A Dynamic and Collaborative Multi-Layer Virtual Network Embedding Algorithm in SDN Based on Reinforcement Learning
Meilian Lu, Yun Gu, Dongliang Xie · IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management · 2020
Most of existing virtual network embedding (VNE) algorithms only consider how to construct virtual networks more efficiently on a physical infrastructure, without considering the possibility that the constructed virtual networks may be further virtualized to multiple smaller ones. We define the former scenario as single-layer VNE and the later as multi-layer VNE. As the increasing popularity of deploying large datacenter networks and wide area networks with Software Defined Network (SDN) architectures, it becomes a new requirement and possibility to provide multi-layer encapsulated network services for large tenants who have hierarchical organizational structures or need fine-grained service isolation. However, existing VNE algorithm are not specifically designed for the above requirement and not flexible enough to deal with mapping virtual network requirements (VNRs) to a physical network and smaller VNRs to a mapped virtual network. In this paper, we aim to propose a unified and flexible multi-layer VNE algorithm combining with reinforcement learning to solve the embedding of multi-layer VNRs, which can better distinguish the differences between VNRs and physical networks. Simulation results show that our algorithm achieves good performance both in single-layer and multi-layer VNE scenarios.