MARVELO: Wireless Virtual Network Embedding for Overlay Graphs with Loops

When deploying resource-intensive signal processing applications in wireless sensor or mesh networks, distributing processing blocks over multiple nodes becomes promising. Such distributed applications need to solve the placement problem (which block to run on which node), the routing problem (which link between blocks to map on which path between nodes), and the scheduling problem (which transmission is active when). We investigate a variant where the application graph may contain feedback loops and we exploit wireless networks? inherent multicast advantage. Thus, we propose Multicast-Aware Routing for Virtual network Embedding with Loops in Overlays (MARVELO) to find efficient solutions for scheduling and routing under a detailed interference model. We cast this as a mixed integer quadratically constrained optimisation problem and provide an efficient heuristic. Simulations show that our approach handles complex scenarios quickly.Comment: 6 page

Resource slicing in virtual wireless networks: a survey

New architectural and design approaches for radio access networks have appeared with the introduction of network virtualization in the wireless domain. One of these approaches splits the wireless network infrastructure into isolated virtual slices under their own management, requirements, and characteristics. Despite the advances in wireless virtualization, there are still many open issues regarding the resource allocation and isolation of wireless slices. Because of the dynamics and shared nature of the wireless medium, guaranteeing that the traffic on one slice will not affect the traffic on the others has proven to be difficult. In this paper, we focus on the detailed definition of the problem, discussing its challenges. We also provide a review of existing works that deal with the problem, analyzing how new trends such as software defined networking and network function virtualization can assist in the slicing. We will finally describe some research challenges on this topic.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

SLICING-BASED RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND MOBILITY MANAGEMENT FOR EMERGING WIRELESS NETWORKS

The proliferation of smart mobile devices and user applications has continued to contribute to the tremendous volume of data traffic in cellular networks. Moreover, with the feature of heterogeneous connectivity interfaces of these smart devices, it becomes more complex for managing the traffic volume in the context of mobility. To surmount this challenge, service and resource providers are looking for alternative mechanisms that can successfully facilitate managing network resources and mobility in a more dynamic, predictive and distributed manner. New concepts of network architectures such as Software-Defined Network (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have paved the way to move from static to flexible networks. They make networks more flexible (i.e., network providers capable of on-demand provisioning), easily customizable and cost effective. In this regard, network slicing is emerging as a new technology built on the concepts of SDN and NFV. It splits a network infrastructure into isolated virtual networks and allows them to manage network resources based on their requirements and characteristics. Most of the existing solutions for network slicing are facing challenges in terms of resource and mobility management. Regarding resource management, it creates challenges in terms of provisioning network throughput, end-to-end delay, and fairness resources allocation for each slice, whereas, in the case of mobility management, due to the rapid change of user mobility the network slice operator would like to hold the mobility controlling over its clients across different access networks, rather than the network operator, to ensure better services and user experience. In this thesis, we propose two novel architectural solutions to solve the challenges identified above. The first proposed solution introduces a Network Slicing Resource Management (NSRM) mechanism that assigns the required resources for each slice, taking into consideration resource isolation between different slices. The second proposed v solution provides a Mobility Management architecture-based Network Slicing (MMNS) where each slice manages its users across heterogeneous radio access technologies such as WiFi, LTE and 5G networks. In MMNS architecture, each slice has different mobility demands (e.g,. latency, speed and interference) and these demands are governed by a network slice configuration and service characteristics. In addition, NSRM ensures isolating, customizing and fair sharing of distributed bandwidths between various network slices and users belonging to the same slice depending on different requirements of each one. Whereas, MMNS is a logical platform that unifies different Radio Access Technologies (RATs) and allows all slices to share them in order to satisfy different slice mobility demands. We considered two software simulations, namely OPNET Modeler and OMNET++, to validate the performance evaluation of the thesis contributions. The simulation results for both proposed architectures show that, in case of NSRM, the resource blocking is approximately 35% less compared to the legacy LTE network, which it allows to accommodate more users. The NSRM also successfully maintains the isolation for both the inter and intra network slices. Moreover, the results show that the NSRM is able to run different scheduling mechanisms where each network slice guarantee perform its own scheduling mechanism and simultaneously with other slices. Regarding the MMNS, the results show the advantages of the proposed architecture that are the reduction of the tunnelling overhead and the minimization of the handover latency. The MMNS results show the packets delivery cost is optimal by reducing the number of hops that the packets transit between a source node and destination. Additionally, seamless session continues of a user IP-flow between different access networks interfaces has been successfully achieved