Collecting, processing, and distributing telemetry data

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide a method of reporting telemetry data in a telecommunication network. The telemetry data is collected from a set of one or more telemetry-producing (TP) network elements and is distributed to a set of one or more telemetry-consuming (TC) network elements registered to receive the telemetry data. The method receives a telemetry packet produced by a TP network element and performs a filtering operation to determine whether the telemetry packet should be reported to at least a subset of one or more TC network elements. When the filtering operations result in a determination that the telemetry packet should be reported, the method forwards the telemetry packet to the subset of TC network elements.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method of reporting telemetry data collected from a set of one or more telemetry-producing (TP) components in a Radio Access Network (RAN), to a set of one or more telemetry-consuming (TC) components registered to receive the telemetry data, the method comprising:
 configuring a plurality of TP components to provide telemetry data associated with a plurality of RAN components;   configuring a plurality of data categorizers to categorize the provided telemetry data into a plurality of groups; and   configuring a plurality of distributors to distribute different streams of grouped telemetry data to different telemetry consuming (TC) components in the RAN.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the TP components are in the egress data path of the RAN components, and send telemetry data based on the packets sent by the RAN components. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the TP components comprise packet mirror that identify each telemetry packet sent by each RAN component, copy the identified telemetry packet, forward the copied telemetry packet to a set of one or more data collectors. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein a telemetry packet comprises packets comprising trace data or network performance data. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the telemetry packets are also forwarded along their data paths in the RAN network to destinations specified in the telemetry packets, while the sets of telemetry packets that are forwarded by the packet mirrors are sent in separate connection streams to the data collector set. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the connection streams are TCP streams. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21  further comprising configuring a plurality of filters to perform filtering operations on the telemetry packets grouped by the data categorizers. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein performing filtering operations comprises performing different filtering operations for different groups based on different sets of filtering criteria that are specified for the different groups. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28  further comprising:
 receiving, from a set of one or more administrators, configuration data specifying a set of filtering criteria for each group and a set of destination addresses for the set of registered TC network elements for each group. 
 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein configuring the plurality of distributors comprises configuring each distributor to establish a layer 4 (L4) connection session with at least one registered TC network element to forward telemetry packets to the TC network element. 
     
     
         31 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit reports telemetry data collected from a set of one or more telemetry-producing (TP) components in a Radio Access Network (RAN), to a set of one or more telemetry-consuming (TC) components registered to receive the telemetry data, the program comprising sets of instructions for:
 configuring a plurality of TP components to provide telemetry data associated with a plurality of RAN components;   configuring a plurality of data categorizers to categorize the provided telemetry data into a plurality of groups; and   configuring a plurality of distributors to distribute different streams of grouped telemetry data to different telemetry consuming (TC) components in the RAN.   
     
     
         32 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 31 , wherein the TP components are in the egress data path of the RAN components, and send telemetry data based on the packets sent by the RAN components. 
     
     
         33 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 32 , wherein the TP components comprise packet mirror that identify each telemetry packet sent by each RAN component, copy the identified telemetry packet, forward the copied telemetry packet to a set of one or more data collectors. 
     
     
         34 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 33 , wherein a telemetry packet comprises packets comprising trace data or network performance data. 
     
     
         35 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 33 , wherein the telemetry packets are also forwarded along their data paths in the RAN network to destinations specified in the telemetry packets, while the sets of telemetry packets that are forwarded by the packet mirrors are sent in separate connection streams to the data collector set. 
     
     
         36 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 35 , wherein the connection streams are TCP streams. 
     
     
         37 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 31 , the program further comprising a set of instructions for configuring a plurality of filters to perform filtering operations on the telemetry packets grouped by the data categorizers. 
     
     
         38 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 37 , wherein the set of instructions for performing filtering operations comprises a set of instructions for performing different filtering operations for different groups based on different sets of filtering criteria that are specified for the different groups. 
     
     
         39 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 38 , the program further comprising a set of instructions for:
 receiving, from a set of one or more administrators, configuration data specifying a set of filtering criteria for each group and a set of destination addresses for the set of registered TC network elements for each group.   
     
     
         40 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 31 , wherein the set of instructions for configuring the plurality of distributors comprises a set of instructions for configuring each distributor to establish a layer 4 (L4) connection session with at least one registered TC network element to forward telemetry packets to the TC network element.