Segment Routing: a Comprehensive Survey of Research Activities, Standardization Efforts and Implementation Results

Fixed and mobile telecom operators, enterprise network operators and cloud providers strive to face the challenging demands coming from the evolution of IP networks (e.g. huge bandwidth requirements, integration of billions of devices and millions of services in the cloud). Proposed in the early 2010s, Segment Routing (SR) architecture helps face these challenging demands, and it is currently being adopted and deployed. SR architecture is based on the concept of source routing and has interesting scalability properties, as it dramatically reduces the amount of state information to be configured in the core nodes to support complex services. SR architecture was first implemented with the MPLS dataplane and then, quite recently, with the IPv6 dataplane (SRv6). IPv6 SR architecture (SRv6) has been extended from the simple steering of packets across nodes to a general network programming approach, making it very suitable for use cases such as Service Function Chaining and Network Function Virtualization. In this paper we present a tutorial and a comprehensive survey on SR technology, analyzing standardization efforts, patents, research activities and implementation results. We start with an introduction on the motivations for Segment Routing and an overview of its evolution and standardization. Then, we provide a tutorial on Segment Routing technology, with a focus on the novel SRv6 solution. We discuss the standardization efforts and the patents providing details on the most important documents and mentioning other ongoing activities. We then thoroughly analyze research activities according to a taxonomy. We have identified 8 main categories during our analysis of the current state of play: Monitoring, Traffic Engineering, Failure Recovery, Centrally Controlled Architectures, Path Encoding, Network Programming, Performance Evaluation and Miscellaneous...Comment: SUBMITTED TO IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIAL

a simulative model of a 5g telco operator network

Abstract In the near future, an important milestone for the evolution of wireless technologies will be the deployment of 5G network, having the target of supporting very huge data rate generated by a very high number of devices. One of the main technological enablers in this evolution is the joint SDN/NFV paradigm, defined in the last years to support the softwarization process of the Telco Operator networks. Given the very hard quality of experience (QoE) and quality of service (QoS) requirements in some application scenarios, mainly in terms of end-to-end delay, a challenging activity is to realize tools that can support network architects in performance evaluation and network design. With this in mind, this paper proposes a simulative tool for 5G networks, which is able to capture delay statistics due to both CPU load and transmission link congestions in NFVI-PoP nodes. The model is then applied to a case study to demonstrate how it can be applied for performance evaluation

Secure NFV Orchestration Over an SDN-Controlled Optical Network With Time-Shared Quantum Key Distribution Resources

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a state-of-the-art method of generating cryptographic keys by exchanging single photons. Measurements on the photons are constrained by the laws of quantum mechanics, and it is from this that the keys derive their security. Current public key encryption relies on mathematical problems that cannot be solved efficiently using present-day technologies; however, it is vulnerable to computational advances. In contrast QKD generates truly random keys secured against computational advances and more general attacks when implemented properly. On the other hand, networks are moving towards a process of softwarization with the main objective to reduce cost in both, the deployment and in the network maintenance. This process replaces traditional network functionalities (or even full network instances) typically performed in network devices to be located as software distributed across commodity data centers. Within this context, network function virtualization (NFV) is a new concept in which operations of current proprietary hardware appliances are decoupled and run as software instances. However, the security of NFV still needs to be addressed prior to deployment in the real world. In particular, virtual network function (VNF) distribution across data centers is a risk for network operators, as an eavesdropper could compromise not just virtualized services, but the whole infrastructure. We demonstrate, for the first time, a secure architectural solution for VNF distribution, combining NFV orchestration and QKD technology by scheduling an optical network using SDN. A time-shared approach is designed and presented as a cost-effective solution for practical deployment, showing the performance of different quantum links in a distributed environment

Network Function Virtualization technologies applied to cellular systems

Future 5G networks will exploit the inherent flexibility associated to the introduction of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies in both the core network and even the Radio Access Network (RAN) through the software implementation of network functions running on general purpose computing/storage resources. The advent of the NFV paradigm provides an inherent capability to add new functionalities, extend, upgrade or evolve existing functionalities and to customize the network on a per-tenant basis. In this context, this work intends to make an analysis of the cuFuture 5G networks open a new spectrum of possibilities, both at the level of services it can offer, and at the level of its deployment. This thesis aims to make a study of some of the technologies that make possible the arrival of 5G, such as virtualization and virtualization applied to networks, NFV. In order to better understand the defined standard for NFV, the analysis of market NFV-MANO available tools is included. In addition, the study and evaluation of the deployment process of a virtualized 5G network scenario has been performed with HPE NFV Director

Orchestration of IT/Cloud and Networks: From Inter-DC Interconnection to SDN/NFV 5G Services

The so-called 5G networks promise to be the foundations for the deployment of advanced services, conceived around the joint allocation and use of heterogeneous resources,including network, computing and storage. Resources are placed on remote locations constrained by the different service requirements, resulting in cloud infrastructures (as pool of resources) that need to be interconnected. The automation of the provisioning of such services relies on a generalized orchestra tion, defined as to the coherent coordination of heterogeneous systems, applied to common cases such as involving heterogeneous network domains in terms of control or data plane technologies, or cloud and network resources. Although cloud-computing platforms do take into account the need to interconnect remote virtual machine instances, mostly rely on managing L2 overlays over L3 (IP). The integration with transport networks is still not fully achieved, including leveraging the advances in software defined networks and transmission. We start with an overview of network orchestration, considering different models; we extend them to take into account cloud manage ment while mentioning relevant existing initiatives and conclude with the NFV architecture

A conceptual architecture for integrating software defined network and network virtualization with internet of things

Software defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are new paradigms and technologies of the network which support the best experience of providing functions and services, managing network traffic, and a new way of control. They support virtualization and separating data from control in network devices, as well as provide services in a software-based environment. Internet of things (IoT) is a heterogeneous network with a massive number of connected devices and objects. IoT should be integrated with such technologies for the purpose of providing the capabilities of dynamic reconfiguration with a high level of integration. This paper proposes a conceptual architecture for integrating software defined network (SDN) and NFV with IoT. The proposed work combines the three technologies together in one architecture. It also presents the previous works in this area and takes a look at the theoretical background of those technologies in order to give a complete view of proposed work

Resource Allocation in 4G and 5G Networks: A Review

The advent of 4G and 5G broadband wireless networks brings several challenges with respect to resource allocation in the networks. In an interconnected network of wireless devices, users, and devices, all compete for scarce resources which further emphasizes the fair and efficient allocation of those resources for the proper functioning of the networks. The purpose of this study is to discover the different factors that are involved in resource allocation in 4G and 5G networks. The methodology used was an empirical study using qualitative techniques by performing literature reviews on the state of art in 4G and 5G networks, analyze their respective architectures and resource allocation mechanisms, discover parameters, criteria and provide recommendations. It was observed that resource allocation is primarily done with radio resource in 4G and 5G networks, owing to their wireless nature, and resource allocation is measured in terms of delay, fairness, packet loss ratio, spectral efficiency, and throughput. Minimal consideration is given to other resources along the end-to-end 4G and 5G network architectures. This paper defines more types of resources, such as electrical energy, processor cycles and memory space, along end-to-end architectures, whose allocation processes need to be emphasized owing to the inclusion of software defined networking and network function virtualization in 5G network architectures. Thus, more criteria, such as electrical energy usage, processor cycle, and memory to evaluate resource allocation have been proposed.  Finally, ten recommendations have been made to enhance resource allocation along the whole 5G network architecture

System Design and Implementation for Hybrid Network Function Virtualization

With the application of virtualization technology in computer networks, many new research areas and techniques have been explored, such as network function virtualization (NFV). A significant benefit of virtualization is that it reduces the cost of a network system and increases its flexibility. Due to the increasing complexity of the network environment and constantly improving network scale and bandwidth, it is imperative to aim for higher performance, extensibility, and flexibility in the future network systems. In this dissertation, hybrid NFV platforms applying virtualization technology are proposed. We further explore the techniques used to improve the performance, scalability and resilience of these systems. In the first part of this dissertation, we describe a new heterogeneous hardware-software NFV platform that provides scalability and programmability while supporting significant hardware-level parallelism and reconfiguration. Our computing platform takes advantage of both field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and microprocessors to implement numerous virtual network functions (VNFs) that can be dynamically customized to specific network flow needs. Traffic management and hardware reconfiguration functions are performed by a global coordinator which allows for the rapid sharing of network function states and continuous evaluation of network function needs. With the help of state sharing mechanism offered by the coordinator, customer-defined VNF instances can be easily migrated between heterogeneous middleboxes as the network environment changes. A resource allocation algorithm dynamically assesses resource deployments as network flows and conditions are updated. In the second part of this thesis document, we explore a new session-level approach for NFV that implements distributed agents in heterogeneous middleboxes to steer packets belonging to different sessions through session-specific service chains. Our session-level approach supports inter-domain service chaining with both FPGA- and processor-based middleboxes, dynamic reconfiguration of service chains for ongoing sessions, and the application of session-level approaches for UDP-based protocols. To demonstrate our approach, we establish inter-domain service chains for QUIC sessions, and reconfigure the service chains across a range of FPGA- and processor-based middleboxes. We show that our session-level approach can successfully reconfigure service chains for individual QUIC sessions. Compared with software implementations, the distributed agents implemented on FPGAs show better performance in various test scenarios

Definition and specification of connectivity and QoE/QoS management mechanisms – final report

This document summarizes the WP5 work throughout the project, describing its functional architecture and the solutions that implement the WP5 concepts on network control and orchestration. For this purpose, we defined 3 innovative controllers that embody the network slicing and multi tenancy: SDM-C, SDM-X and SDM-O. The functionalities of each block are detailed with the interfaces connecting them and validated through exemplary network processes, highlighting thus 5G NORMA innovations. All the proposed modules are designed to implement the functionality needed to provide the challenging KPIs required by future 5G networks while keeping the largest possible compatibility with the state of the art