Vendor agnostic profile-based modeling of service access endpoints in a multitenant environment

Abstract

An access profile includes configuration characteristics that are defined using device and operating system agnostic attributes. Thus, the access profiles are not necessarily dependent or otherwise tied to any particular vendor or network OS. When a system administrator configures one or more service access points, the system administrator need only specify the vendor and network OS agnostic characteristics that are to be associated with the service access point. A configuration generator can generate vendor specific and/or network specific configuration commands and data from the vendor and network OS agnostic access profile attributes. The generated configuration commands and data can be provided to a network device hosting the service access point using a vendor specific and/or network OS specific configuration application program interface.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving an indication of a selection of a device agnostic service characteristic;   associating, in accordance with the device agnostic service characteristic, an access profile with a physical or virtual interface of a network device of a plurality of network devices, the access profile having one or more device agnostic attributes defining the selected device agnostic service characteristic; and   determining, based at least in part on the one or more device agnostic attributes of the access profile associated with the physical or virtual interface, one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters that conform with a configuration interface of the network device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 providing the one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters to the network device via the configuration interface.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the virtual interface comprises a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) interface. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the physical interface comprises a network interface of a switch, router, or server. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the device agnostic service characteristic comprises a Class of Service (CoS) marking characteristic or a CoS shaping characteristic. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the network device comprises a first network device and the configuration interface comprises a first configuration interface,   wherein a second network device has a second configuration interface different from the first configuration interface;   wherein the access profile is associated with a physical or virtual interface of the second network device;   wherein the method further comprises:
 determining, based at least in part on the one or more device agnostic attributes of the access profile associated with the physical or virtual interface of the second network device, one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters that conform with the second configuration interface. 
   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the one or more attributes defining the device agnostic service characteristic are agnostic with respect to a first network operating system executable by the first network device and agnostic with respect to a second network operating system executed by the second network device, wherein the first network operating system is different from the second network operating system. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the one or more attributes defining the device agnostic service characteristic are agnostic with respect to a first vendor of the first network device and agnostic with respect to a second vendor of the second network device, wherein the first vendor is different from the second vendor. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a selection of a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) communicatively coupled to a plurality of network devices,   wherein determining the one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters comprises determining the one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters for each of the plurality of network devices.   
     
     
         10 . A Software Defined Network (SDN) controller comprising:
 one or more processors coupled to a memory, the memory including executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to:
 receive an indication of a selection of a device agnostic service characteristic; 
 associate, in accordance with the device agnostic service characteristic, an access profile with a physical or virtual interface of a network device of a plurality of network devices, the access profile having one or more device agnostic attributes defining the selected device agnostic service characteristic; and 
 determine, based at least in part on the one or more device agnostic attributes of the access profile associated with the physical or virtual interface, one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters that conform with a configuration interface of the network device. 
   
     
     
         11 . The SDN controller of  claim 10 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to:
 provide the one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters to the network device via the configuration interface.   
     
     
         12 . The SDN controller of  claim 10 , wherein the virtual interface comprises a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) interface. 
     
     
         13 . The SDN controller of  claim 10 , wherein the physical interface comprises a network interface of a switch, router, or server. 
     
     
         14 . The SDN controller of  claim 10 , wherein the device agnostic service characteristic comprises a Class of Service (CoS) marking characteristic or a CoS shaping characteristic. 
     
     
         15 . The SDN controller of  claim 10 ,
 wherein the network device comprises a first network device and the configuration interface comprises a first configuration interface,   wherein a second network device has a second configuration interface different from the first configuration interface;   wherein the access profile is associated with a physical or virtual interface of the second network device;   wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to:
 determine, based at least in part on the one or more device agnostic attributes of the access profile associated with the second service access point, one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters that conform with the second configuration interface. 
   
     
     
         16 . The SDN controller of  claim 15 , wherein the one or more attributes defining the device agnostic service characteristic are agnostic with respect to a first network operating system executable by the first network device and agnostic with respect to a second network operating system executed by the second network device, wherein the first network operating system is different from the second network operating system. 
     
     
         17 . The SDN controller of  claim 15 , wherein the one or more attributes defining the device agnostic service characteristic are agnostic with respect to a first vendor of the first network device and agnostic with respect to a second vendor of the second network device, wherein the first vendor is different from the second vendor. 
     
     
         18 . The SDN controller of  claim 15 , wherein the first network device is allocated to a first tenant of a data center and wherein the second network device is allocated to a second tenant of the data center. 
     
     
         19 . The SDN controller of  claim 10 , wherein the network device comprises a virtual device. 
     
     
         20 . A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing one or more programmable processors to:
 receive an indication of a selection of a device agnostic service characteristic;   associate, in accordance with the device agnostic service characteristic, an access profile with a physical or virtual interface of a network device of a plurality of network devices, the access profile having one or more device agnostic attributes defining the selected device agnostic service characteristic; and   determine, based at least in part on the one or more device agnostic attributes of the access profile associated with the physical or virtual interface, one or more device specific configuration commands and configuration parameters that conform with a configuration interface of the network device.