Market-based path service composition for software defined networks

Abstract

With the emerging network ‘softwarization’, the scope of services that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can provide now extends from traditional networking services to include higher layer infrastructure, network elements and applications. However, partly due to unclear economic incentives for ISPs, new network services, especially Software-Defined Network (SDN) services are mostly deployed in isolated silos. In this paper we propose a framework for abstracting and managing path services in SDNs so that they can be advertised, composed and purchased via marketplaces. Based on this framework, we present a service composition mechanism that can be used to maximize the provider benefit while satisfying the customer requests for services. The architecture is based on the NSF Future Internet Architecture (FIA) project called ChoiceNet.