Abstract

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Distributed Networking (SDN) technologies play a crucial role in enabling 5G system and beyond. A synergy between these both technologies has been identified for enabling a new concept dubbed service function chains (SFC) that aims to reduce both the capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX). The SFC paradigm considers different constraints and key performance indicators (KPIs), that includes QoS and different resources, for enabling network slice services. However, the large-scale, complexity and security issues brought by these technologies create an extra overhead for ensuring secure network slicing. To cope with these challenges, this paper proposes a cost-efficient optimized SFC management system that enables the creation of SFCs for enabling efficient and secure network slices. The proposed system considers the network and computational resources and current network security levels to ensure trusted deployments. The simulation results demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed solution for achieving its designed objectives. The proposed solution efficiently manages the SFCs by optimizing deployment costs and reducing overall end-to-end delay.