Anycast-based optimizations for inter-data-center interconnections [Invited]

The cloud service delivery model is driving the data center (DC) architectural model towards a fully virtualized infrastructure acting as geographically distributed pools of shared resources, dynamically allocated to different services. Such a scenario calls for the anycast routing of virtual machine (VM) migration requests in order to select the destination server where the VMs will be migrated by taking into account the actual load of DC interconnections while addressing VM data transfer requirements. To this purpose, a management platform is presented that enables the dynamic connectivity setup between DCs without a priori indication of the destination server, according to the anycast principle. Specifically, data path allocation policies are proposed to select a proper inter-DC network path, and accordingly a destination server, to allow VM migration data to experience adequate delay performance. Using a simulation approach, the policies are compared in terms of success rate of delay-constrained data path setup as well as in terms of their capability to limit migration delay.