Towards a network management solution for vehicular delay-tolerant networks

Vehicular networks appeared as a new communication solution where vehicles act as a communication infrastructure, providing data communications through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks (VDTNs) are a new disruptive network architecture assuming delay tolerant networking paradigm where there are no end-to-end connectivity. In this case the incial node transmits the data to a closed node, the data will be carried by vehicles, hop to hop until the destination. This dissertation focuses on a proposal of a network management solution, based standard protocol Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to VDTN networks. The developed solution allows control a VDTN netowork through a Network Management System (NMS) with the objective to detect and, if it’s possible, anticipate, possible errors on network. The research methodology used was the prototyping. So, it was built a network management module to the laboratorial prototype, called VDTN@Lab. The system built include a MIB (Management Information Base) placed in all vehicular network nodes. The solution was built, demonstrated, validated and evaluated their performance, being ready for use.As redes veiculares foram desenhadas para permitir que os veículos possam transportar dados criando assim um novo tipo de redes, caracterizando-se por dois tipos de comunicação: comunicações veículo-para-veículo (V2V) ou comunicações veículo-parainfra-estrutura (V2I). Redes veiculares intermitentes (do Inglês Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks - VDTNs) surgiram como uma nova arquitectura de rede de dados onde os veículos são utilizados como infra-estruturas de comunicação. As VDTNs caracterizam-se por serem redes veiculares baseadas no paradigma de comunicações intermitentes. Nas redes VDTN não existe uma ligação permanente extremo a extremo entre o emissor e o receptor. Neste caso, o nó inicial transmite os dados para um nó que esteja junto dele e assim sucessivamente, os dados vão sendo transportados pelos veículos, salto a salto até ao destinatário final. Esta dissertação centra-se na proposta de uma solução de gestão de rede, baseada no protocolo estandardizado Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) para redes VDTN. A solução construída permite controlar uma rede VDTN através de um sistema de gestão de rede (do Inglês Network Management System - NMS) com o objectivo de detectar e, se possível antecipar, possíveis erros na rede. A metodologia de investigação utilizada foi a prototipagem. Assim, foi construído um módulo de gestão de redes para o protótipo laboratorial, chamado VDTN@Lab. O sistema construído inclui uma MIB (Management Information Base) que é colocada em todos os nós de uma rede veicular, tanto fixos como móveis. A solução foi construída, demonstrada, validade e avaliado o seu desempenho, estando assim pronta para ser utilizada

Design and implementation of a traffic control framework in Firefox OS

Today's smartphones include a rich feature-set as well as various wireless interfaces that provide extra services rather than just voice communication or messaging, as it occurred with traditional mobile phones. Additionally, the widespread use of mobile devices using Third Generation (3G) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks has led to the development of various applications (apps) that take advantage of the always-on Internet connectivity provided by these networks (e.g. instant messaging and social network services). Unlike traditional Internet apps (e.g. web surfing and file transfer), the emerging apps that rely on always-on connectivity are often constantly running in the background to receive messages and status updates. This behavior causes that apps continuously generate short app signaling messages such as keep-alive and ping requests to maintain the always-on connectivity. Although the traffic volume of keep-alive messages is not large, frequent short messages can incur a large amount of related signaling traffic in the mobile network. In 3G or LTE networks, the User Equipment (UE) and the Radio Access Network (RAN) keep the Radio Resource Control (RRC) states. The UE stays in Connected mode when it transmits or receives data during active periods and stays in Idle mode during inactive periods. To send even a small data packet, the UE changes the state to the Connected mode prior to transmission. This radio state change generates a lot of network signaling messages, resulting in a rapid increase in traffic loading. Large amounts of network signaling traffic leads to two major problems: rapid drainage of the mobile device's battery and a signaling traffic surge in the mobile network. Since the air interface is a spare resource and the traffic for mobile end devices will grow enormously, it is important that the wireless resources are used in the most efficient way. However, this is not true for current networks as there is not alignment between devices, apps and the network.This document proposes a traffic control framework which acts as an interface between the apps and the network and allows the network operator to aggregate packets prior to transmission. The aggregated packets are sent out at once after a configurable amount of time which means for instance that resources on the wireless link have to be reserved only once for a number of app signaling packets and not for each packet separately. By this the packet transmission will be bursty which will improve network efficiency as the amount of signaling messages is minimized. In addition, battery runtime is improved as lower signaling overhead will reduce the activity time and energy consumption within devices.Hoy en día los smartphones incorporan un amplio conjunto de utilidades, así como varias interfaces inalámbricas que proporcionan servicios adicionales a los ofrecidos por los teléfonos móviles convencionales. Por otra parte, el uso generalizado de las redes 3G y LTE ha originado el desarrollo de numerosas aplicaciones que aprovechan las ventajas que ofrecen dichas redes, un ejemplo son las aplicaciones de redes sociales. Estas aplicaciones, a diferencia de otras como la navegación web o la descarga de archivos, están constantemente ejecutándose en segundo plano y recibiendo notificaciones de actualización de estado. Este comportamiento propicia el intercambio de pequeños mensajes de señalización para mantener la conexión, tales como mensajes "keep alive" o "ping requests". A pesar de que el volumen de estos mensajes no es elevado, su constante intercambio puede ocasionar una gran cantidad de tráfico de señalización en la red. En las redes 3G o LTE, el equipo de usuario (UE) y la red de acceso radio terrestre (RAN) mantienen los estados RRC. El equipo de usuario permanece en el estado activo cuando transmite o recibe datos y retorna al estado de reposo durante los periodos inactivos. El envío de un pequeño paquete de datos supone la transición desde el estado de reposo al estado activo. Este comportamiento genera muchos mensajes de señalización e implica un rápido incremento en el tráfico de la red. Este incremento del tráfico de señalización ocasiona dos grandes problemas: la sobrecarga de la red y un impacto negativo en el consumo de batería de los dispositivos móviles. Es de vital importancia que se haga un uso eficiente de los recursos de red, ya que el aire, en este caso el canal de comunicación, es un medio compartido. Además, se espera que el tráfico generado por los dispositivos móviles crezca enormemente en los próximos años. Las redes móviles actuales no son utilizadas de un modo eficiente debido a la falta de interacción entre la red, los dispositivos móviles y las aplicaciones. Este documento presenta una plataforma de control de tr a co que actúa como interfaz entre las aplicaciones y la red, permitiendo al operador de red agregar los paquetes antes de su transmisión. Esto permite, por ejemplo, que los recursos de red sean reservados s olo una vez para la ráfaga de paquetes y no para cada paquete individualmente, lo cual minimiza la cantidad de mensajes de señalización. Esta propuesta no sólo ayuda a mejorar la eficiencia de la red, sino que además optimiza el uso de la batería, ya que una disminución del tráfico de señalización provoca una reducción del tiempo de actividad y consumo de energía de los dispositivos móviles.Ingeniería Telemátic

An Edge and Fog Computing Platform for Effective Deployment of 360 Video Applications

This paper has been presented at: Seventh International Workshop on Cloud Technologies and Energy Efficiency in Mobile Communication Networks (CLEEN 2019). How cloudy and green will mobile network and services be? 15 April 2019 - Marrakech, MoroccoIn press / En prensaImmersive video applications based on 360 video streaming require high-bandwidth, high-reliability and lowlatency 5G connectivity but also flexible, low-latency and costeffective computing deployment. This paper proposes a novel solution for decomposing and distributing the end-to-end 360 video streaming service across three computing tiers, namely cloud, edge and constrained fog, in order of proximity to the end user client. The streaming service is aided with an adaptive viewport technique. The proposed solution is based on the H2020 5G-CORAL system architecture using micro-services-based design and a unified orchestration and control across all three tiers based on Fog05. Performance evaluation of the proposed solution shows noticeable reduction in bandwidth consumption, energy consumption, and deployment costs, as compared to a solution where the streaming service is all delivered out of one computing location such as the Cloud.This work has been partially funded by the H2020 collaborative Europe/Taiwan research project 5G-CORAL (grant num. 761586)