Characterization and semantic modeling of services in multiservice networks

The use of the Internet as a global communication infrastructure to support a wide range of multiconstrained applications and services poses new challenges to ISPs regarding network services management and auditing. In this context, the semantic characterization and modeling of services provided to users assumes an essential role in fostering service management automation. Moreover, the semantic and formal description of services allows enhancing the negotiation and interoperability between clients and service providers. This paper reports the first steps toward the definition of an ontology for multiservice networks that eases and systemizes decision support of QoS deployment in ISP infrastructures, according to service levels established in SLAs. Other management tasks such as dynamic service negotiation and configuration, service monitoring and auditing may also benefit from the present ontology proposal

Peer-assisted location authentication and access control for wireless networks

This paper presents the development and implementation of a location‐based, lightweight peer‐assisted authentication scheme for use in wireless networks. The notion of peer‐assisted authentication is based upon some target user equipment‐ (UE) seeking authentication and access to a network based upon its physical location. The target UE seeks authentication through the UE of peers in the same network. Compared with previous work, the approach in this paper does not rely on any cryptographic proofs from a central authentication infrastructure, thus avoiding complex infrastructure management. However, the peer‐assisted authentication consumes network channel resources which will impact on network performance. In this paper, we also present an access control algorithm for balancing the location authentication, network quality of service (QoS), network capacity and time delay. The results demonstrate that peer‐assisted authentication considering location authentication and system QoS through dynamic access control strategies can be effectively and efficiently implemented in a number of use cases

Service-oriented architecture as a driver of service innovation in newly emerging service systems: An exploratory view

Innovation in services can be regarded as an inter-play of service concepts, service delivery practices, client interfaces, and service delivery technologies. Furthermore, innovations in services are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected for their unique capabilities and operated in a coordinated manner, referred to as a service system or service value network (SVN). Bringing such service innovations to market by a network of firms requires extensive coordination and integration of data, information/knowledge and processes, while ensuring strategic alignment of partnering firms. In this research we examine how Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and its effect on Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility (ITIF), may act as a potential enabler for recently identified organizational drivers of services innovation in a service system, namely Collaborative Architecture Management (CAM) and Collaborative Organizational Infrastructure (COI). A preliminary qualitative study of a Telco and its partners in the Middle East validates the dynamic capabilities at play in our proposed research model

Programmable Edge-to-Cloud Virtualization for 5G Media Industry: The 5G-MEDIA Approach

To ensure high Quality of Experience (QoE) for end users, many media applications require significant quantities of computing and network resources, making their realization challenging in resource constrained environments. In this paper, we present the approach of the 5G-MEDIA project, providing an integrated programmable service platform for the development, design and operations of media applications in 5G networks, facilitating media service management across the service life cycle. The platform offers tools to service developers for efficient development, testing and continuous correction of services. One step further, it provides a service virtualization platform offering horizontal services, such as a Media Service Catalogue and accounting services, as well as optimization mechanisms to flexibly adapt service operations to dynamic conditions with efficient use of infrastructure resources. The paper outlines three use cases where the platform was tested and validated

Using GENI for experimental evaluation of Software Defined Networking in smart grids

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) envisions a smart grid that aggressively explores advance communication network solutions to facilitate real-time monitoring and dynamic control of the bulk electric power system. At the distribution level, the smart grid integrates renewable generation and energy storage mechanisms to improve the reliability of the grid. Furthermore, dynamic pricing and demand management provide customers an avenue to interact with the power system to determine the electricity usage that best satisfies their lifestyle. At the transmission level, efficient communication and a highly automated architecture provide visibility in the power system and as a result, faults are mitigated faster than they can propagate. However, such higher levels of reliability and efficiency rest on the supporting communication infrastructure. To date, utility companies are moving towards Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) because it supports traffic engineering and virtual private networks (VPNs). Furthermore, it provides Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees and fail-over mechanisms in addition to meeting the requirement of non-routability as stipulated by NERC. However, these benefits come at a cost for the infrastructure that supports the fullMPLS specification. With this realization and given a two week implementation and deployment window in GENI, we explore the modularity and flexibility provided by the low cost OpenFlow Software Defined Networking (SDN) solution. In particular, we use OpenFlow to provide 1.) automatic fail-over mechanisms, 2.) a load balancing, and 3.) Quality of Service guarantees: all essential mechanisms for smart grid networks

On the automation of RAN slicing provisioning: solution framework and applicability examples

Network slicing is a fundamental feature of 5G systems that allows the partitioning of a single network into a number of segregated logical networks, each optimized for a particular type of service, or dedicated to a particular customer or application. While support for network slicing (e.g. identifiers, functions, signalling) is already defined in the latest 3GPP Release 15 specifications, solutions for efficient automated management of network slicing (e.g. automatic provisioning of slices) are still at a much more incipient stage, especially for what concerns the next-generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN). In this context, and consistently with the new service-based management architecture defined by 3GPP for 5G systems, this paper presents a functional framework for the management of network slicing in a NG-RAN infrastructure, delineating the interfaces and information models necessary to support the dynamic and automatic deployment of RAN slices. A discussion on the complexity of such automation follows together with an illustrative description of the applicability of the overall framework and information models in the context of a neutral host provider scenario that offers RAN slices to third party service providers.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

ADAPTIVE SECURE AND EFFICIENT ROUTING PROTOCOL FOR ENHANCE THE PERFORMANCE OF MOBILE AD HOC NETWORK

Nowadays Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is an emerging area of research to provide various communication services to end users. Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are self-organizing wireless networks where nodes communicate with each other without a fixed infrastructure. Due to their unique characteristics, such as mobility, autonomy, and ad hoc connectivity, MANETs have become increasingly popular in various applications, including military, emergency response, and disaster management. However, the lack of infrastructure and dynamic topology of MANETs pose significant challenges to designing a secure and efficient routing protocol. This paper proposes an adaptive, secure, and efficient routing protocol that can enhance the performance of MANET. The proposed protocol incorporates various security mechanisms, including authentication, encryption, key management, and intrusion detection, to ensure secure routing. Additionally, the protocol considers energy consumption, network load, packet delivery fraction, route acquisition latency, packets dropped and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of the applications to optimize network performance. Overall, the secure routing protocol for MANET should provide a reliable and secure communication environment that can adapt to the dynamic nature of the network. The protocol should ensure that messages are delivered securely and efficiently to the intended destination, while minimizing the risk of attacks and preserving the network resources Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol outperforms existing routing protocols in terms of network performance and security. The proposed protocol can facilitate the deployment of various applications in MANET while maintaining security and efficiency

Autonomous management of cost, performance, and resource uncertainty for migration of applications to infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) clouds

2014 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds abstract physical hardware to provide computing resources on demand as a software service. This abstraction leads to the simplistic view that computing resources are homogeneous and infinite scaling potential exists to easily resolve all performance challenges. Adoption of cloud computing, in practice however, presents many resource management challenges forcing practitioners to balance cost and performance tradeoffs to successfully migrate applications. These challenges can be broken down into three primary concerns that involve determining what, where, and when infrastructure should be provisioned. In this dissertation we address these challenges including: (1) performance variance from resource heterogeneity, virtualization overhead, and the plethora of vaguely defined resource types; (2) virtual machine (VM) placement, component composition, service isolation, provisioning variation, and resource contention for multitenancy; and (3) dynamic scaling and resource elasticity to alleviate performance bottlenecks. These resource management challenges are addressed through the development and evaluation of autonomous algorithms and methodologies that result in demonstrably better performance and lower monetary costs for application deployments to both public and private IaaS clouds. This dissertation makes three primary contributions to advance cloud infrastructure management for application hosting. First, it includes design of resource utilization models based on step-wise multiple linear regression and artificial neural networks that support prediction of better performing component compositions. The total number of possible compositions is governed by Bell's Number that results in a combinatorially explosive search space. Second, it includes algorithms to improve VM placements to mitigate resource heterogeneity and contention using a load-aware VM placement scheduler, and autonomous detection of under-performing VMs to spur replacement. Third, it describes a workload cost prediction methodology that harnesses regression models and heuristics to support determination of infrastructure alternatives that reduce hosting costs. Our methodology achieves infrastructure predictions with an average mean absolute error of only 0.3125 VMs for multiple workloads