Recursive, hierarchical embedding of virtual infrastructure in multi-domain substrates

One of the main goals of future telecom networks is to achieve softwarization of network functions. A requirement to achieve this softwarization is the ability to construct on-demand networks across multi-domain network and/or cloud service providers (NCSP). Most current algorithms and MILP formulations that solve the multi-domain embedding problem work on a flat infrastructure using simplified physical resource models. In this paper we propose an abstraction of the physical network domains to make the multiple domains appear as a pseudo flat infrastructure enabling re-use of existing flat infrastructure embedding algorithms with a few modifications. We incorporate these modifications in our previously proposed embedding ILP formulation. Our results show that we can speed up the process of embedding in large multi-domain networks considerably while trading off some efficiency in resource utilization due to abstraction.