Optimal network resource utilization in service function chaining

Service function chaining (SFC) refers to as an order set composed of multiple service functions (SFs) that specific flows should be processed. In this paper, we formulate an optimization problem to efficiently utilize the network resource in SFC-enabled networks by determining the amount of flows assigned to each link and SF instance. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed optimal solution can reduce the network resource usage and thus accommodate more flows compared with non-optimal solutions.