Canonical domains for optimal network slice planning

Abstract

The existing conventional mobile networks are not flexible: if there is a new service, it unfortunately cannot be integrated automatically. Their traffic routing is not optimal and users' traffic is forwarded to the core network without considering the optimal path. This causes high latency to access the desired service, and the use of resources is inefficient. This has motivated the evolution towards 5G. The 5G vision consists of managing highly dynamic network slices and provisions networks in an as-a-service fashion. In this vein, to answer to the elasticity and low-latency specifications of the upcoming 5G services, the optimal placement of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) must overcome the non-uniform service demand and the irregular nature of the underlying network topologies. This paper addresses this issue by mapping the non-uniform signaling messages to a new uniform environment, namely, the canonical domain, whereby the placement of core functions is more feasible and efficient. This is carried out by using Schwartz-Christoffel conformal mappings. The conducted experimentation shows the efficiency of our approach, compared to some baseline approaches, in the virtual resource allocation (i.e. Virtual CPU, Virtual DISK) and that is in terms of reducing the overall cost, end-to-end delay and number of activated Virtual Machines (VMs; virtual resources in general).