Consistent VNF Forwarding Graphs Provisioning in Multi-domain Environments
Résumé
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) decouples the network functions from the underlying infrastructure and enables running Virtualized Network Functions (VNF) on top of any generic, Commercial On-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware. VNFs rely on the VNF-Forwarding Graph (VNF-FG) concept to describe and implement network topologies (e.g. connectivity schemes, forwarding rules and dependencies). VNF-FGs are provisioned and managed by appropriate orchestrators such as NFV-MANO. In multi-domain approach, and for complex and sophisticated network topologies, VNF-FGs are managed by multi-domain orchestrators. This improves on the drawbacks of traditional centralized orchestration such as limited availability, communication bottlenecks and lack of flexibility for services. However, distributed orchestration might lead to inconsistencies, and thus partial or total failure of services. Enabling such system is quite challenging due to inherent restrictions of multi-domain environments such as asynchronous communication and limited knowledge. This paper proposes the use of causal dependencies among VNFs to provision consistent VNF-FG reconfiguration in distributed multi-domain environments under asynchronous communication channels. The proposed model is implemented and compared with the traditional consistency used in centralized and distributed orchestration. Results indicate that, with this proposal, the inconsistencies due to asynchronous communication channels are prevented.
Domaines
Informatique [cs]Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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