Enhanced real time content delivery using vCPE and NFV service chaining

Abstract

Real-time content delivery (RTCD) systems have become a prominent aspect of telecommunications as evidence by popularity of news-casting, real-time event subscription / publication and live media streaming. Unlike conventional content delivery systems, RTCDs need to deliver processed information to users in real time. This may require the network to handle some of the processing closer to the users to efficiently use the bandwidth consumed by the applications. The combination of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and service chaining is a promising solution to address this challenge. Our work applies a service chaining algorithm to place NFV modules of an RTCD application in a Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI), where virtualized Customer Premise Edges (vCPEs), possessing scarce resources, are employed. We suggest containers to efficiently pack VNFs into vCPEs. Our objective is to maximize the total number of chains that can be serviced in the RTCD application. To optimally chain the NFV modules, a heuristic algorithm is proposed and evaluated. Using simulations, we show that our algorithm with the help of vCPEs can support higher number of users while providing high-level service quality.