Next-generation mobile core networks are required to be scalable and capable of efficiently utilizing heterogeneous bare metal resources that may include edge servers. To this end, microservice-based solutions where control plane procedures are deconstructed in their fundamental building blocks are gaining momentum. This letter proposes an optimization framework delivering the partitioning and mapping of large-scale microservice graphs onto heterogeneous bare metal deployments while minimizing the total network traffic among servers. An efficient heuristic strategy for solving the optimization problem is also provided. Simulation results show that, with the proposed framework, a microservice-based core can consistently support the requested load in heterogeneous bare metal deployments even when alternative architecture fails. Besides, our framework ensures an overall reduction in the control plane-related network traffic if compared to current core architectures.

翻译：下一代移动核心网络需具备可扩展性，并能够高效利用异构裸机资源（包括边缘服务器）。为此，基于控制面流程被解构为基本功能模块的微服务化方案正逐步兴起。本文提出一种优化框架，在最小化服务器间总网络流量的前提下，实现大规模微服务图到异构裸机部署的划分与映射。同时，本文给出了一种高效启发式策略以求解该优化问题。仿真结果表明，即使替代架构失效，所提框架仍能使微服务化核心在异构裸机部署中持续支持请求负载。此外，与现有核心架构相比，该框架显著降低了控制面相关网络流量。