Introducing the Virtual Network Mapping Problem with Delay, Routing and Location Constraints

Network virtualization is a main paradigm of Future Internet research. It allows for automatic creation of virtual networks with application specific resource management, routing, topology and naming. Since those virtual networks need to be implemented by means of the underlying physical network, the Virtual Network Mapping Problem (VNMP) arises. In this work, we introduce the Virtual Network Mapping Problem with Delay, Routing and Location Constraints (VNMP-DRL), a variant of the VNMP including some practically relevant aspects of Virtual Network Mapping that have not been considered before. We describe the creation of a benchmark set for the VNMP-DRL. The main goal was to include VNMP-DRL instances which are as realistic as possible, a goal we met by using parts of real network topologies to model the physical networks and by using different classes of virtual networks to model possible use-cases, instead of relying on random graphs. As a first approach, we solve the VNMP-DRL benchmark set by means of a multicommodity flow integer linear program.