Next Generation Cloud Computing: New Trends and Research Directions

The landscape of cloud computing has significantly changed over the last decade. Not only have more providers and service offerings crowded the space, but also cloud infrastructure that was traditionally limited to single provider data centers is now evolving. In this paper, we firstly discuss the changing cloud infrastructure and consider the use of infrastructure from multiple providers and the benefit of decentralising computing away from data centers. These trends have resulted in the need for a variety of new computing architectures that will be offered by future cloud infrastructure. These architectures are anticipated to impact areas, such as connecting people and devices, data-intensive computing, the service space and self-learning systems. Finally, we lay out a roadmap of challenges that will need to be addressed for realising the potential of next generation cloud systems.Comment: Accepted to Future Generation Computer Systems, 07 September 201

Seer: Empowering Software Defined Networking with Data Analytics

Network complexity is increasing, making network control and orchestration a challenging task. The proliferation of network information and tools for data analytics can provide an important insight into resource provisioning and optimisation. The network knowledge incorporated in software defined networking can facilitate the knowledge driven control, leveraging the network programmability. We present Seer: a flexible, highly configurable data analytics platform for network intelligence based on software defined networking and big data principles. Seer combines a computational engine with a distributed messaging system to provide a scalable, fault tolerant and real-time platform for knowledge extraction. Our first prototype uses Apache Spark for streaming analytics and open network operating system (ONOS) controller to program a network in real-time. The first application we developed aims to predict the mobility pattern of mobile devices inside a smart city environment.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Big data, data analytics, data mining, knowledge centric networking (KCN), software defined networking (SDN), Seer, 2016 15th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Communications and 2016 International Symposium on Cyberspace and Security (IUCC-CSS 2016

A manifesto for future generation cloud computing: research directions for the next decade

The Cloud computing paradigm has revolutionised the computer science horizon during the past decade and has enabled the emergence of computing as the fifth utility. It has captured significant attention of academia, industries, and government bodies. Now, it has emerged as the backbone of modern economy by offering subscription-based services anytime, anywhere following a pay-as-you-go model. This has instigated (1) shorter establishment times for start-ups, (2) creation of scalable global enterprise applications, (3) better cost-to-value associativity for scientific and high performance computing applications, and (4) different invocation/execution models for pervasive and ubiquitous applications. The recent technological developments and paradigms such as serverless computing, software-defined networking, Internet of Things, and processing at network edge are creating new opportunities for Cloud computing. However, they are also posing several new challenges and creating the need for new approaches and research strategies, as well as the re-evaluation of the models that were developed to address issues such as scalability, elasticity, reliability, security, sustainability, and application models. The proposed manifesto addresses them by identifying the major open challenges in Cloud computing, emerging trends, and impact areas. It then offers research directions for the next decade, thus helping in the realisation of Future Generation Cloud Computing

A flexible network architecture for 5G systems

In this paper, we define a flexible, adaptable, and programmable architecture for 5G mobile networks, taking into consideration the requirements, KPIs, and the current gaps in the literature, based on three design fundamentals: (i) split of user and control plane, (ii) service-based architecture within the core network (in line with recent industry and standard consensus), and (iii) fully flexible support of E2E slicing via per-domain and cross-domain optimisation, devising inter-slice control and management functions, and refining the behavioural models via experiment-driven optimisation. The proposed architecture model further facilitates the realisation of slices providing specific functionality, such as network resilience, security functions, and network elasticity. The proposed architecture consists of four different layers identified as network layer, controller layer, management and orchestration layer, and service layer. A key contribution of this paper is the definition of the role of each layer, the relationship between layers, and the identification of the required internal modules within each of the layers. In particular, the proposed architecture extends the reference architectures proposed in the Standards Developing Organisations like 3GPP and ETSI, by building on these while addressing several gaps identified within the corresponding baseline models. We additionally present findings, the design guidelines, and evaluation studies on a selected set of key concepts identified to enable flexible cloudification of the protocol stack, adaptive network slicing, and inter-slice control and management.This work has been performed in the framework of the H2020 project 5G-MoNArch co-funded by the E

Contributing to the pathway towards 5G experimentation with an SDN-controlled network box

Καθώς η απαίτηση σε ευρυζωνικές υπηρεσίες κινητών επικοινωνιών αυξάνεται ραγδαία, τα υπάρχοντα δίκτυα κινητών επικοινωνιών πλησιάζουν τα όριά τους κάνοντας επιτακτική την ανάγκη εξέλιξής τους η οποία θα επέλθει με την τεχνολογική άφιξη της επόμενης γενιάς κινητών επικοινωνιών, ευρέως γνωστής ως 5G. Το 5G μεταφέρει όλες εκείνες τις δυνατότητες οι οποίες είναι απαραίτητες για να καλυφθούν οι συνεχώς αυξανόμενες ανάγκες σε ευρυζωνικές υπηρεσίες, να υποστηρίξουν το Internet of Things καθώς και να ενοποιήσουν ετερογενείς υπηρεσίες σε διαφορετικές βιομηχανίες. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία στοχεύει να παρουσιάσει το “Network in a box”, ένα καινοτόμο εργαλείο που αναπτύξαμε στο εργαστήριο, το οποίο βασίζεται επάνω στους θεμέλιους λίθους του 5G, το SDN και το NFV. Με το SDN να είναι η νέα προσέγγιση στα δίκτυα κινητών επικοινωνιών, ο έλεγχος διαχωρίζεται από τα δεδομένα παρέχοντας τη δυνατότητα οποιεσδήποτε αποφάσεις ελέγχου, να λαμβάνονται κεντρικά, μετατρέποντας έτσι τις κλασικές δικτυακές συσκευές σε απλά προωθητικά στοιχεία του δικτύου. Η συγκεκριμένη διάταξη μιμείται ένα πραγματικό δίκτυο, το οποίο διαθέτει δυνατότητες αυτο-οργάνωσης και αυτο-βελτίωσης, προσομοιώνοντας τη λειτουργία του 5G δικτύου. Το συγκεκριμένο εργαλείο είναι επίσης ικανό να παράσχει KPI μετρικές του 5G δικτύου κάτω από πραγματικές συνθήκες ενόσω αληθινές δικτυακές συσκευές είναι συνδεδεμένες σε αυτό. Η δομή της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας αναλύεται σε πέντε κεφάλαια. Το πρώτο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζει τις προκλήσεις που σύντομα θα κληθούν να αντιμετωπίσουν τα δίκτυα κινητών επικοινωνιών και πώς αυτές μπορούν να καλυφθούν με την τεχνολογία του 5G. Το δεύτερο κεφάλαιο εισάγει την τάση στην αγορά των κινητών επικοινωνιών που διαφένεται πίσω από την επερχόμενη άφιξη του 5G, αποκαλύπτοντας το επιχειρηματικό πλαίσιο για επιχειρήσεις, καταναλωτές και συνεργασίες όπως επίσης και κάποιες περιπτώσεις χρήσης που αντικατοπτρίζουν την διαρκή εξέλιξη στις ευρυζωνικές υπηρεσίες κινητών επικοινωνιών. Το τρίτο κεφάλαιο εμπεριέχει μια μικρή επισκόπηση των τρέχοντων έργων πάνω στο 5G, τα οποία ξεκίνησαν υπό την αιγίδα της Ευρωπαϊκής Επιτροπής με τη συνεργασία προμηθευτών τεχνολογίας επικοινωνιών, παρόχων υπηρεσιών, μικρομεσαίων επιχειρήσεων και πανεπιστημίων. Γίνεται επίσης αναφορά στις βασικές τεχνολογίες του 5G και στις δραστηριότητες προτυποποίησής του. Προχωρώντας στο τέταρτο κεφάλαιο, περιγράφουμε σε βάθος την αρχιτεκτονική του 5G δικτύου, αναλύοντας τα SDN, NFV, MANO και εξετάζουμε πώς αυτά συνεισφέρουν στη βιωσιμότητα του δικτύου. Τέλος, στο πέμπτο κεφάλαιο εισάγουμε μια καινοτόμο ιδέα που αναπτύξαμε στο εργαστήριο δικτύων του πανεπιστημίου μας, ένα πλήρως αυτόνομο δικτυακό εργαλείο, το “Network in a box”. Παρουσιάζουμε σε βάθος πώς αυτός ο server μπορεί να εγκατασταθεί και να λειτουργήσει καθώς και τις δυνατότητές του κάτω από πραγματικές συνθήκες λειτουργίας του δικτύου, ενώ λαμβάνουν χώρα υποβάθμιση ποιότητας ή μη-διαθεσιμότητα στις δικτυακές ζεύξεις, παρέχοντας επίσης μετρικές από τη λειτουργία του δικτύου σε πραγματικό χρόνο.As the demand in mobile broadband is tremendously increased and the heterogeneity of the services to be covered is growing rapidly, current mobile networks are close to their limits imposing the need of an evolution which is going to be introduced by the next generation technology, the ITU IMT-2020, well known as 5G. 5G brings all those capabilities required to cover the increased mobile broadband needs, support the Internet of Things and bind heterogeneous services in different industries. This diploma thesis aims at presenting the “Network in a box”, an innovative tool we developed which is based on the key 5G principles, SDN and NFV. With Software Defined Networking (SDN) being the new approach in mobile networks, control and data plane are decoupled providing the ability to make any control related decisions centrally and transform legacy network devices to simple forwarding elements. This testbed is a portable emulated network device which is self-managed and self-optimised and can be connected between any real network devices, emulating how the 5G network will perform. This plug & play black-box testbed is also capable of providing KPI metrics of the 5G network under real circumstances when real network devices are connected to it. The structure of this diploma thesis is decomposed in five chapters. Chapter 1 presents the challenges mobile networks will shortly face due to the growing heterogeneous demands in communications towards the year 2020 and beyond and how these can be met with the upcoming 5G technology. Chapter 2 introduces the market trend behind the new era of 5G, revealing the business context for enterprises, consumers, verticals and partnerships as well as some use cases which reflect the continuous mobile broadband evolution. Chapter 3 includes a short overview of the ongoing 5G projects, initiated under the umbrella of the European Commission, with the collaboration of communications technology vendors, telecommunications operators, service providers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and universities. There is also a reference in 5G key enabling technologies and standardisation activities as we move towards the next generation mobile networks technology. Moving forward, chapter 4 describes in detail the technological components of 5G network architecture such as SDN, NFV, MANO and examines how these 5G key enabling technologies contribute to the overall networks’ sustainability. Finally, in chapter 5 we introduce an innovative idea developed in our university’s communications network research laboratory, an autonomous emulated portable network testbed, the “Network in a box”. We present in-depth how this portable server is deployed, operates and demonstrate the way it can be connected to real network elements emulating a real 5G end-to-end customer network. Moreover, in this last chapter we present “Network in a box” capabilities under real network circumstances when link degradations or failures take place, providing also real-time network metrics