Orchestrating service function chaining in cloud environments

The rapid emergence of Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) concepts is enabling the innovation of cloud infrastructures for supporting real time services and applications. Interconnecting Service Functions (SFs) in a specific ordered way to support applications' requirements is defining the concept of Service Function Chaining (SFC). SFC uses those evolved technologies, SDN and NFV, to provide SFCs in cloud environments in a rapid and cost-effective way. This paper proposes an extension to the current ETSI NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) Architecture in order to improve the overall service quality of SFC in cloud environments and securely control their lifecycle. Specifically, are proposed a SFC Orchestrator and a token-based Access Control for providing management and provisioning of SFCs, as well as efficient usage of resources, enhancing the overall network Quality of Service (QoS). In addition, it is presented an open source implementation based on the the Open Baton project, and its integration with existing open source tools. Finally, an evaluation use case is introduced to validate the proposed work.