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On Ensuring Full Yet Cost-Efficient Survivability of Service Function Chains in NFV Environments

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Abstract

The emergence of Network Function Virtualization enables the deployment of network services in the form of service function chains. In this context, one of the key challenges is to ensure the survivability of these chains in face of single or multiple simultaneous physical node failures. In this paper, we address this challenge and propose solutions to guarantee the survivability of service chains by ensuring that there are enough backups ready to take over when failures occur. Specifically, we put forward a Survivability Management Framework that predicts traffic demand in service function chains and provision enough backups for network functions with minimal costs. To this end, we leverage the AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model to predict future demand. We mathematically model the service chain survivability problem as an integer linear program that determines the minimal number of shared backups and their optimal location in the infrastructure such that backup operational costs are minimized. We also devise two greedy algorithms to deal with the problem in large-scale scenarios. We show, through several simulations, the performance and efficiency of the proposed solutions in different scenarios. We also show that demand prediction could help to avoid unnecessary provisioning of backups, and thereby reduce their operational costs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software and Information Technology Engineering Department, École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), 1100 Notre-Dame St W, Montreal, QC, H3C 1K3, Canada

    Zakaria Alomari

  2. Department of Networks and Multimedia at the Institut Supérieur d’Informatique et des Techniques de Communication (ISITCom), University of Sousse, Hammam Sousse, Tunisia

    Mohamed Faten Zhani

  3. Machine Learning Department, Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Moayad Aloqaily

  4. College of Technological Innovation, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE

    Ouns Bouachir

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  1. Zakaria Alomari
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  2. Mohamed Faten Zhani
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  3. Moayad Aloqaily
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  4. Ouns Bouachir
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ZA Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-original draft, Project administration. MFZ Validation, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. MA Validation, Supervision. OB Validation, Supervision.

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Correspondence to Zakaria Alomari.

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Alomari, Z., Zhani, M.F., Aloqaily, M. et al. On Ensuring Full Yet Cost-Efficient Survivability of Service Function Chains in NFV Environments. J Netw Syst Manage 31, 45 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10922-023-09734-3

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