Simplification of Service Functions Based on Growth in Scale of Networks

As a network evolves from initial deployment, service functions on the network remain diversified through the openness of the network functions. This indicates that appropriate selection and discarding of diversified service functions are inevitable for self-organization of an evolving network to achieve the required scalability. While the screening of service functions is performed by users and the market, several service functions on an evolving network can be simplified based on the growth in the scale of the network itself. This paper verifies the simplification of service functions derived from the evolution of the network itself. First, the principles that serve as the basis for simplifying the service functions are explained using several practical examples. Next, a simulation model is proposed to verify the simplification of service functions in terms of the priority control function for the path routing and load balancing function between multi-paths. From the results of a simulation, this study clarifies that the simplification of service functions is actually realizable and the required service performance can be reduced as the network evolves from its deployment. When the simplification of service functions can improve network quality, it accelerates the evolution of the network and increase in the operator´s revenue.