Inproceedings,
Flexible Compositions for the Virtual Network Function Chain Placement in Online Environments
31th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC 31), Budapest, Hungary, (2019)
Abstract
Network Functions Virtualization is gaining significant attention from researchers for reducing the costs of Telecommunication Service Providers (TSP) and giving more flexibility to market demands. Traditionally, works dealing with virtual network function placement and chaining problem receive the requests with a fixed chaining composition. In an online environment with substrate network resources partially consumed, such fixed chaining composition, although being optimal for the client, may be less profitable or impossible to be mapped by the service provider. In this case, an alternative chain composition, even with eventually higher bandwidth expenditure, may potentially have a better adjustment on the residual substrate network. This work proposes to give more autonomy to the TSP through a set of alternative chaining compositions. Such action includes flexibility in the choice of the structure that best fits on the residual network. In this model, the client is responsible to provide chaining alternatives (attending the same network service) to the TSP. The simulations show that the composition selection approach generates increases in profit and acceptance rate when compared to traditional models.
