Abstract
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is an approach that provides a network service provider with agility and cost-efficiency in managing 6G network services. Standard traffic engineering rules are known limited in assuring a very stringent delay requirement in NFV when a traffic flow is required to follow a sequence of network functions scattered in data center networks. This paper proposes an innovative model and algorithm of traffic engineering for service function chaining (SFC) to maximize cost-efficiency under a delay-guarantee constraint. We first formulate the problem as a mixed-integer linear programming model for obtaining the optimal solution. We then propose an algorithm based on the reinforcement learning principles for finding an approximation solution in a large-scale problem with the dynamics of service demands. Numerical results under both real-world datasets and synthetic network topologies demonstrate that our proposed model and algorithm allow an NFV service provider (NSP) to place a virtual network function and steer a traffic flow efficiently in terms of energy cost for a delay-guarantee SFC. Importantly, the results provide an insight into the optimal and approximation solutions for an NSP to select a suitable traffic engineering approach with regard to network dynamics.
Highlights
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has become the center of attention in 6G network architectures for enabling network service providers (NSP) to manage network services (NS) with agility and cost-efficiency
The optimal solution provided by TEDO is used as a benchmark solution for evaluating the approximation solution provided by TEDI
The TEDO model captures the essential aspects of traffic engineering for NFV, including optimal Virtual Network Functions (VNF) placement and routing under constraints on delay-guarantee service function chain (SFC) to maximize energy efficiency
Summary
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has become the center of attention in 6G network architectures for enabling network service providers (NSP) to manage network services (NS) with agility and cost-efficiency. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) have mentioned the traffic engineering issue as a primary research challenge for the NFV performance [1], [2] They have not proposed a solution to the above optimization problem. Author et al.: Preparation of Papers for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS mization problem of traffic steering for a delay-guarantee SFC regarding network dynamics This explores solutions for the joint optimization of VNF placement and routing to maximize cost-efficiency under a strict requirement of SFC delay. We formulate a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the joint optimization of VNF allocation and routing under a strict requirement of SFC delay in order to maximize energy efficiency.
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