Optimizing VoIP server resources using linear programming model and autoscaling technique: An SDN approach

Abstract

Nowadays, the Voice Over IP (VoIP) technology is an important component of the communications industry as well as a low-cost alternative to Public Switched Telephone Networks. Communication in VoIP networks consists of two main phases, for example, signaling and media exchange. VoIP servers are responsible for signaling exchange using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as the signaling protocol. The saturation of SIP server resources is one of the issues with the VoIP network, which causes problems such as overload or loss of energy. Resource saturation occurs mainly due to a lack of integrated server resource management. In the traditional VoIP networks, management and routing are distributed among all equipment, including servers. These servers are overloaded during peak times and face energy loss during idle times. Given the importance of this issue, this paper introduces a framework based on Software-Defined Networking technology for SIP server resource management. The advantage of this framework is to have a global view of all the server resources. In this framework, the resource allocation optimization problem and resource autoscaling are presented to deal with the problems posed. The goal is to maximize total throughput and minimize energy consumption. In this regard, we seek to strike a balance between efficiency and energy. The proposed framework is implemented in the actual testbed. The results show that the proposed framework has succeeded in achieving these goals. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.