Dynamic programming of network slices in software-defined metro-core optical networks

Abstract

Nowadays networks are the basis of our communication providing a great number of services. As a consequence, the traffic is increasing and there is a growing demand for new services that require stringent constraints on capacity, latency and jitter to provide an appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) to end users. In order to cope with these requirements, network infrastructure needs to evolve from a static and closed architecture towards a more scalable, dynamic and agile one. Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization allow to provide different services, each one with its own QoS constraints, independent and secure, thanks to the network slicing concept, the main subject of this work. Network slicing allows to segment the underlying physical network into different logical networks to provide data transport customized to specific services. In this paper, we propose two mathematical models able to dynamically provision network slices on the physical network, complying with their QoS requirements for their instantiation and routing of traffic. The proposed models aim at minimizing a linear combination of probability of blocking traffic requests, energy consumption of physical network devices and interruption of service due to the reconfiguration of the slices. Taking advantage of traffic signatures from a city's mobile network, the goal is to predict how and when to reconfigure slices already deployed in the network with the aim to optimize the resource allocation in the underlying physical network.