BIRD-VNE: Backtrack-avoidance virtual network embedding in polynomial time

The virtual network embedding (VNE) problem is known to be NP-hard, and as a result, several heuristic approaches have been proposed to solve it. These heuristics find sub-optimal solutions in polynomial time, but have practical limitations, low acceptance rates, and high embedding costs. In this paper, we first propose two heuristics that exploit the constraint propagation properties of the VNE problem to ensure both topological and capacity disjoint consistencies, thereby avoiding backtracking while increasing acceptance rates. Then, combining these two heuristics, we design a polynomial-time VNE algorithm (we term it BIRD-VNE) that, in addition to avoiding backtracking and increasing acceptance rates, incurs a low embedding cost when compared to existing approaches.