Optimal VNFs Placement in CDN Slicing Over Multi-Cloud Environment

Abstract

This paper introduces a content delivery network as a service (CDNaaS) platform that allows dynamic deployment and life-cycle management of virtual content delivery network (CDN) slices running across multiple administrative cloud domains. The CDN slice consists of four virtual network function (VNF) types, namely virtual transcoders, virtual streamers, virtual caches, and a CDN-slice-specific Coordinator for the management of the slice resources across the involved cloud domains. To create an efficient CDN slice, the optimal placement of its composing VNFs using adequate amount of virtual resources for each VNF is of vital importance. In this vein, this paper devises mechanisms for allocating an appropriate set of VNFs for each CDN slice to meet its performance requirements and minimize as much as possible the incurred cost in terms of allocated virtual resources. A mathematical model is developed to evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanisms. We first formulate the VNF placement problem as two Linear Integer problem models, aiming at minimizing the cost and maximizing the quality of experience (QoE) of the virtual streaming service. By applying the bargaining game theory, we ensure an optimal tradeoff solution between the cost efficiency and QoE. Extensive simulations are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed models in achieving their design objectives and encouraging results are obtained.

Dynamic network service deployment across multiple SDN domains

“…A collaborative SFC resolution method was designed in the work of Silvestro et al to share a minimum amount of information between multiple and independent in‐network service providers. The problem of optimal virtual network function placement in multicloud environment was studied in the work of Benkacem et al and formulated as two linear integer modes with the target of cost minimization and quality of experience (QoE) maximization. Similarly, the problem of SFC orchestration in multidomain networks is studied in related works .…”

“…Other authors investigated the network service chain provisioning and orchestration problem, they only focused on single domain network instead of multidomain SDN network. In the last few years, some research works on network service chain deployment have been made in multidomain network or multicloud environment . However, different from multidomain SDN network, it is difficult for the multidomain network or multicloud network to achieve flexible and scalable deployment of network service chain due to lack of centralized control capacity.…”

“…However, different from multidomain SDN network, it is difficult for the multidomain network or multicloud network to achieve flexible and scalable deployment of network service chain due to lack of centralized control capacity. Moreover, the dynamic natures of user service demand are not considered in most existing works . Most current proposals are efficient and useful for the static network SFC deployment.…”

“…In the last few years, some research works on network service chain deployment have been made in multidomain network [9][10][11][12][13][14] or multicloud environment. 15,16 However, different from multidomain SDN network, it is difficult for the multidomain network or multicloud network to achieve flexible and scalable deployment of network service chain due to lack of centralized control capacity. Moreover, the dynamic natures of user service demand are not considered in most existing works.…”

“…Moreover, the dynamic natures of user service demand are not considered in most existing works. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Most current proposals are efficient and useful for the static network SFC deployment. It is difficult to meet dynamic service demand of end user, especially in multidomain SDN network scenarios.…”