Column generation approach for one-shot virtual network embedding

Abstract

Network Virtualization has been proposed as new promising resource management approach that allows multiple customized Virtual Networks (VNs) to be setup on a shared physical infrastructure. In this paper, our focus is on the embedding problem which consists on the mapping of VN resources onto physical infrastructure network. Since this problem is known to be NP-hard, in literature, number of works have been proposed heuristic based-embedding approaches. The mapping of VN links and nodes are performed on two separate stages, which may ensue in a high blocking of VN requests and an under-utilization of substrate resources. To handle these drawbacks, we propose a mathematical model which makes use of large scale optimization tools and propose a Column Generation formulation coupled with a Branch and Bound technique in order to solve it efficiently.