Dynamic Service Function Chaining Orchestration in a Multi-Domain: A Heuristic Approach Based on SRv6

Abstract

With the emergence of virtualization technology, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) make the network function abstract from the hardware and allow it to be run on virtual machines. These technologies can help to provide more efficient services to users by Service Function Chaining (SFC). The sequence of multiple VNFs required by network operators to perform traffic steering is called SFC. Mapping and deploying SFC on the physical network can enable users to obtain customized services in time. At present, a key problem in deploying SFC is how to reduce network resource consumption and load pressure while ensuring the corresponding services for users. In this paper, we first introduce an NFV architecture for SFC deployment, and illustrate the SFC orchestration process which is based on SRv6 in multi-domain scenario. Then, we propose an effective SFC dynamic orchestration algorithm. First, we use Breadth-First Search algorithm to traverse network and find the shortest path for deploying VNFs. Next, we use the improved Ant Colony Optimization algorithm to generate the optimal deployment scheme. Finally, we conduct a series of experiments to verify the performance of our algorithm. Compared with other deployment algorithms, the results show that our solution effectively optimizes end-to-end delay, bandwidth resource consumption and load balancing.