Connectivity orchestration in multi-provider elastic optical networks (Invited paper)

Next-generation 5G concepts are driving infrastructure providers to enable novel services for network operators, such as Virtual Network Function (VNF) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Inside a single infrastructure provider, several solutions are available to satisfy the 5G requirements using Software Defined Networking (SDN). However, emerging industry verticals require geographically-distributed services spanning multiple infrastructure providers. In this multi-provider context, additional complexity emerges to guarantee inter-operability. The orchestrator of each multidomain infrastructure (i.e., MDO), is emerging as the key element to offer services to a federation of infrastructure providers. In this scenario, the procedures for establishing inter-provider services are still an open research topic. This work proposes and evaluates two different procedures to enable multi-provider connectivity service exploiting distributed communication among MDOs. The two procedures are evaluated by means of simulations in a federated multi-provider network based on the Elastic Optical Network technology.