Methods and apparatus for predicting communications resources which will be needed at a venue and then controlling the amount of available resources dynamically are described. In various embodiments real time or near real time video of areas of the venue are used to predict the number of people in a portion of a venue and/or the direction of movement. Along with other information such as the type of event and/or event schedule collected information is supplied to a set of trained resource requirement models which are used to predict future resource needs at a venue, e.g., while an event is ongoing. Commands are sent to dynamically vary the amount of communications resources provided to one or more portions of the venue. Resources which can be varied included but are not limited to fixed wired WAN bandwidth, WiFi bandwidth, cellular bandwidth, network based on-demand services, transcoding services, firewall services, etc.

Methods and apparatus for predicting communications resources which will be needed at a venue and then controlling the amount of available resources dynamically are described. In various embodiments real time or near real time video of areas of the venue are used to predict the number of people in a portion of a venue and/or the direction of movement. Along with other information such as the type of event and/or event schedule collected information is supplied to a set of trained resource requirement models which are used to predict future resource needs at a venue, e.g., while an event is ongoing. Commands are sent to dynamically vary the amount of communications resources provided to one or more portions of the venue. Resources which can be varied included but are not limited to fixed wired WAN bandwidth, WiFi bandwidth, cellular bandwidth, network based on-demand services, transcoding services, firewall services, etc.

Service assurance is provided. A low priority pod corresponding to a low priority service in an orchestration platform that is to be evicted due to a predicted peak load period of a high priority service is identified based on analysis of historical and resource information. The low priority service corresponding to the low priority pod that is to be evicted due to the predicted peak load period of the high priority service is marked as an assured service for a guaranteed run in response to receiving an input from a user who was notified regarding eviction of the low priority pod. The low priority pod corresponding to the low priority service that is to be evicted due to the predicted peak load period of the high priority service is provisioned on a second host node prior to the eviction of the low priority pod from a first host node.

Service assurance is provided. A low priority pod corresponding to a low priority service in an orchestration platform that is to be evicted due to a predicted peak load period of a high priority service is identified based on analysis of historical and resource information. The low priority service corresponding to the low priority pod that is to be evicted due to the predicted peak load period of the high priority service is marked as an assured service for a guaranteed run in response to receiving an input from a user who was notified regarding eviction of the low priority pod. The low priority pod corresponding to the low priority service that is to be evicted due to the predicted peak load period of the high priority service is provisioned on a second host node prior to the eviction of the low priority pod from a first host node.

A controller groups a plurality of service application types into a plurality of application type groups based on link quality requirements of the plurality of service application types in a network; determines sending priorities based on the plurality of application type groups; separately determines at least one link for the plurality of application type groups based on link quality requirements of the plurality of application type groups and link quality information of a plurality of links in the network; separately determines network configurations for the plurality of application type groups based on the at least one link separately determined for the plurality of application type groups, the sending priorities of the plurality of application type groups, the link quality requirements of the plurality of application type groups, and a policy recommendation engine; and delivers the network configurations to a policy execution point device.

Provided are a method for performing task processing on a common service entity, a common service entity, an apparatus and a medium for performing task processing. The method includes: receiving a task processing request; determining whether the common service entity itself performs the processing request; forwarding the request to another common service entity in a case where it is determined that the common service entity itself does not perform the task processing request, wherein the common service entity is associated with the another common service entity; performing, by the common service entity, the task processing request in a case where it is determined that the common service entity itself performs the task processing request.

A method, a device, and a non-transitory storage medium are described in which a network performance optimization service is provided. A load balancer device may receive, from an end device, an application service request for an application service that is available from multiple server devices of an application layer network. The load balancer device may determine, from a source identifier associated with the end device and obtained from the application service request, that the source identifier does not map to a network traffic forwarding rule of a set of stored network traffic forwarding rules. In response, the load balancer device may map the source identifier to an application service profile of a set of stored application service profiles; select, based on the application service profile, a first server device of the multiple server devices and establish the first server device to be the destination of the application service request.

Various techniques include detecting noise resulting from data network impairments and analyzing the noise to determine a likely source and location of the data network impairments. The analysis is used to generate noise reports that instruct network technicians how to check network devices for network impairments. The instructions can be provided on portable electronic devices that are further configured to receive data characterizing any impairments identified at the network devices. The data generated by the network technicians can be used to improve the ability of the techniques to correctly identify the source of data network impairments.

Various techniques include detecting noise resulting from data network impairments and analyzing the noise to determine a likely source and location of the data network impairments. The analysis is used to generate noise reports that instruct network technicians how to check network devices for network impairments. The instructions can be provided on portable electronic devices that are further configured to receive data characterizing any impairments identified at the network devices. The data generated by the network technicians can be used to improve the ability of the techniques to correctly identify the source of data network impairments.

A method supports service level agreement monitoring in a software defined network. The software defined network has forwarding elements and a software defined network controller for controlling the forwarding elements. Data flows are transmitted between a first end-path forwarding element, of the forwarding elements, and a second end-path forwarding element, of the forwarding elements, via at least one intermediate forwarding element, of the forwarding elements. The software defined network controller configures the intermediate forwarding element such that a probe triggering packet is generated based on local information of the intermediate forwarding element. The software defined network controller configures at least one of the first end-path forwarding element or the second end-path forwarding element such that an end-to-end probing is triggered based on receiving the probe triggering packet. The end-to-end probing is performed in order to detect a service level agreement violation.