Network Function Virtualization enabled multicast routing on SDN

Abstract

Many multicast services such as live multimedia distribution and real-time event monitoring require constructing a multicast mechanism that involves network functions (e.g. firewall, video transcoding). Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a concept that proposes using virtualization to implement network functions on infrastructure building block (such as high volume servers, virtual machines), where software provides the functionality of existing purpose-built network equipment. We present an approach for building the multicast mechanism whereby multicast flows are processed by NFV before reaching their end users. We propose a routing algorithm and a method for building an appropriate multicast topology.

Approximation and Online Algorithms for NFV-Enabled Multicasting in SDNs

“…There are studies focusing on multicasting in SDNs [9], [22], [23]. Huang et al [10] devised the very first online algorithms with provable competitive ratios for online unicasting and multicasting in SDNs, under both node capacities (forwarding table sizes) and link capacities (bandwidth capacities) constraints.…”

“…Several studies on multicasting in SDNs have been conducted recently [9], [10], [22], [23]. However, among these work, they either do not consider network functions in multicast requests [9], [10], or only dealt with a single multicast request admission [22], [23].…”

“…Several studies on multicasting in SDNs have been conducted recently [9], [10], [22], [23]. However, among these work, they either do not consider network functions in multicast requests [9], [10], or only dealt with a single multicast request admission [22], [23]. In contrast, we here investigate NFVenabled multicasting, by devising not only an approximation algorithm with a provable approximation ratio for realizing a single NFV-enabled multicast request but also an online algorithm with a guaranteed competitive ratio for the online NFV-enabled multicasting problem.…”

Service Overlay Forest Embedding for Software-Defined Cloud Networks

“…However, the dimension of service allocation in VMs has not been explored in the above work. Recently, special cases on a tree [27], [28] with only one source and one VM have been explored. Overall, the above approaches are not designed to support a service forest with multiple VNFs and multiple trees, and the problem here is more challenging because VNF conflict due to the overlapping of trees will occur.…”

“…3) Enhanced algorithm for the NFV enabled multicast problem (eNEMP). Since the algorithm for the NFV enabled multicast problem (NEMP) [27] does not support multiple sources and VNFs, similar to the above extension, we construct a service chain and then connect it to the tree, where the chain spans the VM that has been chosen in the tree. Moreover, we enable eST and eNEMP to support multiple sources via the modification as follows.…”