PROJECT TITLE :

Integrated SDN/NFV management and orchestration architecture for dynamic deployment of virtual SDN control instances for virtual tenant networks [invited]

ABSTRACT:

Software-outlined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) have emerged as the foremost promising candidates for improving network function and protocol programmability and dynamic adjustment of network resources. On the one hand, SDN is accountable for providing an abstraction of network resources through well-outlined application programming interfaces. This abstraction enables SDN to perform network virtualization, that is, to slice the physical infrastructure and create multiple coexisting application-specific virtual tenant networks (VTNs) with specific quality-of-service and repair-levelagreement requirements, freelance of the underlying optical transport technology and network protocols. On the other hand, the notion of NFV relates to deploying network functions that are sometimes deployed in specialised and dedicated hardware, as software instances [called virtual network functions (VNFs)] running on commodity servers (e.g., in knowledge centers) through software virtualization techniques. Despite all the eye that has been given to virtualizing IP functions (e.g., firewall; authentication, authorization, and accounting) or Long-Term Evolution control functions (e.g., mobility management entity, serving gateway, and packet information network gateway), some transport management functions can also be virtualized and moved to the cloud as a VNF. In this work we tend to propose virtualizing the tenant SDN control functions of a VTN and moving them into the cloud. The management of a VTN may be a key demand related to network virtualization, since it allows the dynamic programming (i.e., direct management and configuration) of the virtual resources allocated to the VTN. We experimentally assess and evaluate the first SDN/NFV orchestration design during a multipartner testbed to dynamically deploy freelance SDN controller instances for each instantiated VTN and to produce the specified connectivity within minutes.