Multi-domain virtual network embedding with limited information disclosure

The ever-increasing need to diversify the Internet has recently revived the interest in network virtualization. Network virtualization carries a significant benefit to Service Providers, as it enables the deployment of network services within customized virtual networks (VN) that offer performance and reliability guarantees. VN embedding across multiple substrate providers creates the need for a layer of indirection which is fulfilled by VN Providers. VN Providers are expected to have very limited knowledge of the physical infrastructure, since substrate providers do not disclose their network topology and resource information. This entails significant implications on resource discovery and assignment. In this paper, we study the challenging problem of multi-domain VN embedding with limited information disclosure (LID). In this context, we discuss the visibility of VN Providers on substrate network resources and question the suitability of topologies for VN request specifications. Our main contributions are as follows: (i) we present a traffic matrix based VN embedding framework that enables VN request partitioning under LID, and (ii) we conduct a feasibility study on VN embedding with LID compared to a “best-case” scenario where all information is available to VN Providers.