Matching-Based Virtual Network Function Embedding for SDN-Enabled Power Distribution IoT

Abstract

The power distribution internet of things (PD-IoT) has the complex network architecture, various emerging services, and the enormous number of terminal devices, which poses rigid requirements on substrate network infrastructure. However, the traditional PD-IoT has the characteristics of single network function, management and maintenance difficulties, and poor service flexibility, which makes it hard to meet the differentiated quality of service (QoS) requirements of different services. In this paper, we propose the software-defined networking (SDN)-enabled PD-IoT framework to improve network compatibility and flexibility, and investigate the virtual network function (VNF) embedding problem of service orchestration in PD-IoT. To solve the preference conflicts among different VNFs towards the network function node (NFV) and provide differentiated service for services in various priorities, a matching-based priority-aware VNF embedding (MPVE) algorithm is proposed to reduce energy consumption while minimizing the total task processing delay. Simulation results demonstrate that MPVE significantly outperforms existing matching algorithm and random matching algorithm in terms of delay and energy consumption while ensuring the task processing requirements of high-priority services.