Mapping and Scheduling for Non-Uniform Arrival of Virtual Network Function (VNF) Requests

As a new research concept for both academia and industry, there are several challenges faced by the Network Function Virtualization (NFV). One such challenge is to find the optimal mapping and scheduling for the incoming service requests which is the focus of this study. This optimization has been done by maximizing the number of accepted service requests, minimizing the number of bottleneck links and the overall processing time. The resultant problem is formulated as a multi- objective optimization problem, and two novel algorithms based on genetic algorithm have been developed. Through simulations, it has been shown that the developed algorithms can converge to the near to optimal solutions and they are scalable to large networks.