Intelligent Network Service Automation: Improving Accuracy and Efficiency in Network Management

Network virtualization offers enormous flexibility to construct network services tailored to the needs of network tenants and users. Network services can be implemented through composition of virtual network functions, which can be deployed in multiple sites, forming multi-site network services. However, network virtualization further induces the increasing complexity of the network, which, in turn, increases the difficulty of error avoidance in management operations. Thus, network management must be automated to tackle such complexity and eliminate errors. In this paper, we propose the intelligent network service automation system (INSA), and we demonstrate its high efficiency and accuracy in automated network service construction and management. INSA is designed to transparently orchestrate all elements of the management system using a control plane based on publish/subscribe messaging, known as a management service bus. This enables INSA to make highly accurate decisions using vast telemetry information without overloading the control plane. Additionally, INSA integrates key enablers such as efficient and scalable control plane networking, telemetry compression, distributed processing, hidden fault detection, and autonomic resource control. We evaluated INSA both theoretically and through a prototype implementation. The former proves our claims regarding the efficiency improvement provided by compression and distribution. The latter showcases INSA management accuracy and performance, and it also demonstrates how INSA manages multi-site network services. The evaluation results show that, in comparison with the state-of-the-art alternatives, INSA uses 15–36% less CPU time, possesses 80% higher scalability, and improves accuracy by 33%.