Optimal Provisioning and Fair Allocation of Resources in Cloud Computing Data Centers

随着计算能力、磁盘存储和高端网络通信成本的急剧下降，云计算的出现提供了对大量资源（计算、存储、网络和软件服务）的直观、实用式访问。这样的处理能力相对便宜且容易获得。我们可以自信地说，云计算正在定义互联网！软件定义网络（SDN）是一种计算机网络体系结构，它提供了一种灵活的方法来配置原始硬件网络基础设施，以支持具有波动资源需求的各种动态服务需求。虚拟化是SDN的核心，是将专用且昂贵的中间件转移到软件解决方案的关键技术。特别是，重要的网络功能（例如，防火墙，NAT， DNS兑现等）可以在便宜的现成中间件（例如，通用服务器级计算机主板）上运行，并在虚拟机上实现；这种网络功能被称为虚拟网络功能（VNF）。它们可以以动态方式进行编排，数据流可以通过称为服务链（Service Chains， SC）的相互连接的vnf进行处理。网络切片是一种用于网络资源配置的技术，最近已应用于移动云；SDN和网络功能虚拟化（NFV）提供了一种动态的、健壮的方法，用于建立和重新配置自定义的端到端逻辑网络，该网络使用原始网络基础设施封装专用和共享资源。最后，用于处理和识别流量工作负载趋势的数据分析技术将对下一代敏捷和自配置云至关重要。目前，业界正在见证向支持SDN的云网络的重大迁移，这将影响广泛的领域，包括消费者通信/社交网络、电子商务、电子健康和物联网（IoT）应用。因此，SDN技术的影响将对全球市场的网络用户产生长期持久的影响。

As computation power, disk storage, and high-end network communication costs plummet, cloud computing has emerged to provide intuitive, utility-style access to vast pools of resources (compute, storage, networking, and software services). Such processing power is relatively affordable and readily available. We can confidently say that cloud computing is defining the Internet! Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a computer network architecture that offers a flexible means for configuring raw hardware networking infrastructures to support a wide range of dynamic service demands with fluctuating resource requirements. Virtualization is at the heart of SDN and is the key technology to move away from dedicated and expensive middleboxes to softwarized solutions. In particular, important network functions (e.g., firewalls, NAT, DNS cashing etc. ) can run on cheap off the shelve middleware (e.g., generic server grade computer motherboards) where they are implemented on virtual machines; such network functions are known as Virtual Network Functions(VNF). They can be orchestrated in a dynamic fashion and data flows can be processed through interconnected VNFs called Service Chains (SC). Network slicing is a technique for resource provisioning in networks that has been recently applied to the mobile cloud; empowered by SDN and network function virtualization (NFV) gives rise to a dynamic and robust approach for establishing and reconfiguring customized end-to-end logic networks that encapsulate dedicated and shared resources using raw networking infrastructure. Finally, data analytics techniques for processing and identifying trends of traffic workloads will be crucial for next generation agile and self configurable clouds. Currently the industry is witnessing a major migration towards SDN enabled cloud networking, which will impact a broad range of sectors including consumer communications/social networking, eCommerce, eHealth and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. As such, the impact of the SDN technology will have a long lasting effect on network users in the global market. Getting services from the cloud, requires the designers/providers to have significant expertise, experience, and time to customise and configure resources that are assigned to a multitude of (not necessarily co-located) virtual machines/VNFs. Efficient and fair resource allocation and management in such a shared computing system is particularly challenging due to diverse types of available resources, highly fluctuating workload/user needs, heterogeneity in the resource capacities of servers, and placement constraints regarding which servers may be accessible by a pool of users. The goal of the proposed research program is to investigate the fair and efficient resource allocation/management and dynamic network slicing, in conjunction with data analytics for maintaining the quality of offered services in the emerging SDN enabled (mobile) cloud architectures.