Interference-Aware NFV-Enabled Multicast Service in Resource-Constrained Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

Network Function Virtualization is a key technology that enables network operators to provide diverse communication services flexibly over a common infrastructure, resulting in a significantly reduced cost. This paper addresses the problem of optimal network function virtualization for providing multicast services in wireless mesh networks with minimal total cost. This problem is modeled in two different ways: Link-based Model (LBM) and Path-based Model (PBM). In both models, we formulate the problem as an integer linear program to find the best hosts for virtual network functions and to steer traffic across them by considering wireless interference and resource budgets. Furthermore, we propose a heuristic solution based on the decomposition of the problem into two smaller sub-problems that can be solved sequentially in two phases. In the first phase, a multicast tree for forwarding traffic is constructed, while in the second phase, the required network functions are instantiated in appropriately chosen nodes. Simulation results are presented to compare the performance and complexity of the exact solutions of link-based and path-based approaches and the proposed heuristic approach. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed path-based model and the heuristic algorithm.