Experimental Demonstration of Dynamic Service Function Chaining Based on Server Load Information in Optical Packet Switching Networks

Abstract

With the evolution of optical networks, it is expected that each server and user terminal will be equipped with an optical interface and directly connected to all-optical networks. In particular, Optical Packet Switching (OPS) network is one of the candidate future networks, where it can realize ultra-high-speed transmission with a highly statistical multiplexing effect. Thus, in addition to simple one-to-one high-speed connections, Service Function Chaining (SFC), including the selection of servers, optical route, and signal resources, needs to be provided on an optical network operation framework. In this paper, we demonstrate the possibility of selecting appropriate servers and optical signal-level communication resources with an optical network testbed. As a realistic solution to realize SFC on an OPS network operation, we implement a centrally controlled OPS network with software-defined network technology. We verify the dynamic selection of servers and optical communication resources based on aggregated load information of servers and confirm the feasibility of our SFC management.