AtlasPro: Topology-Adaptive and Load-Aware Slicing Orchestration in Programmable Data Planes

Network slicing, which enables multiple services to coexist on the shared physical infrastructure, has been recognized as a key technology in networks. Leveraging the high processing capability of programmable data plane (PDP) devices, network slicing within PDPs can lead to efficient traffic isolation, priority management, and significantly reduced forwarding delays. However, existing inflexible and coarse-grained network slicing orchestration approaches struggle to address the challenges posed by diversified slicing scenarios and the constrained resources of PDP devices. In this paper, we propose AtlasPro, a framework for network slicing orchestration in PDPs, where each network slice is regarded as an independent Service Function Chain (SFC) routing entity. Thus, it enables the allocation of physical resources at a finer granularity. Additionally, we introduce a novel heuristic approach, the Chained Hyper-Generative Algorithm, which jointly optimizes Virtual Network Function (VNF) deployment and routing costs, minimizing total cost while meeting the performance requirements of all network slices. We implement our framework using BMv2 switches in a Mininet environment and evaluated our algorithm. Compared to existing solutions, our framework and algorithm reduce the number of VNF deployments, lower routing delays by up to 34.2 %, and cut overall costs by up to 48.5%.