Design, implementation, and evaluation of an XG-PON module for ns-3 network simulator

10-gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (XG-PON), one of the latest standards of optical access networks, is regarded as one of the key technologies for future Internet access networks. This paper presents the design and evaluation of our XG-PON module for the ns-3 network simulator. This module is designed and implemented with the aim to provide a standards-compliant, configurable, and extensible module that can simulate XG-PON with reasonable speed and support a wide range of research topics. These include analyzing and improving the performance of XG-PON, studying the interactions between XG-PON and the upper-layer protocols, and investigating its integration with various wireless networks. In this paper, we discuss its design principles, describe the implementation details, and present an extensive evaluation on both functionality and performance

A Quality of Service framework for upstream traffic in LTE across an XG-PON backhaul

Passive Optical Networks (PON) are promising as a transport network technology due to the high network capacity, long reach and strong QoS support in the latest PON standards. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a popular wireless technology for its large data rates in the last mile. The natural integration of LTE and XG-PON, which is one of the latest standards of PON, presents several challenges for XG-PON to satisfy the backhaul QoS requirements of aggregated upstream LTE applications. This thesis proves that a dedicated XG-PON-based backhaul is capable of ensuring the QoS treatment required by different upstream application types in LTE, by means of standard-compliant Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) mechanisms. First the design and evaluation of a standard-compliant, robust and fast XG-PON simulation module developed for the state-of-the-art ns-3 network simulator is presented in the thesis. This XG-PON simulation module forms a trustworthy and large-scale simulation platform for the evaluations in the rest of the thesis, and has been released for use by the scientific community. The design and implementation details of the XGIANT DBA, which provides standard complaint QoS treatment in an isolated XG-PON network, are then presented in the thesis along with comparative evaluations with the recently-published EBU DBA. The evaluations explored the ability of both XGIANT and EBU in terms of queuing-delay and throughput assurances for different classes of simplified (deterministic) traffic models, for a range of upstream loading in XG-PON. The evaluation of XGIANT and EBU DBAs are then presented for the context of a dedicated XG-PON backhaul in LTE with regard to the influence of standard-compliant and QoS-aware DBAs on the performance of large-scale, UDP-based applications. These evaluations disqualify both XGIANT and EBU DBAs in providing prioritised queuing delay performances for three upstream application types (conversational voice, peer-to-peer video and best-effort Internet) in LTE; the evaluations also indicate the need to have more dynamic and efficient QoS policies, along with an improved fairness policy in a DBA used in the dedicated XG-PON backhaul to ensure the QoS requirements of the upstream LTE applications in the backhaul. Finally, the design and implementation details of two standard-compliant DBAs, namely Deficit XGIANT (XGIANT-D) and Proportional XGIANT (XGIANT-P), which provide the required QoS treatment in the dedicated XG-PON backhaul for all three application types in the LTE upstream are presented in the thesis. Evaluations of the XGIANT-D and XGIANT-P DBAs presented in the thesis prove the ability of the fine-tuned QoS and fairness policies in the DBAs in ensuring prioritised and fair queuing-delay and throughput efficiency for UDP- and TCP-based applications, generated and aggregated based on realistic conditions in the LTE upstream

Refining the GIANT dynamic bandwidth allocation mechanism for XG-PON

XG-PON requires an effective dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) mechanism for upstream traffic to support quality of service for different classes of traffic. We propose X-GIANT, which extends GPON based GigaPON Access Network (GIANT) DBA, with validated optimisations to the originally proposed key parameters - service timers and assured vs non-assured ratio of medium priority traffic. We implement X-GIANT in a standard compliant XG-PON module designed for the state-of-the-art ns-3 simulator, tune the above key parameters and show that mean delay and throughput for different classes of traffic obey the XG-PON requirements and respect priorities at both light and heavy upstream loads. We also show that X-GIANT shows better mean-delay performance than Efficient Bandwidth Utilisation (EBU), a recently proposed, GIANT-derived, priority-based DBA mechanism for XG-PON, for all three classes of traffic simulated

Optimised QoS-aware DBA mechanisms in XG-PON for upstream traffic in LTE backhaul

Passive Optical Networks (PON) are viewed as an attractive choice to provide flexible and cost-efficient backhaul for Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular base stations (eNB). PONs, such as the 10-Gigabit capable PON (XG-PON), use a Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) mechanism to multiplex the shared upstream medium between competing sending nodes. Due to the complex definitions of QoS for DBA in XG-PON, it is a challenge for the XG-PON to respect the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for different aggregated upstream applications in the LTE backhaul, in particular voice, live video and best-effort Internet traffic. In this paper, we first evaluate two recent XG-PON-standard-compliant DBAs - XGIANT and Efficient Bandwidth Utilisation (EBU) - for mean queuing-delay performance, with regard to priority and fairness, when the realistically-generated upstream voice, video and best-effort applications are aggregated at the evolved Node B (eNB) in LTE. We show that neither XGIANT nor EBU satisfy the priority and fairness requirements for mean queuing-delay. We propose and evaluate two optimised DBAs - Deficit XGIANT (XGIANT-D) and Proportional XGIANT (XGIANT-P). Our evaluations of the optimised DBAs, in the ns-3 network simulator, show that both XGIANT-D and XGIANT-P are able to ensure strictly prioritised, low and fair mean-queuing-delays for eNB-aggregated voice, video and best-effort traffic in two loaded conditions in XG-PON upstream. XGIANT-D and XGIANT-P, when compared with XGIANT and EBU, also ensure lower packet losses for eNB-aggregated upstream traffic in the XG-PON-based LTE backhaul

Wavelength reconfigurability for next generation optical access networks

Next generation optical access networks should not only increase the capacity but also be able to redistribute the capacity on the fly in order to manage larger variations in traffic patterns. Wavelength reconfigurability is the instrument to enable such capability of network-wide bandwidth redistribution since it allows dynamic sharing of both wavelengths and timeslots in WDM-TDM optical access networks. However, reconfigurability typically requires tunable lasers and tunable filters at the user side, resulting in cost-prohibitive optical network units (ONU). In this dissertation, I propose a novel concept named cyclic-linked flexibility to address the cost-prohibitive problem. By using the cyclic-linked flexibility, the ONU needs to switch only within a subset of two pre-planned wavelengths, however, the cyclic-linked structure of wavelengths allows free bandwidth to be shifted to any wavelength by a rearrangement process. Rearrangement algorithm are developed to demonstrate that the cyclic-linked flexibility performs close to the fully flexible network in terms of blocking probability, packet delay, and packet loss. Furthermore, the evaluation shows that the rearrangement process has a minimum impact to in-service ONUs. To realize the cyclic-linked flexibility, a family of four physical architectures is proposed. PRO-Access architecture is suitable for new deployments and disruptive upgrades in which the network reach is not longer than 20 km. WCL-Access architecture is suitable for metro-access merger with the reach up to 100 km. PSB-Access architecture is suitable to implement directly on power-splitter-based PON deployments, which allows coexistence with current technologies. The cyclically-linked protection architecture can be used with current and future PON standards when network protection is required

Cloud radio access network fronthaul solution using optimized dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm

In order to address the challenges that have come with the exploding demand for higher speed, traffic growth and mobile wireless devices, Mobile network operators have decided to move to the notion of small cells based on cloud radio access network. The merits of cloud based RAN includes the ease of infrastructure deployment and network management as well as the fact that its performance are optimized and it is cost effective the merits of cloud based RAN includes the ease of infrastructure deployment and network management as well as the fact that its performance are optimized and it is cost effective. Notwithstanding, cloud radio access network comes with so many strict requirements to be fulfilled for its fronthaul network. In this paper, we have presented these requirements for a 5G fronthaul network. Particular interest on the time division multiplex passive optical network’s challenge of latency was treated by proposing an optimized version of the round robin dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm. Results obtained show an improvement in the latency of the original algorithm which meets the fronthaul requirement. Other test parameters like jitter and BER were also improved by our proposed optimized algorithm

MongoDB Database as Storage for GPON Frames

This work is focused on creating an open-source software-based solution for monitoring traffic transmitted through gigabit passive optical network. In this case, the data are captured by the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) card and reassembled using parsing software from a passive optical network built on the International Telecommunication Unit telecommunication section (ITU-T) G.984 gigabit-capable passive optical network GPON recommendation. Then, the captured frames are converted by suitable software into GPON frames, which will be further processed for analysis. Due to the high transfer rate of GPON recommendations, the work describes the issue of writing to the Mongo database system. In order to achieve the best possible results and minimal loss of transmitted frames, a series of tests were performed. The proposed test scenarios are based on different database writing approaches and are implemented in the Python and C# programming languages. Based on our results, it has been shown that the high processing speed is too high for Python processing. Critical operations must be implemented in the C# programming language. Due to rapid application development, Python can only be used for noncritical time-consuming data processing operations

Mecanismos para gerenciamento de banda passante em redes ópticas passivas Ethernet com clientes locatários de múltiplas unidades ópticas de redes

Orientador: Nelson Luis Saldanha da FonsecaDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: As atuais redes de acesso banda larga à Internet necessitam dar suporte às altas demandas de diversas aplicações tais como voz sobre IP (VoIP), streaming de vídeo UHD, videoconferência, internet das coisas (IoT) e jogos interativos. A tecnologia de redes ópticas passivas (PONs) é considerada promissora para fornecer alta capacidade de acesso com um custo-benefício aceitável. Existem duas diferentes tecnologias que disputam o mercado das redes ópticas; Ethernet PON (EPON) e Gigabit Capable PON(GPON). Devido ao alto custo de aquisição e manutenção de uma infraestrutura PON, muitas empresas (clientes) recorrem a fornecedores de infraestrutura (InP) para reduzir os altos custo, por meio do aluguel de uma porção dos recursos da PON. Esses clientes podem ser, por exemplo, operadores de rede móvel ou provedores de serviços virtuais, que podem adquirir múltiplas unidades da rede óptica (ONU) conectadas em uma única PON. Essa facilidade de alugar múltiplas ONUs pode gerar problemas de balanceamento de carga entre ONUs, uma vez que os atuais algoritmos de alocação de banda passante (DBA) são capazes de garantir banda para uma única ONU. Consequentemente, picos de demanda de banda passante podem ultrapassar a banda garantida em algumas ONUs e, ao mesmo tempo, subutilizar a banda garantida em outras ONUs de um mesmo cliente. Nesta dissertação, aborda-se o problema de gerenciamento de largura de banda para clientes multi-ONU nas redes EPON. Propõe-se um algoritmo de alocação dinâmica de banda passante (DBA) (MOS-IPACT) para dar suporte ao contrato de serviço (SLA) para clientes com várias ONUs. O mecanismo proposto distribui a largura de banda agregada entre ONUs de um mesmo cliente, com o objetivo de melhorar a utilização da largura de banda. Além disso propõe-se um algoritmo DBA para EPONs (subMOSIPACT) com o objetivo de garantir banda passante em diferentes níveis de granularidade. Este algoritmo é fundamental para clientes multi-ONU e que oferecem diversos tipos de serviços. Por exemplo, um operador da rede virtual pode alugar as ONUs de um InP para oferecer serviços corporativos e residenciais. Introduz-se, também, um algoritmo DBA para EPONs (coopMOS-IPACT) que permite a cooperação entre clientes. O algoritmo proposto permite que clientes cooperativos compartilhem banda passante não utilizada a fim de aumentar a banda disponível para alocação mas sem afetar seus SLAs individuais. Os resultados mostram que os três algoritmos propostos são capazes de garantir banda passante para clientes multi-ONU, mesmo em condições de tráfego desbalanceadas; Além de garantir banda passante em diferentes níveis de granularidade aumentando o suporte aos requisitos de qualidade de serviço (QoS). Resultados derivados por simulação mostraram que os algoritmos distribuem eficientemente a largura de banda entre os clientes multi-ONU bem como para clientes convencionais que possuem uma única ONU. Por fim, este trabalho mostra os benefícios do modelo de clientes cooperativos para aumentar a largura de banda disponívelAbstract: Current broadband access networks need to support the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of diverse application such as voice over IP (VoIP), ultra-high video streaming, video conferencing, Internet of Things (IoT) and interactive gaming. Passive Optical Networks (PONs) is considered a promising solution to provides high access capacity with acceptable cost-benefit. Two different technologies share the optical access networks market: Ethernet PON (EPON) and Gigabit Capable PON (GPON). However, the deployment of PON infrastructure involves significant costs. On the other hand, Infrastructure Provider (InP) can alleviate these costs by leasing their PONs to several enterprises (customers). These customers can be Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), multi-site enterprises, or virtual service providers. New scenarios are envisioned in which customers owning multiple Optical Network Units (ONUs) (multi-ONUs customers) are connected to a single PON. However, current EPON Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) algorithms are able to support only guaranteed bandwidth for individual ONUs. Consequently, peaks of bandwidth demand may surpass the guaranteed bandwidth for some ONUs and, at the same time, underutilize the bandwidth in other ONUs of a multi-ONU customer. In this work, the bandwidth management problem for multi-ONU customers in EPON network is addressed. This dissertation proposes a mechanisms for the support of multiONU Service Level Agreements (SLA) in DBA algorithms for EPONs. The proposed DBA algorithms (MOS-IPACT) allows customers owning multiple ONUs to redistribute the aggregated bandwidth of the group of ONUs to better balance the bandwidth utilization. This dissertation also proposes a DBA algorithm for EPON networks (subMOS-IPACT) with the objective of assuring bandwidth at different levels of granularity. This algorithm is quite important for multi-ONU customers offering diverse type of services. For example, a virtual network operator can lease ONUs from an InP to offer enterprise and residential services to its client.This work also introduce a DBA algorithm for EPONs (coopMOS-IPACT), which allows cooperation between customers. The proposed DBA algorithm allows cooperative customers share the unused bandwidth without affecting their individual multi-ONU SLAs. Results show that the three proposed Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) algorithms are able to guarantee bandwidth for multi-Optical Network Unit (ONU) customers even in unbalancing traffic conditions. Furthermore, assuring bandwidth at different levels of granularity improves the Quality of Service (QoS) providing. Simulation results showed that the mechanisms efficiently distributes bandwidth between multi-ONU customers and traditional customers owning a single ONU. Finally, this work show the benefits of cooperative customers model in order to increase the available bandwidthMestradoCiência da ComputaçãoMestre em Ciência da Computação132308/2016-9CNP

Dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms with non-zero laser tuning time in TWDM passive optical networks

The goal of this document is to analyse the functionality of Passive Optical Networks (PONs). The reason for focusing on these technique networks is due to their high efficiency in terms of high bandwidth, high rate, low energy consumption and low cost. PONs are composed of Optical Network Unit (ONU), Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and passive elements (splitters/combiners, optical fibres…). Specifically, this document analyses Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPONs) defined by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the IEEE 802.3ah standard although there is another standard. The main difference between them is the framing protocol, being the EPONs compliance with Ethernet frames. The first PONs used a single optical carrier. That means that upstream channel is a shared resource and a scheduling is needed to avoid collisions between users’ transmissions, by using Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA). In PONs the OLT plays an important paper, since it is the responsible of the dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA). The DBA agent in the OLT has an algorithm that schedules the users’ transmissions. Since the deployment of the first PONs, the requirements of the users have increased, and users need high bandwidth and high rate. Thus, a new generation of PONs (NG-PON) have been designed. These next generation of PONs are multicarrier. That means that upstream channel that is a shared resource needs a Medium Access Protocol (MAC) based on wavelength/time-sharing known as Wavelength-Time Division Multiple Access (WTDMA). The algorithm placed on the DBA agent in the OLT increases its complexity. The algorithm should be able to schedule the transmissions based on time and wavelength. In the new generation of PON, in order to change the transmission wavelength, the ONUs have to retune their lasers. This wavelength change causes a tuning time delay. The target of this project is to design, implement and analyse an algorithm based on WTDMA and able to consider the tuning time delay and to minimize the global average delay of the system. Besides, the algorithm should apply the Just-In-Time (JIT) technique for increasing the system efficiency. All the simulations and implementations have been performed in the OPNET simulator, over a base code based on multicarrier EPON created by another student. In order to implement our algorithm a previous upgrading work has been realized for running the model and adapting it for the new requirements. We have succeeded in simulating an EPON with 4 channels where every channel has a 1 Gbps of bandwidth in OPNET simulator. In EPON we have introduced a laser tuning time control. Finally, we have implemented the designed algorithm. The algorithm schedules efficiently the network transmissions considering the laser tuning time delay. We have successfully simulated an EPON with 4 carriers, with 1 Gbps per carrier. Finally, we have implemented an algorithm able to schedule efficiently the network transmissions considering the laser tuning time delay