Reliable virtual infrastructure mapping with efficient resource sharing

Network virtualization technology allows multiple virtual infrastructures (VIs) or virtual networks customized to suit user requirements on a shared substrate network without the need for much additional infrastructure. However in such a scenario even a single failure in the substrate can cause large disruptions as it will affect all the VIs mapped on to it. Thus the problem of guaranteeing survivability and reliability of VI is important and even more complex than in single layer networks. In this paper we study the reliable VI mapping problem that enables efficient resource sharing by using the cross sharing scheme that reuses the primary bandwidth for backup VI links. We first formulate the reliable VI mapping problem as a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem to minimize the VI mapping cost. We then present our reliable VI mapping (RVIM) algorithm for efficient bandwidth sharing using the cross and backup sharing schemes. Through simulation we show that our RVIM algorithm can reduce the mapping costs when compared to other VI mapping algorithms.