CVTSA: Cooperative VNF and Time-Slot Scheduling Algorithm for NFV Orchestration

A successful blend of network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) can offer flexible and varied network services, given the quick ascent of developing applications propelled by the next-generation 6G network vision. In NFV, the ordered execution of service functions that constitute emerging applications is modeled as service function chaining (SFC) and is no longer limited to traditional network functions. Nevertheless, concurrent demands for joint scheduling of network and computing resources with latency sensitivity in resource allocation frequently accompany these application demands. In this paper, we conduct SFC scheduling as an integer linear programming (ILP) problem to tackle this issue. Secondly, we provide a resource-aware SFC scheduling algorithm that combines VNF and timeslots. In order to increase the acceptance rate of latency-sensitive network services, it aims to optimize resource utilization while strictly adhering to application latency requirements by dynamically sensing the availability of resources under various time slots and, consequently, efficiently and collaboratively scheduling computing and network resources under spatiotemporal states. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm not only maximizes resource utilization but also accommodates a larger number of latency-sensitive service requests.