A Hybrid SDN-based Architecture for Wireless Networks

With new possibilities brought by the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing, the traffic demand of wireless networks increases dramatically. A more sophisticated network management framework is required to handle the flow routing and resource allocation for different users and services. By separating the network control and data planes, Software-defined Networking (SDN) brings flexible and programmable network control, which is considered as an appropriate solution in this scenario.Although SDN has been applied in traditional networks such as data centers with great successes, several unique challenges exist in the wireless environment. Compared with wired networks, wireless links have limited capacity. The high mobility of IoT and edge devices also leads to network topology changes and unstable link qualities. Such factors restrain the scalability and robustness of an SDN control plane. In addition, the coexistence of heterogeneous wireless and IoT protocols with distinct representations of network resources making it difficult to process traffic with state-of-the-art SDN standards such as OpenFlow. In this dissertation, we design a novel architecture for the wireless network management. We propose multiple techniques to better adopt SDN to relevant scenarios. First, while maintaining the centralized control plane logically, we deploy multiple SDN controller instances to ensure their scalability and robustness. We propose algorithms to determine the controllers\u27 locations and synchronization rates that minimize the communication costs. Then, we consider handling heterogeneous protocols in Radio Access Networks (RANs). We design a network slicing orchestrator enabling allocating resources across different RANs controlled by SDN, including LTE and Wi-Fi. Finally, we combine the centralized controller with local intelligence, including deploying another SDN control plane in edge devices locally, and offloading network functions to a programmable data plane. In all these approaches, we evaluate our solutions with both large-scale emulations and prototypes implemented in real devices, demonstrating the improvements in multiple performance metrics compared with state-of-the-art methods

Wireless Backhaul Architectures for 5G Networks

This thesis investigates innovative wireless backhaul deployment strategies for dense small cells. In particular, the work focuses on improving the resource utilisation, reliability and energy efficiency of future wireless backhaul networks by increasing and exploiting the flexibility of the network. The wireless backhaul configurations and topology management schemes proposed in this thesis consider a dense urban area scenario with static users as well as an ultra-dense outdoor small cell scenario with vehicular traffic (pedestrians, bus users and car users). Moreover, a diverse range of traffic types such as file transfer, ultra-high definition (UHD) on-demand and real-time video streaming are used. In the first part of this thesis, novel dynamic two-tier Software Defined Networking (SDN) architecture is employed in backhaul network to facilitate complex network management tasks including multi-tenancy resource sharing and energy-aware topology management. The results show the proposed architecture can deliver efficient resource utilisation, and QoS guarantee. The second part of the thesis presents wireless backhaul architectures that serve ultra-dense outdoor small cells installed on street-level fixtures. The characteristics of vehicular communications including diverse mobility patterns and unevenly distributed traffic are investigated. The system-level performance of two key technologies for 5G backhaul are compared: massive MIMO backhaul using sub-6GHz band and millimetre (mm)-wave backhaul in the 71 – 76 GHz band. Finally, innovative wireless backhaul architectures delivered from street fibre cabinets for ultra-dense outdoor small cells with vehicular traffic is proposed, which can effectively minimise the need for additional sites, power and fibre infrastructure. Multi-hop backhaul configurations are presented in order to bring in an extra level of flexibility, and thus, improve the coverage of a street cabinet mm-wave backhaul network as well as distribute traffic loads

Actas de las XIV Jornadas de Ingeniería Telemática (JITEL 2019) Zaragoza (España) 22-24 de octubre de 2019

En esta ocasión, es la ciudad de Zaragoza la encargada de servir de anfitriona a las XIV Jornadas de Ingeniería Telemática (JITEL 2019), que se celebrarán del 22 al 24 de octubre de 2019. Las Jornadas de Ingeniería Telemática (JITEL), organizadas por la Asociación de Telemática (ATEL), constituyen un foro propicio de reunión, debate y divulgación para los grupos que imparten docencia e investigan en temas relacionados con las redes y los servicios telemáticos. Con la organización de este evento se pretende fomentar, por un lado el intercambio de experiencias y resultados, además de la comunicación y cooperación entre los grupos de investigación que trabajan en temas relacionados con la telemática. En paralelo a las tradicionales sesiones que caracterizan los congresos científicos, se desea potenciar actividades más abiertas, que estimulen el intercambio de ideas entre los investigadores experimentados y los noveles, así como la creación de vínculos y puntos de encuentro entre los diferentes grupos o equipos de investigación. Para ello, además de invitar a personas relevantes en los campos correspondientes, se van a incluir sesiones de presentación y debate de las líneas y proyectos activos de los mencionados equipos

XIII Jornadas de ingeniería telemática (JITEL 2017)

Las Jornadas de Ingeniería Telemática (JITEL), organizadas por la Asociación de Telemática (ATEL), constituyen un foro propicio de reunión, debate y divulgación para los grupos que imparten docencia e investigan en temas relacionados con las redes y los servicios telemáticos. Con la organización de este evento se pretende fomentar, por un lado el intercambio de experiencias y resultados, además de la comunicación y cooperación entre los grupos de investigación que trabajan en temas relacionados con la telemática. En paralelo a las tradicionales sesiones que caracterizan los congresos científicos, se desea potenciar actividades más abiertas, que estimulen el intercambio de ideas entre los investigadores experimentados y los noveles, así como la creación de vínculos y puntos de encuentro entre los diferentes grupos o equipos de investigación. Para ello, además de invitar a personas relevantes en los campos correspondientes, se van a incluir sesiones de presentación y debate de las líneas y proyectos activos de los mencionados equiposLloret Mauri, J.; Casares Giner, V. (2018). XIII Jornadas de ingeniería telemática (JITEL 2017). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/97612EDITORIA

Gestion de la mobilité dans les réseaux denses de cinquième génération (5G)

Les réseaux de communications mobiles ont connu de profondes avancées technologiques au cours des deux dernières décénnies. La croissance du nombre d’abonnés mobiles ainsi que l’accès à des forfaits de données illimitées, souvent à des tarifs préférentiels, ont engendré une demande de bande passante, de vidéo et de données en forte croissance. Ces progrès significatifs ont favorisé le déploiement de nouveaux services et de nouveaux cas d’utilisation tels que l’Internet-des-objets (IoT), la réalité augmentée et virtuelle, les réseaux de villes intelligentes, les véhicules autonomes et l’automatisation industrielle. Aux technologies existantes, s’ajouteront de nouveaux modes de communication dans le but de répondre à plusieurs cas d’utilisation des réseaux mobiles qui sont encore difficiles à satisfaire à ce jour. Le résultat à long terme de cette nouvelle tournure dans le monde de la réseautique mobile est désigné sous le vocable de réseaux de cinquième génération (5G). Au-delà du déploiement d’applications avancées, les réseaux 5G offriront de nouvelles opportunités de revenus aux fournisseurs de services lorsqu’ils seront combinés aux fonctionnalités avancées telles que l’analyse de données, l’apprentissage automatique et à l’intelligence artificielle. Dans ce contexte, un large consensus est aujourd’hui établit sur la nécessité d’accroître la capacité du réseau par un déploiement massif de cellules de petite taille (Small Cell, SCs), d’un rayon de couverture réduit et à faible puissance. On parle alors d’une ultra-densification du réseau dont le but essentiel est de favoriser la proximité des points d’accès des utilisateurs finaux. Cependant, la densification du réseau implique des relèves fréquentes des usagers mobiles (MNs) entre les SCs et les zones de service. En effet, le rayon de couverture réduit des SCs rend plus complèxe la phase de sélection des relèves en plus d’accroître la fréquence de celles-ci. Ces relèves entraînent des dégradations, des perturbations et des déconnexions qui peuvent entraver l’objectif d’un accès transparent aux services du réseau. En outre, la fréquence des relèves engendre une latence et une charge de signalisation élevées dans le reseau. De plus, l’omniprésence d’applications temps réel exige une latence faible du réseau. Dans ce contexte, la gestion de la mobilité demeure encore un enjeux et il s’avère donc indispensable de concevoir de nouveaux protocoles de gestion de la mobilité capables répondre aux exigences de performances strictes des réseaux 5G.----------ABSTRACT : Mobile communications networks have experienced tremendous technological advances in the last two decades. The growth of the number of mobile subscribers and access to unlimited data plans, often at very affordable prices, have led to an increased demand for bandwidth, video and high-growth data. These significant advances have facilitated the deployment of new services and use cases such as Internet-of-things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality, smart city networks, autonomous vehicles, and industrial automation. On top of the existing technologies, new communication modes will arise to respond to several uses cases of mobile systems that are still difficult to meet today. The long-term result of this new trend in the world of mobile networking gives birth to a new paradigm called the fifth generation networks (5G). Beyond deploying advanced applications, 5G networks will offer new revenue opportunities to service providers, when combined with advanced features such as data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. In this context, a broad consensus is now established on the need to increase the network capacity through a massive deployment of small cells (Small Cell, SCs), with reduced coverage and low power. This requirement led to the ultra-densification of the network whose primary purpose is to promote the proximity of access points to the end-users. However, the densification of the cellular networks involves many mobile nodes (MNs) going through several handovers between the SCs and the service areas. The shorter SC’s radius makes the handover selection phase more complex while increasing its frequency. These handovers lead to service disruptions and disconnections that may hinder the provision of seamless mobility of network services. Moreover, the frequency of the handovers generates a high latency and signaling load in the network. Besides, the ubiquity of real-time applications requires low network latency. In this context, mobility management is still an issue, and it is, therefore, essential to design new mobility management protocols that can meet the stringent performance requirements of 5G networks