Title of Invention: SCALABLE NETWORK SLICE BASED QUEUING USING SEGMENT ROUTING FLEXIBLE ALGORITHM
Abstract: 
The present technology is directed to a system and method for implementing network resource partitioning and Quality of Service (QoS) separation through network slicing. Embodiments of the present invention describe scalable network slicing method based on defining Segment Routing Flexible Algorithm to represent a network slice and assigning a distinct QoS policy queue to each of the Flexible Algorithms configured on a network node. Therefore, scalable network slice based queuing is implemented wherein a single packet processing queue is assigned to each Flex-Algorithm based network slice. QoS policy queue may be implemented in a hierarchical fashion by differentiation between flow packets in a single QoS policy queue based on value of experimental bits in the header.

Detailed Description: 

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/178,418 filed on Nov. 1, 2018, the contents of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.


TECHNICAL FIELD
The present technology pertains to resource partitioning and quality of service (QoS) separation. More specifically it is directed to scalable implementation of logical network slicing in segment routing based networks.
BACKGROUND
Quality of Service mechanism ensures that the applications with the highest priority have priority treatment. As part of a resource allocation mechanisms, each network node (i.e. router) must implement some queuing discipline that governs how packets are buffered while waiting to be processed and/or transmitted. Processing of traffic flows based on prescribed Quality of Service policies may be facilitated by assigning incoming/outgoing packets to designated queues with a set of corresponding QoS specifications. For example, text, voice and multimedia services are typically associated with different QoS parameters and as such may be assigned to and processed via different queues. Network resources may then be properly allocated to different flows in accordance to associated QoS parameters.
However, the increasing diversity of emerging networking applications and resulting traffic flows with more and more diverse characteristics for transport over the Internet (e.g., http, p2p, audio and video streaming, e-mail, ftp, etc.) necessitates up-scaling of conventional implementation. Moreover, the aforementioned various traffic types require different treatment from the carrier network to finally meet the Quality of Experience requirements of the end users. As such networks have become, and will continue to be subject to a manifold of technical and service requirements with respect to throughput, latency, reliability, availability, as well as operational requirements such as energy and cost efficiency. The dire need to accommodate such level of diversity and the ever increasing expectations of the users necessitates architectures that can accommodate low over-head and highly scalable traffic differentiation and Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees for the data traffic carried across the network.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description of the principles briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principles herein are described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates a network slicing implemented on the basis of Segment Routing Flexible-algorithm, in accordance to some embodiment of the present technology.
FIG. 2 illustrates different overlay network topologies corresponding to different Flexible-algorithms in accordance to some embodiment of the present technology.
FIG. 3 illustrates an operational flow chart for implementing network slice based hierarchical queuing using Segment Routing Flexible Algorithms.
FIG. 4 illustrates a Flex-Algorithm based QoS queuing system in a pay as you grow system in accordance to some embodiments of the present technology.
FIG. 5 illustrates hierarchical queuing based on Flexible-Algorithm provisioning and Experimental header bits designation to provide Queue-based service differentiation with greater degree of granularity.



DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS
Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein
Overview
Systems and methods, are disclosed for implementing scalable network slice based traffic differentiation by using the Flexible-Algorithm feature of Segment Routing protocol. Described method, according to some embodiments, comprise a step of associating one or more QoS policy queues to one or more Segment Routing Algorithms configured on a network node, wherein each of the one or more QoS policy queues is assigned to a different Segment Routing Algorithm. The embodiment further comprise a step of assigning flow packets associated with each of the one or more Segment Routing Algorithms to the QoS policy queue associated with each of the Segment Routing Algorithm. The embodiment further comprise a step of pointing all of one or more forwarding entries specific to each of the one or more Segment Routing Algorithms configured on the network node, towards the associated QoS policy queue. Segment Routing Algorithm may be predefined or it may be a Flexible-Algorithm associated with an operator-provided definition. Hierarchical implementation of QoS policy queues, according to some embodiments, involves differentiating between flow packets based on experimental bit (EXP) setting in a packet header. Thereby creating EXP bit based sub queues within each Flexible-Algorithm based QoS policy queue. In the described system a controller entity may be set to monitor the depth of QoS policy queues implemented in accordance to some embodiments. The depth of the queue serves as indication of the size of the network slice (degree of network resource utilization) and may be used in context of routine analytics to provide notifications if the network slice is running out of capacity.
Example Embodiments
Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for scalable namespace based VPN headend deployment with customer context awareness to facilitate a granular application of security policies by the upstream cloud services. Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
The standard mechanism for determining the best end to end forwarding path through the network is the Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) which performs the (shortest) path computation based on the IGP metric assigned to the interconnecting links. If a particular traffic flow generated by an application program, has traffic requirements which are not reflected in the IGP metric, then the traffic flow must be instead routed over one or more traffic engineered path configured to fulfill the corresponding traffic requirements. Some networks engineer the IGP metric assignments to reflects the link bandwidth or delay. If, for example, the IGP metric is reflecting the bandwidth on the link and the application traffic is delay sensitive, the best IGP path may not reflect the best path from such application's perspective.
To overcome such IGP limitation, various sorts of traffic engineering, such as Resource Reservation Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE) have been conventionally deployed. However, with the advent of Software Defined Networking (SDN) an emerging solution for network resource segmentation and differentiated service delivery has been the creation of independent logical network slice overlays built on top of common physical infrastructure. In this way different applications communicating over different network slice may be provided with a different Quality of Service treatment. As such, traffic engineered paths are provided to meet specific performance requirements of different application types or different clients requirements and business needs. These traffic engineered paths may be regarded as logical network slice overlays existing on top of the underlying physical infrastructure and providing application and/or client specific services.
Network slicing allows the support of logical autonomous networks on top of a common infrastructure, thus offering a customized networking experience for addressing distinct business demands. A network slice is a logical end-to-end overlay network dynamically/statically created over a physical infrastructure. Network slicing facilitates assignment of different slices for different service types. For example, voice over IP traffic may be assigned to set of network slices that better reflect the performance requirement of this type of traffic, whereas on-demand video streaming traffic may be configured to propagate over a different set of network slices that offer performance characteristics that are more conducive to that traffic type. Similarly, this method of network resource segmentation may apply to differentiating specific customer traffic by assigning it its own network slice(s) and configuring the slice(s) in accordance to requirement of the customer.
A promising scheme for implementation and provisioning of network slices is Segment Routing Traffic Engineering (SR-TE), wherein the Traffic Engineering component is responsible for computing the path based on additional metrics and/or constraint. In this way, Segment Routing offers support for creating autonomous logical network slices on top of a common infrastructure. These logical networks amount to isolated network slices offering different customized networking experience to address distinct business demands.
In essence Segment Routing provides scalable source routing capability based on segment identifiers that may be distributed by the existing Interior Gateway Protocols. The source/originator node (ingress) chooses a path and encodes it in the packet header as an ordered list of segments. The forwarding path of the packet is therefore determined by prepended segment identifiers. As such the rest of the network executes encoded instruction without any further per-flow state (network fabric does not hold any Traffic Engineering state per each traffic flow).
A segment may be regarded as a particular forwarding instruction (i.e., topological or service related) identified by a segment identifier (SID). For example a Segment may represent the instruction: Go to Node ‘C’ using the shortest path or alternatively it may represent the instruction: Go to node ‘D’ over the shortest path to node ‘C’ and then follow specified links layer to ‘P’ or Apply service S. Forwarding paths associated with different network slices may be installed in the forwarding table of participating network nodes to replace the original paths computed by IGPs. Tunnels may be used to represent the engineered paths used to replace or enhance/augment the native IGP paths.
In general, a key challenge in network slicing may be the implementation of a flexible yet robust scheme for partitioning network resources among various network slices over the common infrastructure. Some solutions provide a hard partitioning that is too rigid to implement a flexible pay as you grow model which may be an attractive option from a client perspective. Some other solutions provide soft partitioning without proper resource and Quality of Service separation among slices.
The foregoing challenges is addressed by embodiments of the present technology which describe a solution that provide resource partitioning and Quality of Service (QoS) separation among network slices while enabling the service provider to build a “pay as you grow” business model. In the described embodiments, for example, an overload of high priority traffic on one slice does not affect high priority services offered on another slice, and vice versa.
Many possible constraints may be used to compute a path over a network. Some networks are deployed as multiple planes. A simple form of constraint may be to use a particular plane. More sophisticated form of constraint can include an extended set of metrics and constraints which restrict paths to links with specific affinities or avoid links with specific affinities. Combinations of these are also possible. Implementing a strict mapping between a set of constraints and the associated (forwarding)algorithm may not be conducive to providing a more flexible network slicing solution. As such, it may be advantageous for the mapping between the Segment Routing algorithm value and its meaning to be flexible and defined by the user. The forwarding path computation for such user defined algorithm will remain consistent and traffic will not be subject to looping as long as all the routers in the Segment Routing domain have a common understanding of what a particular algorithm value represents. The Segment Routing feature that enables the meaning of an algorithm to be provided by the user instead of a predefined standard, is sometimes referred to as Flexible-Algorithm (Flex-Algorithm).
Flexible Algorithm complements the Segment Routing based Traffic Engineering solution by adding new Prefix/Node Segments with specific optimization objectives and constraints. For example forwarding instruction may be defined based on minimization of IGP metric, delay or some other Traffic Engineering metric as well as avoidance of Shared Risk Link Groups or links with specific affinities). Each Prefix-SID (Node SID) is associated with a (flexible)forwarding algorithm and each node advertises its algorithm support capabilities. In this way Segment Routing Flexible Algorithm allows for a flexible definition of end-to-end paths within IGP topologies by encoding paths as sequences of topological sub-paths, called segments. Segment Routing (Flexible) Algorithm also defines how the paths are computed. Thus enabling the existing Interior Gateway Protocols to compute forwarding paths based on various algorithms and steer traffic onto such paths using the algorithm specific segments (forwarding instructions).
A starting point in the operation of a Flexible Algorithm may be identified as the instance when a network operator enables the participation of specific network nodes for a specific flexible algorithm and then provisions the definition of that flexible algorithm on one or more network nodes. A segment routing underlay node on which one or more Flexible Algorithms are enabled will advertise its participation in the respective Flexible-Algorithm(s) by advertising a different Prefix-SID for each Flexible Algorithm that it supports.
A Prefix-SID advertisement, in addition to announcing the IGP Prefix of the advertising node, also encodes a Segment Routing Algorithm with which it is associated. The nodes where the Flexible Algorithm definition is advertised then flood these definitions via respective Interior Gateway Protocol (i.e., IS-IS and/or OSPF) mechanisms to all other nodes in the IGP network domain (Segment Routing domain). The nodes select the definition for each algorithm based on the flooded information in a deterministic manner. In this way, all the participating nodes computing a particular Flexible Algorithm will arrive at a common understanding of the type of calculation that they need to use. Flexible Algorithm definition is generally based on minimization of a specified metric (i.e., delay, IGP metric, Traffic Engineering metric metric) and exclusion of links with certain properties (i.e., link-affinity, Shared Risk Link Group).
FIG. 1 illustrates a exemplary IGP domain 100 partitioned/segmented on the basis of Segment Routing (Flexible) algorithms. The exemplary IGP domain 100 comprises of nodes 0-9. Nodes 0 and 9 are enabled for Algorithm 0 which has a predefined definition corresponding to Shortest Path First (SPF) forwarding scheme based on IGP link metrics. As such node 0 and 9 advertise a Prefix SID 16000 and 16009 respectively to reflect their participation in Algorithm 0. The advertised Prefix-SIDS also represents the network reachability information. For example Prefix-SID 16000 represents network reachability information for node 0 and Prefix-SID 16009 represents the same for node 9. Two additional algorithm, namely Flexible-Algorithm 128 and 129, are also enabled for the network node in domain 100. Flexible Algorithm 128 with a user/operator provided definition, for example, to minimize IGP provided metric and avoid links with Traffic Engineering affinity RED is enabled on node 0, 9, 1, 2, 3 and 4 as shown in FIG. 1. Similarly Flexible algorithm 129 with a user/operator provided definition, for example, to minimize IGP provided metric and avoid links with Traffic Engineering affinity GREEN is enabled on node 0, 9, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as shown in FIG. 1. Each node may advertise a Prefix-SID for every forwarding algorithm enabled on it. By way of example Node 9 in FIG. 1 advertise Prefix-SIDs 16009, 16809 and 16909 for (Flexible)Algorithm 0, 128 and 129 respectively. On the other hand node 1 will only advertise a Prefix-SID 16001 for Algorithm 0 which is enabled by default on every node in the exemplary routing domain 100, and a Prefix-SID 16801 for Flexible algorithm 128. In the same way every node within the domain may advertise network reachability information for each (Flexible)Algorithm they support, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Consequently all network nodes become aware of reachability information for (Flexible) algorithms supported on every other network node in the domain.
A Prefix-SID, by virtue of being associated with a particular Flex-Algorithm, is also associated with a specific topology inherited from associated prefix reachability advertisement. In case of Flex-Algorithm the Prefix-SID (advertised for that Flex-Algorithm) is associated with forwarding paths computed, based on the Flex-Algorithm definition, in the associated topology. The associated topology corresponding to a particular Flex-Algorithm is determined by pruning any node that is not advertising participation for the Flex-Algorithm and furthermore pruning any link that is excluded by the definition of the Flex-algorithm. The associated topologies for the Flexible Algorithms 0, 128 and 129 are illustrated in FIG. 2. With reference to FIG. 2, topology 202 is associated with Algorithm 0, topology 204 is associated with Flexible Algorithm 128 and topology 206 is associated with Flex-Algorithm 129.
As stated before, a node computes (Flexible) Algorithm specific forwarding paths if it is enabled for the particular Flex-algorithm and has a consistent definition for the same. Flexible-Algorithm specific path (forwarding entries) corresponds to shortest-path tree on the associated topology, which is computed according to the definition advertised for that (Flexible) algorithm. These forwarding paths associated with each Prefix-SID of a particular Flexible-algorithm may then be installed in the forwarding plane (Forwarding Information Base) of network nodes (routers) participating in that Flexible-Algorithm. Therefore, in reference to the Segment Routing (SR) forwarding plane, the result of a flex algorithm computation is the provisioning of the corresponding Prefix SIDs with paths based on the computed topology for that algorithm. This flexible algorithm computation is within an Interior Gateway Protocol area similar to the default shortest path tree algorithm.
Flex-Algorithm are user defined, therefore a possibly exists for different users to use the same identifier (SID) for Flex-algorithms with different definitions resulting in dissemination of inconsistent information within the Segment Routing domain. In order to mitigate such a scenario wherein a Flex-Algorithm SID as advertised is associated with two or more dissimilar definitions within a SR domain, one or more central controllers or path computation Elements (PCE) may be provided for computing the associated topology and forwarding paths for each provisioned Flexible Algorithm and disseminating the same throughout the network.
In order for a controller/Path Computation Element (PCE) to learn the mapping of a Flex-Algorithm number/identifier to its definition in each area/domain of the underlying SRv6 domain, relevant information must be propagated/advertised across Segment Routing areas/domains. One mechanism to achieve this is by using Border Gateway Protocol-Link State (BGP-LS) which is an extension to the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for distributing the network's link-state (LS) topology and traffic engineering information to external entities, such as the Software Defined Network (SDN) controllers and/or Path Computation Elements. These components, while external to the network, require network state information on a real time basis. Specifically, they require link-state database information of each Interior Gateway Protocol node (OSPF, ISIS) in the entire network.
A network's link-state topology model (consisting of nodes and interconnecting links along with a set of attributes for each link) is distributed among routers using an Interior Gateway Protocol (i.e., OSPF, ISIS). As the network topology is discovered by the Interior Gateway Protocol, the changes are reflected in the BGP-LS model as well and are also distributed using BGP-LS messages to any interested party, such as SDN controllers or Path Computation Elements. SDN controller or the Path Computation Element also learn the type of computation and the constraints associated with each Flexible Algorithm. In this way, a controller or a Path Computation Element (PCE) is made aware of the Interior Gateway Protocol topology (including flexible algorithm related information) across multiple domains. The PCE may then use this information to set up end to end Segment Routing policy paths across domains by leveraging the appropriate Flex Algorithm specific Prefix SIDs in its Segment List.
Once flexible algorithm related information is disseminated throughout the segment routing domain(s), packets to be forwarded in accordance to a flexible algorithm (configured on a Segment Routing underlay node) are identified and tagged accordingly. Forwarding Information Base policies are then set along the way in accordance to the instructions/definitions provided for the flexible algorithm. For example, picking the Flex Algorithm Prefix-SID corresponding to a definition that optimizes on the delay metric enables the PCE/controller to build an end to end low latency path across IGP domains with minimal Prefix-SIDs in the SID list.
Therefore, Flexible Algorithms implemented in one location of the network may be propagated via appropriates routing protocol(s) to other parts of the network. Accordingly, routers from separate locations in the network that are participating in a Flex-algorithm may install some form of Flex-Algorithm specific forwarding entries in their Forwarding Information Base. In this way appropriate traffic policing and Quality of Service (QoS) policies may then be created across Segment Routing domains based on the propagated information.
Forwarding paths computed for a specific Flex-Algorithm may be used by a single application or alternatively by various applications, each potentially using its own data-plane for forwarding the data over such paths. Therefore, it would be possible to guarantee the presence of application-specific forwarding state associated with a particular Flex-Algorithm, by requiring network nodes to advertise their participation for a particular Flex-Algorithm for each application specifically.
Some aspect of the present technology are directed to implementation of several network slices with different requirements coexisting on top of the common network infrastructure. Diverse flows belonging to different network slices can be completely disjoint or can share different parts of the network infrastructure. In some embodiment native features of the Segment Routing with IPv6 data plane (SRv6) protocol such as Flexible Algorithms is used to address these requirements.
One of the primary motivations behind network slicing is that it may offer a platform wherein clients are charged based on their degree of network resource utilization i.e., size of their allocated network slice. Towards effective implementation of this requirement, embodiments of the present technology describe a highly scalable model for setting up network slice based Quality of Service (QoS) queuing mechanism in SRv6 underlay using Flexible-Algorithm feature of Segment Routing protocol. Such queues may be made to scale with respect to the size of the respective network slice (i.e., degree of network resource utilization) in such a way as to facilitate the network slice to grow or shrink based on the actual usage. Flow chart 300 in FIG. 3 describes an exemplary method for implementing per network slice queuing in SRv6 underlay according to some embodiment of the present technology.
With reference to flow chart 300, at step 302 Flexible-algorithm (definition may be locally defined or provided by controller or path computation entity) comprising of computed forwarding paths across participating network nodes is associated with a network slice. At step 304 Quality of Service policy queue(s) are created and associated with traffic routed according to the Flexible algorithm defined forwarding path. In this way per Flex-algorithm queuing which amounts to per network slice queuing is set up.
When a forwarding entry associated with a certain Flex-algorithm is made in a Forwarding Information Base (FIB) of a router, a corresponding pointer to the appropriate QoS queue may also be passed in the FIB for that particular forwarding entry. This action, which corresponds to step 306 of the example flow chart 300, ensures that QoS queues designated for a specific Flex-Algorithm are appropriately populated with the packets forwarded according to the forwarding policy of that specific Flex-algorithm. Therefore all data packets with label advertised for a specific Flex-Algorithm will be queued in the QoS queue associated with that Flex-Algorithm, as described in step 308.
This is further illustrated in FIG. 4, wherein an example (Flexible) Algorithm or network slice based queuing implementation 400 is provided. In the example queuing implementation 400 a set of diverse traffic flows (collectively denoted by 402) that are associated with various Prefix-SIDs in the Routing domain 100 in FIG. 1 are sorted into separate QoS queues based on the Flex-Algorithm with which they are associated. Consequently, all packets with a Prefix-SID label associated with Algorithm 0, Flex-Algorithm 128 and Flex-Algorithm 129 point, respectively, to Queue 1, 2 and 3.
Referring back to FIG. 3, the Slice based queues (implemented by following steps 302 to 308) may further be set up as hierarchical queues such that traffic within a network slice can get treatment based on the selected value of the experimental (EXP) bits. This action is described in step 310 of the example flow chart 300. Experimental (EXP) bits in the header may be used to define QoS treatment that a node should give to a packet. For example EXP bits may be used to encode the dropping precedence of packets during periods of congestion. By choosing different values for the EXP field critical packets may be marked so that those packets have priority if network congestion occurs. FIG. 5 illustrates hierarchical Network Slice based queuing as described by some embodiments of the present technology. QoS queues 502, 504 and 506 are respectively assigned to flows forwarded in accordance with (Flexible) Algorithms 0, 128 and 129. Each QoS queue (502, 504, 506) in FIG. 5 is further partitioned based on value of EXP bit into additional sub-queues a-d corresponding to EXP bit values of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4.
According to some embodiments of the present technology, system and method for highly scalable implementation of network slice based traffic queuing for resource segmentation and partitioning in SRv6 underlay is provided that can facilitate a pay as you grow service model. In network slice based queuing, as described by some embodiments, queue depth may serve as an indicator of the degree of utilization of each slice and provide a greater insight into network resource utilization, with each customized network slice, to match the level of delivery complexity required by the supported services. This is illustrated in FIG. 5 where in controller entity 508 monitors the depth of per slice per EXP bit queues, According to one embodiment this may be accomplished by telemetering the queue depth value to the controller 508. The controller 508, may then run one or more analytic routines to determine if a network slice is running out of capacity. The outcome may then be provided as notifications 510 to the client utilizing the particular network slice to purchase additional network resources (i.e., bandwidth). Thus enabling a pay as you grow model to be implemented. Similarly notification 510 may also be utilized to prompt mobile network operator to purchase, for example, more bandwidth from the mobile infrastructure provider.
Resources for the network slices can be set up based on various service characteristics e.g. bandwidth demand, latency demand Beside the flexibilities provided by network slicing. The implementation of network slice based hierarchical queuing, as described by some embodiments of the present technology, enable Mobile Network Operators to efficiently analyze the operational cost and revenue generated from the respective slice by simply monitoring the depth of the packet queue(s) assigned to a particular network slice. According to the analysis, operators may allocate different network resource bundles to different slices, which makes the resource management much more structured, flexible, and efficient. As a result, the very same network can be utilized to seamlessly provide more and better services, i.e., generate more revenue without any increase in expenditure.
Furthermore, embodiments of the present technology provide a highly scalable queuing system and method in comparison with other queuing methodologies (i.e., Link State Protocol based queuing) which requires instantiation of a separate packet queue for each Prefix-SID associated with a network slice which is not a scalable solution. In contrast embodiments of the present technology prescribe a single queue per network slice, which may be set up as a hierarchical queue based on EXP bit values, or non-hierarchical queue differentiated only on the basis of associated forwarding Algorithm alone.
For clarity of explanation, in some instances the present technology may be presented as including individual functional blocks including functional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps or routines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardware and software.
In some embodiments the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, and memories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readable storage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.
Methods according to the above-described examples can be implemented using computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwise available from computer readable media. Such instructions can comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network. The computer executable instructions may be, for example, binaries, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, or source code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used to store instructions, information used, and/or information created during methods according to described examples include magnetic or optical disks, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, and so on.
Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprise hardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety of form factors. Typical examples of such form factors include laptops, smart phones, small form factor personal computers, personal digital assistants, and so on. Functionality described herein also can be embodied in peripherals or add-in cards. Such functionality can also be implemented on a circuit board among different chips or different processes executing in a single device, by way of further example.
The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computing resources for executing them, and other structures for supporting such computing resources are means for providing the functions described in these disclosures.
Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explain aspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of the claims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements in such examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use these examples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further and although some subject matter may have been described in language specific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. For example, such functionality can be distributed differently or performed in components other than those identified herein. Rather, the described features and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systems and methods within the scope of the appended claims.



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