Patent ID: 11909603
Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method, comprising:
instantiating, by a Virtual Network Functions (VNF) controller, a plurality of VNFs in a communication network to support a network service, the plurality of VNFs comprising a first VNF and a second VNF;
determining a respective priority value for a respective VNF of the plurality of VNFs including a respective priority value assigned to the first VNF and a respective priority value assigned to the second VNF, wherein the respective priority value for the respective VNF is determined based on an overall network impact, a physical location of at least one network resource allocated to the respective VNF, a type of service to be implemented by the respective VNF and a customer impact based on how many customers would be using the respective VNF;
assigning, by the VNF controller to the respective VNF of the plurality of VNFs, the respective priority value determined for the respective VNF of the plurality of VNFs;
monitoring, by the VNF controller, a respective set of network resources allocated to the respective VNF of the plurality of VNFs;
determining that the first VNF requires additional network resources;
releasing one or more network resources from the respective set of network resources that are allocated to the second VNF, the one or more network resources being released based on the respective priority value assigned to the first VNF and the respective priority value assigned to the second VNF; and
allocating, by the VNF controller, the one or more network resources released by the second VNF to the first VNF.