Evaluating allocation paradigms for multi-objective adaptive provisioning in virtualized networks

Recent advances in virtualization technology have made it possible to partition a network into multiple virtual networks managed by different users. Although virtual networks share the same physical infrastructure, they host diverse applications with different goals. Unfortunately, current virtual network provisioning solutions have only focused on achieving a single objective that may not be suited for all the applications deployed across the network. In this paper, we propose an adaptive provisioning framework for virtualized networks that takes into consideration the characteristics of multiple applications and their distinct performance objectives. The proposed framework is based on the concept of allocation paradigm, which is defined as a set of application-driven provisioning policies that guide the resource allocation process. To determine the efficiency of a particular paradigm, we propose a virtual network performance computation model based on data measured from existing benchmarks. Simulation results show that our model helps network providers to select the best allocation paradigms in terms of provisioning quality.