US 11,876,672 B2
Change deployment system
Ajay Mahimkar, Edison, NJ (US); Carlos Eduardo De Andrade, Gainesville, FL (US); and Rakesh Sinha, Edison, NJ (US)
Assigned to AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P., Atlanta, GA (US)
Filed by AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P., Atlanta, GA (US)
Filed on Apr. 1, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/220,678.
Prior Publication US 2022/0321408 A1, Oct. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. H04L 41/0816 (2022.01); H04L 41/08 (2022.01); H04L 43/0817 (2022.01); H04L 41/0604 (2022.01); H04L 41/0869 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 41/0816 (2013.01) [H04L 41/0627 (2013.01); H04L 41/0869 (2013.01); H04L 41/0886 (2013.01); H04L 43/0817 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
obtaining a workflow associated with executing one or more changes in a communications network by enabling an operator to graphically create the workflow via a user interface that facilitate a composition of a catalog of building blocks, wherein the building blocks are modular, reusable and modifiable to match a specific change in the communications network and a specific vendor based on real data collected from cellular networks and virtualized services, and
wherein each building block executes a specific function needed to implement the specific change in the communications network and the operator is enabled to generate the workflow as a sequence of selected building blocks among the catalog of building blocks, the sequence aligning input and output of the workflow with inputs and outputs of the selected building blocks, and
wherein each building block is defined using an input/output parameter list and has a representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API);
obtaining one or more verification rules for comparing pre-impact network performance and post-impact network performance associated with the one or more changes;
determining a schedule for deploying the one or more changes in the communications network, wherein the deploying the one or more changes is based on the workflow, the one or more verification rules, and scheduling constraints, wherein the scheduling constraints comprise a conflict scope constraint, a concurrency constraint, a uniformity constraint, and a localize constraint, and wherein the concurrency constraint maximizes a number of network function instances to be executed concurrently within a group of virtual network elements, and wherein the uniformity constraint constrains schedule changes such that instances have common time zone attribute values;
executing the one or more changes in the communications network according to the schedule;
subsequent to executing the one or more changes in the communications network, determining whether a comparison of the pre-impact network performance and the post-impact network performance is within one or more thresholds associated with the one or more verification rules; and
sending an alert when the comparison is outside the one or more thresholds.