Converged IT and optical network virtualisation: The last (clean-)step towards the Future Internet infrastructure management

The last evolutions of the Internet bring the fact that all the emergence of novel applications, requirements, services, roles, and the challenges associated to them is being built on top of the same Internet that was designed for handling completely different elements. Converged, both Information Technology (IT) and optical network, infrastructure resource virtualisation is currently one of the most promising approaches to face the Future Internet challenges. The major research problem associated to infrastructure resource virtualisation is the virtual resource embedding problem. This article presents the grouped Virtual Infrastructure (VI) mapping approach, contextualised within the Generalised Architecture for Dynamic Infrastructure Services (GEYSERS) virtual infrastructure service provisioning framework. Our findings show that batched VI mapping strategy enhances the amount of virtual entities to be allocated on top of the physical substrate. The technological solution presented and the simulation of potential benefits show a novel Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure control and management solution that is able to accomodate the optimisation requirements for the Future Internet, such as cost, energy, availability, or flexibility, in coordination with application deployments and cloud service models.