Resource flexing is the notion of allocating resources on-demand as workload changes. This is a key advantage of Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) over their non-virtualized counterparts. However, it is difficult to balance the timeliness and resource efficiency when making resource flexing decisions due to unpredictable workloads and complex VNF processing logic. In this work, we propose an Elastic resource flexing system for Network functions VIrtualization (ENVI) that leverages a combination of VNF-level features and infrastructure-level features to construct a neural-network-based scaling decision engine for generating timely scaling decisions. To adapt to dynamic workloads, we design a window-based rewinding mechanism to update the neural network with emerging workload patterns and make accurate decisions in real time. Our experimental results for real VNFs (IDS Suricata and caching proxy Squid) using workloads generated based on real-world traces, show that ENVI provisions significantly fewer (up to 26%) resources without violating service level objectives, compared to commonly used rule-based scaling policies.
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HYPER: A Hybrid High-Performance Framework for Network Function Virtualization
Network function virtualization (NFV) offers the potential for both enhancing service delivery flexibility and reducing overall costs by virtualizing network functions that are traditionally implemented in dedicated hardware. However, the flexibility of NFV comes with considerable compromises since virtual machine carried functions could introduce significant performance overhead. In this paper, we present a novel high-performance framework called HYPER, which combines programmable hardware infrastructure and traditional software infrastructure in NFV to achieve both high performance and flexibility for supporting virtualized network functions (VNFs). In HYPER, we design a mediator layer to hide underlying infrastructure heterogeneity from the NFV orchestrator to simplify VNF management. In addition, we design a SLA-aware service chaining algorithm in HYPER to leverage the benefits of the hybrid infrastructure to fulfill both functional and performance requirements from service subscribers (or tenants). To optimize resource utilization efficiency, we also introduce a performance-aware VNF placement algorithm in HYPER, which accommodates both resource and performance requirements in placing VNFs. We implement HYPER in a testbed based on OpenStack and ONetCard. Experimental results show that HYPER reduces the forwarding latency of a service chain by 40% to 67% compared with data plane development kit -based implementation, while maintaining the flexibility of VNF management.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1642143
- PAR ID:
- 10047715
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
- Volume:
- 35
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 0733-8716
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 2490 - 2500
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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