US 12,317,103 B2
Reliability-based service chain instance selection in a 5G network
Harish Bharti, Pune (IN); Rajesh Kumar Saxena, Maharashtra (IN); Sandeep Sukhija, Rajasthan (IN); and Deepak Bajaj, Leicester (GB)
Assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed by INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed on Sep. 15, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/476,011.
Prior Publication US 2023/0081375 A1, Mar. 16, 2023
Int. Cl. H04W 24/04 (2009.01); H04W 24/08 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 24/04 (2013.01) [H04W 24/08 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
for a service chain provided in a 5G network, the service chain comprising a series of network functions with processing hand-offs and take-overs therebetween, evaluating reliability of each service chain instance, of a plurality of available service chain instances of the service chain, in accomplishing a same set of one or more tasks for processing service requests, each service chain instance of the plurality of service chain instances comprising a respective instance of each network function of the network functions of the service chain and being an alternative to the other service chain instances, of the plurality of service chain instances, for processing the service requests, wherein the evaluating the reliability of a service chain instance, of the plurality of available service chain instances, comprises determining a chain continuity factor of the service chain instance, the chain continuity factor indicating a probability value that the service chain instance operational at a current time will remain operational from the current time for a given duration of time;
obtaining a service request for processing in the 5G network, the service request to be serviced by the service chain;
selecting a service chain instance of the plurality of available service chain instances to process the service request, the selecting being based on the evaluated reliabilities of the plurality of available service chain instances; and
invoking processing of the selected service chain instance to process the service request.