Virtualization of Heterogeneous Wireless-Optical Network and IT Infrastructures in Support of Cloud and Mobile Cloud Services

This article proposes a next generation ubiquitous converged infrastructure to support cloud and mobile cloud computing services. The proposed infrastructure facilitates interconnection of fixed and mobile end users with data centers through a heterogeneous network integrating optical metro networks, based on time shared optical network technology, and wireless access networks, based on Long Term Evolution access technology. To support the infrastructure as a service paradigm, the proposed architecture adopts the concept of virtualization across the technology domains involved. Planning of virtual infrastructures considering jointly the presence of all network technology domains and IT resources is proposed, with the aim to offer globally optimized virtual infrastructures (VIs) in terms of energy consumption and resource requirements. The holistic VI planning approach proposed ensures allocation of the required resources across all technology domains to support not only the volume of service requests, but also their specific characteristics such as end users' mobility. Our modeling results clearly show that both the volume and characteristics of services have a direct impact on the energy consumption and resource requirements of all the technology domains of the planned VIs.