ILP‐based heuristics for a virtual network function placement and routing problem

Bernardetta Addis (1) , Giuliana Carello (2) , Meihui Gao (3)

1 OPTIMIST - OPTImisation Methods for Integrated SysTems
2 Department of Bioengineering [Politecnico Milano]
3 Zhejiang University of Technology

Thanks to the increased availability of computing capabilities in data centers, the recently proposed virtual network function paradigm can be used to keep up with the increasing demand for network services as internet and its applications grow. The problem arises then of managing the virtual network functions, that is, to decide where to instantiate the functions and how to route the demands to reach them. While it arises in an application field, the Virtual Network Function placement and routing problem combines location and routing aspects in an interesting, challenging problem. In this paper, we propose several ILP-based heuristics and compare them on a dataset that includes instances with different sizes, network topologies, and service capacity. The heuristics prove effective in tackling even large size instances, with up to 50 nodes and more than 80 arcs.

Domaines: Informatique [cs]; Recherche opérationnelle [math.OC]

Bernardetta Addis, Giuliana Carello, Meihui Gao. ILP‐based heuristics for a virtual network function placement and routing problem. Networks, 2021, Special Issue on New network models and approaches for logistics and transportation, 78 (3), pp.328-349. ⟨10.1002/net.22073⟩. ⟨hal-03550765⟩