Utilizing Advanced Network Context to Optimize Software-Defined Networks

Legacy network systems and protocols are mostly static and keep state information in silo-style storage, thus making state migration, transformation and re-use difficult. Software-Defined Network (SDN) approaches in unison with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) allow for more flexibility, yet they are currently restricted to a limited set of state migration options. Additionally, existing systems and protocols are mostly tailored to meet the requirements of specific application scenarios. As a result, the protocols cannot easily be adapted to novel application demands, organically growing networks, etc. Impeding the sharing of networking and system state, along with lacking support for dynamic transitions between systems and protocols, severely limits the ability to optimally manage resources and dynamically adapt to a desirable overall configuration. These limitations not only affect the network performance but also hinder the deployment of new and innovative protocols as a hard break is usually not feasible and thus full support for legacy systems is required. On the one hand, we propose a generalized way to collect, store, transform, and share context between systems and protocols in both the legacy Internet as well as NFV/SDN-driven networks. This allows us to share state information between multiple systems and protocols from NFs over BGP routers to protocols on all layers of the network stack. On the other hand, we introduce an architecture for designing modular protocols that are built with transition in mind. We argue that the modular design of systems and protocols can remove the key limitations of today’s monolithic protocols and allow for a more dynamic network management. First, we design and implement a Storage and Transformation Engine for Advanced Net- working context (STEAN) which constitutes a shared context storage, making network state information available to other systems and protocols. Its pivotal feature is the ability to allow for state transformation as well as for persisting state to enable future re-use. Second, we provide a Blueprint for Switching Between Mechanisms that serves as a framework and guideline for developers to standardize and ease the process of designing and implementing systems and protocols that support transitions as a first order principle. By means of experimentation, we show that our architecture covers a diverse set of challenging use cases in legacy systems—such as Wireless Multihop Networks (WMNs)—as well as in NFV/SDN-enabled systems. In particular, we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by migrating state information between two instances of the PRADS NF in a virtualized Mininet environment, and show that our solution outperforms state of the art frameworks that are specifically built for NF migration. We further demonstrate that a dynamic switch between WMN routing protocols is possible at runtime and that the state information can be reutilized for bootstrapping novel protocol modules, thus minimizing the control overhead

Adaptive protocols for mobile ad hoc networks

Recent advances in low-power technologies have resulted in the proliferation of inexpensive handheld mobile computing devices. Soon, just like the Internet empow- ered a whole new world of applications for personal computers, the development and deployment of robust ubiquitous wireless networks will enable many new and exciting futuristic applications. Certain to be an important part of this future is a class of networks known as "mobile ad hoc networks." Mobile ad hoc networks (or simply "ad hoc networks") are local-area networks formed "on the spot" between collocated wireless devices. These devices self-organize by sharing information with their neigh- bors to establish communication pathways whenever and wherever they are. For ad hoc networks to succeed, however, new protocols must be developed that are capable of adapting to their dynamic nature. In this dissertation, we present a number of adaptive protocols that are designed for this purpose. We investigate new link layer mechanisms that dynamically monitor and adapt to changes in link quality, including a protocol that uses common control messages to form a tight feedback control loop for adaptation of the link data rate to best match the channel conditions perceived by the receiver. We also investigate routing protocols that adapt route selection according to network characteristics. In particular, we present two on-demand routing protocols that are designed to take advantage of the presence of multirate links. We then investigate the performance of TCP, showing how communication outages caused by link failures and routing delays can be very detrimental to its performance. In response, we present a solution to this problem that uses explicit feedback messages from the link layer about link failures to adapt TCP's behavior. Finally, we show how link failures in heterogeneous networks containing links with widely varying bandwidth and delay can cause repeated "modal" changes in capacity that TCP is slow to detect. We then present a modifed version of TCP that is capable of more rapidly detecting and adapting to these changes

Wireless Sensor Networks

The aim of this book is to present few important issues of WSNs, from the application, design and technology points of view. The book highlights power efficient design issues related to wireless sensor networks, the existing WSN applications, and discusses the research efforts being undertaken in this field which put the reader in good pace to be able to understand more advanced research and make a contribution in this field for themselves. It is believed that this book serves as a comprehensive reference for graduate and undergraduate senior students who seek to learn latest development in wireless sensor networks

A holistic framework to improve message delivery in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) are wireless communication networks for vehicles that do not require any fixed or central infrastructure. It forms an important part of the intelligent transport system (ITS) which is the convergence of telecommunications, computing and wireless systems with the aim of improving transportation regarding efficiency, safety and management. In addition to the uses of ITS, VANETs will contribute in service access, cooperative driving, entertainment and navigation for cars of the future. Due to the varied use of VANETs, it becomes slightly cumbersome having a "one-fits-all" solution to challenges facing message dissemination in VANETs. While some applications might require a fast and reliable way of disseminating messages amongst members of the network, other applications might be more delay-tolerant without adding extra risks to the dependents of such application. Data dissemination methods are therefore important aspects of VANET that ensure messages are delivered to areas beyond the scope of the originating node. However, several types of research have shown that message propagation for each geographical route is unique to that route, owing to the number of network participants, their speed, and distribution of objects on that route. Many research designs do not consider the vehicles and their traffic characteristics and as such vehicular ad-hoc networks are under-utilised. One of the problems present in the emerging field of vehicular communications is that of optimally disseminating messages within the network to support services such as collision warnings, traffic management, and driverless vehicles amongst others. This problem is a unique research area which involves the entire network and its ability to support the efficient propagation of data. Message dissemination in VANETs could be viewed as routing on much higher macroscopic level, however, the techniques usually applied to data routing on a microscopic level does not utilise available data to efficiently disseminate messages within a vehicular ad-hoc network. Some work done in literature addresses a few constraints at a time; for example a focus on junctions, thereby ignoring vast areas of the wireless network which could have been otherwise used to improve the overall ability to efficiently deliver messages within the road network. For this reason, this thesis investigates the effects of several vehicular factors, how these factors affect the quality of the wireless network on each road, and how this knowledge is advantageous in improving the delivery of messages from a source to its destination within a vehicular ad-hoc network. In proposing a solution that uses otherwise largely ignored road traffic data to improving efficient message delivery, a holistic framework that utilises road traffic information in a unique way is presented. The quality of a wireless network for each road in terms of packets delivered is seen to be influenced by the number of vehicles and their speed which is seen to be unique for each road segment; therefore, allowing the generation of a wireless packet delivery map offline (wireless network map) based on varying number of vehicles and speeds. Current road traffic data can then be compared against the wireless map in order to determine which routes have good network quality and hence the ability to support better message dissemination. This framework is also aimed at helping to fully utilise the VANET bandwidth available by reducing network noise caused by multiple retransmissions of nodes in the network by picking the right path and using only the furthest node on each path. It aims to reduce messages delivery failure, reduce delays in the message delivery where possible and improve the utilisation of vehicles as communication nodes and relays. The Framework for Improving Message Delivery in VANETs (FIMDEV) proposed in this thesis shows the benefit of using the wireless communication database information processed by each vehicle to support message delivery from source to destination within the VANET. Experiments show improved overall packet delivery ratio when compared to standalone routing protocols as FIMDEV uses the wireless network database along with a set of rules for propagating messages within the network

Flexible network management in software defined wireless sensor networks for monitoring application systems

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are the commonly applied information technologies of modern networking and computing platforms for application-specific systems. Today’s network computing applications are faced with high demand of reliable and powerful network functionalities. Hence, efficient network performance is central to the entire ecosystem, more especially where human life is a concern. However, effective management of WSNs remains a challenge due to problems supplemental to them. As a result, WSNs application systems such as in monitored environments, surveillance, aeronautics, medicine, processing and control, tend to suffer in terms of capacity to support compute intensive services due to limitations experienced on them. A recent technology shift proposes Software Defined Networking (SDN) for improving computing networks as well as enhancing network resource management, especially for life guarding systems. As an optimization strategy, a software-oriented approach for WSNs, known as Software Defined Wireless Sensor Network (SDWSN) is implemented to evolve, enhance and provide computing capacity to these resource constrained technologies. Software developmental strategies are applied with the focus to ensure efficient network management, introduce network flexibility and advance network innovation towards the maximum operation potential for WSNs application systems. The need to develop WSNs application systems which are powerful and scalable has grown tremendously due to their simplicity in implementation and application. Their nature of design serves as a potential direction for the much anticipated and resource abundant IoT networks. Information systems such as data analytics, shared computing resources, control systems, big data support, visualizations, system audits, artificial intelligence (AI), etc. are a necessity to everyday life of consumers. Such systems can greatly benefit from the SDN programmability strategy, in terms of improving how data is mined, analysed and committed to other parts of the system for greater functionality. This work proposes and implements SDN strategies for enhancing WSNs application systems especially for life critical systems. It also highlights implementation considerations for designing powerful WSNs application systems by focusing on system critical aspects that should not be disregarded when planning to improve core network functionalities. Due to their inherent challenges, WSN application systems lack robustness, reliability and scalability to support high computing demands. Anticipated systems must have greater capabilities to ubiquitously support many applications with flexible resources that can be easily accessed. To achieve this, such systems must incorporate powerful strategies for efficient data aggregation, query computations, communication and information presentation. The notion of applying machine learning methods to WSN systems is fairly new, though carries the potential to enhance WSN application technologies. This technological direction seeks to bring intelligent functionalities to WSN systems given the characteristics of wireless sensor nodes in terms of cooperative data transmission. With these technological aspects, a technical study is therefore conducted with a focus on WSN application systems as to how SDN strategies coupled with machine learning methods, can contribute with viable solutions on monitoring application systems to support and provide various applications and services with greater performance. To realize this, this work further proposes and implements machine learning (ML) methods coupled with SDN strategies to; enhance sensor data aggregation, introduce network flexibility, improve resource management, query processing and sensor information presentation. Hence, this work directly contributes to SDWSN strategies for monitoring application systems.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018.National Research Foundation (NRF)Telkom Centre of ExcellenceElectrical, Electronic and Computer EngineeringPhDUnrestricte

An elementary proposition on the dynamic routing problem in wireless networks of sensors

The routing problem (finding an optimal route from one point in a computer network to another) is surrounded by impossibility results. These results are usually expressed as lower and upper bounds on the set of nodes (or the set of links) of a network and represent the complexity of a solution to the routing problem (a routing function). The routing problem dealt with here, in particular, is a dynamic one (it accounts for network dynamics) and concerns wireless networks of sensors. Sensors form wireless links of limited capacity and time-variable quality to route messages amongst themselves. It is desired that sensors self-organize ad hoc in order to successfully carry out a routing task, e.g. provide daily soil erosion reports for a monitored watershed, or provide immediate indications of an imminent volcanic eruption, in spite of network dynamics. Link dynamics are the first barrier to finding an optimal route between a node x and a node y in a sensor network. The uncertainty of the outcome (the best next hop) of a routing function lies partially with the quality fluctuations of wireless links. Take, for example, a static network. It is known that, given the set of nodes and their link weights (or costs), a node can compute optimal routes by running, say, Dijkstra's algorithm. Link dynamics however suggest that costs are not static. Hence, sensors need a metric (a measurable quantity of uncertainty) to monitor for fluctuations, either improvements or degradations of quality or load; when a fluctuation is sufficiently large (say, by Delta), sensors ought to update their costs and seek another route. Therein lies the other fundamental barrier to find an optimal route - complexity. A crude argument would suggest that sensors (and their links) have an upper bound on the number of messages they can transmit, receive and store due to resource constraints. Such messages can be application traffic, in which case it is desirable, or control traffic, in which case it should be kept minimal. The first type of traffic is demand, and a user should provision for it accordingly. The second type of traffic is overhead, and it is necessary if a routing system (or scheme) is to ensure its fidelity to the application requirements (policy). It is possible for a routing scheme to approximate optimal routes (by Delta) by reducing its message and/or memory complexity. The common denominator of the routing problem and the desire to minimize overhead while approximating optimal routes is Delta, the deviation (or stretch) of a computed route from an optimal one, as computed by a node that has instantaneous knowledge of the set of all nodes and their interaction costs (an oracle). This dissertation deals with both problems in unison. To do so, it needs to translate the policy space (the user objectives) into a metric space (routing objectives). It does so by means of a cost function that normalizes metrics into a number of hops. Then it proceeds to devise, design, and implement a scheme that computes minimum-hop-count routes with manageable complexity. The theory presented is founded on (well-ordered) sets with respect to an elementary proposition, that a route from a source x to a destination y can be computed either by y sending an advertisement to the set of all nodes, or by x sending a query to the set of all nodes; henceforth the proactive method (of y) and the reactive method (of x), respectively. The debate between proactive and reactive routing protocols appears in many instances of the routing problem (e.g. routing in mobile networks, routing in delay-tolerant networks, compact routing), and it is focussed on whether nodes should know a priori all routes and then select the best one (with the proactive method), or each node could simply search for a (hopefully best) route on demand (with the reactive method). The proactive method is stateful, as it requires the entire metric space - the set of nodes and their interaction costs - in memory (in a routing table). The routes computed by the proactive method are optimal and the lower and upper bounds of proactive schemes match those of an oracle. Any attempt to reduce the proactive overhead, e.g. by introducing hierarchies, will result in sub-optimal routes (of known stretch). The reactive method is stateless, as it requires no information whatsoever to compute a route. Reactive schemes - at least as they are presently understood - compute sub-optimal routes (and thus far, of unknown stretch). This dissertation attempts to answer the following question: "what is the least amount of state required to compute an optimal route from a source to a destination?" A hybrid routing scheme is used to investigate this question, one that uses the proactive method to compute routes to near destinations and the reactive method for distant destinations. It is shown that there are cases where hybrid schemes can converge to optimal routes, despite possessing incomplete routing state, and that the necessary and sufficient condition to compute optimal routes with local state alone is related neither to the size nor the density of a network; it is rather the circumference (the size of the largest cycle) of a network that matters. Counterexamples, where local state is insufficient, are discussed to derive the worst-case stretch. The theory is augmented with simulation results and a small experimental testbed to motivate the discussion on how policy space (user requirements) can translate into metric spaces and how different metrics affect performance. On the debate between proactive and reactive protocols, it is shown that the two classes are equivalent. The dissertation concludes with a discussion on the applicability of its results and poses some open problems

SCALABLE AND EFFICIENT VERTICAL HANDOVER DECISION ALGORITHMS IN VEHICULAR NETWORK CONTEXTS

A finales de los años noventa, y al comienzo del nuevo milenio, las redes inalámbricas han evolucionado bastante, pasando de ser sólo una tecnología prometedora para convertirse en un requisito para las actividades cotidianas en las sociedades desarrolladas. La infraestructura de transporte también ha evolucionado, ofreciendo comunicación a bordo para mejorar la seguridad vial y el acceso a contenidos de información y entretenimiento. Los requisitos de los usuarios finales se han hecho dependientes de la tecnología, lo que significa que sus necesidades de conectividad han aumentado debido a los diversos requisitos de las aplicaciones que se ejecutan en sus dispositivos móviles, tales como tabletas, teléfonos inteligentes, ordenadores portátiles o incluso ordenadores de abordo (On-Board Units (OBUs)) dentro de los vehículos. Para cumplir con dichos requisitos de conectividad, y teniendo en cuenta las diferentes redes inalámbricas disponibles, es necesario adoptar técnicas de Vertical Handover (VHO) para cambiar de red de forma transparente y sin necesidad de intervención del usuario. El objetivo de esta tesis es desarrollar algoritmos de decisión (Vertical Handover Decision Algorithms (VHDAs)) eficientes y escalables, optimizados para el contexto de las redes vehiculares. En ese sentido se ha propuesto, desarrollado y probado diferentes algoritmos de decisión basados en la infraestructura disponible en las actuales, y probablemente en las futuras, redes inalámbricas y redes vehiculares. Para ello se han combinado diferentes técnicas, métodos computacionales y modelos matemáticos, con el fin de garantizar una conectividad apropiada, y realizando el handover hacia las redes más adecuadas de manera a cumplir tanto con los requisitos de los usuarios como los requisitos de las aplicaciones. Con el fin de evaluar el contexto, se han utilizado diferentes herramientas para obtener información variada, como la disponibilidad de la red, el estado de la red, la geolocalizaciónMárquez Barja, JM. (2012). SCALABLE AND EFFICIENT VERTICAL HANDOVER DECISION ALGORITHMS IN VEHICULAR NETWORK CONTEXTS [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/17869Palanci

Cost-Effective and Energy-Efficient Techniques for Underwater Acoustic Communication Modems

Finally, the modem developed has been tested experimentally in laboratory (aquatic environment) showing that can communicates at different data rates (100..1200 bps) compared to state-of-the-art research modems. The software used include LabVIEW, MATLAB, Simulink, and Multisim (to test the electronic circuit built) has been employed.Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) are widely used in many applications related to ecosystem monitoring, and many more fields. Due to the absorption of electromagnetic waves in water and line-of-sight communication of optical waves, acoustic waves are the most suitable medium of communication in underwater environments. Underwater acoustic modem (UAM) is responsible for the transmission and reception of acoustic signals in an aquatic channel. Commercial modems may communicate at longer distances with reliability, but they are expensive and less power efficient. Research modems are designed by using a digital-signal-processor (DSP is expensive) and field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA is high power consuming device). In addition to, the use of a microcontroller is also a common practice (which is less expensive) but provides limited computational power. Hence, there is a need for a cost-effective and energy-efficient UAM to be used in budget limited applications. In this thesis different objectives are proposed. First, to identify the limitations of state-of-the-art commercial and research UAMs through a comprehensive survey. The second contribution has been the design of a low-cost acoustic modem for short-range underwater communications by using a single board computer (Raspberry-Pi), and a microcontroller (Atmega328P). The modulator, demodulator and amplifiers are designed with discrete components to reduce the overall cost. The third contribution is to design a web based underwater acoustic communication testbed along with a simulation platform (with underwater channel and sound propagation models), for testing modems. The fourth contribution is to integrate in a single module two important modules present in UAMs: the PSK modulator and the power amplifier