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大幅下降，云计算应运而生，可提供对海量资源池(计算、存储、网络和软件服务)的直观、实用式访问。这样的处理能力是相对负担得起的，而且很容易获得。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，以支持具有波动的资源需求的各种动态服务需求。虚拟化是SDN的核心，是从昂贵的专用中间盒过渡到软件解决方案的关键技术。尤其是重要的网络功能(例如，防火墙、NAT、DNS缓存等)可以在廉价的现成中间件(例如，通用服务器级计算机主板)上运行，其中它们在虚拟机上实现；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编排，数据流可以通过互连的称为服务链(SC)的VNF进行处理。网络切片是一种用于在最近应用于移动云的网络中提供资源的技术；在SDN和网络功能虚拟化(NFV)的支持下，产生了一种动态而稳健的方法来建立和重新配置定制的端到端逻辑网络，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灵活且可自我配置的云至关重要。目前，该行业正在见证向支持SDN的云网络的大规模迁移，这将影响广泛的行业，包括消费者通信/社交网络、电子商务、eHealth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持久的影响。 要从云中获得服务，需要设计人员/提供商拥有丰富的专业知识、经验和时间来定制和配置分配给大量(不一定位于同一位置)的虚拟机/虚拟专用网络的资源。由于各种类型的可用资源、高度波动的工作负载/用户需求、服务器的资源容量的异质性以及关于哪些服务器可以由用户池访问的放置约束，在这样的共享计算系统中高效和公平的资源分配和管理尤其具有挑战性。拟议研究计划的目标是调查公平和高效的资源分配/管理和动态网络切片，并结合数据分析来维护新兴的支持SDN的(移动)云架构中提供的服务质量。

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.