Virtual network embedding based on real-time topological attributes

As a great challenge of network virtualization, virtual network embedding/mapping is increasingly important. It aims to successfully and efficiently assign the nodes and links of a virtual network (VN) onto a shared substrate network. The problem has been proved to be NP-hard and some heuristic algorithms have been proposed. However, most of the algorithms use only the local information of a node, such as CPU capacity and bandwidth, to determine how to map a VN, without considering the topological attributes which may pose significant impact on the performance of the embedding. In this paper, a new embedding algorithm is proposed based on real-time topological attributes. The concept of betweenness centrality in graph theory is borrowed to sort the nodes of VNs, and the nodes of the substrate network are sorted according to the correlation properties between the former selected and unselected nodes. In this way, node mapping and link mapping can be well coupled. A simulator is built to evaluate the performance of the proposed virtual network embedding (VNE) algorithm. The results show that the new algorithm significantly increases the revenue/cost (R/C) ratio and acceptance ratio as well as reduces the runtime.