Network function virtualization (NFV) enables telecommunications infrastructure providers to replace special-purpose networking equipment with commodity servers running virtualized network functions (VNFs). A provider using NFV faces the service function chain (SFC) provisioning problem of assigning VNF instances to nodes in the physical infrastructure, and routing SFCs in the physical network. The provider must balance competing goals of performance and resource usage. This article presents an approach to SFC provisioning, called Stringer, which lets providers balance the conflicting goals of minimizing infrastructure resources and end-to-end latency for meeting their respective service-level agreements. T elecommunications providers are making a strong push toward network function virtualization (NFV) of their infrastructure to reduce both capital and operational expenditures while maintaining high carrier-grade service levels. These savings come from being able to dynamically assign virtualized network functions (VNFs) to various standard servers in their infrastructure to meet varying workload demands. Similar to cloud service resource allocation, such dynamic VNF placement can be automated to optimize various goals of a telecommunications company (telco) operator. Adoption of NFV by telcos allows dynamic, fine-grained service function chain (SFC) use, where various SFCs can be strung together with deployed VNFs using software-defined networking (SDN)-enabled dynamic route control. Similarly, enterprises are adopting NFV for deployment of network services in their infrastructure. As a popular use case of NFV in the telco, an SFC is usually deployed in the telco's datacenters in their points of presence or central offices. The prosperity of SFCs highly depend on its performance. We provide an approach to SFC provisioning within a datacenter. SFC provisioning comprises determining how VNFs are placed on nodes in the datacenter and how VNF instances are assigned to SFCs. The placement and assignment affects the traffic routing from the SFC through the datacenter's network. Our SFC
Chua et al. REF propose a Service Function Chain (SFC) provisioning system referred to Stringer which enables virtual network providers to minimize the infrastructure resources and end-to-end delay.
Stringer: Balancing Latency and Resource Usage in Service Function Chain Provisioning
IEEE Internet Computing
IEEE Internet Computing
Computer Science