RDCL 3D, a Model Agnostic Web Framework for the Design and Composition of NFV Services

We present RDCL 3D, a "model agnostic" web framework for the design and composition of NFV services and components. The framework allows editing and validating the descriptors of services and components both textually and graphically and supports the interaction with external orchestrators or with deployment and execution environments. RDCL 3D is open source and designed with a modular approach, allowing developers to "plug in" the support for new models. We describe several advances with respect to the NFV state of the art, which have been implemented with RDCL 3D. We have integrated in the platform the latest ETSI NFV ISG model specifications for which no parsers/validators were available. We have also included in the platform the support for OASIS TOSCA models, reusing existing parsers. Then we have considered the modelling of components in a modular software router (Click), which goes beyond the traditional scope of NFV. We have further developed this approach by combining traditional NFV components (Virtual Network Functions) and Click elements in a single model. Finally, we have considered the support of this solution using the Unikernels virtualization technology.Comment: Accepted pape

Implementation of a NFV monitoring system for reactive environments

This work aims at researching the existent solutions of monitoring and alerting techniques, as well as defining a suitable architecture, design and implementation of a complete and customizable monitoring and alerting framework used to inspect and notify specific conditions on dynamically instantiated applications operating in the network. Such Network Services (NS) are used in the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) architecture, allowing rapid instantiation and configuration of virtualized environments that handle network configuration. This design and implementation seek to provide more flexibility and dynamicity to the network operator to monitor custom or generic metrics and trigger notifications based on custom thresholds, without depending on the Virtual Network Function (VNF) developer to adapt its descriptor and onboard each version into the NFV Orchestrator (NFVO) prior to each usage. The framework here developed follows a modular architecture that separates the monitoring and alerting policies from the onboarding and instantiation process of the Network Functions. The architecture also facilitates the integration with other systems and adapting the functionality of an operational environment thanks to its decoupled and modular approach. The presented work considers a monitoring and alerting framework that is especially useful for dynamic environments such as those relying in NFV, like those in the EU H2020 PALANTIR project. There, the framework is used to help assessing the correct behavior of the Security NSs that are used to prevent or mitigate security anomalies in the network of each client. If abnormalities are found, remediation measures will take place to replace the potentially compromised NS instances with clean, appropriate ones.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructur

Design and analysis of fully virtualized cellular networks based on open-source frameworks

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::17 - Aliança per a Aconseguir els Objetiu

ETSI MANO network orchestration

In the modern era there is a big change in the way computer networks are conceived and the old version defined by hardware implementation is leaving space for a new one based upon software functions. This innovation is the Network Function Virtualization and indeed aims at easing the management of networks and reducing the costs of their maintenance by deploying Virtual Network Functions in standard general purpose servers. The transition to this solution involved the necessity to improve the performance of virtualization techniques and with the development of new solutions now it is possible to run multiple different functions in the same physical machine. This means that also the cloud computing benefits from this technology, having computing, storaging and networking resources all easily manageable and accessible due to their separation from the hardware underneath. Therefore it is important that while building this architecture the components are properly working and interacting together and that the virtualization techniques do not produce too much overhead compared to the performance of the hardware implementation. In this essay will be discussed the Network Function Virtualization and the Open Source MANO project, focusing on its descriptors architecture and functioning. To better demonstrate how to create network topologies through these files, some examples are created and analyzed

Network Slices for Vertical Industries

Network Slicing allows to simultaneously support the specific needs of vertical industries with a diverse range of networking and computing requirements. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) has been defined to deploy multiple network services on a common infrastructure. We extend the NFV concept to vertical services, i.e. services implemented on top of network services and providing the applications of the verticals. We present a component of the 5G-Transformer system, named vertical slicer, which acts as the interface to verticals. The vertical slicer has two main functionalities: allowing verticals to define vertical services based on a set of service blueprints and arbitrating among several vertical services in case of resource shortage.This work has been partially funded by the EU H2020 5G-Transformer Project (grant no. 761536

Design and experimental validation of a software-defined radio access network testbed with slicing support

Network slicing is a fundamental feature of 5G systems to partition 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. The realization of network slicing is particularly challenging in the Radio Access Network (RAN) part, where multiple slices can be multiplexed over the same radio channel and Radio Resource Management (RRM) functions shall be used to split the cell radio resources and achieve the expected behaviour per slice. In this context, this paper describes the key design and implementation aspects of a Software-Defined RAN (SD-RAN) experimental testbed with slicing support. The testbed has been designed consistently with the slicing capabilities and related management framework established by 3GPP in Release 15. The testbed is used to demonstrate the provisioning of RAN slices (e.g., preparation, commissioning, and activation phases) and the operation of the implemented RRM functionality for slice-aware admission control and scheduling.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Design and Experimental Validation of a Software-Defined Radio Access Network Testbed with Slicing Support

Network slicing is a fundamental feature of 5G systems to partition 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. The realization of network slicing is particularly challenging in the Radio Access Network (RAN) part, where multiple slices can be multiplexed over the same radio channel and Radio Resource Management (RRM) functions shall be used to split the cell radio resources and achieve the expected behaviour per slice. In this context, this paper describes the key design and implementation aspects of a Software-Defined RAN (SD-RAN) experimental testbed with slicing support. The testbed has been designed consistently with the slicing capabilities and related management framework established by 3GPP in Release 15. The testbed is used to demonstrate the provisioning of RAN slices (e.g. preparation, commissioning and activation phases) and the operation of the implemented RRM functionality for slice-aware admission control and scheduling

Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results