COLAP: A predictive framework for service function chain placement in a multi-cloud environment

Abstract

Network function virtualization (NFV) over multi-cloud promises network service providers amazing flexibility in service deployment and optimizing cost. Telecommunications applications are, however, sensitive to performance indicators, especially latency, which tend to get degraded by both the virtualization and the multiple cloud requirement for widely distributed coverage. In this work we propose an efficient framework that uses the novel concept of random cloud selection combined with a support vector regression based predictive model for cost optimized latency aware placement (COLAP) of service function chains. Extensive empirical analysis has been carried out with training datasets generated using a queuing-theoretic model. The results show good generalization performance of the predictive algorithm. The proposed framework can place thousands of virtual network functions in less than a minute and has high acceptance ratio.