, control card virtual machine virtualize control cards, etc.); it should be understood that the techniques described herein with reference to a correspondence of instances 762A-R to VNEs also apply to embodiments where such a finer level of granularity and/or unikernels are used.

[0076] In certain embodiments, the virtualization layer 754 includes a virtual switch that provides similar forwarding services as a physical Ethernet switch. Specifically, this virtual switch forwards traffic between instances 762A-R and the NIC(s) 744, as well as optionally between the instances 762A-R; in addition, this virtual switch may enforce network isolation between the VNEs 760A-R that by policy are not permitted to communicate with each other (e.g., by honoring virtual local area networks (VLANs)).

[0077] The third exemplary ND implementation in Figure 7A is a hybrid network device 706, which includes both custom ASICs/special-purpose OS and COTS processors/standard OS in a single ND or a single card within an ND. In certain embodiments of such a hybrid network device, a platform VM (i.e., a VM that that implements the functionality of the special-purpose network device 702) could provide for para-virtualization to the networking hardware present in the hybrid network device 706.

[0078] Regardless of the above exemplary implementations of an ND, when a single one of multiple VNEs implemented by an ND is being considered (e.g., only one of the VNEs is part of a given virtual network) or where only a single VNE is currently being implemented by an ND, the shortened term network element (NE) is sometimes used to refer to that VNE. Also in all of the above exemplary implementations, each of the VNEs (e.g., VNE(s) 730A-R, VNEs 760A-R, and those in the hybrid network device 706) receives data on the physical NIs (e.g., 716, 746) and forwards that data out the appropriate ones of the physical NIs (e.g., 716, 746). For example, a VNE implementing IP router functionality forwards IP packets on the basis of some of the IP header information in the IP packet; where IP header information includes source IP address, destination IP address, source port, destination port (where "source port" and "destination port" refer herein to protocol ports, as opposed to physical ports of a ND), transport protocol (e.g., user datagram protocol (UDP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and differentiated services code point (DSCP) values.

[0079] Figure 7C illustrates various exemplary ways in which VNEs may be coupled according to some embodiments of the invention. Figure 7C shows VNEs 770A.1-770A.P (and optionally VNEs 770A.Q-770A.R) implemented in ND 700A and VNE 770H.1 in ND 700H. In Figure 7C, VNEs 770A.1-P are separate from each other in the sense that they can receive packets from outside ND 700A and forward packets outside of ND 700A; VNE 770A.1 is coupled with VNE 770H.1, and thus they communicate packets between their respective NDs; VNE 770A.2-770A.3 may optionally forward packets between themselves without forwarding them outside of the ND 700A; and VNE 770A.P may optionally be the first in a chain of VNEs that includes VNE 770A.Q followed by VNE 770A.R (this is sometimes referred to as dynamic service chaining, where each of the VNEs in the series of VNEs provides a different service - e.g., one or more layer 4-7 network services). While Figure 7C illustrates various exemplary relationships between the VNEs, alternative embodiments may support other relationships (e.g., more/fewer VNEs, more/fewer dynamic service chains, multiple different dynamic service chains with some common VNEs and some different VNEs).

[0080] The NDs of Figure 7A, for example, may form part of the Internet or a private network; and other electronic devices (not shown; such as end user devices including workstations, laptops, netbooks, tablets, palm tops, mobile phones, smartphones, phablets, multimedia phones, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones, terminals, portable media players, GPS units, wearable devices, gaming systems, set-top boxes, Internet enabled household appliances) may be coupled to the network (directly or through other networks such as access networks) to communicate over the network (e.g., the Internet or virtual private networks (VPNs) overlaid on (e.g., tunneled through) the Internet) with each other (directly or through servers) and/or access content and/or services. Such content and/or services are typically provided by one or more servers (not shown) belonging to a service/content provider or one or more end user devices (not shown) participating in a peer-to-peer (P2P) service, and may include, for example, public webpages (e.g., free content, store fronts, search services), private webpages (e.g.,

username/password accessed webpages providing email services), and/or corporate networks over VPNs. For instance, end user devices may be coupled (e.g., through customer premise equipment coupled to an access network (wired or wirelessly)) to edge NDs, which are coupled (e.g., through one or more core NDs) to other edge NDs, which are coupled to electronic devices acting as servers. However, through compute and storage virtualization, one or more of the electronic devices operating as the NDs in Figure 7A may also host one or more such servers (e.g., in the case of the general purpose network device 704, one or more of the software instances 762A-R may operate as servers; the same would be true for the hybrid network device 706; in the case of the special-purpose network device 702, one or more such servers could also be run on a virtualization layer executed by the compute resource(s) 712); in which case the servers are said to be co-located with the VNEs of that ND.

[0081] A virtual network is a logical abstraction of a physical network (such as that in Figure 7A) that provides network services (e.g., L2 and/or L3 services). A virtual network can be implemented as an overlay network (sometimes referred to as a network virtualization overlay) that provides network services (e.g., layer 2 (L2, data link layer) and/or layer 3 (L3, network layer) services) over an underlay network (e.g., an L3 network, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network that uses tunnels (e.g., generic routing encapsulation (GRE), layer 2 tunneling protocol (L2TP), IPSec) to create the overlay network).

[0082] A network virtualization edge (NVE) sits at the edge of the underlay network and participates in implementing the network virtualization; the network-facing side of the NVE uses the underlay network to tunnel frames to and from other NVEs; the outward-facing side of the NVE sends and receives data to and from systems outside the network. A virtual network instance (VNI) is a specific instance of a virtual network on a NVE (e.g., a NE/VNE on an ND, a part of a NE/VNE on a ND where that NE/VNE is divided into multiple VNEs through emulation); one or more VNIs can be instantiated on an NVE (e.g., as different VNEs on an ND). A virtual access point (VAP) is a logical connection point on the NVE for connecting external systems to a virtual network; a VAP can be physical or virtual ports identified through logical interface identifiers (e.g., a VLAN ID).

[0083] Examples of network services include: 1) an Ethernet LAN emulation service (an Ethernet-based multipoint service similar to an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) or Ethernet VPN (EVPN) service) in which external systems are interconnected across the network by a LAN environment over the underlay network (e.g., an NVE provides separate L2 VNIs (virtual switching instances) for different such virtual networks, and L3 (e.g., IP/MPLS) tunneling encapsulation across the underlay network); and 2) a virtualized IP forwarding service (similar to IETF IP VPN (e.g., Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)/MPLS IP VPN) from a service definition perspective) in which external systems are interconnected across the network by an L3 environment over the underlay network (e.g., an NVE provides separate L3 VNIs (forwarding and routing instances) for different such virtual networks, and L3 (e.g., IP/MPLS) tunneling encapsulation across the underlay network)). Network services may also include quality of service capabilities (e.g., traffic classification marking, traffic conditioning and scheduling), security capabilities (e.g., filters to protect customer premises from network - originated attacks, to avoid malformed route announcements), and management capabilities (e.g., full detection and processing).

[0084] Fig. 7D illustrates a network with a single network element on each of the NDs of Figure 7A, and within this straight forward approach contrasts a traditional distributed approach (commonly used by traditional routers) with a centralized approach for maintaining reachability and forwarding information (also called network control), according to some embodiments of the invention. Specifically, Figure 7D illustrates network elements (NEs) 770A-H with the same connectivity as the NDs 700A-H of Figure 7A.

[0085] Figure 7D illustrates that the distributed approach 772 distributes responsibility for generating the reachability and forwarding information across the NEs 770A-H; in other words, the process of neighbor discovery and topology discovery is distributed.

[0086] For example, where the special-purpose network device 702 is used, the control communication and configuration module(s) 732A-R of the ND control plane 724 typically include a reachability and forwarding information module to implement one or more routing protocols (e.g., an exterior gateway protocol such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Interior Gateway Protocol(s) (IGP) (e.g., Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS), Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) (including RS VP-Traffic Engineering (TE): Extensions to RSVP for LSP Tunnels and Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching

(GMPLS) Signaling RSVP-TE)) that communicate with other NEs to exchange routes, and then selects those routes based on one or more routing metrics. Thus, the NEs 770A-H (e.g., the compute resource(s) 712 executing the control communication and configuration

module(s) 732A-R) perform their responsibility for participating in controlling how data (e.g., packets) is to be routed (e.g., the next hop for the data and the outgoing physical NI for that data) by distributively determining the reachability within the network and calculating their respective forwarding information. Routes and adjacencies are stored in one or more routing structures (e.g., Routing Information Base (RIB), Label Information Base (LIB), one or more adjacency structures) on the ND control plane 724. The ND control plane 724 programs the ND forwarding plane 726 with information (e.g., adjacency and route information) based on the routing structure(s). For example, the ND control plane 724 programs the adjacency and route information into one or more forwarding table(s) 734A-R (e.g., Forwarding Information Base (FIB), Label Forwarding Information Base (LFIB), and one or more adjacency structures) on the ND forwarding plane 726. For layer 2 forwarding, the ND can store one or more bridging tables that are used to forward data based on the layer 2 information in that data. While the above example uses the special-purpose network device 702, the same distributed approach 772 can be implemented on the general-purpose network device 704 and the hybrid network device 706.

[0087] Figure 7D illustrates that a centralized approach 774 (also known as software defined networking (SDN)) that decouples the system that makes decisions about where traffic is sent from the underlying systems that forwards traffic to the selected destination. The illustrated centralized approach 774 has the responsibility for the generation of reachability and forwarding information in a centralized control plane 776 (sometimes referred to as a SDN control module, controller, network controller, OpenFlow controller, SDN controller, control plane node, network virtualization authority, or management control entity), and thus the process of neighbor discovery and topology discovery is centralized. The centralized control plane 776 has a south bound interface 782 with a data plane 780 (sometime referred to the infrastructure layer, network forwarding plane, or forwarding plane (which should not be confused with a ND forwarding plane)) that includes the NEs 770A-H (sometimes referred to as switches, forwarding elements, data plane elements, or nodes). The centralized control plane 776 includes a network controller 778, which includes a centralized reachability and forwarding information module 779 that determines the reachability within the network and distributes the forwarding information to the NEs 770A-H of the data plane 780 over the south bound interface 782 (which may use the OpenFlow protocol). Thus, the network intelligence is centralized in the centralized control plane 776 executing on electronic devices that are typically separate from the NDs.

[0088] For example, where the special-purpose network device 702 is used in the data plane 780, each of the control communication and configuration module(s) 732A-R of the ND control plane 724 typically include a control agent that provides the VNE side of the south bound interface 782. In this case, the ND control plane 724 (the compute resource(s) 712 executing the control communication and configuration module(s) 732A-R) performs its responsibility for participating in controlling how data (e.g., packets) is to be routed (e.g., the next hop for the data and the outgoing physical NI for that data) through the control agent communicating with the centralized control plane 776 to receive the forwarding information (and in some cases, the reachability information) from the centralized reachability and forwarding information module 779 (it should be understood that in some embodiments of the invention, the control communication and configuration module(s) 732A-R, in addition to communicating with the centralized control plane 776, may also play some role in determining reachability and/or calculating forwarding information - albeit less so than in the case of a distributed approach; such embodiments are generally considered to fall under the centralized approach 774, but may also be considered a hybrid approach). [0089] While the above example uses the special-purpose network device 702, the same centralized approach 774 can be implemented with the general purpose network device 704 (e.g., each of the VNE 760A-R performs its responsibility for controlling how data (e.g., packets) is to be routed (e.g., the next hop for the data and the outgoing physical NI for that data) by communicating with the centralized control plane 776 to receive the forwarding information (and in some cases, the reachability information) from the centralized reachability and forwarding information module 779; it should be understood that in some embodiments of the invention, the VNEs 760A-R, in addition to communicating with the centralized control plane 776, may also play some role in determining reachability and/or calculating forwarding information - albeit less so than in the case of a distributed approach) and the hybrid network device 706. In fact, the use of SDN techniques can enhance the NFV techniques typically used in the general-purpose network device 704 or hybrid network device 706 implementations as NFV is able to support SDN by providing an infrastructure upon which the SDN software can be run, and NFV and SDN both aim to make use of commodity server hardware and physical switches.

[0090] Figure 7D also shows that the centralized control plane 776 has a north bound interface 784 to an application layer 786, in which resides application(s) 788. The centralized control plane 776 has the ability to form virtual networks 792 (sometimes referred to as a logical forwarding plane, network services, or overlay networks (with the NEs 770A-H of the data plane 780 being the underlay network)) for the application(s) 788. Thus, the centralized control plane 776 maintains a global view of all NDs and configured NEs/VNEs, and it maps the virtual networks to the underlying NDs efficiently (including maintaining these mappings as the physical network changes either through hardware (ND, link, or ND component) failure, addition, or removal).

[0091] In some embodiments, the autonomous workloads 783 or agent engine(s) 781 may be executed on or resident at a controller or similar location in centralized approach 774 and executed as part of the applications 788 of the application layer 786 or similarly implemented.. The autonomous workloads 783 may be present in SDN networks of the tenant, AaaS or providers dependent on the migration of the autonomous workloads 783. The agent engines 781 are present in the network of the AaaS.

[0092] While Figure 7D shows the distributed approach 772 separate from the centralized approach 774, the effort of network control may be distributed differently or the two combined in certain embodiments of the invention. For example: 1) embodiments may generally use the centralized approach (SDN) 774, but have certain functions delegated to the NEs (e.g., the distributed approach may be used to implement one or more of fault monitoring, performance monitoring, protection switching, and primitives for neighbor and/or topology discovery); or 2) embodiments of the invention may perform neighbor discovery and topology discovery via both the centralized control plane and the distributed protocols, and the results compared to raise exceptions where they do not agree. Such embodiments are generally considered to fall under the centralized approach 774, but may also be considered a hybrid approach.

[0093] While Figure 7D illustrates the simple case where each of the NDs 700A-H implements a single NE 770A-H, it should be understood that the network control approaches described with reference to Figure 7D also work for networks where one or more of the NDs 700A-H implement multiple VNEs (e.g., VNEs 730A-R, VNEs 760A-R, those in the hybrid network device 706). Alternatively, or in addition, the network controller 778 may also emulate the implementation of multiple VNEs in a single ND. Specifically, instead of (or in addition to) implementing multiple VNEs in a single ND, the network controller 778 may present the implementation of a VNE/NE in a single ND as multiple VNEs in the virtual networks 792 (all in the same one of the virtual network(s) 792, each in different ones of the virtual

network(s) 792, or some combination). For example, the network controller 778 may cause an ND to implement a single VNE (a NE) in the underlay network, and then logically divide up the resources of that NE within the centralized control plane 776 to present different VNEs in the virtual network(s) 792 (where these different VNEs in the overlay networks are sharing the resources of the single VNE/NE implementation on the ND in the underlay network).

[0094] On the other hand, Figures 7E and 7F respectively illustrate exemplary abstractions of NEs and VNEs that the network controller 778 may present as part of different ones of the virtual networks 792. Figure 7E illustrates the simple case of where each of the NDs 700A-H implements a single NE 770A-H (see Figure 7D), but the centralized control plane 776 has abstracted multiple of the NEs in different NDs (the NEs 770A-C and G-H) into (to represent) a single NE 7701 in one of the virtual network(s) 792 of Figure 7D, according to some

embodiments of the invention. Figure 7E shows that in this virtual network, the NE 7701 is coupled to NE 770D and 770F, which are both still coupled to NE 770E.

[0095] Figure 7F illustrates a case where multiple VNEs (VNE 770A.1 and VNE 770H.1) are implemented on different NDs (ND 700A and ND 700H) and are coupled to each other, and where the centralized control plane 776 has abstracted these multiple VNEs such that they appear as a single VNE 770T within one of the virtual networks 792 of Figure 7D, according to some embodiments of the invention. Thus, the abstraction of a NE or VNE can span

multiple NDs.

[0096] While some embodiments of the invention implement the centralized control plane 776 as a single entity (e.g., a single instance of software running on a single electronic device), alternative embodiments may spread the functionality across multiple entities for redundancy and/or scalability purposes (e.g., multiple instances of software running on different electronic devices).

[0097] Similar to the network device implementations, the electronic device(s) running the centralized control plane 776, and thus the network controller 778 including the centralized reachability and forwarding information module 779, may be implemented a variety of ways (e.g., a special purpose device, a general-purpose (e.g., COTS) device, or hybrid device). These electronic device(s) would similarly include compute resource(s), a set or one or more physical NICs, and a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon the centralized control plane software. For instance, Figure 8 illustrates, a general-purpose control plane device 804 including hardware 840 comprising a set of one or more processor(s) 842 (which are often COTS processors) and network interface controller(s) 844 (NICs; also known as network interface cards) (which include physical NIs 846), as well as non-transitory machine readable storage media 848 having stored therein centralized control plane (CCP) software 850.

[0098] In embodiments that use compute virtualization, the processor(s) 842 typically execute software to instantiate a virtualization layer 854 (e.g., in one embodiment the virtualization layer 854 represents the kernel of an operating system (or a shim executing on a base operating system) that allows for the creation of multiple instances 862A-R called software containers (representing separate user spaces and also called virtualization engines, virtual private servers, or jails) that may each be used to execute a set of one or more applications; in another embodiment the virtualization layer 854 represents a hypervisor (sometimes referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM)) or a hypervisor executing on top of a host operating system, and an application is run on top of a guest operating system within an instance 862A-R called a virtual machine (which in some cases may be considered a tightly isolated form of software container) that is run by the hypervisor ; in another embodiment, an application is implemented as a unikernel, which can be generated by compiling directly with an application only a limited set of libraries (e.g., from a library operating system (LibOS) including drivers/libraries of OS services) that provide the particular OS services needed by the application, and the unikernel can run directly on hardware 840, directly on a hypervisor represented by virtualization layer 854 (in which case the unikernel is sometimes described as running within a LibOS virtual machine), or in a software container represented by one of instances 862A-R). Again, in embodiments where compute virtualization is used, during operation an instance of the CCP software 850 (illustrated as CCP instance 876A) is executed (e.g., within the instance 862A) on the virtualization layer 854. In embodiments where compute virtualization is not used, the CCP instance 876A is executed, as a unikernel or on top of a host operating system, on the "bare metal" general purpose control plane device 804. The instantiation of the CCP instance 876A, as well as the virtualization layer 854 and instances 862A-R if implemented, are collectively referred to as software instance(s) 852.

[0099] In some embodiments, the CCP instance 876A includes a network controller instance 878. The network controller instance 878 includes a centralized reachability and forwarding information module instance 879 (which is a middleware layer providing the context of the network controller 778 to the operating system and communicating with the various NEs), and an CCP application layer 880 (sometimes referred to as an application layer) over the middleware layer (providing the intelligence required for various network operations such as protocols, network situational awareness, and user - interfaces). At a more abstract level, this CCP application layer 880 within the centralized control plane 776 works with virtual network view(s) (logical view(s) of the network) and the middleware layer provides the conversion from the virtual networks to the physical view.

[00100] The centralized control plane 776 transmits relevant messages to the data plane 780 based on CCP application layer 880 calculations and middleware layer mapping for each flow. A flow may be defined as a set of packets whose headers match a given pattern of bits; in this sense, traditional IP forwarding is also flow-based forwarding where the flows are defined by the destination IP address for example; however, in other implementations, the given pattern of bits used for a flow definition may include more fields (e.g., 10 or more) in the packet headers. Different NDs/NEs/VNEs of the data plane 780 may receive different messages, and thus different forwarding information. The data plane 780 processes these messages and programs the appropriate flow information and corresponding actions in the forwarding tables (sometime referred to as flow tables) of the appropriate NE/VNEs, and then the NEs/VNEs map incoming packets to flows represented in the forwarding tables and forward packets based on the matches in the forwarding tables.

[00101] In some embodiments, the autonomous workloads 783 or agent engine(s) 781 may be executed on or resident at a general purpose control plane device 804 and executed as part of the applications of the application layer 880 or similarly implemented.. The autonomous

workloads 783 may be present in control plane device of SDN networks of the tenant, AaaS or providers dependent on the migration of the autonomous workloads 783. The agent engines 781 are present in the control plane devices of the network of the AaaS.

[00102] Standards such as OpenFlow define the protocols used for the messages, as well as a model for processing the packets. The model for processing packets includes header parsing, packet classification, and making forwarding decisions. Header parsing describes how to interpret a packet based upon a well-known set of protocols. Some protocol fields are used to build a match structure (or key) that will be used in packet classification (e.g., a first key field could be a source media access control (MAC) address, and a second key field could be a destination MAC address).

[00103] Packet classification involves executing a lookup in memory to classify the packet by determining which entry (also referred to as a forwarding table entry or flow entry) in the forwarding tables best matches the packet based upon the match structure, or key, of the forwarding table entries. It is possible that many flows represented in the forwarding table entries can correspond/match to a packet; in this case the system is typically configured to determine one forwarding table entry from the many according to a defined scheme (e.g., selecting a first forwarding table entry that is matched). Forwarding table entries include both a specific set of match criteria (a set of values or wildcards, or an indication of what portions of a packet should be compared to a particular value/values/wildcards, as defined by the matching capabilities - for specific fields in the packet header, or for some other packet content), and a set of one or more actions for the data plane to take on receiving a matching packet. For example, an action may be to push a header onto the packet, for the packet using a particular port, flood the packet, or simply drop the packet. Thus, a forwarding table entry for IPv4/IPv6 packets with a particular transmission control protocol (TCP) destination port could contain an action specifying that these packets should be dropped.

[00104] Making forwarding decisions and performing actions occurs, based upon the forwarding table entry identified during packet classification, by executing the set of actions identified in the matched forwarding table entry on the packet.

[00105] However, when an unknown packet (for example, a "missed packet" or a "match- miss" as used in OpenFlow parlance) arrives at the data plane 780, the packet (or a subset of the packet header and content) is typically forwarded to the centralized control plane 776. The centralized control plane 776 will then program forwarding table entries into the data plane 780 to accommodate packets belonging to the flow of the unknown packet. Once a specific forwarding table entry has been programmed into the data plane 780 by the centralized control plane 776, the next packet with matching credentials will match that forwarding table entry and take the set of actions associated with that matched entry.

[00106] A network interface (NI) may be physical or virtual; and in the context of IP, an interface address is an IP address assigned to a NI, be it a physical NI or virtual NI. A virtual NI may be associated with a physical NI, with another virtual interface, or stand on its own (e.g., a loopback interface, a point-to-point protocol interface). A NI (physical or virtual) may be numbered (a NI with an IP address) or unnumbered (a NI without an IP address). A loopback interface (and its loopback address) is a specific type of virtual NI (and IP address) of a NE/VNE (physical or virtual) often used for management purposes; where such an IP address is referred to as the nodal loopback address. The IP address(es) assigned to the NI(s) of a ND are referred to as IP addresses of that ND; at a more granular level, the IP address(es) assigned to NI(s) assigned to a NE/VNE implemented on a ND can be referred to as IP addresses of that NE/VNE.

[00107] While the invention has been described in terms of several embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.