This project addresses the issue of functionality placement in virtualized networks. Functionality placement is the mapping of virtualized functions onto the network substrate and is a key part of using network virtualization to create sophisticated multitenant applications on top of virtualized network "slices". Prior work only considered virtualizing of communications links via methodologies such as Software Defined Networking (SDN). This project will demonstrate how one can implement network virtualization by utilizing only the edge of the physical network (which would make deployment much simpler) and how one can apply these ideas to higher-level functions (e.g., firewalls, proxy caches) and not just L2/L3 switches as are typically considered.
Cloud Computing is rapidly changing the face of computing infrastructure and is a major economic driver in the technology sector. This project will benefit the cloud computing industry by informing the design of future cloud computing infrastructure and contributing prototype implementations the research community as open-source code.
