Virtual network forwarding graph embedding based on Tabu Search

In the next generation mobile network, the concept of virtual network slice (VNS) has been proposed to facilitate the building of a dedicated and customized logical network with isolated resources, which can be defined as a subset of network resources allocated to a virtual operator or service provider. Each VNS is associated with a virtual network function forwarding graph (VNF-FG) to accomplish the related services. However, there exists a non-negligible gap between large amount of VNS requirements and finite resources in the substrate network, hence, it is vital to implement an effective approach to embed the VNF-FGs to the substrate network. In this paper, we formulate the VNF-FG embedding (VNF-FG-E) problem as an integer linear programming (ILP) aiming to minimize the total bandwidth consumption of the substrate network. Then, the approach named VNF-FG embedding based on the Tabu-Search (E-TS) is proposed to obtain a near-optimal solution of this problem. Finally, simulation results show that E-TS can accept more VNF-FGs compared with some existing algorithms.