OctoMap: Supporting Service Function Chaining via Supervised Learning and Online Contextual Bandit

Aziza Alzadjali, Maria Mushtaq, Flavio Esposito, Claudio Fiandrino, Jitender Deogun

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) replaces physical middleboxes with elastic Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Those VNFs need to be instantiated, and their resources dynamically scaled to meet application and traffic fluctuation requirements. Despite recent extensive research, deciding how to map virtual resources optimally to the underlying infrastructure remains practically a challenge. Existing approaches mostly assign fixed resources to each VNF instance, and transfer virtual flows using a single physical path, without prior knowledge of traffic patterns and available bandwidth. Such resource binding strategies lead to suboptimal physical link utilization. We advance the state of the art in this regard by presenting OctoMap, a system designed to support with learning theory any chain embedding algorithm. OctoMap utilizes a Convolution Neural Network for traffic prediction and provisioning, and a contextual multi-armed bandit algorithm to solve the online VNF chain embedding problem. We show the performance benefits of OctoMap with a trace-driven simulation campaign using publicly available datasets. In particular, we show how OctoMap reduces the costs of provisioning network services under node and link constraints, comparing different predictors and different multi-armed bandit policies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2021 IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization
Subtitle of host publicationAccelerating Network Softwarization in the Cognitive Age, NetSoft 2021
EditorsKohei Shiomoto, Young-Tak Kim, Christian Esteve Rothenberg, Barbara Martini, Eiji Oki, Baek-Young Choi, Noriaki Kamiyama, Stefano Secci
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages133-141
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781665405225
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 28 2021
Event7th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization, NetSoft 2021 - Virtual, Online
Duration: Jun 28 2021Jul 2 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 2021 IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization: Accelerating Network Softwarization in the Cognitive Age, NetSoft 2021

Conference

Conference7th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization, NetSoft 2021
CityVirtual, Online
Period6/28/217/2/21

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Software
  • Control and Optimization
  • Artificial Intelligence

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