Optimal Network Function Virtualization and Service Function Chaining: A Survey

MIRJALILY Ghasem; LUO Zhiquan

doi:10.1049/cje.2018.05.008

Volume 27 Issue 4

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MIRJALILY Ghasem and LUO Zhiquan, “Optimal Network Function Virtualization and Service Function Chaining: A Survey,” Chinese Journal of Electronics, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 704-717, 2018, doi: 10.1049/cje.2018.05.008

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MIRJALILY Ghasem and LUO Zhiquan, “Optimal Network Function Virtualization and Service Function Chaining: A Survey,” Chinese Journal of Electronics, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 704-717, 2018, doi: 10.1049/cje.2018.05.008

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Optimal Network Function Virtualization and Service Function Chaining: A Survey

doi: 10.1049/cje.2018.05.008

MIRJALILY Ghasem^1,2,
LUO Zhiquan^2
,

1.
Department of Electrical Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran;
2.
Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, China

Funds: This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.61571384, No.61731018) and the Leading Talents of Guangdong Province Program (No.00201510).

More Information

Corresponding author: LUO Zhiquan (corresponding author) received the B.S. degree in applied mathematics from Peking University, China, and the Ph.D. degree in operations research from MIT in 1989. From 1989 to 2003, he held a faculty position with the ECE Department of McMaster University, Canada. He held a tier-1 Canada Research Chair in information processing from 2001 to 2003. After that, he has been a full professor at the ECE Department, University of Minnesota and held an endowed ADC Chair in digital technology. Currently, he is the Vice President (Academic) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and the director of Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data (SRIBD). Prof. Luo is a Fellow of IEEE and SIAM and is selected to the Royal Society of Canada. He received four best paper awards from the IEEE Signal Processing Society, one best paper award from EUSIPCO and the Farkas Prize from INFORMS as well as some best paper awards from international conferences. He has published over 200 refereed papers, books and special issues. Prof. Luo has served as an Associate Editor for many internationally recognized journals and the Editor in Chief for IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. His research mainly addresses mathematical issues in information sciences, with particular focus on the design, analysis and applications of large-scale optimization algorithms. (Email:luozq@cuhk.edu.cn)
Received Date: 2017-11-20
Rev Recd Date: 2017-12-22
Publish Date: 2018-07-10

Abstract

Abstract

Network function virtualization (NFV) and Service function chaining (SFC) can fulfill the traditional network functions by simply running special softwares on general-purpose computer servers and switches. This not only provides significantly more agility and flexibility in network service deployment, but can also greatly reduce the capital and operating cost of networks. In this paper, a comprehensive survey on the motivations and state of the art efforts towards implementing the NFV and SFC is provided. In particular, the paper first presents the main concepts of these new emerging technologies; then discusses in details various stages of SFC, including the description, composition, placement and scheduling of service chains. Afterwards, existing approaches to SFC are reviewed according to their application environments, parameters used, and solution strategies. Finally, the paper points out a number of future research directions.
- Network function virtualization (NFV),
- Virtual network functions,
- Service function chaining (SFC)

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