Enabling Efficient Service Function Chaining by Integrating NFV and SDN: Architecture, Challenges and Opportunities

In legacy networks, network functions (e.g., firewalls, NAT, QoS) are highly dependent on dedicated hardware. It is sophisticated and costly for network operators to determine the order of network functions and stitch them together to create service chains for end users, especially with the explosive growth of end-users and Internet services. The recent emergence of NFV and SDN technologies provide benefits for service function chaining and reduce OPEX and CAPEX for network operators. This article presents a typical framework to construct service chains by combining SDN and NFV, and describes several critical issues in this field, expecting readers to catch current research progress and make their new contributions in this field.