SENATUS: an experimental SDN/NFV Orchestrator

open4The fifth generation telecommunication standard (5G) will make use of novel technologies, such as Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). New models are integrating SDN and NFV in a control plane entity responsible of the Management and Orchestration (MANO) of the whole system. This entity, acting as director of the 5G control plane, is known as Service Orchestrator. This work presents SENATUS, an experimental service orchestrator targeting research and testing environments. SENATUS implements a set of innovations to support the validation of the future network planner modules that will be integrated on the management entities of the 5G architecture. Furthermore, we present two testbed scenarios to show the capability of SENATUS to control the SDN and NFV technologies previously mentioned.openSebastian Troia, Alberto Rodriguez, Rodolfo Alvizu, Guido MaierTroia, Sebastian; Rodriguez, Alberto; Rodolfo, Alvizu; Maier, GUIDO ALBERT

Virtualization of Radio Access Network by Virtual Machine and Docker: Practice and Performance Analysis

International audienceSoftware defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are the embraced technologies for the backhauling of future 5G networks. Virtual Machine (VM) and Docker container based deployments have received much attention. This paper presents the virtualization of a prototyped software defined radio access network (RAN) architecture by using VMs and Docker containers. In addition, it provides an analytical model for the generalized software defined RAN architecture with the practice of VM based and Docker container based implementations. Using measurements obtained from the two testbeds and the introduced queuing model, we compare their performances and analyze the two different architectures. Results verify the superiority of the Docker technology. Some observations from the behavior of the testbeds are concluded for a better understanding of the VM and Docker container based technologies for the future development of 5G SDN controller

The Impact of Network Topology on Software Defined Network Performance

Software Defined Network (SDN) is a new networking concept in which the data plane is decoupled from the control plane. Due to the huge demand on network resources and the rapidly increasing numbers of devices needing to be connected to the network, SDN paradigm has emerged as a potential solution for managing and solving such issues. However, SDN still faces many challenges when it comes to its achievable network performance in terms of delay, packet dropped rate, throughput, and other metrics. This thesis studies the impact of SDN topologies on network performances such as end-to-end latency, control packet overhead, and flow setup failure rate. Understanding the nature of each topology and how it is affecting the SDN performance help us make appropriate network design decisions that can enhance SDN systems. In this thesis, we study the impact of the network topology on SDN performances, by simulating the network performance under three different topology scenarios and evaluating the average end-to-end latency, flow setup failure rates and Open Flow control message overhead that are achievable under each of these three scenarios