Telecom Operators in Virtual Heterogeneous Networks May Benefit from Dynamic Resource Replacement for Virtual Services Based on Flow Splitting: FSB-DReViSeR

Abstract

Virtual networks provide their services by aggregating groups of virtual devices that use an existing physical network to interact with one another. These services, unlike the underlying network, often need a large number of distinct resources (bandwidth, processing power, servers, etc.) to operate. The adaptability of the virtual network architecture is what makes it so appealing. A server is required for each virtual service; hence computers are categorized as virtual service resources. It is common practice to either supply resources for the virtual network or replace the virtual service resource by migrating the service to another node that offers the most suitable number of resources to do so (QoS) when a given resource is unable to meet quality of service requirements due to traffic variation caused by mobile users. Our flow-splitting technique allows for the dynamic redistribution of virtual service resources across several virtual connections. We take a different approach than the prevalent tree-based approaches in the current body of literature by basing our method on graph topology instead. The simulation results from this study demonstrate that our solution drastically decreases the time needed to replace virtual service resources when compared to existing methods.