Processing and Bandwidth Resource Allocation in Multi-Provider NFV Cloud Infrastructures interconnected by Elastic Optical Networks

The paper proposes and investigates solutions to the computing and bandwidth resource allocation problem in Multi-Provider Network Function Virtualization (NFV) environment. The scenario is characterized by Cloud Infrastructures (CI) managed by different providers and interconnected by an Elastic Optical Networks (EON). The objective is to allocate resources for a given number of Service Function Chains (SFC) known in advance so as to minimize the sum of the processing and bandwidth costs and to take into account both the different processing costs charged by the Cloud Infrastructure (CI) providers and the sub-carrier consecutiveness, spectrum continuity and spectrum clash constraints. In particular we evaluate the operational cost saving that the proposed solutions allow us to obtain with respect to the case in which traditional resource allocation algorithms are applied.