Applicability of SDN and NFV techniques for a virtualization-based roaming solution

Part of a collection: Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for a Hyperconnected World: Challenges, Applications, and Major Advancements.Network programming and virtualization are technological trends being incrementally introduced in operational networks. This creates an environment where new innovations can be incorporated, facilitating also the evolution of the way in which existing services are delivered. These changes, however, are not only motivated by technical reasons. External factors, such as regulation, can trigger the evolution of existing services. Roaming services are an example of this two-sided situation. From the technical perspective, roaming users typically experiment worst performance than local users on the same network, since their traffic is usually routed through the home network. Besides that, due to recent regulation changes introduced in Europe for roaming services, known as Roam Like at Home (RLAH), roaming is charged at domestic prices. Both aspects are severely challenging the current mode of operation of roaming services as delivered nowadays by mobile operators. This paper presents the design of a virtualized based roaming solution, including an experimental assessment, as well as an economic insight of the concept.This work has been supported by the European Community through the 5GEx project within the H2020 programme (Grant agreement no. 671636). Special thanks to the teams of Deutsche Telekom and BISDN involved in H2020 EU 5GEx project that were part of the design and execution of this use case

Progressive introduction of network softwarization in operational telecom networks: advances at architectural, service and transport levels

Technological paradigms such as Software Defined Networking, Network Function Virtualization and Network Slicing are altogether offering new ways of providing services. This process is widely known as Network Softwarization, where traditional operational networks adopt capabilities and mechanisms inherit form the computing world, such as programmability, virtualization and multi-tenancy. This adoption brings a number of challenges, both from the technological and operational perspectives. On the other hand, they provide an unprecedented flexibility opening opportunities to developing new services and new ways of exploiting and consuming telecom networks. This Thesis first overviews the implications of the progressive introduction of network softwarization in operational networks for later on detail some advances at different levels, namely architectural, service and transport levels. It is done through specific exemplary use cases and evolution scenarios, with the goal of illustrating both new possibilities and existing gaps for the ongoing transition towards an advanced future mode of operation. This is performed from the perspective of a telecom operator, paying special attention on how to integrate all these paradigms into operational networks for assisting on their evolution targeting new, more sophisticated service demands.Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Telemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Eduardo Juan Jacob Taquet.- Secretario: Francisco Valera Pintor.- Vocal: Jorge López Vizcaín

Slicing on the road: enabling the automotive vertical through 5G network softwarization

The demanding requirements of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) applications, such as ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth, highly-reliable communication, intensive computation and near-real time data processing, raise outstanding challenges and opportunities for fifth generation (5G) systems. By allowing an operator to flexibly provide dedicated logical networks with (virtualized) functionalities over a common physical infrastructure, network slicing candidates itself as a prominent solution to support V2X over upcoming programmable and softwarized 5G systems in a business-agile manner. In this paper, a network slicing framework is proposed along with relevant building blocks and mechanisms to support V2X applications by flexibly orchestrating multi-access and edge-dominated 5G network infrastructures, especially with reference to roaming scenarios. Proof of concept experiments using the Mininet emulator showcase the viability and potential benefits of the proposed framework for cooperative driving use cases1812não temMinistério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações - MCTICThe research of Prof. Christian Esteve Rothenberg was partially supported by the H2020 4th EUBR Collaborative Call, under the grant agreement number 777067 (NECOS - Novel Enablers for Cloud Slicing), funded by the European Commission and the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communication (MCTIC) through RNP and CTI

White Paper for Research Beyond 5G

The documents considers both research in the scope of evolutions of the 5G systems (for the period around 2025) and some alternative/longer term views (with later outcomes, or leading to substantial different design choices). This document reflects on four main system areas: fundamental theory and technology, radio and spectrum management; system design; and alternative concepts. The result of this exercise can be broken in two different strands: one focused in the evolution of technologies that are already ongoing development for 5G systems, but that will remain research areas in the future (with “more challenging” requirements and specifications); the other, highlighting technologies that are not really considered for deployment today, or that will be essential for addressing problems that are currently non-existing, but will become apparent when 5G systems begin their widespread deployment

Network Slicing

Network slicing is emerging as a key enabling technology to support new service needs, business cases, and the evolution of programmable networking. As an end-to-end concept involving network functions in different domains and administrations, network slicing calls for new standardization efforts, design methodologies, and deployment strategies. This chapter aims at addressing the main aspects of network slicing with relevant challenges and practical solutions

Fatias de rede fim-a-fim : da extração de perfis de funções de rede a SLAs granulares

Orientador: Christian Rodolfo Esteve RothenbergTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: Nos últimos dez anos, processos de softwarização de redes vêm sendo continuamente diversi- ficados e gradativamente incorporados em produção, principalmente através dos paradigmas de Redes Definidas por Software (ex.: regras de fluxos de rede programáveis) e Virtualização de Funções de Rede (ex.: orquestração de funções virtualizadas de rede). Embasado neste processo o conceito de network slice surge como forma de definição de caminhos de rede fim- a-fim programáveis, possivelmente sobre infrastruturas compartilhadas, contendo requisitos estritos de desempenho e dedicado a um modelo particular de negócios. Esta tese investiga a hipótese de que a desagregação de métricas de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de rede impactam e compõe critérios de alocação de network slices (i.e., diversas opções de utiliza- ção de recursos), os quais quando realizados devem ter seu gerenciamento de ciclo de vida implementado de forma transparente em correspondência ao seu caso de negócios de comu- nicação fim-a-fim. A verificação de tal assertiva se dá em três aspectos: entender os graus de liberdade nos quais métricas de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de rede podem ser expressas; métodos de racionalização da alocação de recursos por network slices e seus re- spectivos critérios; e formas transparentes de rastrear e gerenciar recursos de rede fim-a-fim entre múltiplos domínios administrativos. Para atingir estes objetivos, diversas contribuições são realizadas por esta tese, dentre elas: a construção de uma plataforma para automatização de metodologias de testes de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de redes; a elaboração de uma metodologia para análises de alocações de recursos de network slices baseada em um algoritmo classificador de aprendizado de máquinas e outro algoritmo de análise multi- critério; e a construção de um protótipo utilizando blockchain para a realização de contratos inteligentes envolvendo acordos de serviços entre domínios administrativos de rede. Por meio de experimentos e análises sugerimos que: métricas de desempenho de funções virtualizadas de rede dependem da alocação de recursos, configurações internas e estímulo de tráfego de testes; network slices podem ter suas alocações de recursos coerentemente classificadas por diferentes critérios; e acordos entre domínios administrativos podem ser realizados de forma transparente e em variadas formas de granularidade por meio de contratos inteligentes uti- lizando blockchain. Ao final deste trabalho, com base em uma ampla discussão as perguntas de pesquisa associadas à hipótese são respondidas, de forma que a avaliação da hipótese proposta seja realizada perante uma ampla visão das contribuições e trabalhos futuros desta teseAbstract: In the last ten years, network softwarisation processes have been continuously diversified and gradually incorporated into production, mainly through the paradigms of Software Defined Networks (e.g., programmable network flow rules) and Network Functions Virtualization (e.g., orchestration of virtualized network functions). Based on this process, the concept of network slice emerges as a way of defining end-to-end network programmable paths, possibly over shared network infrastructures, requiring strict performance metrics associated to a par- ticular business case. This thesis investigate the hypothesis that the disaggregation of network function performance metrics impacts and composes a network slice footprint incurring in di- verse slicing feature options, which when realized should have their Service Level Agreement (SLA) life cycle management transparently implemented in correspondence to their fulfilling end-to-end communication business case. The validation of such assertive takes place in three aspects: the degrees of freedom by which performance of virtualized network functions can be expressed; the methods of rationalizing the footprint of network slices; and transparent ways to track and manage network assets among multiple administrative domains. In order to achieve such goals, a series of contributions were achieved by this thesis, among them: the construction of a platform for automating methodologies for performance testing of virtual- ized network functions; an elaboration of a methodology for the analysis of footprint features of network slices based on a machine learning classifier algorithm and a multi-criteria analysis algorithm; and the construction of a prototype using blockchain to carry out smart contracts involving service level agreements between administrative systems. Through experiments and analysis we suggest that: performance metrics of virtualized network functions depend on the allocation of resources, internal configurations and test traffic stimulus; network slices can have their resource allocations consistently analyzed/classified by different criteria; and agree- ments between administrative domains can be performed transparently and in various forms of granularity through blockchain smart contracts. At the end of his thesis, through a wide discussion we answer all the research questions associated to the investigated hypothesis in such way its evaluation is performed in face of wide view of the contributions and future work of this thesisDoutoradoEngenharia de ComputaçãoDoutor em Engenharia ElétricaFUNCAM

Performance Evaluation of v-eNodeB using Virtualized Radio Resource Management

With the demand upsurge for high bandwidth services, continuous increase in the number of cellular subscriptions, adoption of Internet of Things (IoT), and marked growth in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) traffic, there is great stress exerted on cellular network infrastructure. The present wireline and wireless networking technologies are rigid in nature and heavily hardware-dependent, as a result of which the process of infrastructure upgrade to keep up with future demand is cumbersome and expensive. Software-defined networks (SDN) hold the promise to decrease network rigidity by providing central control and flow abstraction, which in current network setups are hardware-based. The embrace of SDN in traditional cellular networks has led to the implementation of vital network functions in the form of software that are deployed in virtualized environments. This approach to move crucial and hardware intensive network functions to virtual environments is collectively referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). Our work evaluates the cost reduction and energy savings that can be achieved by the application of SDN and NFV technologies in cellular networks. In this thesis, we implement a virtualized eNodeB component (Radio Resource Management) to add agility to the network setup and improve performance, which we compare with a traditional resource manager. When combined with dynamic network resource allocation techniques proposed in Elastic Handoff, our hardware agnostic approach can achieve a greater reduction in capital and operational expenses through optimal use of network resources and efficient energy utilization. Advisor: Jitender S. Deogu

LATEST ADVANCES ON SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR 5G TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES

The roll out of the deployment of the 5G technology has been ongoing globally. The deployment of the technologies associated with 5G has seen mixed reaction as regards its prospects to improve communication services in all spares of life amid its security concerns. The security concerns of 5G network lies in its architecture and other technologies that optimize the performance of its architecture. There are many fractions of 5G security architecture in the literature, a holistic security architectural structure will go a long way in tackling the security challenges. In this paper, the review of the security challenges of the 5G technology based on its architecture is presented along with their proposed solutions. This review was carried out with some keywords relating to 5G securities and architecture; this was used to retrieve appropriate literature for fitness of purpose. The 5G security architectures are mojorly centered around the seven network security layers; thereby making each of the layers a source of security concern on the 5G network. Many of the 5G security challenges are related to authentication and authorization such as denial-of-service attacks, man in the middle attack and eavesdropping. Different methods both hardware (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, field programmable logic arrays) and software (Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Blockchain, Statistical Process Control) has been proposed for mitigating the threats. Other technologies applicable to 5G security concerns includes: Multi-radio access technology, smart-grid network and light fidelity. The implementation of these solutions should be reviewed on a timely basis because of the dynamic nature of threats which will greatly reduce the occurrence of security attacks on the 5G network

Public and non-public network integration for 5Growth Industry 4.0 use cases

5G is playing a paramount role in the digital transformation of the industrial sector, offering high-bandwidth, reliable, and low-latency wireless connectivity to meet the stringent and critical performance requirements of manufacturing processes. This work analyzes the applicability of 5G technologies as key enablers to support, enhance, and even enable novel advances in Industry 4.0. It proposes a complete 5G solution for two real-world Industry 4.0 use cases related to metrology and quality control. This solution uses 5Growth to ease and automate the management of vertical services over a soft-ware-defined network and network function virtualization based 5G mobile transport and computing infrastructure, and to aid the integration of the verticals' private 5G network with the public network. Finally, a validation campaign assesses the applicability of the proposed solution to support the performance requirements (especially latency and user data rate) of the selected use cases, and evaluates its efficiency regarding vertical service setup time across different domains in less than three minutes.This work has been partially supported by the EC H2020 5GPPP 5Growth project (Grant 856709) and the H2020 5G-EVE project (Grant 815074)