A Multi-Site NFV Testbed for Experimentation With SUAV-Based 5G Vertical Services

[EN] With the advent of 5G technologies, vertical markets have been placed at the forefront, as fundamental drivers and adopters of technical developments and new business models. Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAVs) are gaining traction in multiple vertical sectors, as key assets to generate, process, and distribute relevant information for the provision of value-added services. However, the enormous potential of SUAVs to support a exible, rapid, and cost-effective deployment of vertical applications is still to be exploited. In this paper, we leverage our prior work on Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and SUAVs to design and build a multi-site experimentation testbed based on open-source technologies. The goal of this testbed is to explore synergies among NFV, SUAVs, and vertical services, following a practical approach primarily governed by experimentation. To verify our testbed design, we realized a reference use case where a number of SUAVs, cloud infrastructures, and communication protocols are used to provide a multi-site vertical service. Our experimentation results suggest the potential of NFV and SUAVs to exibly support vertical services. The lessons learned have served to identify missing elements in our NFV platform, as well as challenging aspects for potential improvement. These include the development of speci c mechanisms to limit processing load and delays of service deployment operations.This work was supported in part by the European Commission under the European Union's Horizon 2020 program (5GRANGE Project, grant agreement number 777137), and in part by the 5GCity Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant TEC2016-76795-C6-1R, Grant TEC2016-76795-C6-3R, and Grant TEC2016-76795-C6-5R

Network functions virtualization: the long road to commercial deployments

Network operators are under pressure to offer efficient network-based services while keeping service deployment costs to a minimum. Network functions virtualization (NFV) can potentially revolutionize network-based services bringing low-deployment costs for network operators. The NFV has been introduced to ultimately extend the non-proprietary and open-standard-based model to network and service deployments, significant improvements to today’s proprietary locked implementations. Notwithstanding the continuous efforts of both academia and industry to support the NFV paradigm, the current NFV solutions offered are still in its infancy. In this survey, we provide a detailed background of NFV to establish a comprehensive understanding of the subject, ranging from the basics to more advanced topics. Moreover, we offer a comprehensive overview of the NFV main concepts, standardization efforts, the benefits of NFV, and discussions of the NFV architecture as defined by the European telecommunications standardization institute (ETSI). Furthermore, we discuss the NFV applicability and current open source projects. We then highlight NFV requirements, design considerations, and developmental architectural impairments and barriers to commercial NFV deployments. Finally, we conclude enumerating future directions for NFV developmentpublishe

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

Development and Performance Evaluation of Network Function Virtualization Services in 5G Multi-Access Edge Computing

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

A Software-Defined Solution for Managing Fog Computing Resources in Sensor Networks

The fast growth of Internet-connected embedded devices demands for new capabilities at the network edge. These new capabilities are local processing, fast communications, and resource virtualization. The current work aims to address the previous capabilities by designing and deploying a new proposal, which offers on-demand activation of offline IoT fog computing assets via a Software Defined Networking (SDN) based solution combined with containerization and sensor virtualization. We present and discuss performance and functional outcomes from emulated tests made on our proposal. Analysing the performance results, the system latency has two parts. The first part is about the delay induced by limitations on the networking resources. The second part of the system latency is due to the on-demand activation of the required processing resources, which are initially powered off towards a more sustainable system operation. In addition, analysing the functional results, when a real IoT protocol is used, we evidence our proposal viability to be deployed with the necessary orchestration in distributed scenarios involving embedded devices, actuators, controllers, and brokers at the network edge.Comment: 8 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables, 16 reference

Redes definidas por software e funções de redes virtualizadas em ambientes com recursos restritos

With technologies such as SDN and NFV pushing the the development of the next generation networks, new paradigms, such as Fog Computing, appeared in the network scene. However, these technologies have been associated with the network infrastructure, such as the datacenter. In order for these technologies to be used, for instance, in a Fog Computing scenario it is necessary to, therefore, study and develop these technologies to form new control and operation mechanisms. So, a Fog Computing scenario composed by resource-constrained devices, typical in these types of situations, was developed, and, a solution proposal is presented. The solution consists in customizing an existent VIM, OpenVIM, to this kind of devices, after the implementation of the solution, where a Raspberry Pi is used to exemplify this type of devices. Tests are done to measure and compare this devices to more powerful ones. The tests are comprised by benchmarks runs, focusing on instantiation times, and power consumption. The results show some drawbacks inherent to this kind of devices when compared to more powerful ones. However, it is possible to see the potential that this kind of devices might have in the near future.Com tecnologias como SDN e NFV a impulsionar o desenvolvimento das redes da próxima geração, novos paradigmas como por exemplo, Fog Computing, apareceram na área de redes. Contudo, estas tecnologias têm estado associadas à infraestrutura das redes, como o datacenter. Para que estas tecnologias possam ser utilizadas, como por exemplo, num cenário de Fog Computing é necessário, então, estudar e desenvolver estas tecnologias para formar novos mecanismos de controlo e operação. Desta forma, um cenário de Fog Computing composto por dispositivos com recursos limitados, típicos neste tipo de situação, é desenvolvido, e, uma proposta de solução é apresentada. A solução consiste em adaptar uma VIM existente, OpenVIM, para este tipo de dispositivos, após a implementação da solução, onde um Raspberry Pi é utilizado para exemplificar este tipo de dispositvos. Testes são realizados para medir e comparar como estes dispositivos se comportam em comparação com dispositivos mais poderosos. Estes testes são compostos por testes de desempenho, focando o tempo de instanciação e consumo energético. Os resultados apresentam algumas limitações inerentes a este tipo de dispositivos resultantes dos seus recursos limitados, quando comparados com hardware com maior capacidade. Contudo, é possível verificar o potencial que este tipo de dispositivos podem apresentar no futuro próximo.Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicaçõe

Control Plane in Software Defined Networks and Stateful Data Planes

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Using OSM for real-time redeployment of VNFs based on network status

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία θα εξετάσουμε την Εικονικοποίηση δικτυακών λειτουργιών (Network Functions Virtualisation - NFV) ως την κατάλληλη αρχιτεκτονική για την υλοποίηση ενός δικτύου κατάλληλου για το Διαδίκτυο των Πραγμάτων (Internet of Things - IoT), το οποίο πρέπει να είναι ευέλικτο και επεκτάσιμο. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, θα επικεντρωθούμε στην αποτελεσματική αξιοποίηση του Open Source MANO (OSM) στην υλοποίηση μιας εφαρμογής που παρακολουθεί την κατάσταση του δικτύου των Εικονικοποιημένων δικτυακών λειτουργιών (Virtual Network Functions – VNFs) και σε περίπτωση κακής κατάστασης του δικτύου (π.χ. συμφόρηση του δικτύου) αναλαμβάνει τη μετακίνηση των επηρεαζόμενων VNFs σε κάποιον άλλο Διαχειριστή Εικονικής Υποδομής (Virtual Infrastructure Manager – VIM), για να αποτραπεί η πτώση στην απόδοση των ενεργών υπηρεσιών.In this thesis we will be examining the Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) framework as a suitable framework for implementing a network appropriate for Internet of Things (IoT), which needs to be flexible and scalable. More precisely, we will be focusing on how Open Source MANO (OSM) can be efficiently utilized in a solution that monitors the network status of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and in case of bad network status (e.g. network congestion) triggers the redeployment of affected VNFs to some other Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM) to prevent the underperformance of running services