A Comparative Study of Services Placement Algorithms in Future Networks

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze and compare several algorithms in the context of networks services placement, and then proposed a self-organized dynamic heuristic algorithm adaptable to continually changing network conditions in order to achieve the ideal placement of services replicas in future networks. It is known that future networks demand a high degree of self-organization to keep pace with ongoing changes while maintaining performance optimized. One of the important challenges in this context is the services placement problem. Service placement issue refers to the selection of the most appropriate network node for hosting a service. The ideal placement of services replicas reduces the cost of serving customers, improves connectivity between clients and servers as well as the use of available resources. The study summarized the results of qualitative comparison between several placement algorithms and refers to the most important requirements to be taken into account when implementing the placement algorithm. Generally, each service has its own placement technique, and the action taken by a specific service may affect other services decisions and force them to adapt. There is an urgent need to a management service for managing services replicas to make the optimal placement decision. This service should work in a distributed manner and does not require comprehensive knowledge about the network. It is also characterized by its ability to adapt to changing network conditions in terms of load and topology. Other services coordinate with the management service about replicating or migrating actions, thus services will be offered at a minimized cost.