Will SDN be part of 5G?

For many, this is no longer a valid question and the case is considered settled with SDN/NFV (Software Defined Networking/Network Function Virtualization) providing the inevitable innovation enablers solving many outstanding management issues regarding 5G. However, given the monumental task of softwarization of radio access network (RAN) while 5G is just around the corner and some companies have started unveiling their 5G equipment already, the concern is very realistic that we may only see some point solutions involving SDN technology instead of a fully SDN-enabled RAN. This survey paper identifies all important obstacles in the way and looks at the state of the art of the relevant solutions. This survey is different from the previous surveys on SDN-based RAN as it focuses on the salient problems and discusses solutions proposed within and outside SDN literature. Our main focus is on fronthaul, backward compatibility, supposedly disruptive nature of SDN deployment, business cases and monetization of SDN related upgrades, latency of general purpose processors (GPP), and additional security vulnerabilities, softwarization brings along to the RAN. We have also provided a summary of the architectural developments in SDN-based RAN landscape as not all work can be covered under the focused issues. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on the state of the art of SDN-based RAN and clearly points out the gaps in the technology.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure

Hybrid SDN Evolution: A Comprehensive Survey of the State-of-the-Art

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an evolutionary networking paradigm which has been adopted by large network and cloud providers, among which are Tech Giants. However, embracing a new and futuristic paradigm as an alternative to well-established and mature legacy networking paradigm requires a lot of time along with considerable financial resources and technical expertise. Consequently, many enterprises can not afford it. A compromise solution then is a hybrid networking environment (a.k.a. Hybrid SDN (hSDN)) in which SDN functionalities are leveraged while existing traditional network infrastructures are acknowledged. Recently, hSDN has been seen as a viable networking solution for a diverse range of businesses and organizations. Accordingly, the body of literature on hSDN research has improved remarkably. On this account, we present this paper as a comprehensive state-of-the-art survey which expands upon hSDN from many different perspectives

A Cognitive Routing framework for Self-Organised Knowledge Defined Networks

This study investigates the applicability of machine learning methods to the routing protocols for achieving rapid convergence in self-organized knowledge-defined networks. The research explores the constituents of the Self-Organized Networking (SON) paradigm for 5G and beyond, aiming to design a routing protocol that complies with the SON requirements. Further, it also exploits a contemporary discipline called Knowledge-Defined Networking (KDN) to extend the routing capability by calculating the “Most Reliable” path than the shortest one. The research identifies the potential key areas and possible techniques to meet the objectives by surveying the state-of-the-art of the relevant fields, such as QoS aware routing, Hybrid SDN architectures, intelligent routing models, and service migration techniques. The design phase focuses primarily on the mathematical modelling of the routing problem and approaches the solution by optimizing at the structural level. The work contributes Stochastic Temporal Edge Normalization (STEN) technique which fuses link and node utilization for cost calculation; MRoute, a hybrid routing algorithm for SDN that leverages STEN to provide constant-time convergence; Most Reliable Route First (MRRF) that uses a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to approximate route-reliability as the metric of MRRF. Additionally, the research outcomes include a cross-platform SDN Integration framework (SDN-SIM) and a secure migration technique for containerized services in a Multi-access Edge Computing environment using Distributed Ledger Technology. The research work now eyes the development of 6G standards and its compliance with Industry-5.0 for enhancing the abilities of the present outcomes in the light of Deep Reinforcement Learning and Quantum Computing

Resource Orchestration in Softwarized Networks

Network softwarization is an emerging research area that is envisioned to revolutionize the way network infrastructure is designed, operated, and managed today. Contemporary telecommunication networks are going through a major transformation, and softwarization is recognized as a crucial enabler of this transformation by both academia and industry. Softwarization promises to overcome the current ossified state of Internet network architecture and evolve towards a more open, agile, flexible, and programmable networking paradigm that will reduce both capital and operational expenditures, cut-down time-to-market of new services, and create new revenue streams. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are two complementary networking technologies that have established themselves as the cornerstones of network softwarization. SDN decouples the control and data planes to provide enhanced programmability and faster innovation of networking technologies. It facilitates simplified network control, scalability, availability, flexibility, security, cost-reduction, autonomic management, and fine-grained control of network traffic. NFV utilizes virtualization technology to reduce dependency on underlying hardware by moving packet processing activities from proprietary hardware middleboxes to virtualized entities that can run on commodity hardware. Together SDN and NFV simplify network infrastructure by utilizing standardized and commodity hardware for both compute and networking; bringing the benefits of agility, economies of scale, and flexibility of data centers to networks. Network softwarization provides the tools required to re-architect the current network infrastructure of the Internet. However, the effective application of these tools requires efficient utilization of networking resources in the softwarized environment. Innovative techniques and mechanisms are required for all aspects of network management and control. The overarching goal of this thesis is to address several key resource orchestration challenges in softwarized networks. The resource allocation and orchestration techniques presented in this thesis utilize the functionality provided by softwarization to reduce operational cost, improve resource utilization, ensure scalability, dynamically scale resource pools according to demand, and optimize energy utilization

Software Defined Application Delivery Networking

In this thesis we present the architecture, design, and prototype implementation details of AppFabric. AppFabric is a next generation application delivery platform for easily creating, managing and controlling massively distributed and very dynamic application deployments that may span multiple datacenters. Over the last few years, the need for more flexibility, finer control, and automatic management of large (and messy) datacenters has stimulated technologies for virtualizing the infrastructure components and placing them under software-based management and control; generically called Software-defined Infrastructure (SDI). However, current applications are not designed to leverage this dynamism and flexibility offered by SDI and they mostly depend on a mix of different techniques including manual configuration, specialized appliances (middleboxes), and (mostly) proprietary middleware solutions together with a team of extremely conscientious and talented system engineers to get their applications deployed and running. AppFabric, 1) automates the whole control and management stack of application deployment and delivery, 2) allows application architects to define logical workflows consisting of application servers, message-level middleboxes, packet-level middleboxes and network services (both, local and wide-area) composed over application-level routing policies, and 3) provides the abstraction of an application cloud that allows the application to dynamically (and automatically) expand and shrink its distributed footprint across multiple geographically distributed datacenters operated by different cloud providers. The architecture consists of a hierarchical control plane system called Lighthouse and a fully distributed data plane design (with no special hardware components such as service orchestrators, load balancers, message brokers, etc.) called OpenADN . The current implementation (under active development) consists of ~10000 lines of python and C code. AppFabric will allow applications to fully leverage the opportunities provided by modern virtualized Software-Defined Infrastructures. It will serve as the platform for deploying massively distributed, and extremely dynamic next generation application use-cases, including: Internet-of-Things/Cyber-Physical Systems: Through support for managing distributed gather-aggregate topologies common to most Internet-of-Things(IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems(CPS) use-cases. By their very nature, IoT and CPS use cases are massively distributed and have different levels of computation and storage requirements at different locations. Also, they have variable latency requirements for their different distributed sites. Some services, such as device controllers, in an Iot/CPS application workflow may need to gather, process and forward data under near-real time constraints and hence need to be as close to the device as possible. Other services may need more computation to process aggregated data to drive long term business intelligence functions. AppFabric has been designed to provide support for such very dynamic, highly diversified and massively distributed application use-cases. Network Function Virtualization: Through support for heterogeneous workflows, application-aware networking, and network-aware application deployments, AppFabric will enable new partnerships between Application Service Providers (ASPs) and Network Service Providers (NSPs). An application workflow in AppFabric may comprise of application services, packet and message-level middleboxes, and network transport services chained together over an application-level routing substrate. The Application-level routing substrate allows policy-based service chaining where the application may specify policies for routing their application traffic over different services based on application-level content or context. Virtual worlds/multiplayer games: Through support for creating, managing and controlling dynamic and distributed application clouds needed by these applications. AppFabric allows the application to easily specify policies to dynamically grow and shrink the application\u27s footprint over different geographical sites, on-demand. Mobile Apps: Through support for extremely diversified and very dynamic application contexts typical of such applications. Also, AppFabric provides support for automatically managing massively distributed service deployment and controlling application traffic based on application-level policies. This allows mobile applications to provide the best Quality-of-Experience to its users without This thesis is the first to handle and provide a complete solution for such a complex and relevant architectural problem that is expected to touch each of our lives by enabling exciting new application use-cases that are not possible today. Also, AppFabric is a non-proprietary platform that is expected to spawn lots of innovations both in the design of the platform itself and the features it provides to applications. AppFabric still needs many iterations, both in terms of design and implementation maturity. This thesis is not the end of journey for AppFabric but rather just the beginning

Analysis, characterization and optimization of the energy efficiency on softwarized mobile platforms

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorLa inminente 5ª generación de sistemas móviles (5G) está a punto de revolucionar la industria, trayendo una nueva arquitectura orientada a los nuevos mercados verticales y servicios. Debido a esto, el 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP) ha especificado una lista de Indicadores de Rendimiento Clave (KPI) que todo sistema 5G tiene que soportar, por ejemplo incrementar por 1000 el volumen de datos, de 10 a 100 veces m´as dispositivos conectados o consumos energéticos 10 veces inferiores. Con el fin de conseguir estos requisitos, se espera expandir los despligues actuales usando mas Puntos de Acceso (PoA) incrementando así su densidad con múltiples tecnologías inalámbricas. Esta estrategia de despliegue masivo tiene una contrapartida en la eficiencia energética, generando un conflicto con el KPI de reducir por 10 el consumo energético. En este contexto, la comunidad investigadora ha propuesto nuevos paradigmas para alcanzar los requisitos impuestos para los sistemas 5G, siendo materializados en tecnologías como Redes Definidas por Software (SDN) y Virtualización de Funciones de Red (NFV). Estos nuevos paradigmas son el primer paso hacia la softwarización de los despliegues móviles, incorporando nuevos grados de flexibilidad y reconfigurabilidad de la Red de Acceso Radio (RAN). En esta tesis, presentamos primero un análisis detallado y caracterización de las redes móviles softwarizadas. Consideramos el software como la base de la nueva generación de redes celulares y, por lo tanto, analizaremos y caracterizaremos el impacto en la eficiencia energética de estos sistemas. La primera meta de este trabajo es caracterizar las plataformas software disponibles para Radios Definidas por Software (SDR), centrándonos en las dos soluciones principales de código abierto: OpenAirInterface (OAI) y srsLTE. Como resultado, proveemos una metodología para analizar y caracterizar el rendimiento de estas soluciones en función del uso de la CPU, rendimiento de red, compatibilidad y extensibilidad de dicho software. Una vez hemos entendido qué rendimiento podemos esperar de este tipo de soluciones, estudiamos un prototipo SDR construido con aceleración hardware, que emplea una plataformas basada en FPGA. Este prototipo está diseñado para incluir capacidad de ser consciente de la energía, permiento al sistema ser reconfigurado para minimizar la huella energética cuando sea posible. Con el fin de validar el diseño de nuestro sistema, más tarde presentamos una plataforma para caracterizar la energía que será empleada para medir experimentalmente el consumo energético de dispositivos reales. En nuestro enfoque, realizamos dos tipos de análisis: a pequeña escala de tiempo y a gran escala de tiempo. Por lo tanto, para validar nuestro entorno de medidas, caracterizamos a través de análisis numérico los algoritmos para la Adaptación de la Tasa (RA) en IEEE 802.11, para entonces comparar nuestros resultados teóricos con los experimentales. A continuación extendemos nuestro análisis a la plataforma SDR acelerada por hardware previamente mencionada. Nuestros resultados experimentales muestran que nuestra sistema puede en efecto reducir la huella energética reconfigurando el despligue del sistema. Entonces, la escala de tiempos es elevada y presentamos los esquemas para Recursos bajo Demanda (RoD) en despliegues de red ultra-densos. Esta estrategia está basada en apagar/encender dinámicamente los elementos que forman la red con el fin de reducir el total del consumo energético. Por lo tanto, presentamos un modelo analítico en dos sabores, un modelo exacto que predice el comportamiento del sistema con precisión pero con un alto coste computacional y uno simplificado que es más ligero en complejidad mientras que mantiene la precisión. Nuestros resultados muestran que estos esquemas pueden efectivamente mejorar la eficiencia energética de los despliegues y mantener la Calidad de Servicio (QoS). Con el fin de probar la plausibilidad de los esquemas RoD, presentamos un plataforma softwarizada que sigue el paradigma SDN, OFTEN (OpenFlow framework for Traffic Engineering in mobile Network with energy awareness). Nuestro diseño está basado en OpenFlow con funcionalidades para hacerlo consciente de la energía. Finalmente, un prototipo real con esta plataforma es presentando, probando así la plausibilidad de los RoD en despligues reales.The upcoming 5th Generation of mobile systems (5G) is about to revolutionize the industry, bringing a new architecture oriented to new vertical markets and services. Due to this, the 5G-PPP has specified a list of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that 5G systems need to support e.g. increasing the 1000 times higher data volume, 10 to 100 times more connected devices or 10 times lower power consumption. In order to achieve these requirements, it is expected to expand the current deployments using more Points of Attachment (PoA) by increasing their density and by using multiple wireless technologies. This massive deployment strategy triggers a side effect in the energy efficiency though, generating a conflict with the “10 times lower power consumption” KPI. In this context, the research community has proposed novel paradigms to achieve the imposed requirements for 5G systems, being materialized in technologies such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). These new paradigms are the first step to softwarize the mobile network deployments, enabling new degrees of flexibility and reconfigurability of the Radio Access Network (RAN). In this thesis, we first present a detailed analysis and characterization of softwarized mobile networking. We consider software as a basis for the next generation of cellular networks and hence, we analyze and characterize the impact on the energy efficiency of these systems. The first goal of this work is to characterize the available software platforms for Software Defined Radio (SDR), focusing on the two main open source solutions: OAI and srsLTE. As result, we provide a methodology to analyze and characterize the performance of these solutions in terms of CPU usage, network performance, compatibility and extensibility of the software. Once we have understood the expected performance for such platformsc, we study an SDR prototype built with hardware acceleration, that employs a FPGA based platform. This prototype is designed to include energy-awareness capabilites, allowing the system to be reconfigured to minimize the energy footprint when possible. In order to validate our system design, we later present an energy characterization platform that we will employ to experimentally measure the energy consumption of real devices. In our approach, we perform two kind of analysis: at short time scale and large time scale. Thus, to validate our approach in short time scale and the energy framework, we have characterized though numerical analysis the Rate Adaptation (RA) algorithms in IEEE 802.11, and then compare our theoretical results to the obtained ones through experimentation. Next we extend our analysis to the hardware accelerated SDR prototype previously mentioned. Our experimental results show that our system can indeed reduce the energy footprint reconfiguring the system deployment. Then, the time scale of our analysis is elevated and we present Resource-on-Demand (RoD) schemes for ultradense network deployments. This strategy is based on dynamically switch on/off the elements that form the network to reduce the overall energy consumption. Hence, we present a analytic model in two flavors, an exact model that accurately predicts the system behaviour but high computational cost and a simplified one that is lighter in complexity while keeping the accuracy. Our results show that these schemes can effectively enhance the energy efficiency of the deployments and mantaining the Quality of Service (QoS). In order to prove the feasibility of RoD, we present a softwarized platform that follows the SDN paradigm, the OFTEN (Open Flow framework for Traffic Engineering in mobile Networks with energy awareness) framework. Our design is based on OpenFlow with energy-awareness functionalities. Finally, a real prototype of this framework is presented, proving the feasibility of the RoD in real deployments.FP7-CROWD (2013-2015) CROWD (Connectivity management for eneRgy Optimised Wireless Dense networks).-- H2020-Flex5GWare (2015-2017) Flex5GWare (Flexible and efficient hardware/software platforms for 5G network elements and devices).Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Telemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Gramaglia , Marco.- Secretario: José Nuñez.- Vocal: Fabrizio Giulian