Granted Patent B1

US 12,675,309 · App. 17/544,793 · Granted Jul 7, 2026

Inventor: Keith William Melkild (Allen, TX)

Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation

G06F9/45558G06F8/61G06F2009/45595

Abstract

Claims (76)

1 . A system for on-boarding a Virtual Network Function (VNF) comprising a Virtual Network Function Component (VNFC), the system comprising:

a hardware-implemented network function virtualization management and orchestration (NFV MANO) module configured to:

receive an archive containing VNFC module artifacts and contents of a VNF package including a VNF Descriptor (VNFD) file containing a plurality of VNFC module descriptors, wherein

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors corresponds to one of a plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules of the VNFC,

a respective VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules corresponds to a software module of a plurality of software modules, and

each software module of the plurality of software modules makes up a respective part of the VNFC, and corresponds to a respective operating system process;

onboard the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules to a VNF catalog after on-boarding of the VNFD file to the VNF catalog of the NFV MANO module, wherein

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors includes an identifier (ID) that indicates a location of one of a plurality of module-specific lifecycle management (LCM) scripts within the VNF package, and

each module-specific LCM script of the plurality of module-specific LCM scripts corresponds to a module lifecycle event of the respective VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules; and

enable the VNF in a service catalog of the NFV MANO module.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein

the VNFC module artifacts include one or more of:

a VNF specific lifecycle management (LCM) script,

a VNFC module specific lifecycle management script,

binary software images for each VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules, and

a VNFC module software load; and

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors further includes a software load descriptor that provides a reference to the VNFC module software load within the VNF package.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the NFV MANO module is further configured to:

process a signing certificate located in the archive based on identifying a manifest file in the archive.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the NFV MANO module is further configured to: store the VNFD file and the VNFC module artifacts in the service catalog.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the archive further includes: a VNFC directory that contains a separate directory for each VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the NFV MANO module is further configured to:

store the VNFD file in a remote database; and

add a reference to the remote database to the VNF catalog.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein, based on the enablement of the VNF, the NFV MANO module is further configured to:

automatically enable the VNF in the service catalog based on a completion of the on-boarding.

8 . A method for on-boarding a Virtual Network Function (VNF) comprising a Virtual Function Component (VNFC), the method comprising:

receiving, by a hardware-implemented network function virtualization management and orchestration (NFV MANO) module, an archive containing VNFC module artifacts and contents of a VNF package including a VNF Descriptor (VNFD) file containing a plurality of VNFC module descriptors, wherein

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors corresponds to one of a plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules of the VNFC,

a respective VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules corresponds to a software module of a plurality of software modules, and

each software module of the plurality of software modules makes up a respective part of the VNFC, and corresponds to a respective operating system process;

onboarding, by the NFV MANO module, the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules to a VNF catalog after on-boarding of the VNFD file to the VNF catalog of the NFV MANO module, wherein

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors includes an identifier (ID) that indicates a location of one of a plurality of module-specific lifecycle management (LCM) scripts within the VNF package, and

each module-specific LCM script of the plurality of module-specific LCM scripts corresponds to a module lifecycle event of the respective VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules; and

enabling, by the NFV MANO module, the VNF in a service catalog of the NFV MANO module.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein

the VNFC module artifacts includes one or more of:

a VNF specific lifecycle management (LCM) script,

a VNFC module specific lifecycle management script,

binary software images for each VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules, and

a VNFC module software load; and

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors further includes a software load descriptor that provides a reference to the VNFC module software load within the VNF package.

10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

processing, by the NFV MANO module, a signing certificate located in the archive based on identifying a manifest file in the archive.

11 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising: storing, by the NFV MANO module, the VNFD file and the VNFC module artifacts in the service catalog.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the archive further includes:

a VNFC directory that contains a separate directory for each VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules.

13 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

storing, by the NFV MANO module, the VNFD file in a remote database; and

adding, by the NFV MANO module, a reference to the remote database to the VNF catalog.

14 . The method of claim 8 , wherein, based on the enabling of the VNF, the method further comprising automatically enabling, by the NFV MANO module, the VNF in the service catalog based on a completion of the on-boarding.

15 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for on-boarding Virtual Network Function (VNF) comprising a Virtual Network Function Component (VNFC) that when executed by a processor of a hardware-implemented server executing network function virtualization management and orchestration (NFV MANO) module, cause the processor to perform:

receiving an archive containing VNFC module artifacts and contents of a VNF package including a VNF Descriptor (VNFD) file containing a plurality of VNFC module descriptors, wherein

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors corresponds to one of a plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules of the VNFC,

a respective VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules corresponds to a software module of a plurality of software modules, and

each software module of the plurality of software modules makes up a respective part of the VNFC, and corresponds to a respective operating system process;

onboarding the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules of the VNFC to a VNF catalog after on-boarding of the VNFD file to the VNF catalog of the NFV MANO module, wherein

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors includes an identifier (ID) that indicates a location of one of a plurality of module-specific lifecycle management (LCM) scripts within the VNF package, and

each module-specific LCM script of the plurality of module-specific LCM scripts corresponds to a module lifecycle event of the respective VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules; and

enabling the VNF in a service catalog of the NFV MANO module.

16 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein

the VNFC module artifacts include one or more of:

a VNF specific lifecycle management (LCM) script,

a VNFC module specific lifecycle management script,

binary software images for each VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules, and

a VNFC module software load; and

each VNFC module descriptor of the plurality of VNFC module descriptors further includes a software load descriptor that provides a reference to the VNFC module software load within the VNF package.

17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform:

processing a signing certificate located in the archive based on identification of a manifest file in the archive.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform:

storing the VNFD file and the VNFC module artifacts in the service catalog.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein

the archive further includes: a VNFC directory that contains a separate directory for each VNFC module of the plurality of independently manageable VNFC modules.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform:

storing the VNFD file in a remote database; and

adding a reference to the remote database to the VNF catalog.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (89)