62 research outputs found
Towards SDN/NFV-enabled satellite ground segment systems: bandwidth on demand use case
© 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Key features of satellite communications such as wide-scale coverage, broadcast/multicast support and high availability, together with significant amounts of new satellite capacity coming online, anticipate new opportunities for satellite communications services as an integral part within upcoming 5G systems. To materialize these opportunities, satellite communications services have to be provisioned and operated in a more flexible, agile and cost-effective manner than done today. In this context, this paper describes the architecture of a satellite ground segment system that is built on the introduction of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies and examines the use case for delivering a Satellite Bandwidth on Demand (BoD) solution.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
5G enabled Freeports:A conceptual framework
A novel conceptual framework is developed that depicts a generic Freeport model underpinned by 5G technology. The framework is based on preliminary findings from a 5G testbed project and secondary 5G use cases from both practice and academic literature. We first provide a descriptive model of the current state of a port without 5G and Freeport status, identify the challenges and opportunities for logistics flows if Freeport status is attained and then prescribe how 5G may enable seamless logistics flows. With multiple challenges for ports generally, Freeport status increases the level of complexity of the core and support business processes that deliver goods from origin to destination. Despite that increased complexity, Freeports can attract investment and generate revenue, thus the enablement of Freeports is notionally beneficial in the long run. As complexity is anathema to smooth logistics flows, we develop a prescriptive model to exploit 5G to improve efficiency and effectiveness within a Freeport. We demonstrate the application of the prescriptive model with a 5G Freeport use case supported by simulation results, from which we aim to contribute to the overall adoption of 5G in Freeports
Towards edge robotics: the progress from cloud-based robotic systems to intelligent and context-aware robotic services
Current robotic systems handle a different range of applications such as video surveillance, delivery
of goods, cleaning, material handling, assembly, painting, or pick and place services. These systems
have been embraced not only by the general population but also by the vertical industries to
help them in performing daily activities. Traditionally, the robotic systems have been deployed in
standalone robots that were exclusively dedicated to performing a specific task such as cleaning the
floor in indoor environments. In recent years, cloud providers started to offer their infrastructures
to robotic systems for offloading some of the robot’s functions. This ultimate form of the distributed
robotic system was first introduced 10 years ago as cloud robotics and nowadays a lot of robotic solutions
are appearing in this form. As a result, standalone robots became software-enhanced objects
with increased reconfigurability as well as decreased complexity and cost. Moreover, by offloading
the heavy processing from the robot to the cloud, it is easier to share services and information from
various robots or agents to achieve better cooperation and coordination.
Cloud robotics is suitable for human-scale responsive and delay-tolerant robotic functionalities
(e.g., monitoring, predictive maintenance). However, there is a whole set of real-time robotic applications
(e.g., remote control, motion planning, autonomous navigation) that can not be executed with
cloud robotics solutions, mainly because cloud facilities traditionally reside far away from the robots.
While the cloud providers can ensure certain performance in their infrastructure, very little can be
ensured in the network between the robots and the cloud, especially in the last hop where wireless
radio access networks are involved. Over the last years advances in edge computing, fog computing,
5G NR, network slicing, Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and network orchestration are stimulating
the interest of the industrial sector to satisfy the stringent and real-time requirements of their
applications. Robotic systems are a key piece in the industrial digital transformation and their benefits
are very well studied in the literature. However, designing and implementing a robotic system
that integrates all the emerging technologies and meets the connectivity requirements (e.g., latency,
reliability) is an ambitious task.
This thesis studies the integration of modern Information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs)
in robotic systems and proposes some robotic enhancements that tackle the real-time constraints of
robotic services. To evaluate the performance of the proposed enhancements, this thesis departs
from the design and prototype implementation of an edge native robotic system that embodies the concepts of edge computing, fog computing, orchestration, and virtualization. The proposed edge
robotics system serves to represent two exemplary robotic applications. In particular, autonomous
navigation of mobile robots and remote-control of robot manipulator where the end-to-end robotic
system is distributed between the robots and the edge server. The open-source prototype implementation
of the designed edge native robotic system resulted in the creation of two real-world testbeds
that are used in this thesis as a baseline scenario for the evaluation of new innovative solutions in
robotic systems.
After detailing the design and prototype implementation of the end-to-end edge native robotic
system, this thesis proposes several enhancements that can be offered to robotic systems by adapting
the concept of edge computing via the Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) framework. First, it
proposes exemplary network context-aware enhancements in which the real-time information about
robot connectivity and location can be used to dynamically adapt the end-to-end system behavior to
the actual status of the communication (e.g., radio channel). Three different exemplary context-aware
enhancements are proposed that aim to optimize the end-to-end edge native robotic system. Later,
the thesis studies the capability of the edge native robotic system to offer potential savings by means of
computation offloading for robot manipulators in different deployment configurations. Further, the
impact of different wireless channels (e.g., 5G, 4G andWi-Fi) to support the data exchange between a
robot manipulator and its remote controller are assessed.
In the following part of the thesis, the focus is set on how orchestration solutions can support
mobile robot systems to make high quality decisions. The application of OKpi as an orchestration algorithm
and DLT-based federation are studied to meet the KPIs that autonomously controlledmobile
robots have in order to provide uninterrupted connectivity over the radio access network. The elaborated
solutions present high compatibility with the designed edge robotics system where the robot
driving range is extended without any interruption of the end-to-end edge robotics service. While the
DLT-based federation extends the robot driving range by deploying access point extension on top of
external domain infrastructure, OKpi selects the most suitable access point and computing resource
in the cloud-to-thing continuum in order to fulfill the latency requirements of autonomously controlled
mobile robots.
To conclude the thesis the focus is set on how robotic systems can improve their performance by
leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to generate smart decisions.
To do so, the edge native robotic system is presented as a true embodiment of a Cyber-Physical
System (CPS) in Industry 4.0, showing the mission of AI in such concept. It presents the key enabling
technologies of the edge robotic system such as edge, fog, and 5G, where the physical processes are
integrated with computing and network domains. The role of AI in each technology domain is identified
by analyzing a set of AI agents at the application and infrastructure level. In the last part of the
thesis, the movement prediction is selected to study the feasibility of applying a forecast-based recovery
mechanism for real-time remote control of robotic manipulators (FoReCo) that uses ML to infer
lost commands caused by interference in the wireless channel. The obtained results are showcasing
the its potential in simulation and real-world experimentation.Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Telemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Karl Holger.- Secretario: Joerg Widmer.- Vocal: Claudio Cicconett
Routing optimization algorithms in integrated fronthaul/backhaul networks supporting multitenancy
Mención Internacional en el título de doctorEsta tesis pretende ayudar en la definición y el diseño de la quinta generación de
redes de telecomunicaciones (5G) a través del modelado matemático de las diferentes
cualidades que las caracterizan. En general, la ambición de estos modelos es realizar
una optimización de las redes, ensalzando sus capacidades recientemente adquiridas para
mejorar la eficiencia de los futuros despliegues tanto para los usuarios como para los
operadores. El periodo de realización de esta tesis se corresponde con el periodo de
investigación y definición de las redes 5G, y, por lo tanto, en paralelo y en el contexto
de varios proyectos europeos del programa H2020. Por lo tanto, las diferentes partes
del trabajo presentado en este documento cuadran y ofrecen una solución a diferentes
retos que han ido apareciendo durante la definición del 5G y dentro del ámbito de estos
proyectos, considerando los comentarios y problemas desde el punto de vista de todos los
usuarios finales, operadores y proveedores.
Así, el primer reto a considerar se centra en el núcleo de la red, en particular en
cómo integrar tráfico fronthaul y backhaul en el mismo estrato de transporte. La solución
propuesta es un marco de optimización para el enrutado y la colocación de recursos que
ha sido desarrollado teniendo en cuenta restricciones de retardo, capacidad y caminos,
maximizando el grado de despliegue de Unidades Distribuidas (DU) mientras se minimizan
los agregados de las Unidades Centrales (CU) que las soportan. El marco y los algoritmos
heurísticos desarrollados (para reducir la complexidad computacional) son validados y
aplicados a redes tanto a pequeña como a gran (nivel de producción) escala. Esto los
hace útiles para los operadores de redes tanto para la planificación de la red como para
el ajuste dinámico de las operaciones de red en su infraestructura (virtualizada).
Moviéndonos más cerca de los usuarios, el segundo reto considerado se centra en
la colocación de servicios en entornos de nube y borde (cloud/edge). En particular, el
problema considerado consiste en seleccionar la mejor localización para cada función
de red virtual (VNF) que compone un servicio en entornos de robots en la nube, que
implica restricciones estrictas en las cotas de retardo y fiabilidad. Los robots, vehículos y
otros dispositivos finales proveen competencias significativas como impulsores, sensores y
computación local que son esenciales para algunos servicios. Por contra, estos dispositivos
están en continuo movimiento y pueden perder la conexión con la red o quedarse sin batería, cosa que reta aún más la entrega de servicios en este entorno dinámico. Así, el
análisis realizado y la solución propuesta abordan las restricciones de movilidad y batería.
Además, también se necesita tener en cuenta los aspectos temporales y los objetivos
conflictivos de fiabilidad y baja latencia en el despliegue de servicios en una red volátil,
donde los nodos de cómputo móviles actúan como una extensión de la infraestructura
de cómputo de la nube y el borde. El problema se formula como un problema de
optimización para colocación de VNFs minimizando el coste y también se propone un
heurístico eficiente. Los algoritmos son evaluados de forma extensiva desde varios aspectos
por simulación en escenarios que reflejan la realidad de forma detallada.
Finalmente, el último reto analizado se centra en dar soporte a servicios basados en
el borde, en particular, aprendizaje automático (ML) en escenarios del Internet de las
Cosas (IoT) distribuidos. El enfoque tradicional al ML distribuido se centra en adaptar
los algoritmos de aprendizaje a la red, por ejemplo, reduciendo las actualizaciones para
frenar la sobrecarga. Las redes basadas en el borde inteligente, en cambio, hacen posible
seguir un enfoque opuesto, es decir, definir la topología de red lógica alrededor de la
tarea de aprendizaje a realizar, para así alcanzar el resultado de aprendizaje deseado.
La solución propuesta incluye un modelo de sistema que captura dichos aspectos en
el contexto de ML supervisado, teniendo en cuenta tanto nodos de aprendizaje (que
realizan las computaciones) como nodos de información (que proveen datos). El problema
se formula para seleccionar (i) qué nodos de aprendizaje e información deben cooperar
para completar la tarea de aprendizaje, y (ii) el número de iteraciones a realizar, para
minimizar el coste de aprendizaje mientras se garantizan los objetivos de error predictivo y
tiempo de ejecución. La solución también incluye un algoritmo heurístico que es evaluado
ensalzando una topología de red real y considerando tanto las tareas de clasificación
como de regresión, y cuya solución se acerca mucho al óptimo, superando las soluciones
alternativas encontradas en la literatura.This thesis aims to help in the definition and design of the 5th generation of
telecommunications networks (5G) by modelling the different features that characterize
them through several mathematical models. Overall, the aim of these models is to perform
a wide optimization of the network elements, leveraging their newly-acquired capabilities
in order to improve the efficiency of the future deployments both for the users and the
operators. The timeline of this thesis corresponds to the timeline of the research and
definition of 5G networks, and thus in parallel and in the context of several European
H2020 programs. Hence, the different parts of the work presented in this document
match and provide a solution to different challenges that have been appearing during
the definition of 5G and within the scope of those projects, considering the feedback and
problems from the point of view of all the end users, operators and providers.
Thus, the first challenge to be considered focuses on the core network, in particular
on how to integrate fronthaul and backhaul traffic over the same transport stratum.
The solution proposed is an optimization framework for routing and resource placement
that has been developed taking into account delay, capacity and path constraints,
maximizing the degree of Distributed Unit (DU) deployment while minimizing the
supporting Central Unit (CU) pools. The framework and the developed heuristics (to
reduce the computational complexity) are validated and applied to both small and largescale
(production-level) networks. They can be useful to network operators for both
network planning as well as network operation adjusting their (virtualized) infrastructure
dynamically.
Moving closer to the user side, the second challenge considered focuses on the
allocation of services in cloud/edge environments. In particular, the problem tackled
consists of selecting the best the location of each Virtual Network Function (VNF)
that compose a service in cloud robotics environments, that imply strict delay bounds
and reliability constraints. Robots, vehicles and other end-devices provide significant
capabilities such as actuators, sensors and local computation which are essential for some
services. On the negative side, these devices are continuously on the move and might
lose network connection or run out of battery, which further challenge service delivery in
this dynamic environment. Thus, the performed analysis and proposed solution tackle the mobility and battery restrictions. We further need to account for the temporal aspects and
conflicting goals of reliable, low latency service deployment over a volatile network, where
mobile compute nodes act as an extension of the cloud and edge computing infrastructure.
The problem is formulated as a cost-minimizing VNF placement optimization and an
efficient heuristic is proposed. The algorithms are extensively evaluated from various
aspects by simulation on detailed real-world scenarios.
Finally, the last challenge analyzed focuses on supporting edge-based services, in
particular, Machine Learning (ML) in distributed Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios. The
traditional approach to distributed ML is to adapt learning algorithms to the network, e.g.,
reducing updates to curb overhead. Networks based on intelligent edge, instead, make
it possible to follow the opposite approach, i.e., to define the logical network topology
around the learning task to perform, so as to meet the desired learning performance.
The proposed solution includes a system model that captures such aspects in the context
of supervised ML, accounting for both learning nodes (that perform computations) and
information nodes (that provide data). The problem is formulated to select (i) which
learning and information nodes should cooperate to complete the learning task, and (ii)
the number of iterations to perform, in order to minimize the learning cost while meeting
the target prediction error and execution time. The solution also includes an heuristic
algorithm that is evaluated leveraging a real-world network topology and considering
both classification and regression tasks, and closely matches the optimum, outperforming
state-of-the-art alternatives.This work has been supported by IMDEA Networks InstitutePrograma de Doctorado en Ingeniería Telemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Pablo Serrano Yáñez-Mingot.- Secretario: Andrés García Saavedra.- Vocal: Luca Valcarengh
NFV orchestration in edge and fog scenarios
Mención Internacional en el título de doctorLas infraestructuras de red actuales soportan una
variedad diversa de servicios como video bajo demanda,
video conferencias, redes sociales, sistemas
de educación, o servicios de almacenamiento de
fotografías. Gran parte de la población mundial ha
comenzado a utilizar estos servicios, y los utilizan
diariamente. Proveedores de Cloud y operadores
de infraestructuras de red albergan el tráfico de
red generado por estos servicios, y sus tareas de
gestión no solo implican realizar el enrutamiento
del tráfico, sino también el procesado del tráfico de
servicios de red. Tradicionalmente, el procesado
del tráfico ha sido realizado mediante aplicaciones/
programas desplegados en servidores que estaban
dedicados en exclusiva a tareas concretas
como la inspección de paquetes. Sin embargo, en
los últimos anos los servicios de red se han virtualizado
y esto ha dado lugar al paradigma de
virtualización de funciones de red (Network Function
Virtualization (NFV) siguiendo las siglas en
ingles), en el que las funciones de red de un servicio
se ejecutan en contenedores o máquinas virtuales
desacopladas de la infraestructura hardware. Como
resultado, el procesado de tráfico se ha ido
haciendo más flexible gracias al laxo acople del
software y hardware, y a la posibilidad de compartir
funciones de red típicas, como firewalls, entre
los distintos servicios de red.
NFV facilita la automatización de operaciones
de red, ya que tareas como el escalado, o la migración
son típicamente llevadas a cabo mediante
un conjunto de comandos previamente definidos
por la tecnología de virtualización pertinente, bien
mediante contenedores o máquinas virtuales. De
todos modos, sigue siendo necesario decidir el en rutamiento y procesado del tráfico de cada servicio
de red. En otras palabras, que servidores tienen
que encargarse del procesado del tráfico, y que
enlaces de la red tienen que utilizarse para que las
peticiones de los usuarios lleguen a los servidores
finales, es decir, el conocido como embedding problem.
Bajo el paraguas del paradigma NFV, a este
problema se le conoce en inglés como Virtual Network
Embedding (VNE), y esta tesis utiliza el termino
“NFV orchestration algorithm” para referirse
a los algoritmos que resuelven este problema. El
problema del VNE es NP-hard, lo cual significa
que que es imposible encontrar una solución optima
en un tiempo polinómico, independientemente
del tamaño de la red. Como consecuencia, la comunidad
investigadora y de telecomunicaciones
utilizan heurísticos que encuentran soluciones de
manera más rápida que productos para la resolución
de problemas de optimización.
Tradicionalmente, los “NFV orchestration algorithms”
han intentado minimizar los costes de
despliegue derivados de las soluciones asociadas.
Por ejemplo, estos algoritmos intentan no consumir
el ancho de banda de la red, y usar rutas cortas
para no utilizar tantos recursos. Además, una tendencia
reciente ha llevado a la comunidad investigadora
a utilizar algoritmos que minimizan el
consumo energético de los servicios desplegados,
bien mediante la elección de dispositivos con un
consumo energético más eficiente, o mediante el
apagado de dispositivos de red en desuso. Típicamente,
las restricciones de los problemas de VNE se
han resumido en un conjunto de restricciones asociadas
al uso de recursos y consumo energético, y las
soluciones se diferenciaban por la función objetivo
utilizada. Pero eso era antes de la 5a generación de
redes móviles (5G) se considerase en el problema
de VNE. Con la aparición del 5G, nuevos servicios
de red y casos de uso entraron en escena. Los estándares
hablaban de comunicaciones ultra rápidas
y fiables (Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications
(URLLC) usando las siglas en inglés) con
latencias por debajo de unos pocos milisegundos y
fiabilidades del 99.999%, una banda ancha mejorada
(enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) usando
las siglas en inglés) con notorios incrementos en
el flujo de datos, e incluso la consideración de comunicaciones
masivas entre maquinas (Massive
Machine-Type Communications (mMTC) usando
las siglas en inglés) entre dispositivos IoT. Es más,
paradigmas como edge y fog computing se incorporaron a la tecnología 5G, e introducían la idea
de tener dispositivos de computo más cercanos al
usuario final. Como resultado, el problema del VNE
tenía que incorporar los nuevos requisitos como
restricciones a tener en cuenta, y toda solución
debía satisfacer bajas latencias, alta fiabilidad, y
mayores tasas de transmisión.
Esta tesis estudia el problema des VNE, y propone
algunos heurísticos que lidian con las restricciones
asociadas a servicios 5G en escenarios
edge y fog, es decir, las soluciones propuestas se
encargan de asignar funciones virtuales de red a
servidores, y deciden el enrutamiento del trafico
en las infraestructuras 5G con dispositivos edge y
fog. Para evaluar el rendimiento de las soluciones
propuestas, esta tesis estudia en primer lugar la
generación de grafos que representan redes 5G.
Los mecanismos propuestos para la generación de
grafos sirven para representar distintos escenarios
5G. En particular, escenarios de federación en
los que varios dominios comparten recursos entre
ellos. Los grafos generados también representan
servidores en el edge, así como dispositivos fog con
una batería limitada. Además, estos grafos tienen
en cuenta los requisitos de estándares, y la demanda
que se espera en las redes 5G. La generación de
grafos propuesta sirve para representar escenarios
federación en los que varios dominios comparten
recursos entre ellos, y redes 5G con servidores edge,
así como dispositivos fog estáticos o móviles con
una batería limitada. Los grafos generados para
infraestructuras 5G tienen en cuenta los requisitos
de estándares, y la demanda de red que se espera
en las redes 5G. Además, los grafos son diferentes
en función de la densidad de población, y el área
de estudio, es decir, si es una zona industrial, una
autopista, o una zona urbana.
Tras detallar la generación de grafos que representan
redes 5G, esta tesis propone algoritmos de
orquestación NFV para resolver con el problema
del VNE. Primero, se centra en escenarios federados
en los que los servicios de red se tienen que
asignar no solo a la infraestructura de un dominio,
sino a los recursos compartidos en la federación
de dominios. Dos problemas diferentes han sido estudiados,
uno es el problema del VNE propiamente
dicho sobre una infraestructura federada, y el otro
es la delegación de servicios de red. Es decir, si
un servicio de red se debe desplegar localmente
en un dominio, o en los recursos compartidos por
la federación de dominios; a sabiendas de que el último caso supone el pago de cuotas por parte del
dominio local a cambio del despliegue del servicio
de red. En segundo lugar, esta tesis propone
OKpi, un algoritmo de orquestación NFV para conseguir
la calidad de servicio de las distintas slices
de las redes 5G. Conceptualmente, el slicing consiste
en partir la red de modo que cada servicio
de red sea tratado de modo diferente dependiendo
del trozo al que pertenezca. Por ejemplo, una
slice de eHealth reservara los recursos de red necesarios
para conseguir bajas latencias en servicios
como operaciones quirúrgicas realizadas de manera
remota. Cada trozo (slice) está destinado a
unos servicios específicos con unos requisitos muy
concretos, como alta fiabilidad, restricciones de
localización, o latencias de un milisegundo. OKpi
es un algoritmo de orquestación NFV que consigue
satisfacer los requisitos de servicios de red en los
distintos trozos, o slices de la red. Tras presentar
OKpi, la tesis resuelve el problema del VNE en redes
5G con dispositivos fog estáticos y móviles. El
algoritmo de orquestación NFV presentado tiene
en cuenta las limitaciones de recursos de computo
de los dispositivos fog, además de los problemas
de falta de cobertura derivados de la movilidad de
los dispositivos.
Para concluir, esta tesis estudia el escalado
de servicios vehiculares Vehicle-to-Network (V2N),
que requieren de bajas latencias para servicios como
la prevención de choques, avisos de posibles
riesgos, y conducción remota. Para estos servicios,
los atascos y congestiones en la carretera pueden
causar el incumplimiento de los requisitos de latencia.
Por tanto, es necesario anticiparse a esas
circunstancias usando técnicas de series temporales
que permiten saber el tráfico inminente en los
siguientes minutos u horas, para así poder escalar
el servicio V2N adecuadamente.Current network infrastructures handle a diverse
range of network services such as video
on demand services, video-conferences, social
networks, educational systems, or photo
storage services. These services have been
embraced by a significant amount of the
world population, and are used on a daily basis.
Cloud providers and Network operators’
infrastructures accommodate the traffic rates
that the aforementioned services generate, and
their management tasks do not only involve
the traffic steering, but also the processing of
the network services’ traffic. Traditionally,
the traffic processing has been assessed via
applications/programs deployed on servers
that were exclusively dedicated to a specific
task as packet inspection. However, in recent
years network services have stated to be
virtualized and this has led to the Network
Function Virtualization (Network Function
Virtualization (NFV)) paradigm, in which the
network functions of a service run on containers
or virtual machines that are decoupled
from the hardware infrastructure. As a result,
the traffic processing has become more flexible
because of the loose coupling between
software and hardware, and the possibility
of sharing common network functions, as
firewalls, across multiple network services.
NFV eases the automation of network operations,
since scaling and migrations tasks
are typically performed by a set of commands
predefined by the virtualization technology,
either containers or virtual machines. However,
it is still necessary to decide the traffic steering and processing of every network
service. In other words, which servers will
hold the traffic processing, and which are the
network links to be traversed so the users’ requests
reach the final servers, i.e., the network
embedding problem. Under the umbrella of
NFV, this problem is known as Virtual Network
Embedding (VNE), and this thesis refers
as “NFV orchestration algorithms” to those
algorithms solving such a problem. The VNE
problem is a NP-hard, meaning that it is impossible
to find optimal solutions in polynomial
time, no matter the network size. As a
consequence, the research and telecommunications
community rely on heuristics that find
solutions quicker than a commodity optimization
solver.
Traditionally, NFV orchestration algorithms
have tried to minimize the deployment
costs derived from their solutions. For example,
they try to not exhaust the network
bandwidth, and use short paths to use less
network resources. Additionally, a recent
tendency led the research community towards
algorithms that minimize the energy consumption
of the deployed services, either
by selecting more energy efficient devices
or by turning off those network devices that
remained unused. VNE problem constraints
were typically summarized in a set of resources/energy constraints, and the solutions
differed on which objectives functions were
aimed for. But that was before 5th generation
of mobile networks (5G) were considered
in the VNE problem. With the appearance
of 5G, new network services and use cases
started to emerge. The standards talked about
Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication
(Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications
(URLLC)) with latencies below few
milliseconds and 99.999% reliability, an enhanced
mobile broadband (enhanced Mobile
Broadband (eMBB)) with significant data
rate increases, and even the consideration
of massive machine-type communications
(Massive Machine-Type Communications
(mMTC)) among Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Moreover, paradigms such as edge and
fog computing blended with the 5G technology
to introduce the idea of having computing
devices closer to the end users. As a result, the VNE problem had to incorporate the new
requirements as constraints to be taken into
account, and every solution should either
satisfy low latencies, high reliability, or larger
data rates.
This thesis studies the VNE problem, and
proposes some heuristics tackling the constraints
related to 5G services in Edge and
fog scenarios, that is, the proposed solutions
assess the assignment of Virtual Network
Functions to resources, and the traffic steering
across 5G infrastructures that have Edge and
Fog devices. To evaluate the performance
of the proposed solutions, the thesis studies
first the generation of graphs that represent
5G networks. The proposed mechanisms to
generate graphs serve to represent diverse 5G
scenarios. In particular federation scenarios
in which several domains share resources
among themselves. The generated graphs
also represent edge servers, so as fog devices
with limited battery capacity. Additionally,
these graphs take into account the standard
requirements, and the expected demand for
5G networks. Moreover, the graphs differ depending
on the density of population, and the
area of study, i.e., whether it is an industrial
area, a highway, or an urban area.
After detailing the generation of graphs
representing the 5G networks, this thesis proposes
several NFV orchestration algorithms
to tackle the VNE problem. First, it focuses
on federation scenarios in which network services
should be assigned not only to a single
domain infrastructure, but also to the shared
resources of the federation of domains. Two
different problems are studied, one being the
VNE itself over a federated infrastructure, and
the other the delegation of network services.
That is, whether a network service should be
deployed in a local domain, or in the pool
of resources of the federation domain; knowing
that the latter charges the local domain
for hosting the network service. Second, the
thesis proposes OKpi, a NFV orchestration
algorithm to meet 5G network slices quality
of service. Conceptually, network slicing consists
in splitting the network so network services
are treated differently based on the slice
they belong to. For example, an eHealth network
slice will allocate the network resources necessary to meet low latencies for network
services such as remote surgery. Each network
slice is devoted to specific services with
very concrete requirements, as high reliability,
location constraints, or 1ms latencies. OKpi is
a NFV orchestration algorithm that meets the
network service requirements among different
slices. It is based on a multi-constrained
shortest path heuristic, and its solutions satisfy
latency, reliability, and location constraints.
After presenting OKpi, the thesis tackles the
VNE problem in 5G networks with static/moving
fog devices. The presented NFV orchestration
algorithm takes into account the limited
computing resources of fog devices, as well
as the out-of-coverage problems derived from
the devices’ mobility.
To conclude, this thesis studies the scaling
of Vehicle-to-Network (V2N) services, which
require low latencies for network services as
collision avoidance, hazard warning, and remote
driving. For these services, the presence
of traffic jams, or high vehicular traffic congestion
lead to the violation of latency requirements.
Hence, it is necessary to anticipate to
such circumstances by using time-series techniques
that allow to derive the incoming vehicular
traffic flow in the next minutes or hours,
so as to scale the V2N service accordingly.The 5G Exchange (5GEx) project (2015-2018) was an EU-funded project (H2020-ICT-2014-2 grant agreement 671636).
The 5G-TRANSFORMER project (2017-2019) is an EU-funded project (H2020-ICT-2016-2 grant agreement 761536).
The 5G-CORAL project (2017-2019) is an EU-Taiwan project (H2020-ICT-2016-2 grant agreement 761586).Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Telemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Ioannis Stavrakakis.- Secretario: Pablo Serrano Yáñez-Mingot.- Vocal: Paul Horatiu Patra
Building the Future Internet through FIRE
The Internet as we know it today is the result of a continuous activity for improving network communications, end user services, computational processes and also information technology infrastructures. The Internet has become a critical infrastructure for the human-being by offering complex networking services and end-user applications that all together have transformed all aspects, mainly economical, of our lives. Recently, with the advent of new paradigms and the progress in wireless technology, sensor networks and information systems and also the inexorable shift towards everything connected paradigm, first as known as the Internet of Things and lately envisioning into the Internet of Everything, a data-driven society has been created. In a data-driven society, productivity, knowledge, and experience are dependent on increasingly open, dynamic, interdependent and complex Internet services. The challenge for the Internet of the Future design is to build robust enabling technologies, implement and deploy adaptive systems, to create business opportunities considering increasing uncertainties and emergent systemic behaviors where humans and machines seamlessly cooperate
Network Service Orchestration: A Survey
Business models of network service providers are undergoing an evolving
transformation fueled by vertical customer demands and technological advances
such as 5G, Software Defined Networking~(SDN), and Network Function
Virtualization~(NFV). Emerging scenarios call for agile network services
consuming network, storage, and compute resources across heterogeneous
infrastructures and administrative domains. Coordinating resource control and
service creation across interconnected domains and diverse technologies becomes
a grand challenge. Research and development efforts are being devoted to
enabling orchestration processes to automate, coordinate, and manage the
deployment and operation of network services. In this survey, we delve into the
topic of Network Service Orchestration~(NSO) by reviewing the historical
background, relevant research projects, enabling technologies, and
standardization activities. We define key concepts and propose a taxonomy of
NSO approaches and solutions to pave the way towards a common understanding of
the various ongoing efforts around the realization of diverse NSO application
scenarios. Based on the analysis of the state of affairs, we present a series
of open challenges and research opportunities, altogether contributing to a
timely and comprehensive survey on the vibrant and strategic topic of network
service orchestration.Comment: Accepted for publication at Computer Communications Journa
Building the Future Internet through FIRE
The Internet as we know it today is the result of a continuous activity for improving network communications, end user services, computational processes and also information technology infrastructures. The Internet has become a critical infrastructure for the human-being by offering complex networking services and end-user applications that all together have transformed all aspects, mainly economical, of our lives. Recently, with the advent of new paradigms and the progress in wireless technology, sensor networks and information systems and also the inexorable shift towards everything connected paradigm, first as known as the Internet of Things and lately envisioning into the Internet of Everything, a data-driven society has been created. In a data-driven society, productivity, knowledge, and experience are dependent on increasingly open, dynamic, interdependent and complex Internet services. The challenge for the Internet of the Future design is to build robust enabling technologies, implement and deploy adaptive systems, to create business opportunities considering increasing uncertainties and emergent systemic behaviors where humans and machines seamlessly cooperate
The long sale: future-setting strategies for enterprise technologies
Markets for enterprise technologies are complex socio-technical arrangements where
the nature of the goods or services available for exchange is frequently uncertain. Early
offerings may appear obfuscated, in part ontologically due to contested boundary
definitions, and in part through the intentional and unintentional work of sales actors.
While it is difficult for actors to know what they are transacting with certainty before
an exchange occurs, expectations are partly shaped in practice during a protracted and
multipartite sales process. In the early stages, such technologies may be nothing more
than ‘slideware’ or ‘vapourware’, with the promise of the offering yet to be realised.
Suppliers are therefore faced with the challenge of how to bring an immature product
to the serious attention of users.
One such example which has dominated the ICT landscape in recent times is
‘cloud computing’, a vision for on-demand utility computing which on the one hand
promised computing resources accessible like an infrastructure commodity such as
electricity, but on the other declared by some as simply everything we already do in
computing today. This thesis offers a longitudinal case study of the way in which a
major ICT supplier, IBM, attempted to galvanise the market for its cloud-enabled
products amongst user organisations. In doing so the supplier had the challenge of
selling a model of outsourced services to organisations with deeply embedded ICT
systems around which the sales processes had to be made to fit.
The research centers on four empirical chapters which bring together contextual
narratives of cloud computing, findings related to the sales work users do, the sales
challenges encountered during crisis management, and the shadow activity that occurs
during professional user groups and conferences. The discussion explains how actors
work together to construct an imagined community of technology artefacts and
practices that extends our understanding of how technology constituencies hold
together without overt forms of control.
The study draws together a number of years of fieldwork investigating user
group events in the corporate ICT arena and a major UK customer implementation.
These are explored through a mobile ethnography under the banner of a Biography of
Artefacts and Practices (Pollock & Williams, 2008) making use of participant
observation, and selective interviewing, with a particular focus on naturally occurring
data
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