Dependability assessment of virtualized networks

One of the key characteristics of virtual networks (VN) is their intrinsic dynamical aspects. VNs allow network operators to have on-demand negotiation of a variety of services. Risks are inherent to virtualized infrastructures since the underlying physical network components are failure-prone. Therefore evaluation and analysis of risks in VNs, from assessment of dependability attributes, are of paramount importance for accurate management and control tasks. This paper proposes and evaluates a method to assess dependability in virtualized network environments. Through the use of Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) and Stochastic Petri Nets (SPN), we provide a first look at risks in network virtualization by means of dependability modeling and analysis. Our methodology allows the networking research community to develop new heuristics when dealing with resource allocation in VNs, while taking into account dependability attributes.