Drawing the Cloud Map: Virtual Network Provisioning in Distributed Cloud Computing Data Centers

Abstract

Efficient virtualization methodologies constitute the core of cloud computing data center implementation. Clients are attracted to the cloud model by its ability to scale the resources dynamically and the flexibility in payment options that it offers. However, performance hiccups may push them to go back to the buy-and-maintain model. Virtualization plays a key role in the synchronous management of the thousands of servers along with clients' data living on them. To achieve seamless virtualization, cloud providers require a system that performs the function of virtual network provisioning. This includes receiving the cloud client requests and allocating their computational and network resources in a way that guarantees the quality-of-service conditions for clients while maximizing the data center resource utilization and providers' revenue. We introduce a comprehensive system to solve the problem of virtual network mapping for a set of connection requests sent by cloud clients. Connections are collected in time intervals called windows. Consequently, node and link provisioning is performed. Different window size selection schemes are introduced and evaluated. Three schemes to prioritize connections are used, and their effect is assessed. Moreover, a technique dealing with connections spanning over more than a window is introduced. The proposed algorithm is compared with previous work well known in the literature. Simulation results show that the dynamic window size algorithm achieves cloud service providers' objectives in terms of generated revenue, served-connection ratio, resource utilization, and computational overhead. In addition, experimental results show that handling spanning connections independently improves the performance of the system.