Boost online virtual network embedding: Using neural networks for admission control

The allocation of physical resources to virtual networks, i.e., the virtual network embedding (VNE), is still an on-going research field due to its problem complexity. While many solutions for the online VNE problem exist, only few have focused on methods that can be generally applied for optimization of online embeddings. In this paper, we propose an admission control based on a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to improve the overall system performance for the online VNE problem. Before running a VNE algorithm to embed a virtual network request, the RNN predicts whether the request will be accepted by the VNE algorithm based on the current state of the substrate and the virtual network request (VNR). The RNN prevents VNE algorithms from spending time on VNRs that are either infeasible or that cannot be embedded in acceptable time. In order to train and operate the RNN efficiently, we additionally propose new representations for substrate networks and virtual network requests. The representations are based on topological and network resource features to represent the substrate network and the VNRs with low computational complexity. Via simulations, we show that our admission control reduces the overall computational time for the online VNE problem by up to 91 % while preserving VNE performance on average. Using our new substrate and request representations, the RNN achieves an accuracy ranging between 89 % and 98 % for different VNE algorithms, substrate sizes, and VNR arrival rates.