Reliability-Aware Resource Allocation for SFC: A Column Generation-Based Link Protection Approach

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is considered one of the key technologies of 5G/B5G because of its advantages of flexibility, scalability, and manageability. In NFV networks, the flow of network service needs to go through a certain number of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) which form Service Function Chain (SFC). Compared to link protection in traditional networks, the backup transmission links for different types of VNFs need to be considered to improve the SFCs’ reliability, since any failure of transmission link may interrupt the network service. Due to the uncertainty of VNF placement and routing, the flexible selection of link backup for each VNF to satisfy the reliability requirement of SFC becomes a remarkably challenging problem. In this paper, a Flexible virtual Link Protection (Fle_LP) mechanism is proposed to calculate backup resources accurately, enhancing the reliability of NFV-enabled network service. We mathematically formulate the problem as a Mixed Integer Nonlinear Program (MINLP). An Extended Least Square (ELS) method is introduced to deal with the nonlinear constraints, which transforms MINLP to Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP). Owing to the MILP’s remarkable complexity, a Column Generation-based Link Protection (CG_LP) algorithm is proposed, which generates an acceptable sub-optimal solution. Numerical results show that CG_LP reduces the computing time (8-node network: 92.3 %, 16-node network: 99.6 %) while achieving the same bandwidth consumption as MILP.