Modular architecture providing convergent and ubiquitous intelligent connectivity for networks beyond 2030

The transition of the networks to support forthcoming beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G services introduces a number of important architectural challenges that force an evolution of existing operational frameworks. Current networks have introduced technical paradigms such as network virtualization, programmability and slicing, being a trend known as network softwarization. Forthcoming B5G and 6G services imposing stringent requirements will motivate a new radical change, augmenting those paradigms with the idea of smartness, pursuing an overall optimization on the usage of network and compute resources in a zero-trust environment. This paper presents a modular architecture under the concept of Convergent and UBiquitous Intelligent Connectivity (CUBIC), conceived to facilitate the aforementioned transition. CUBIC intends to investigate and innovate on the usage, combination and development of novel technologies to accompany the migration of existing networks towards Convergent and Ubiquitous Intelligent Connectivity (CUBIC) solutions, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) mechanisms and Machine Learning (ML) tools in a totally secure environment

Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey

This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols, user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed, use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are some text overlaps with the previous submissio

Software-defined wireless transport networks for flexible mobile backhaul in 5G systems

Traditionally microwave backhaul has been configured and operated in a static manner by means of vendor specific management systems. This mode of operation will be difficult to adapt to the new challenges originated by 5G networks. New mechanisms for adaptation and flexibility are required also in this network segment. The usage of a signaled control plane solution (based on OpenFlow) will facilitate the operation and will provide means for automation of actions on the wireless transport network segment. In addition to that, a standard control plane helps to reach the multi-vendor approach reducing complexity and variety of current per-vendor operation. This paper presents the motivation for the introduction of programmability concepts in wireless transport networks and illustrate the applicability of such control plane with two relevant use cases for dynamically controlling wireless transport nodes in 5G networks. Extensions to OpenFlow protocol are also introduced for building Software Defined Wireless Transport Networks (SDWTNs).This research was (partially) funded by the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israel Ministry of Economy under the Neptune generic research project (the Israeli consortium for network programming). This work has been also (partially) funded by the EU H2020 Xhaul Project (grant no. 671598)

A cross-layer implementation of Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector routing (AODV) protocol

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are networks which will form the basis for the ubiquitous data access because of their ease of deployment. Due to the dynamic nature of a MANET, routing is one of the most critical elements of MANET. Routing protocols for MANET can be broadly classified as a proactive routing protocol or a reactive routing protocol. In the proactive routing protocols, mobile nodes periodically exchange routing information among themselves. Hence proactive routing protocols generate high overhead messages in the network. On the other hand, reactive routing protocols work on-demand. Thereby generating less number of overhead messages in the network compared to proactive routing protocols. But reactive routing protocols use a global search mechanism called \u27flooding\u27 during the route discovery process. \u27Flooding\u27 generates a huge number of overhead messages in the network. Those overhead messages affect the performance of reactive routing protocols in term of network throughput. That kind of performance problem is called \u27scaling\u27 problem. Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing with Cross-Layer Design (AODV-CL) protocol has been proposed to solve this scaling problem. The AODV routing protocol has been modified to implement AODV-CL protocol. AODV-CL protocol reduces \u27flooding\u27 problem of reactive routing protocols by limiting the number of nodes that should participate in route discovery process based on their status in the network and also avoiding congested area of the network. It is shown that AODV-CL protocol reduces overhead messages by 73% and reduces end-to-end delay per packet by 32% compared to regular AODV protocol. I

Software-Defined Networks for Future Networks and Services: Main Technical Challenges and Business Implications

In 2013, the IEEE Future Directions Committee (FDC) formed an SDN work group to explore the amount of interest in forming an IEEE Software-Defined Network (SDN) Community. To this end, a Workshop on "SDN for Future Networks and Services" (SDN4FNS'13) was organized in Trento, Italy (Nov. 11th-13th 2013). Following the results of the workshop, in this paper, we have further analyzed scenarios, prior-art, state of standardization, and further discussed the main technical challenges and socio-economic aspects of SDN and virtualization in future networks and services. A number of research and development directions have been identified in this white paper, along with a comprehensive analysis of the technical feasibility and business availability of those fundamental technologies. A radical industry transition towards the "economy of information through softwarization" is expected in the near future