MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) assisted routing procedure in Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) at Strathmore UniversityMulti-protocol label switching has been incorporated into provider networks to provide quality of service. Owing to the design of the protocol, its ability to push and pop labels in packets, independent of their underlying protocol makes it popular in interconnecting multiple networks in to one transport pipeline. At the same time, multi-protocol label switching has proven to be a very fast procedure for forwarding devices because the central processing unit cycles required in making a forwarding decision is far less compared to traditional forwarding decision-making metrics like analyzing the internet protocol header. However, current multi-protocol label switching implementation is a complex configuration procedure and does not provide a central bird’s eye view of the network topology to network engineers. Logging in to every label switching router and loading multi-protocol label switching configurations to allow it to connect to neighboring label switching routers in the label switching path is required. Allowing network engineers to have a central view and control of the network topology while still providing multi-protocol label switching services in a simplistic approach will make them achieve adaptive routing and traffic engineering seamlessly. This will improve quality of service and quality of experience in transport networks. Software defined networking is the approach this research takes towards providing central control because of the flexibility, programmability, and adaptability of the technology. This work proposed the design of a routing procedure that will implement multi-protocol label switching on a software defined network via OpenFlow. Experimental synthesis and prototyping approach was used to achieve the research objectives. A simulated environment called Mininet provided the implementation test bed. Internet control message packets were the test data to show how multi-protocol label switching labels are added and stripped. An illustration of the packet capture information from the experiment was presented and analyzed

Satellite Networks: Architectures, Applications, and Technologies

Since global satellite networks are moving to the forefront in enhancing the national and global information infrastructures due to communication satellites' unique networking characteristics, a workshop was organized to assess the progress made to date and chart the future. This workshop provided the forum to assess the current state-of-the-art, identify key issues, and highlight the emerging trends in the next-generation architectures, data protocol development, communication interoperability, and applications. Presentations on overview, state-of-the-art in research, development, deployment and applications and future trends on satellite networks are assembled

Dagstuhl News January - December 2008

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

Team Leadership Approaches for Corporate Project Managers

The study of Critical and Creative Thinking (C&CT) methods introduced me to a number of new approaches and tools that have vital and practical applications for today’s corporate team leaders. The primary purpose of my paper and the Genuity Inc. case example, is to demonstrate how these C&CT approaches and tools can be used by corporate team leaders to motivate, direct and lead their teams. Towards this end I have organized my paper into two major sections: 1) In the first, I lay the groundwork by defining the challenges facing today’s project managers and the cross-functional teams they lead. 2) In the second section, I introduce and discuss C&CT concepts for analyzing and defining thinking styles of team members, and how this knowledge can be used by project managers for more effective leadership. The concepts covered will help team leaders address the wide range of challenges they face today. These concepts include the conceptual blocks to better problem solving, including common barriers to creative thinking, cultural blocks, emotional blocks, perceptual blocks, and intellectual blocks, as described by James Adams in Conceptual Blockbusting, a Guide to Better Ideas