SFC placement and dynamic resource allocation based on VNF performance-resource function and service requirement in cloud-edge environment

With the continuous development of network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies and the explosive growth of network traffic, the requirement for computing resources in the network has risen sharply. Due to the high cost of edge computing resources, coordinating the cloud and edge computing resources to improve the utilization efficiency of edge computing resources is still a considerable challenge. In this paper, we focus on optimizing the placement of network services in cloud-edge environments to maximize the efficiency. It is first proved that, in cloud-edge environments, placing one service function chain (SFC) integrally in the cloud or at the edge can improve the utilization efficiency of edge resources. Then a virtual network function (VNF) performance-resource (P-R) function is proposed to represent the relationship between the VNF instance computing performance and the allocated computing resource. To select the SFCs that are most suitable to deploy at the edge, a VNF placement and resource allocation model is built to configure each VNF with its particular P-R function. Moreover, a heuristic recursive algorithm is designed called the recursive algorithm for max edge throughput (RMET) to solve the model. Through simulations on two scenarios, it is verified that RMET can improve the utilization efficiency of edge computing resources.