Traffic Monitoring Related Experimental Study for a Software-Defined Network Based Virtualized Security Functions Platform

Cloud computing and virtualization technologies are rapidly evolving with new capabilities being added all the time. Security Functions Virtualization (SFV) is the latest addition to cloud services, where Virtualized Security Functions (VSFs) are offered as services by Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). CSPs are focusing more on implementing effective resource management approaches for the cloud infrastructure, considering specific requirements of VSFs. Network traffic monitoring is one of the most crucial aspects of cloud resource management, as monitoring helps CSPs to have a global view of the resource utilization and take necessary proactive management actions, specifically for VSFs.This experimental study focuses on exploring network traffic and resource monitoring for the traffic traverse via a cloud platform where VSFs are offered as a service. We have considered two approaches: periodic monitoring and continuous monitoring. The network traffic is monitored continuously, and resource utilization is monitored periodically. With the implemented monitored framework, CSPs are able to take proactive decisions on resource management, specially towards scale-out/in decisions and security management.