Towards studying Service Function Chain Migration Patterns in 5G Networks and beyond

TL;DR

This paper investigates various Service Function Chain migration patterns in 5G networks and MEC environments, highlighting that optimal choices depend on user mobility, application needs, and resource availability.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates diverse SFC migration patterns in 5G MEC networks, addressing the gap in understanding their impact on mobility and resource management.

Findings

No single migration pattern is universally best.

Migration pattern choice depends on user mobility and application requirements.

Resource constraints influence the effectiveness of migration strategies.

Abstract

Given the indispensable need for a reliable network architecture to cope with 5G networks, 3GPP introduced a covet technology dubbed 5G Service Based Architecture (5G-SBA). Meanwhile, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) combined with SBA conveys a better experience to end-users by bringing application hosting from centralized data centers down to the network edge, closer to consumers and the data generated by applications. Both the 3GPP and the ETSI proposals offered numerous benefits, particularly the ability to deliver highly customizable services. Nevertheless, compared to large datacenters that tolerate the hosting of standard virtualization technologies (Virtual Machines (VMs) and servers), MEC nodes are characterized by lower computational resources, thus the debut of lightweight micro-service based applications. Motivated by the deficiency of current micro-services-based applications to support users'mobility and assuming that all these issues are under the umbrella of Service Function Chain (SFC) migrations, we aim to introduce, explain and evaluate diverse SFC migration patterns. The obtained results demonstrate that there is no clear vanquisher, but selecting the right SFC migration pattern depends on users'motion, applications'requirements, and MEC nodes'resources.