Multi-Path Link Embedding for Survivability in Virtual Networks

Internet applications are deployed on the same network infrastructure, yet they have diverse performance and functional requirements. The Internet was not originally designed to support the diversity of current applications. Network Virtualization enables heterogeneous applications and network architectures to coexist without interference on the same infrastructure. Embedding a Virtual Network (VN) into a physical network is a fundamental problem in Network Virtualization. A VN Embedding that aims to survive physical (e.g., link) failures is known as the Survivable Virtual Network Embedding (SVNE). A key challenge in the SVNE problem is to ensure VN survivability with minimal resource redundancy. To address this challenge, we propose SiMPLE. By exploiting path diversity in the physical network, SiMPLE provides guaranteed VN survivability against single link failure while incurring minimal resource redundancy. In case of multiple arbitrary link failures, SiMPLE provides maximal survivability to the VNs. We formulate this problem as an ILP and implement it using GNU Linear Programming Kit (GLPK). We propose a greedy proactive to solve larger instances of the problem in case of single link failures. In presence of more than one link failures, we propose a greedy reactive algorithm as an extension to the previous one, which opportunistically recovers the lost bandwidth in the VNs. Simulation results show that SiMPLE outperforms full backup and shared backup schemes for SVNE, and produces near-optimal results

Disaster-Resilient Control Plane Design and Mapping in Software-Defined Networks

Communication networks, such as core optical networks, heavily depend on their physical infrastructure, and hence they are vulnerable to man-made disasters, such as Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) or Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) attacks, as well as to natural disasters. Large-scale disasters may cause huge data loss and connectivity disruption in these networks. As our dependence on network services increases, the need for novel survivability methods to mitigate the effects of disasters on communication networks becomes a major concern. Software-Defined Networking (SDN), by centralizing control logic and separating it from physical equipment, facilitates network programmability and opens up new ways to design disaster-resilient networks. On the other hand, to fully exploit the potential of SDN, along with data-plane survivability, we also need to design the control plane to be resilient enough to survive network failures caused by disasters. Several distributed SDN controller architectures have been proposed to mitigate the risks of overload and failure, but they are optimized for limited faults without addressing the extent of large-scale disaster failures. For disaster resiliency of the control plane, we propose to design it as a virtual network, which can be solved using Virtual Network Mapping techniques. We select appropriate mapping of the controllers over the physical network such that the connectivity among the controllers (controller-to-controller) and between the switches to the controllers (switch-to-controllers) is not compromised by physical infrastructure failures caused by disasters. We formally model this disaster-aware control-plane design and mapping problem, and demonstrate a significant reduction in the disruption of controller-to-controller and switch-to-controller communication channels using our approach.Comment: 6 page

Survivable Cloud Networking Services

Cloud computing paradigms are seeing very strong traction today and are being propelled by advances in multi-core processor, storage, and high-bandwidth networking technologies. Now as this growth unfolds, there is a growing need to distribute cloud services over multiple data-center sites in order to improve speed, responsiveness, as well as reliability. Overall, this trend is pushing the need for virtual network (VN) embedding support at the underlying network layer. Moreover, as more and more mission-critical end-user applications move to the cloud, associated VN survivability concerns are also becoming a key requirement in order to guarantee user service level agreements. Overall, several different types of survivable VN embedding schemes have been developed in recent years. Broadly, these schemes offer resiliency guarantees by pre-provisioning backup resources at service setup time. However, most of these solutions are only geared towards handling isolated single link or single node failures. As such, these designs are largely ineffective against larger regional stressors that can result in multiple system failures. In particular, many cloud service providers are very concerned about catastrophic disaster events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, cascading power outages, and even malicious weapons of mass destruction attacks. Hence there is a pressing need to develop more robust cloud recovery schemes for disaster recovery that leverage underlying distributed networking capabilities. In light of the above, this dissertation proposes a range of solutions to address cloud networking services recovery under multi-failure stressors. First, a novel failure region-disjoint VN protection scheme is proposed to achieve improved efficiency for pre-provisioned protection. Next, enhanced VN mapping schemes are studied with probabilistic considerations to minimize risk for VN requests under stochastic failure scenarios. Finally, novel post-fault VN restoration schemes are also developed to provide viable last-gap recovery mechanisms using partial and full VN remapping strategies. The performance of these various solutions is evaluated using discrete event simulation and is also compared to existing strategies

Towards a Virtualized Next Generation Internet

A promising solution to overcome the Internet ossification is network virtualization in which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are decoupled into two tiers: service providers (SPs), and infrastructure providers (InPs). The former maintain and customize virtual network(s) to meet the service requirement of end-users, which is mapped to the physical network infrastructure that is managed and deployed by the latter via the Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) process. VNE consists of two major components: node assignment, and link mapping, which can be shown to be NP-Complete. In the first part of the dissertation, we present a path-based ILP model for the VNE problem. Our solution employs a branch-and-bound framework to resolve the integrity constraints, while embedding the column generation process to effectively obtain the lower bound for branch pruning. Different from existing approaches, the proposed solution can either obtain an optimal solution or a near-optimal solution with guarantee on the solution quality. A common strategy in VNE algorithm design is to decompose the problem into two sequential sub-problems: node assignment (NA) and link mapping (LM). With this approach, it is inexorable to sacrifice the solution quality since the NA is not holistic and not-reversible. In the second part, we are motivated to answer the question: Is it possible to maintain the simplicity of the Divide-and-Conquer strategy while still achieving optimality? Our answer is based on a decomposition framework supported by the Primal-Dual analysis of the path-based ILP model. This dissertation also attempts to address issues in two frontiers of network virtualization: survivability, and integration of optical substrate. In the third part, we address the survivable network embedding (SNE) problem from a network flow perspective, considering both splittable and non-splittable flows. In addition, the explosive growth of the Internet traffic calls for the support of a bandwidth abundant optical substrate, despite the extra dimensions of complexity caused by the heterogeneities of optical resources, and the physical feature of optical transmission. In this fourth part, we present a holistic view of motivation, architecture, and challenges on the way towards a virtualized optical substrate that supports network virtualization