Latency-aware distributed sfc placement in a federated edge environment

A method, comprising:

• receiving at a second domain of a federated edge computing system comprising at least two or more separate domains a segment solution tree from a first domain of the federated edge computing system, the segment solution tree including one or more segments that include Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) of a Service Function Chain (SFC) that are to be hosted by nodes of the first domain, paths between the VNFs that are to be hosted by the nodes of the first domain, and paths to a first gateway node of the first domain that connects with a second gateway node of the second domain for VNFs that are to be hosted by nodes of the second domain, the VNFs each performing a specific functionality of the SFC;
• adding the VNFs that are to be hosted by the nodes of the second domain, paths between the VNFs that are to be hosted by the nodes of the second domain, and paths between the first and second gateways to the one or more segments;
• updating the segment solution tree with the additions to the one or more segments;
• and
• providing the updated segment solution tree to the first domain via the second gateway node so that the first domain can use the updated segment solution tree to select one of the one or more segments as a placement plan for the VNFs of the SFC.

A non-transitory storage medium having stored therein instructions that are executable by one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:

• receiving at a first domain of a federated edge computing system comprising at least two or more separate domains a Service Function Chain (SFC) request, the SFC request defining a service which is provided by an ordered set of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), each of which performs a specific functionality of the service;
• determining, based on the SFC request, which of the VNFs are to be hosted by nodes of the first domain and which of the VNFs are to be hosted by nodes of a second domain of the federated edge computing system;
• mapping one or more segments that include paths between the VNFs that are to be hosted by the nodes of the first domain and paths to a first gateway node of the first domain that connects with a second gateway node of the second domain for the VNFs that are to be hosted by the nodes of the second domain onto a segment solution tree, each of the one or more segments defining a possible placement plan for the VNFs of the SFC;
• and
• providing via the gateway node the segment solution tree to the second domain.