Multi-source reliable multicast routing with QoS constraints of NFV in edge computing

Edge Computing (EC) allows processing to take place near the user, hence ensuring scalability and low latency. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) provides the significant convenience of network layout and reduces the service operation cost in EC and data center. Nowadays, the interests of the NFV layout focus on one-to-one communication, which is costly when applied to multicast or group services directly. Furthermore, many artificial intelligence applications and services of cloud and EC are generally communicated through groups and have special Quality of Service (QoS) and reliable requirements. Therefore, we are devoted to the problem of reliable Virtual Network Function (VNF) layout with various deployment costs in multi-source multicast. To guarantee QoS, we take into account the bandwidth, latency, and reliability constraints. Additionally, a heuristic algorithm, named Multi-Source Reliable Multicast Tree Construction (RMTC), is proposed. The algorithm aims to find a common link to place the Service Function Chain (SFC) in the multilevel overlay directed (MOD) network of the original network, so that the deployed SFC can be shared by all users, thereby improving the resource utilization. We then constructed a Steiner tree to find the reliable multicast tree. Two real topologies are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results indicate that, compared to other heuristic algorithms, our scheme effectively reduces the cost of reliable services and satisfies the QoS requirements.