A Survey on the Contributions of Software-Defined Networking to Traffic Engineering

Since the appearance of OpenFlow back in 2008, software-defined networking (SDN) has gained momentum. Although there are some discrepancies between the standards developing organizations working with SDN about what SDN is and how it is defined, they all outline traffic engineering (TE) as a key application. One of the most common objectives of TE is the congestion minimization, where techniques such as traffic splitting among multiple paths or advanced reservation systems are used. In such a scenario, this manuscript surveys the role of a comprehensive list of SDN protocols in TE solutions, in order to assess how these protocols can benefit TE. The SDN protocols have been categorized using the SDN architecture proposed by the open networking foundation, which differentiates among data-controller plane interfaces, application-controller plane interfaces, and management interfaces, in order to state how the interface type in which they operate influences TE. In addition, the impact of the SDN protocols on TE has been evaluated by comparing them with the path computation element (PCE)-based architecture. The PCE-based architecture has been selected to measure the impact of SDN on TE because it is the most novel TE architecture until the date, and because it already defines a set of metrics to measure the performance of TE solutions. We conclude that using the three types of interfaces simultaneously will result in more powerful and enhanced TE solutions, since they benefit TE in complementary ways.European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (GN4) under Grant 691567 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the Secure Deployment of Services Over SDN and NFV-based Networks Project S&NSEC under Grant TEC2013-47960-C4-3-

Algorithmic Implementation of Load Balancing �in Wireless LAN

Intra domain traffic engineering (TE) has become an indispensable tool for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to optimize network performance and utilize network resources efficiently. Various explicit routing TE methods were recently proposed and have been able to achieve high network performance. However, explicit routing has high complexity and requires Large Ternary Content Addressable Memories (TCAMs) in the routers. Moreover, it is costly to deploy explicit routing in IP networks. In this project, we present an approach, called Generalized Destination-Based Multipath Routing (GDMR), to achieve the high performance as explicit routing. The main contribution of this project is to enhance an arbitrary explicit routing can be converted to a loop-free destination-based routing without any performance penalty for a given traffic matrix. We present a systematic approach including a heuristic algorithm to realize GDMR. Extensive evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of GDMR

A Quality of Service Framework for Internet Share Trading

The recent Quality of Service (QoS) architecture proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) enables a set of new network services providing possible solutions to improve the quality of the Internet-based services. The interest of this research is to find a customizable QoS network solution for the Internet based share trading business by deploying these QoS architectures in order to address the quality issues in the Internet Share Trading Business. The construction of the QoS theoretical framework begins with the identification of the Internet service capabilities required by the Internet share trading business through a case study. The appropriate QoS architectural design is selected through matching the existing QoS architectures with the identified service capabilities. The QoS technological strategies and QoS capabilities are thus derived from the selected QoS architectural design. Additionally, the effectiveness of the proposed QoS architectural design is evaluated against the current implementation by using computer simulation

Deliverable JRA1.1: Evaluation of current network control and management planes for multi-domain network infrastructure

This deliverable includes a compilation and evaluation of available control and management architectures and protocols applicable to a multilayer infrastructure in a multi-domain Virtual Network environment.The scope of this deliverable is mainly focused on the virtualisation of the resources within a network and at processing nodes. The virtualization of the FEDERICA infrastructure allows the provisioning of its available resources to users by means of FEDERICA slices. A slice is seen by the user as a real physical network under his/her domain, however it maps to a logical partition (a virtual instance) of the physical FEDERICA resources. A slice is built to exhibit to the highest degree all the principles applicable to a physical network (isolation, reproducibility, manageability, ...). Currently, there are no standard definitions available for network virtualization or its associated architectures. Therefore, this deliverable proposes the Virtual Network layer architecture and evaluates a set of Management- and Control Planes that can be used for the partitioning and virtualization of the FEDERICA network resources. This evaluation has been performed taking into account an initial set of FEDERICA requirements; a possible extension of the selected tools will be evaluated in future deliverables. The studies described in this deliverable define the virtual architecture of the FEDERICA infrastructure. During this activity, the need has been recognised to establish a new set of basic definitions (taxonomy) for the building blocks that compose the so-called slice, i.e. the virtual network instantiation (which is virtual with regard to the abstracted view made of the building blocks of the FEDERICA infrastructure) and its architectural plane representation. These definitions will be established as a common nomenclature for the FEDERICA project. Other important aspects when defining a new architecture are the user requirements. It is crucial that the resulting architecture fits the demands that users may have. Since this deliverable has been produced at the same time as the contact process with users, made by the project activities related to the Use Case definitions, JRA1 has proposed a set of basic Use Cases to be considered as starting point for its internal studies. When researchers want to experiment with their developments, they need not only network resources on their slices, but also a slice of the processing resources. These processing slice resources are understood as virtual machine instances that users can use to make them behave as software routers or end nodes, on which to download the software protocols or applications they have produced and want to assess in a realistic environment. Hence, this deliverable also studies the APIs of several virtual machine management software products in order to identify which best suits FEDERICA’s needs.Postprint (published version

Deliverable DJRA1.2. Solutions and protocols proposal for the network control, management and monitoring in a virtualized network context

This deliverable presents several research proposals for the FEDERICA network, in different subjects, such as monitoring, routing, signalling, resource discovery, and isolation. For each topic one or more possible solutions are elaborated, explaining the background, functioning and the implications of the proposed solutions.This deliverable goes further on the research aspects within FEDERICA. First of all the architecture of the control plane for the FEDERICA infrastructure will be defined. Several possibilities could be implemented, using the basic FEDERICA infrastructure as a starting point. The focus on this document is the intra-domain aspects of the control plane and their properties. Also some inter-domain aspects are addressed. The main objective of this deliverable is to lay great stress on creating and implementing the prototype/tool for the FEDERICA slice-oriented control system using the appropriate framework. This deliverable goes deeply into the definition of the containers between entities and their syntax, preparing this tool for the future implementation of any kind of algorithm related to the control plane, for both to apply UPB policies or to configure it by hand. We opt for an open solution despite the real time limitations that we could have (for instance, opening web services connexions or applying fast recovering mechanisms). The application being developed is the central element in the control plane, and additional features must be added to this application. This control plane, from the functionality point of view, is composed by several procedures that provide a reliable application and that include some mechanisms or algorithms to be able to discover and assign resources to the user. To achieve this, several topics must be researched in order to propose new protocols for the virtual infrastructure. The topics and necessary features covered in this document include resource discovery, resource allocation, signalling, routing, isolation and monitoring. All these topics must be researched in order to find a good solution for the FEDERICA network. Some of these algorithms have started to be analyzed and will be expanded in the next deliverable. Current standardization and existing solutions have been investigated in order to find a good solution for FEDERICA. Resource discovery is an important issue within the FEDERICA network, as manual resource discovery is no option, due to scalability requirement. Furthermore, no standardization exists, so knowledge must be obtained from related work. Ideally, the proposed solutions for these topics should not only be adequate specifically for this infrastructure, but could also be applied to other virtualized networks.Postprint (published version

A Survey on the Path Computation Element (PCE) Architecture

Quality of Service-enabled applications and services rely on Traffic Engineering-based (TE) Label Switched Paths (LSP) established in core networks and controlled by the GMPLS control plane. Path computation process is crucial to achieve the desired TE objective. Its actual effectiveness depends on a number of factors. Mechanisms utilized to update topology and TE information, as well as the latency between path computation and resource reservation, which is typically distributed, may affect path computation efficiency. Moreover, TE visibility is limited in many network scenarios, such as multi-layer, multi-domain and multi-carrier networks, and it may negatively impact resource utilization. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has promoted the Path Computation Element (PCE) architecture, proposing a dedicated network entity devoted to path computation process. The PCE represents a flexible instrument to overcome visibility and distributed provisioning inefficiencies. Communications between path computation clients (PCC) and PCEs, realized through the PCE Protocol (PCEP), also enable inter-PCE communications offering an attractive way to perform TE-based path computation among cooperating PCEs in multi-layer/domain scenarios, while preserving scalability and confidentiality. This survey presents the state-of-the-art on the PCE architecture for GMPLS-controlled networks carried out by research and standardization community. In this work, packet (i.e., MPLS-TE and MPLS-TP) and wavelength/spectrum (i.e., WSON and SSON) switching capabilities are the considered technological platforms, in which the PCE is shown to achieve a number of evident benefits

Auto-bandwidth control in dynamically reconfigured hybrid-SDN MPLS networks

The proposition of this work is based on the steady evolution of bandwidth demanding technology, which currently and more so in future, requires operators to use expensive infrastructure capability smartly to maximise its use in a very competitive environment. In this thesis, a traffic engineering control loop is proposed that dynamically adjusts the bandwidth and route of flows of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) tunnels in response to changes in traffic demand. Available bandwidth is shifted to where the demand is, and where the demand requirement has dropped, unused allocated bandwidth is returned to the network. An MPLS network enhanced with Software-defined Networking (SDN) features is implemented. The technology known as hybrid SDN combines the programmability features of SDN with the robust MPLS label switched path features along with traffic engineering enhancements introduced by routing protocols such as Border Gateway Patrol-Traffic Engineering (BGP-TE) and Open Shortest Path First-Traffic Engineering (OSPF-TE). The implemented mixed-integer linear programming formulation using the minimisation of maximum link utilisation and minimum link cost objective functions, combined with the programmability of the hybrid SDN network allows for source to destination demand fluctuations. A key driver to this research is the programmability of the MPLS network, enhanced by the contributions that the SDN controller technology introduced. The centralised view of the network provides the network state information needed to drive the mathematical modelling of the network. The path computation element further enables control of the label switched path's bandwidths, which is adjusted based on current demand and optimisation method used. The hose model is used to specify a range of traffic conditions. The most important benefit of the hose model is the flexibility that is allowed in how the traffic matrix can change if the aggregate traffic demand does not exceed the hose maximum bandwidth specification. To this end, reserved hose bandwidth can now be released to the core network to service demands from other sites

Multi Protocol Label Switching: Quality of Service, Traffic Engineering application, and Virtual Private Network application

This thesis discusses the QoS feature, Traffic Engineering (TE) application, and Virtual Private Network (VPN) application of the Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) protocol. This thesis concentrates on comparing MPLS with other prominent technologies such as Internet Protocol (IP), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and Frame Relay (FR). MPLS combines the flexibility of Internet Protocol (IP) with the connection oriented approach of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) or Frame Relay (FR). Section 1 lists several advantages MPLS brings over other technologies. Section 2 covers architecture and a brief description of the key components of MPLS. The information provided in Section 2 builds a background to compare MPLS with the other technologies in the rest of the sections. Since it is anticipate that MPLS will be a main core network technology, MPLS is required to work with two currently available QoS architectures: Integrated Service (IntServ) architecture and Differentiated Service (DiffServ) architecture. Even though the MPLS does not introduce a new QoS architecture or enhance the existing QoS architectures, it works seamlessly with both QoS architectures and provides proper QoS support to the customer. Section 3 provides the details of how MPLS supports various functions of the IntServ and DiffServ architectures. TE helps Internet Service Provider (ISP) optimize the use of available resources, minimize the operational costs, and maximize the revenues. MPLS provides efficient TE functions which prove to be superior to IP and ATM/FR. Section 4 discusses how MPLS supports the TE functionality and what makes MPLS superior to other competitive technologies. ATM and FR are still required as a backbone technology in some areas where converting the backbone to IP or MPLS does not make sense or customer demands simply require ATM or FR. In this case, it is important for MPLS to work with ATM and FR. Section 5 highlights the interoperability issues and solutions for MPLS while working in conjunction with ATM and FR. In section 6, various VPN tunnel types are discussed and compared with the MPLS VPN tunnel type. The MPLS VPN tunnel type is concluded as an optimal tunnel approach because it provides security, multiplexing, and the other important features that are reburied by the VPN customer and the ISP. Various MPLS layer 2 and layer 3 VPN solutions are also briefly discussed. In section 7 I conclude with the details of an actual implementation of a layer 3 MPLS VPN solution that works in conjunction with Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)