Network-provider-independent overlays for resilience and quality of service.

PhDOverlay networks are viewed as one of the solutions addressing the inefficiency and slow evolution of the Internet and have been the subject of significant research. Most existing overlays providing resilience and/or Quality of Service (QoS) need cooperation among different network providers, but an inter-trust issue arises and cannot be easily solved. In this thesis, we mainly focus on network-provider-independent overlays and investigate their performance in providing two different types of service. Specifically, this thesis addresses the following problems: Provider-independent overlay architecture: A provider-independent overlay framework named Resilient Overlay for Mission-Critical Applications (ROMCA) is proposed. We elaborate its structure including component composition and functions and also provide several operational examples. Overlay topology construction for providing resilience service: We investigate the topology design problem of provider-independent overlays aiming to provide resilience service. To be more specific, based on the ROMCA framework, we formulate this problem mathematically and prove its NP-hardness. Three heuristics are proposed and extensive simulations are carried out to verify their effectiveness. Application mapping with resilience and QoS guarantees: Assuming application mapping is the targeted service for ROMCA, we formulate this problem as an Integer Linear Program (ILP). Moreover, a simple but effective heuristic is proposed to address this issue in a time-efficient manner. Simulations with both synthetic and real networks prove the superiority of both solutions over existing ones. Substrate topology information availability and the impact of its accuracy on overlay performance: Based on our survey that summarizes the methodologies available for inferring the selective substrate topology formed among a group of nodes through active probing, we find that such information is usually inaccurate and additional mechanisms are needed to secure a better inferred topology. Therefore, we examine the impact of inferred substrate topology accuracy on overlay performance given only inferred substrate topology information

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

A Survey on the Contributions of Software-Defined Networking to Traffic Engineering

Since the appearance of OpenFlow back in 2008, software-defined networking (SDN) has gained momentum. Although there are some discrepancies between the standards developing organizations working with SDN about what SDN is and how it is defined, they all outline traffic engineering (TE) as a key application. One of the most common objectives of TE is the congestion minimization, where techniques such as traffic splitting among multiple paths or advanced reservation systems are used. In such a scenario, this manuscript surveys the role of a comprehensive list of SDN protocols in TE solutions, in order to assess how these protocols can benefit TE. The SDN protocols have been categorized using the SDN architecture proposed by the open networking foundation, which differentiates among data-controller plane interfaces, application-controller plane interfaces, and management interfaces, in order to state how the interface type in which they operate influences TE. In addition, the impact of the SDN protocols on TE has been evaluated by comparing them with the path computation element (PCE)-based architecture. The PCE-based architecture has been selected to measure the impact of SDN on TE because it is the most novel TE architecture until the date, and because it already defines a set of metrics to measure the performance of TE solutions. We conclude that using the three types of interfaces simultaneously will result in more powerful and enhanced TE solutions, since they benefit TE in complementary ways.European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (GN4) under Grant 691567 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the Secure Deployment of Services Over SDN and NFV-based Networks Project S&NSEC under Grant TEC2013-47960-C4-3-

An Emergent Architecture for Scaling Decentralized Communication Systems (DCS)

With recent technological advancements now accelerating the mobile and wireless Internet solution space, a ubiquitous computing Internet is well within the research and industrial community's design reach - a decentralized system design, which is not solely driven by static physical models and sound engineering principals, but more dynamically, perhaps sub-optimally at initial deployment and socially-influenced in its evolution. To complement today's Internet system, this thesis proposes a Decentralized Communication System (DCS) architecture with the following characteristics: flat physical topologies with numerous compute oriented and communication intensive nodes in the network with many of these nodes operating in multiple functional roles; self-organizing virtual structures formed through alternative mobility scenarios and capable of serving ad hoc networking formations; emergent operations and control with limited dependency on centralized control and management administration. Today, decentralized systems are not commercially scalable or viable for broad adoption in the same way we have to come to rely on the Internet or telephony systems. The premise in this thesis is that DCS can reach high levels of resilience, usefulness, scale that the industry has come to experience with traditional centralized systems by exploiting the following properties: (i.) network density and topological diversity; (ii.) self-organization and emergent attributes; (iii.) cooperative and dynamic infrastructure; and (iv.) node role diversity. This thesis delivers key contributions towards advancing the current state of the art in decentralized systems. First, we present the vision and a conceptual framework for DCS. Second, the thesis demonstrates that such a framework and concept architecture is feasible by prototyping a DCS platform that exhibits the above properties or minimally, demonstrates that these properties are feasible through prototyped network services. Third, this work expands on an alternative approach to network clustering using hierarchical virtual clusters (HVC) to facilitate self-organizing network structures. With increasing network complexity, decentralized systems can generally lead to unreliable and irregular service quality, especially given unpredictable node mobility and traffic dynamics. The HVC framework is an architectural strategy to address organizational disorder associated with traditional decentralized systems. The proposed HVC architecture along with the associated promotional methodology organizes distributed control and management services by leveraging alternative organizational models (e.g., peer-to-peer (P2P), centralized or tiered) in hierarchical and virtual fashion. Through simulation and analytical modeling, we demonstrate HVC efficiencies in DCS structural scalability and resilience by comparing static and dynamic HVC node configurations against traditional physical configurations based on P2P, centralized or tiered structures. Next, an emergent management architecture for DCS exploiting HVC for self-organization, introduces emergence as an operational approach to scaling DCS services for state management and policy control. In this thesis, emergence scales in hierarchical fashion using virtual clustering to create multiple tiers of local and global separation for aggregation, distribution and network control. Emergence is an architectural objective, which HVC introduces into the proposed self-management design for scaling and stability purposes. Since HVC expands the clustering model hierarchically and virtually, a clusterhead (CH) node, positioned as a proxy for a specific cluster or grouped DCS nodes, can also operate in a micro-capacity as a peer member of an organized cluster in a higher tier. As the HVC promotional process continues through the hierarchy, each tier of the hierarchy exhibits emergent behavior. With HVC as the self-organizing structural framework, a multi-tiered, emergent architecture enables the decentralized management strategy to improve scaling objectives that traditionally challenge decentralized systems. The HVC organizational concept and the emergence properties align with and the view of the human brain's neocortex layering structure of sensory storage, prediction and intelligence. It is the position in this thesis, that for DCS to scale and maintain broad stability, network control and management must strive towards an emergent or natural approach. While today's models for network control and management have proven to lack scalability and responsiveness based on pure centralized models, it is unlikely that singular organizational models can withstand the operational complexities associated with DCS. In this work, we integrate emergence and learning-based methods in a cooperative computing manner towards realizing DCS self-management. However, unlike many existing work in these areas which break down with increased network complexity and dynamics, the proposed HVC framework is utilized to offset these issues through effective separation, aggregation and asynchronous processing of both distributed state and policy. Using modeling techniques, we demonstrate that such architecture is feasible and can improve the operational robustness of DCS. The modeling emphasis focuses on demonstrating the operational advantages of an HVC-based organizational strategy for emergent management services (i.e., reachability, availability or performance). By integrating the two approaches, the DCS architecture forms a scalable system to address the challenges associated with traditional decentralized systems. The hypothesis is that the emergent management system architecture will improve the operational scaling properties of DCS-based applications and services. Additionally, we demonstrate structural flexibility of HVC as an underlying service infrastructure to build and deploy DCS applications and layered services. The modeling results demonstrate that an HVC-based emergent management and control system operationally outperforms traditional structural organizational models. In summary, this thesis brings together the above contributions towards delivering a scalable, decentralized system for Internet mobile computing and communications

Multiple resource reuse for device-to-device communication in future cellular networks

Aufgrund der stärkeren Verbreitung neuer mobiler Anwendungen, z.B. Autonomes Fahren, automatisierte Prozesssteuerung, intelligente Städte / Wohnen und taktiles Internet, nimmt - die Anzahl und Dichte von Geräten, die drahtlose Verbindungen erfordern, immer weiter zu. Dies erfordert effizientere Verfahren zur Nutzung des verfügbaren Frequenzspektrums für zellulare Netze. Um dieser Herausforderung zu begegnen, wurden Ansätze, wie die gemeinsame Nutzung von Frequenzen, vorgeschlagen, um die gesamte spektrale Effizienz zu verbessern. Die Device-to-Device Kommunikation (D2D) mit paralleler Übertragung zu einem zellularen Netz bietet eine Verbesserung der spektralen Effizienz durch die verstärkte gemeinsame Nutzung des verfügbaren zellularen Spektrums. Mit D2D kommunizieren Geräte in unmittelbarer Nähe direkt miteinander ohne oder mit nur einer minimalen Kontrolle über das Mobilfunknetz. Das 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unterstützt durch Standardisierung die Integration von D2D in Mobilfunknetze, um die spektralen Effizienzgewinne bei der gemeinsamen Nutzung von Frequenzen unter Gewährleistung der Quality of Service (QoS) zu realisieren. Die Interferenzen zwischen D2D und zellularen Benutzern müssen jedoch während der gemeinsamen Nutzung des Spektrums kontrolliert werden, um diese Gewinne im Netzwerk zu erhalten. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht Lösungen, mit denen das Frequenzspektrum des Mobilfunknetzes mit D2D-Benutzern geteilt werden kann, welche sowohl die spektrale Effizienz maximieren als auch die QoS-Anforderungen aller Benutzer erfüllen (in Bezug auf das Signal-zu-Rausch-plus-Interferenz Verhältnis (SINR)). Die vorliegende Arbeit gliedert sich in zwei Teile: eine analytische und eine algorithmische Studie. Zunächst untersucht die analytische Studie den Ansatz für ein Interferenzmanagement, in welchem mehrere D2D-Benutzer das zellulare Spektrum gemeinsam nutzen. Dabei wird die Zuteilung einer einheitlichen Interferenzleistung (UIP) vorgeschlagen - ein Verfahren, bei dem alle D2D-Benutzer mit gleicher Interferenz an der Basisstation (BS) beitragen. Dieses Schema wird auf ein Szenario einer einzelnen Zelle angewendet, welches sehr positive Ergebnisse bei der Verbesserung der spektralen Effizienz erzielt, obwohl einige D2D-Benutzer ihre SINR-Schwellenwerte nicht erreichen können. Eine wesentliche Erkenntnis aus der analytischen Studie ist, dass eine räumliche Trennung zwischen Benutzern, die das Spektrum gemeinsam nutzen, wichtig ist, um ihre gegenseitige Beeinflussung zu minimieren. Die algorithmische Studie konzentriert sich daher auf die Auswahl geeigneter D2D-Benutzern. Zunächst werden räumliche Auswahlkriterien formuliert mit dem Ziel, mehrere D2D-Benutzer zu identifizieren, die das Spektrum eines bestimmten Mobilfunkbenutzers gemeinsam nutzen können, um die spektrale Effizienz zu maximieren, während alle Benutzer ihre SINR-Schwellenwerte erreichen. Danach werden basierend auf diesen Kriterien zwei Auswahlalgorithmen entwickelt. Der erste Algorithmus wählt opportunistisch D2D-Benutzer aus, die bei bestimmten Auswahlinstanzen die geringste Störung für andere das Spektrum gemeinsam nutzende Benutzer verursachen. Der zweite Algorithmus wählt zufällig alle D2D-Benutzer aus, die räumliche von anderen Benutzern getrennt sind, jedoch das Spektrum gemeinsam nutzen. Beide Algorithmen werden mit sehr positiven Ergebnissen durch Simulationen in einem Szenario einer einzelnen Zelle mit einer unterschiedlichen Anzahl von Benutzern vorgestellt. In einem Szenario mit mehreren Zellen, in welchem die Interferenz zwischen den Zellen die Leistungsfähigkeit beeinträchtigt, werden Verbesserungen an beiden Algorithmen vorgestellt, um die festgelegten Ziele zu erreichen. Diese Verbesserungen passen die Auswahlkriterien an, um: 1) keine D2D-Benutzer mit Zellenkante auszuwählen und 2) die Auswirkungen der gemeinsamen Nutzung des Frequenzspektrums zwischen benachbarten Zellen zu berücksichtigen. Die Arbeit zeigt deutlich, dass mithilfe eines geeigneten Auswahlkriteriums mehrere D2D Nutzer in der Lage sind, die gemeinsame Frequenzressource mit zellularen Nutzern zu teilen mit Erhöhung der gesamten spektralen Effizienz und Beibehaltung der QoS Anforderungen aller Nutzer. Die hierbei erbrachten Erkenntnisse können zusammen mit den vorhandenen Ergebnissen als Ausgangspunkt für weitere akademische Forschung sowie einer praktischen Anwendung dienen.Owing to the further proliferation of new mobile applications, e.g. autonomous driving, automated process control, smart cities/homes, and tactile internet, the number and density of devices requiring wireless connectivity continue to increase. This demands ever more efficient methods for utilizing the available frequency spectrum for cellular networks. To counter this challenge, approaches like spectrum sharing have been proposed as enablers to improve the overall spectral efficiency. Device to device communication (D2D) as an underlaying transmission to the cellular network presents spectral efficiency improvements through the increased sharing of the available cellular spectrum. In D2D, devices in close proximity communicate directly with each other having either minimal or no control from the cellular network. The third generation partnership project (3GPP) supports, through standardization, the integration of D2D within cellular networks in order to realize the spectral efficiency gains during spectrum sharing and user quality of service (QoS) guarantees. However, the interference between D2D and cellular users during spectrum sharing must be controlled to get these gains in the network. This thesis studies the solutions through which the cellular network's frequency spectrum can be shared with D2D users to concurrently maximize the spectral efficiency and achieve all users' QoS requirements (in terms of threshold signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR)). The thesis is divided into two parts: an analytical study and an algorithmic study. First, the analytical study evaluates the framework for interference management when several D2D users share the cellular network's spectrum. Therein, uniform interference power (UIP) allocation -- a scheme where all D2D users contribute equal interference at the base station (BS), is proposed. This scheme is applied to a single-cell scenario with very positive results in improving spectral efficiency although some D2D users are unable to achieve their threshold SINRs. The main lesson from the analytical study is that spatial separation between users sharing spectrum is important to minimize their mutual interference. So the algorithmic study focuses on D2D-users selection. First, spatial selection criteria are formulated with the objective of identifying multiple D2D users that can share a given cellular user's spectrum to maximize spectral efficiency while all users achieve their threshold SINRs. Thereafter, based on these criteria, two selection algorithms are developed. The first algorithm opportunistically selects D2D users causing the least interference, at given selection instances, to other users sharing the spectrum. The second algorithm randomly selects any D2D users meeting the minimal required spatial separation from other users sharing the spectrum. Both algorithms are presented with very positive results in simulations that consider a single-cell scenario with varying number of users. In a multi-cell scenario, where the experienced inter-cell interference degrades performance, enhancements to both algorithms are applied to achieve the set objectives. These enhancements adapt the selection criteria to: $1$) not select cell-edge D2D users and $2$) take into account the effects of spectrum sharing between neighbouring cells. The thesis studies clearly showed that, using appropriate selection criteria, multiple D2D users can share a specific cellular user's spectrum resources to improve the network's spectral efficiency and achieve all users' QoS requirements. These findings together with other existing results on D2D spectrum resource reuse can be the starting point for further academic research and practical implementation

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

Management of Temporally and Spatially Correlated Failures in Federated Message Oriented Middleware for Resilient and QoS-Aware Messaging Services.

PhDMessage Oriented Middleware (MOM) is widely recognized as a promising solution for the communications between heterogeneous distributed systems. Because the resilience and quality-of-service of the messaging substrate plays a critical role in the overall system performance, the evolution of these distributed systems has introduced new requirements for MOM, such as inter domain federation, resilience and QoS support. This thesis focuses on a management frame work that enhances the Resilience and QoS-awareness of MOM, called RQMOM, for federated enterprise systems. A common hierarchical MOM architecture for the federated messaging service is assumed. Each bottom level local domain comprises a cluster of neighbouring brokers that carry a local messaging service, and inter domain messaging are routed through the gateway brokers of the different local domains over the top level federated overlay. Some challenges and solutions for the intra and inter domain messaging are researched. In local domain messaging the common cause of performance degradation is often the fluctuation of workloads which might result in surge of total workload on a broker and overload its processing capacity, since a local domain is often within a well connected network. Against performance degradation, a combination of novel proactive risk-aware workload allocation, which exploits the co-variation between workloads, in addition to existing reactive load balancing is designed and evaluated. In federated inter domain messaging an overlay network of federated gateway brokers distributed in separated geographical locations, on top of the heterogeneous physical network is considered. Geographical correlated failures are threats to cause major interruptions and damages to such systems. To mitigate this rarely addressed challenge, a novel geographical location aware route selection algorithm to support uninterrupted messaging is introduced. It is used with existing overlay routing mechanisms, to maintain routes and hence provide more resilient messaging against geographical correlated failures