Optimized Service Function Path Scaling in SDN/NFV Networks
Faqiang Liu, Peng Li, Shengxiang Gao, Xin Wan, Wei An · 2019
Service Function Chaining (SFC) has received considerable attention due to the potential in improving the flexibility and efficiency of networks. In SFCs, packets comply with the SFC policy to flow through a number of network functions with a strict order and these network functions constitute a Service Function Path (SFP). In this paper, we consider the problem of increasing the network capacity by the way of scaling SFPs for accommodating more packets in case that the network reaches its limitation. To solve this problem, we first construct a multistage graph to guarantee the strict order of network functions and then derive the min cut of SFPs according to the max-flow min-cut theory. Next, a polynomial-time algorithm is presented for SFP scaling that minimizes the transmission cost. Finally, extensive experiments are carried out and the experimental results show the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed method.