Enabling dynamic autoscaling for NFV in a non-standalone virtual EPC: Design and analysis

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a novel concept that enables an architectural transition from dedicated hardware to orchestrated resource and function management. As an integral part of the core network, NFV offers a fine-grained network capability to cellular operators by scaling out or scaling in network resources in an on-demand manner to meet the performance requirements. However, designing an autoscaling algorithm with low operation cost and low latency in non-standalone networks, where legacy network equipment coexists with a virtual evolved packet core (EPC), is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a dynamic NFV instance autoscaling algorithm that considers the tradeoff between performance and operation cost. Furthermore, we develop an analytical framework to assess the performance of the scheme by modeling the hybrid network as a queueing system that includes both legacy network equipment and NFV instances. The virtualized network function (VNF) instances are powered on or off according to the number of job requests. Numerical results based on extensive simulations validate the correctness of the model and the effectiveness of the algorithm.