Product Block Instance Graph

A subscription for a specific customer for a product that is deployed on the network is stored in the Workflow Orchestrator database. The notion of subscription ownership allows for fine-grained control over which customer is allowed to change what attribute. By correctly adding references from one product block to another, a graph of product block instances is generated that accurately reflects the relations between the snippets of network node configuration that are deployed to the network. The graph is automatically added to when a new subscription is created, allowing easy and intuitive navigation through all configuration data. Once every network service is modelled and provisioned to the network through the Workflow Orchestrator, every line of network node configuration can be linked to the corresponding subscription that holds the configuration parameters.

The example below shows the product block instance graph for a L2 point-to-point and a L2 VPN service between three ports on three different nodes. The nodes are owned by the respective NREN’s Network Operations Centre (NOC). University A has ports on nodes on two different locations, and uses a L2 point-to-point service to connect these locations. Research Institute B has one port of its own, and uses a L2 VPN service for their collaboration with the university. The business rules that describe the (optional) authorisation logic for connecting subscriptions from different customers to each other are coded in the Workflow Orchestrator workflows related to these products.