Interactive Visualizations for Planning and Strategic Business Decisions in NFV-Enabled Networks
Muriel Figueredo Franco, Ricardo Luis dos Santos, Ricardo Cava, Eder J. Scheid, Ricardo J. Pfitscher, Carla Maria Dal Sasso Freitas, Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville · 2017
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is driving a paradigm shift in telecommunications networks, fostering new business models and creating innovation opportunities. In NFV-enabled networks, Service Providers (SPs) have the opportunity to build a business model where tenants can purchase Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) that provide distinct network services and functions. However, the chance to negotiate VNFs requires a change in traditional network planning strategies to accommodate tenants demands. In this context, the planning tasks perform a critical role in the introducing of business strategies that encompass both profit and health of services, which requires operators to have a broad understanding of the environment. In this paper, we propose the usage of two interactive visualization techniques to help NFV network operators in planning and strategic decisions. We advocate that our visualizations can aid in NFV planning tasks, such as infrastructure investment, resources allocation, and service pricing. We present three case studies to provide evidence of the feasibility and effectiveness of our visualizations.