Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing
The increasing demand in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) networks has led to the emergence of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology. Through the virtualization technique, NFV can decouple each Virtual Network Function (VNF) from the hardware and deploy it flexibly in the MEC. Each service req...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319157823001738 |
| _version_ | 1797749212370173952 |
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| author | Kun Zhang Yu Zhou Shengrong Zhang Haifeng Wang Amin Qourbani |
| author_facet | Kun Zhang Yu Zhou Shengrong Zhang Haifeng Wang Amin Qourbani |
| author_sort | Kun Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The increasing demand in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) networks has led to the emergence of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology. Through the virtualization technique, NFV can decouple each Virtual Network Function (VNF) from the hardware and deploy it flexibly in the MEC. Each service request in NFV assembles a Service Function Chain (SFC) by tying different VNFs and processes the traffic in the chained order. How to allocate resources and deploy SFC in MEC to meet Quality of Service (QoS) requirements is an important challenge for NFV. An increase in the number of VNFs with traffic passing one after the other causes high delay in SFC assembly. Also, the demanded resources may change during SFC assembly, which is clearly neglected in existing works. Therefore, high delay and resource demand uncertainty during SFC assembly affect QoS. With this motivation, we solve the SFC deployment problem by Parallelizing VNFs under Resource Demand Uncertainty (PVRDU) in MEC. We use the dependency between VNFs to transform the original SFC into a parallel SFC and then assemble several sub-SFCs based on a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approach. Meanwhile, PVRDU uses a Markov-based approximation algorithm to handle resource demand uncertainty. We perform extensive trace-driven simulations to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The evaluation results of PVRDU are promising in different aspects compared to state-of-the-art methods. Specifically, for the considered scenario, DPC reduced SFC delay by as much as 8.7%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:16:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f2d5289b0ebd47dd9d1d5e9f8e1e46b9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1319-1578 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:16:00Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-f2d5289b0ebd47dd9d1d5e9f8e1e46b92023-08-09T04:32:06ZengElsevierJournal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences1319-15782023-07-01357101619Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computingKun Zhang0Yu Zhou1Shengrong Zhang2Haifeng Wang3Amin Qourbani4School of Information Science and Technology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, Hainan, China; Corresponding authors.School of Information Science and Technology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, Hainan, China; Corresponding authors.CETC Guohaixintong Technology (Hainan) Co., Ltd, Sansha 570203, Hainan, China; Corresponding authors.School of Computer Science and Technology, Hainan Tropical Ocean University, Sanya 572022, Hainan, ChinaDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranThe increasing demand in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) networks has led to the emergence of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology. Through the virtualization technique, NFV can decouple each Virtual Network Function (VNF) from the hardware and deploy it flexibly in the MEC. Each service request in NFV assembles a Service Function Chain (SFC) by tying different VNFs and processes the traffic in the chained order. How to allocate resources and deploy SFC in MEC to meet Quality of Service (QoS) requirements is an important challenge for NFV. An increase in the number of VNFs with traffic passing one after the other causes high delay in SFC assembly. Also, the demanded resources may change during SFC assembly, which is clearly neglected in existing works. Therefore, high delay and resource demand uncertainty during SFC assembly affect QoS. With this motivation, we solve the SFC deployment problem by Parallelizing VNFs under Resource Demand Uncertainty (PVRDU) in MEC. We use the dependency between VNFs to transform the original SFC into a parallel SFC and then assemble several sub-SFCs based on a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approach. Meanwhile, PVRDU uses a Markov-based approximation algorithm to handle resource demand uncertainty. We perform extensive trace-driven simulations to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The evaluation results of PVRDU are promising in different aspects compared to state-of-the-art methods. Specifically, for the considered scenario, DPC reduced SFC delay by as much as 8.7%.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319157823001738SFC deploymentParallelizationResource demand uncertaintyDRLMEC |
| spellingShingle | Kun Zhang Yu Zhou Shengrong Zhang Haifeng Wang Amin Qourbani Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences SFC deployment Parallelization Resource demand uncertainty DRL MEC |
| title | Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing |
| title_full | Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing |
| title_fullStr | Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing |
| title_short | Towards deploying SFC with parallelized VNFs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing |
| title_sort | towards deploying sfc with parallelized vnfs under resource demand uncertainty in mobile edge computing |
| topic | SFC deployment Parallelization Resource demand uncertainty DRL MEC |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319157823001738 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kunzhang towardsdeployingsfcwithparallelizedvnfsunderresourcedemanduncertaintyinmobileedgecomputing AT yuzhou towardsdeployingsfcwithparallelizedvnfsunderresourcedemanduncertaintyinmobileedgecomputing AT shengrongzhang towardsdeployingsfcwithparallelizedvnfsunderresourcedemanduncertaintyinmobileedgecomputing AT haifengwang towardsdeployingsfcwithparallelizedvnfsunderresourcedemanduncertaintyinmobileedgecomputing AT aminqourbani towardsdeployingsfcwithparallelizedvnfsunderresourcedemanduncertaintyinmobileedgecomputing |