Load balancing using multipath routing in network functions virtualization

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a new approach in architectural model of communication networks, where network functions are softwarized and can be deployed dynamically on most different spots in the network, replacing the specialized equipments located at predetermined locations. NFV comes out as an important transformation trend in the recent development of communication networks due to advantages such as the ability to highly customize the network scale and minimize the investment costs. In this research, we analyze and solve the load balancing problem using multipath routing in NFV to optimize network performance and improve responsive ability of a network system based on NFV according to the dynamic changes of user demands. We propose the FAST-RACE algorithm which has ability to give a weight system on the links of the NFV infrastructure in order to equally distribute load among the several shortest paths and minimize the network delay of data flows in the network. The experiment results show that FAST-RACE declines the average delay of data flows about 26% and could support approximately a 14% increase in the number of service demands in comparison to the load balancing solution using hop-count. Specially, the effective performance of FAST-RACE is not subject to a number of service demands and a number of nodes in the NFV infrastructure.