Model Predictive Control for Automated Network Assurance in Intent-Based Networking enabled Service Function Chains

Abstract

Recent trends in Network Function Virtualization (NFV) combined with Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G applications have reshaped the network service offering. In particular, Service Function Chains (SFCs) can associate network functions with physical and virtual resources towards providing a complete network service. Concurrently, the management of a continuously expanding network and the fulfillment of the applications’ requirements pave the way for autonomic network solutions. Intent Based Networking (IBN) is a novel paradigm that aims to achieve the automatic orchestration of network services and the assurance of their performance. Accordingly, in this paper, we propose a novel automated network assurance model, based on Model Predictive Control, to guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS) and security requirements of multi-tenant and IBN-enabled SFCs. In this context, corrective decisions are proactively taken, in the form of incoming intent relocations among the SFCs. The results reveal that our model can assure with high probability the application requirements and minimize QoS violations.