Ricerc@Sapienza

Network Function Virtualization is based on the virtualization of the network functions and it is a new technology allowing for a more flexible allocation of cloud and bandwidth resources. In order to employ the flexibility of the technology and to adapt its use according to the traffic variation, reconfigurations of the cloud and bandwidth resources are needed by means of both migration of the Virtual Machines executing the network functions and reconfiguration of circuits interconnecting the Virtual Machines.

The paper proposes and investigates the problem of the reconfiguration of cloud and bandwidth resources in Multi-Provider Network Function Virtualization architectures where the Cloud Infrastructures (CI) are managed by different Providers and interconnected by an elastic optical network. The resource reconfiguration is performed by taking into account the different costs charged by the Infrastructure Providers (InP) of the CIs and by exploiting the advantages of the adaptive optical modulation.