数据中心网络作为云计算、大数据等应用的关键支撑平台和基础设施，对其有效地资源调度至关重要，特别是在多租户的云计算环境下，资源虚拟化、网络功能（Network Functions）及Service Chain等对资源调度的综合影响不容忽视。但是，目前大部分研究工作中，都将对虚拟机资源和网络功能的调度当作两个独立的问题在研究。本项目中，我们深入研究虚拟机资源和异构的网络功能之间的耦合关系，首次提出了它们之间存在的协同效应（Synergistic Effect），并且分析和研究了数据中心网络中网络功能的异构性（包括硬件Middlebox及NFV虚拟化实现等）影响；结合Service Chain的多样化需求，利用稳定匹配等理论，研究它们之间的协同资源调度问题，来有效地提高数据中心网络的性能，进而提高云计算等应用的效率。最后，将开发实际原型系统，搭建小型数据中心实验平台，对算法进行测试和评估。

As the fundamental infrastructure for efficient large scale data computing and services, efficient resource schedule for Data Center Networks (DCN) is critical to the success of applications, e.g., cloud computing, big data. Meanwhile, service chains (or policies), consisting a sequence of Network Functions (NFs) in order, play important roles in improving performance and security in multi-tenant cloud datacenters. However, current works usually take the management of Virtual Machines (VMs) and NFs as two independend problems, ignoring the coupling between them. In this project, we first investigate the synergistic effect between VMs and NFs (or service chain) management. Particularly, we also study the heterogeneous of NFs, and intend to apply stable matching theory to the scheduling of both VMs and NFs of service chains in data center networks. Finally, we'll develop the prototype system of small scale data centers to evaluate and justify the methods proposed. The research results will have important directive to the research of scheduling problem in data centers.