Elastic Slicing in Programmable Networks

B. Turkovic, S.H. Nijhuis, F.A. Kuipers

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
332 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The concept of network slicing enables operators to provision multiple virtual networks on top of a single (shared) physical infrastructure. Adding elasticity to slicing, i.e., the ability to on-demand provision/release dedicated network resources, improves resource utilization. However, efficiently allocating and scaling slice resources, while maintaining state consistency, is challenging. Especially with P4-programmab1e network devices that process packets at Tbps speeds, controller-driven scaling of network functions would be too time-consuming, and data-plane scaling is needed. In this paper, we address this need, by developing a custom scaling protocol and framework that can consistently, with negligible delay, scale network slices and functions transparently to the slice end-users. We compare, via emulation and experiments on programmable hardware, our approach to state-of-the-art scaling techniques and demonstrate significant slice resource utilization improvements and scaling duration reductions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2021 IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization
Subtitle of host publicationAccelerating Network Softwarization in the Cognitive Age, NetSoft 2021
EditorsKohei Shiomoto, Young-Tak Kim, Christian Esteve Rothenberg, Barbara Martini, Eiji Oki, Baek-Young Choi, Noriaki Kamiyama, Stefano Secci
PublisherIEEE
Pages115-123
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9781665405225
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 2021 IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization: Accelerating Network Softwarization in the Cognitive Age, NetSoft 2021

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