Patent ID: 11934856
Assignee: TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 11:
12. A network node comprising:
processing circuitry; and
memory to store instructions executable by the processing circuitry for joint placement and chaining of a scalable number of VNFs,
the network node operative to:
receive a request for virtual network services, the request including a first description of a virtual network including the VNFs and virtual links connecting the VNFs, wherein a subset of the VNFs form a server function chain to provide an in-line network service;
obtain a second description of a physical network including servers and physical links;
initialize a population of chromosomes, wherein each chromosome encodes a mapping between the virtual links enumerated to form a locus and a corresponding sequence of server pairs, wherein end-point VNFs of each virtual link are mapped to a server pair connected by one or more of the physical links;
evaluate, for each of a plurality of generations of the population which evolves according to a genetic algorithm, each chromosome within the population against a set of objective functions subject to a set of constraints to identify a chromosome as a solution, wherein the objective functions include: a cost function for transporting traffic of the virtual network services through the physical links, wherein the cost function is a function of a distance between each server pair, a bandwidth required by each virtual link, and a cost for transporting one traffic unit through one physical hop distance; and
place the VNFs on the servers according to the mapping encoded in the identified chromosome, which maps each VNF to one of the servers and each virtual link to a path composed of one or more of the physical links.