Resource-Efficient and Availability-Aware Service Chaining and VNF Placement with VNF Diversity and Redundancy

Takanori Hara Masahiro Sasabe Kento Sugihara Shoji Kasahara

In IEICE Transactions on Communications, 2024

Abstract

To establish a network service in network functions virtualization (NFV) networks, the orchestrator addresses the challenge of service chaining and virtual network function placement (SC-VNFP) by mapping virtual network functions (VNFs) and virtual links onto physical nodes and links. Unlike traditional networks, network operators in NFV networks must contend with both hardware and software failures in order to ensure resilient network services, as NFV networks consist of physical nodes and software-based VNFs.To guarantee network service quality in NFV networks, the existing work has proposed an approach for the SC-VNFP problem that considers VNF diversity and redundancy.VNF diversity splits a single VNF into multiple lightweight replica instances that possess the same functionality as the original VNF, which are then executed in a distributed manner. VNF redundancy, on the other hand, deploys backup instances with standby mode on physical nodes to prepare for potential VNF failures. However, the existing approach does not adequately consider the tradeoff between resource efficiency and service availability in the context of VNF diversity and redundancy.In this paper, we formulate the SC-VNFP problem with VNF diversity and redundancy as a two-step integer linear program (ILP) that adjusts the balance between service availability and resource efficiency.Through numerical experiments, we demonstrate the fundamental characteristics of the proposed ILP, including the tradeoff between resource efficiency and service availability.

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Text Reference

Takanori Hara, Masahiro Sasabe, Kento Sugihara, Shoji Kasahara, Resource-Efficient and Availability-Aware Service Chaining and VNF Placement with VNF Diversity and Redundancy, IEICE Transactions on Communications, E107-B(1), pp.105-116, January 2024.

BibTex Reference

@article{hara24ResourceEfficientAvailabilityAwareService,
    author = "Hara, Takanori and Sasabe, Masahiro and Sugihara, Kento and Kasahara, Shoji",
    title = "Resource-{{Efficient}} and {{Availability-Aware Service Chaining}} and {{VNF Placement}} with {{VNF Diversity}} and {{Redundancy}}",
    year = "2024",
    month = "January",
    journal = "IEICE Transactions on Communications",
    volume = "E107-B",
    number = "1",
    pages = "105--116",
    doi = "10.1587/transcom.2023WWP0003"
}