Designing data center network by analytic hierarchy process

The demand for delivery services for large-sized content such as video has increased dramatically, and the use of cloud computing services in which users can use IT services via networks has also increased. To provide these services with high quality and high reliability, ISPs need to carefully design network topology and the positions of data centers. However, network topology and data center location strongly affect various evaluation criteria, such as cost, path length, and reliability; therefore, these criteria with different respective units need to be considered simultaneously when designing a data center network. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a way to make a rational decision considering multiple criteria. This paper proposes to design data center networks by evaluating both network topology and data center locations simultaneously using AHP and also shows the numerical results of applying the proposed design method to the three areas of Japan, USA, and Europe. We investigate the properties of desirable data center networks in these three areas, and compare the results with those obtained by the enumeration method. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.