Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networks

Abstract Service Function Chain (SFC) enables more facile and convenient composition of on-demand service chains, which can provide customized services for 6G’s six use cases. 6G networks impose higher demands on Quality of Service (QoS), especially with the debut of resilience. Resilience requires...

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Main Authors: Deqiang Zhou, Xinsheng Ji, Wei You, Yu Zhao, Hang Qiu, Mingyan Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2025-06-01
Series:Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s44443-025-00103-5
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author Deqiang Zhou
Xinsheng Ji
Wei You
Yu Zhao
Hang Qiu
Mingyan Xu
author_facet Deqiang Zhou
Xinsheng Ji
Wei You
Yu Zhao
Hang Qiu
Mingyan Xu
author_sort Deqiang Zhou
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Service Function Chain (SFC) enables more facile and convenient composition of on-demand service chains, which can provide customized services for 6G’s six use cases. 6G networks impose higher demands on Quality of Service (QoS), especially with the debut of resilience. Resilience requires that a service can anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to attacks, thereby ensuring the basic function of the service. However, existing works cannot provide the capabilities required for resilience. In our previous work, we designed a Dynamic Heterogeneous Redundant SFC (DHRSFC) to endow SFC with resilience and theoretically proved its excellent ability. Nevertheless, during service provisioning, the initial deployment and dynamic replacement of DHRSFC face significant challenges in ensuring the heterogeneity of DHRSFC and minimizing the impact of redundant SFCs on delay. This is critical to the resilience capability and QoS of DHRSFC. In this article, we propose a hierarchical heterogeneity model to quantify the heterogeneity of DHRSFC. We formulate both the initial deployment and dynamic replacement of DHRSFC as the Resilience-Aware and Delay-Sensitive DHRSFC Initial Deployment (RADSID) problem, which is NP-hard. To solve the RADSID problem, we propose a heuristic algorithm, Greedy k-Shortest Path (GkSP), which can address the initial deployment and SFC dynamic replacement of DHRSFC in an integrated way. Extensive evaluations and comparisons demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm. It shows excellent performance in terms of delay and resilience. The proposed algorithm can provide outstanding initial deployment solutions and dynamic replacement solutions for DHRSFC, endowing SFC with the resilience required for 6G.
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spelling doaj-art-0643d1e784c24f9f8f5f1ad9159e158d2025-08-20T03:43:31ZengSpringerJournal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences1319-15782213-12482025-06-0137512110.1007/s44443-025-00103-5Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networksDeqiang Zhou0Xinsheng Ji1Wei You2Yu Zhao3Hang Qiu4Mingyan Xu5Department of next-generation mobile communication and cyber space security, Information Engineering UniversityNational Digital Switching System Engineering and Technological Research and Development CenterDepartment of next-generation mobile communication and cyber space security, Information Engineering UniversityDepartment of next-generation mobile communication and cyber space security, Information Engineering UniversityDepartment of next-generation mobile communication and cyber space security, Information Engineering UniversityDepartment of next-generation mobile communication and cyber space security, Information Engineering UniversityAbstract Service Function Chain (SFC) enables more facile and convenient composition of on-demand service chains, which can provide customized services for 6G’s six use cases. 6G networks impose higher demands on Quality of Service (QoS), especially with the debut of resilience. Resilience requires that a service can anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to attacks, thereby ensuring the basic function of the service. However, existing works cannot provide the capabilities required for resilience. In our previous work, we designed a Dynamic Heterogeneous Redundant SFC (DHRSFC) to endow SFC with resilience and theoretically proved its excellent ability. Nevertheless, during service provisioning, the initial deployment and dynamic replacement of DHRSFC face significant challenges in ensuring the heterogeneity of DHRSFC and minimizing the impact of redundant SFCs on delay. This is critical to the resilience capability and QoS of DHRSFC. In this article, we propose a hierarchical heterogeneity model to quantify the heterogeneity of DHRSFC. We formulate both the initial deployment and dynamic replacement of DHRSFC as the Resilience-Aware and Delay-Sensitive DHRSFC Initial Deployment (RADSID) problem, which is NP-hard. To solve the RADSID problem, we propose a heuristic algorithm, Greedy k-Shortest Path (GkSP), which can address the initial deployment and SFC dynamic replacement of DHRSFC in an integrated way. Extensive evaluations and comparisons demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm. It shows excellent performance in terms of delay and resilience. The proposed algorithm can provide outstanding initial deployment solutions and dynamic replacement solutions for DHRSFC, endowing SFC with the resilience required for 6G.https://doi.org/10.1007/s44443-025-00103-56GService function chainResilienceDynamic heterogeneous redundant structureDeploymentReplacement
spellingShingle Deqiang Zhou
Xinsheng Ji
Wei You
Yu Zhao
Hang Qiu
Mingyan Xu
Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networks
Journal of King Saud University: Computer and Information Sciences
6G
Service function chain
Resilience
Dynamic heterogeneous redundant structure
Deployment
Replacement
title Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networks
title_full Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networks
title_fullStr Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networks
title_full_unstemmed Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networks
title_short Resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6G networks
title_sort resilient service function chain initial deployment and dynamic replacement towards 6g networks
topic 6G
Service function chain
Resilience
Dynamic heterogeneous redundant structure
Deployment
Replacement
url https://doi.org/10.1007/s44443-025-00103-5
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AT xinshengji resilientservicefunctionchaininitialdeploymentanddynamicreplacementtowards6gnetworks
AT weiyou resilientservicefunctionchaininitialdeploymentanddynamicreplacementtowards6gnetworks
AT yuzhao resilientservicefunctionchaininitialdeploymentanddynamicreplacementtowards6gnetworks
AT hangqiu resilientservicefunctionchaininitialdeploymentanddynamicreplacementtowards6gnetworks
AT mingyanxu resilientservicefunctionchaininitialdeploymentanddynamicreplacementtowards6gnetworks