604 research outputs found
A data-oriented network architecture
In the 25 years since becoming commercially available, the Internet has grown into a global communication infrastructure connecting a significant part of mankind and has become an important part of modern society. Its impressive growth has been fostered by innovative applications, many of which were completely unforeseen by the Internet's inventors. While fully acknowledging ingenuity and creativity of application designers, it is equally impressive how little the core architecture of the Internet has evolved during this time. However, the ever evolving applications and growing importance of the Internet have resulted in increasing discordance between the Internet's current use and its original design. In this thesis, we focus on four sources of discomfort caused by this divergence.
First, the Internet was developed around host-to-host applications, such as telnet and ftp, but the vast majority of its current usage is service access and data retrieval. Second, while the freedom to connect from any host to any other host was a major factor behind the success of the Internet, it provides little protection for connected hosts today. As a result, distributed denial of service attacks against Internet services have become a common nuisance, and are difficult to resolve within the current architecture. Third, Internet connectivity is becoming nearly ubiquitous and reaches increasingly often mobile devices. Moreover, connectivity is expected to extend its reach to even most extreme places. Hence, applications' view to network has changed radically; it's commonplace that they are offered intermittent connectivity at best and required to be smart enough to use heterogeneous network technologies. Finally, modern networks deploy so-called middleboxes both to improve performance and provide protection. However, when doing so, the middleboxes have to impose themselves between the communication end-points, which is against the design principles of the original Internet and a source of complications both for the management of networks and design of application protocols.
In this thesis, we design a clean-slate network architecture that is a better fit with the current use of the Internet. We present a name resolution system based on name-based routing. It matches with the service access and data retrieval oriented usage of the Internet, and takes the network imposed middleboxes properly into account. We then propose modest addressing-related changes to the network layer as a remedy for the denial of service attacks. Finally, we take steps towards a data-oriented communications API that provides better decoupling for applications from the network stack than the original Sockets API does. The improved decoupling both simplifies applications and allows them to be unaffected by evolving network technologies: in this architecture, coping with intermittent connectivity and heterogenous network technologies is a burden of the network stack
Quality of Service improvements for real time multimedia applications using next generation network architectures and blockchain in Internet Service Provider cooperative scenario
Real time communications are becoming part of our daily life, requiring constrained requisites with the purpose of being enjoyed in harmony by end users. The factors ruling these requisites are Quality of Service parameters of the users' Internet connections. Achieving a satisfactory QoS level for real time communications depends on parameters that are strongly influenced by the quality of the network connections among the Internet Service Providers, which are located in the path between final users and Over The Top service providers that are supplying them with real time services. Final users can be: business people having real time videoconferences, or adopting crytpocurrencies in their exchanges, videogamers playing online games together with others residing in other countries, migrants talking with their relatives or watching their children growing up in their home countries, people with disabilities adopting tecnologies to help them, doctors performing remote surgeries, manufacturers adopting augmented reality devices to perform dangerous tasks. Each of them performing their daily activities are requiring specific QoS parameters to their ISPs, that nowadays seem to be unable to provide them with a satisfactory QoS level for these kinds of real time services. Through the adoption of next generation networks, such as the Information Centric Networking, it would be possible to overcome the QoS problems that nowadays are experienced. By adopting Blockchain technologies, in several use cases, it would be possible to improve those security aspects related to the non-temperability of information and privacy. I started this thesis analyzing next generation architectures enabling real time multimedia communications. In Software Defined Networking, Named Data Networking and Community Information Centric Networking, I highlighted potential approaches to solve QoS problems that are affecting real time multimedia applications. During my experiments I found that applications able to transmit high quality videos, such as 4k or 8k videos, or to directly interact with devices AR/VR enabled are missing for both ICN approaches. Then I proposed a REST interface for the enforcing of a specific QoS parameter, the round trip time (RTT) taking into consideration the specific use case of a game company that connects with the same telecommunication company of the final user. Supposing that the proposed REST APIs have been deployed in the game company and in the ISP, when one or more users are experiencing lag, the game company will try to ask the ISP to reduce the RTT for that specific user or that group of users. This request can be done by performing a call to a method where IP address(es) and the maximum RTT desired are passed. I also proposed other methods, through which it would be possible to retrieve information about the QoS parameters, and exchange, if necessary, an exceeding parameter in change of another one. The proposed REST APIs can also be used in more complex scenarios, where ISPs along the path are chained together, in order to improve the end to end QoS among Over The Top service provider and final users. To store the information exchanged by using the proposed REST APIs, I proposed to adopt a permissioned blockchain, analizying the ISPs cooperative use case with Hyperledger Fabric, where I proposed the adoption of the Proof of Authority consensus algorithm, to increase the throughput in terms of transactions per second. In a specific case that I examined, I am proposing a combination of Information Centric Networking and Blockchain, in an architecture where ISPs are exchanging valuable information regarding final Users, to improve their QoS parameters. I also proposed my smart contract for the gaming delay use case, that can be used to rule the communication among those ISPs that are along the path among OTT and final users. An extension of this work can be done, by defining billing costs for the QoS improvements
On stacks and russian dolls: mobile objects in configurable communication protocols
This paper introduces Groupz, a novel development framework for group communication protocol. Groupz merges advantages of traditional communication protocol support environments with object mobility, proposing multiple nested mobile objects as the natural evolution of layered protocols. By shifting the focus of protocol development from data messages to mobile objects, it makes possible to build configurable and adaptable system software, suited for problematic environments such as world-wide networks and mobile computers, without overlooking efficiency
Distribuição de vídeo para grupos de utilizadores em redes móveis heterogéneas19
The evolutions veri ed in mobile devices capabilities (storage capacity, screen
resolution, processor, etc.) over the last years led to a signi cant change
in mobile user behavior, with the consumption and creation of multimedia
content becoming more common, in particular video tra c. Consequently,
mobile operator networks, despite being the target of architectural evolutions
and improvements over several parameters (such as capacity, transmission
and reception performance, amongst others), also increasingly become more
frequently challenged by performance aspects associated to the nature of
video tra c, whether by the demanding requirements associated to that
service, or by its volume increase in such networks.
This Thesis proposes modi cations to the mobile architecture towards a more
e cient video broadcasting, de ning and developing mechanisms applicable
to the network, or to the mobile terminal. Particularly, heterogeneous
networks multicast IP mobility supported scenarios are focused, emphasizing
their application over di erent access technologies. The suggested changes
are applicable to mobile or static user scenarios, whether it performs the role
of receiver or source of the video tra c. Similarly, the de ned mechanisms
propose solutions targeting operators with di erent video broadcasting goals,
or whose networks have di erent characteristics. The pursued methodology
combined an experimental evaluation executed over physical testbeds,
with the mathematical evaluation using network simulation, allowing the
veri cation of its impact on the optimization of video reception in mobile
terminalsA evolução veri cada nas características dos dispositivos moveis (capacidade
de armazenamento, resolução do ecrã, processador, etc.) durante os
últimos anos levou a uma alteração signi cativa nos comportamentos dos
utilizadores, sendo agora comum o consumo e produção de conteúdos
multimédia envolvendo terminais móveis, em particular o tráfego vídeo.
Consequentemente, as redes de operador móvel, embora tendo também sido
alvo constante de evoluções arquitecturais e melhorias em vários parâmetros
(tais como capacidade, ritmo de transmissão/recepção, entre outros), vêemse
cada vez mais frequentemente desa adas por aspectos de desempenho
associados à natureza do tráfego de vídeo, seja pela exigência de requisitos
associados a esse serviço, quer pelo aumento do volume do mesmo nesse
tipo de redes.
Esta Tese propôe alterações à arquitetura móvel para a disseminação de vídeo
mais e ciente, de nindo e desenvolvendo mecanismos aplicáveis à rede, ou
ao utilizador móvel. Em particular, são focados cenários suportados por IP
multicast em redes móveis heterogéneas, isto é, com ênfase na aplicação
destes mecanismos sobre diferentes tecnologias de acesso. As alterações
sugeridas aplicam-se a cenários de utilizador estático ou móvel, sendo este a
fonte ou receptor do tráfego vídeo. Da mesma forma, são propostas soluções
tendo em vista operadores com diferentes objectivos de disseminação de
vídeo, ou cujas redes têm diferentes características. A metodologia utilizada
combinou a avaliação experimental em testbeds físicas com a avaliação
matemática em simulações de redes, e permitiu veri car o impacto sobre
a optimização da recepção de vídeo em terminais móveisPrograma Doutoral em Telecomunicaçõe
Enabling Disaster Resilient 4G Mobile Communication Networks
The 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the cellular technology expected to
outperform the previous generations and to some extent revolutionize the
experience of the users by taking advantage of the most advanced radio access
techniques (i.e. OFDMA, SC-FDMA, MIMO). However, the strong dependencies
between user equipments (UEs), base stations (eNBs) and the Evolved Packet Core
(EPC) limit the flexibility, manageability and resiliency in such networks. In
case the communication links between UEs-eNB or eNB-EPC are disrupted, UEs are
in fact unable to communicate. In this article, we reshape the 4G mobile
network to move towards more virtual and distributed architectures for
improving disaster resilience, drastically reducing the dependency between UEs,
eNBs and EPC. The contribution of this work is twofold. We firstly present the
Flexible Management Entity (FME), a distributed entity which leverages on
virtualized EPC functionalities in 4G cellular systems. Second, we introduce a
simple and novel device-todevice (D2D) communication scheme allowing the UEs in
physical proximity to communicate directly without resorting to the
coordination with an eNB.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Magazin
Separation Framework: An Enabler for Cooperative and D2D Communication for Future 5G Networks
Soaring capacity and coverage demands dictate that future cellular networks
need to soon migrate towards ultra-dense networks. However, network
densification comes with a host of challenges that include compromised energy
efficiency, complex interference management, cumbersome mobility management,
burdensome signaling overheads and higher backhaul costs. Interestingly, most
of the problems, that beleaguer network densification, stem from legacy
networks' one common feature i.e., tight coupling between the control and data
planes regardless of their degree of heterogeneity and cell density.
Consequently, in wake of 5G, control and data planes separation architecture
(SARC) has recently been conceived as a promising paradigm that has potential
to address most of aforementioned challenges. In this article, we review
various proposals that have been presented in literature so far to enable SARC.
More specifically, we analyze how and to what degree various SARC proposals
address the four main challenges in network densification namely: energy
efficiency, system level capacity maximization, interference management and
mobility management. We then focus on two salient features of future cellular
networks that have not yet been adapted in legacy networks at wide scale and
thus remain a hallmark of 5G, i.e., coordinated multipoint (CoMP), and
device-to-device (D2D) communications. After providing necessary background on
CoMP and D2D, we analyze how SARC can particularly act as a major enabler for
CoMP and D2D in context of 5G. This article thus serves as both a tutorial as
well as an up to date survey on SARC, CoMP and D2D. Most importantly, the
article provides an extensive outlook of challenges and opportunities that lie
at the crossroads of these three mutually entangled emerging technologies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 201
Host mobility key management in dynamic secure group communication
The key management has a fundamental role in securing group communications taking place over vast and unprotected networks. It is concerned with the distribution and update of the keying materials whenever any changes occur in the group membership. Wireless mobile environments enable members to move freely within the networks, which causes more difficulty to design efficient and scalable key management protocols. This is partly because both member location dynamic and group membership dynamic must be managed concurrently, which may lead to significant rekeying overhead. This paper presents a hierarchical group key management scheme taking the mobility of members into consideration intended for wireless mobile environments. The proposed scheme supports the mobility of members across wireless mobile environments while remaining in the group session with minimum rekeying transmission overhead. Furthermore, the proposed scheme alleviates 1-affect-n phenomenon, single point of failure, and signaling load caused by moving members at the core network. Simulation results shows that the scheme surpasses other existing efforts in terms of communication overhead and affected members. The security requirements studies also show the backward and forward secrecy is preserved in the proposed scheme even though the members move between areas
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