An analytical tool for performance evaluation of software defined networking services

The rapid evolution of low-cost standard hardware coupled with the diffusion and the wide spread of new paradigms are stimulating Telco providers to explore the possibility of breaking down the ossification of the current Internet. This paves the way for the introduction of new approaches like Software Defined Network (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) into the next generation networks to provide their users with software defined networking services. This context paves the way to software defined services, dynamically allocating the network functions over the network nodes. In this paper we propose an analytical approach to support designers in the allocation of virtualized function over the network, taking into account both the functions requested by the traffic flows and the quality of service (QoS) that the network provides to them. The proposed analytical approach is able to account the routing, the processing capacities of the network nodes and the statistical characterization of the flows requesting each virtualization function. This paper follows the direction of analytically modeling a network with NFV capabilities for performance evaluation and design support.