Cloud-Native Realization of Network Configuration Protocol

Many of the telecommunication companies aim to support Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) to manage their large network in cloud-native environment. The NETCONF protocol provides automation and security using permanent SSH and TLS connections as well as cloudnative brings scalability advantages. However, supporting the NETCONF protocol in cloud-native environment represents challenges since the NETCONF protocol is not stateless. The thesis implements a proof of concept for cloud-native Network Configuration Protocol and investigates issues of such an implementation. The approach in this thesis is to have two implementations of standard Network Configuration Protocol and Network Configuration Protocol Call Home in cloud-native environment. A solution is applied together with these implementations by terminating the permanent established sessions in the end of messaging. The evaluations are made by analysing changing number of connections and events per connection in the both implementations. Based on the evaluation of the proof of concept, the results indicate that terminating the established NETCONF sessions in the end of messaging is an operable solution. However, it is also observed that throughput and CPU could be limitations for such an implementation in cloud-native environment. In addition, it must be considered that authentication time is affected based on chosen security provider

OpenDaylight SDN controller platform

Implementació d'una solució SDN amb opendaylightImplementación of a SDN solution based on OpenDaylight: controller architecture and developer guideImplementación de una solución SDN basada en OpenDaylight: arquitectura y guia de desarrollo.Implementació d'una solució SDN basada en OpenDaylight: arquitectura del controlador i guia de desenvolupament

SDN Architecture and Southbound APIs for IPv6 Segment Routing Enabled Wide Area Networks

The SRv6 architecture (Segment Routing based on IPv6 data plane) is a promising solution to support services like Traffic Engineering, Service Function Chaining and Virtual Private Networks in IPv6 backbones and datacenters. The SRv6 architecture has interesting scalability properties as it reduces the amount of state information that needs to be configured in the nodes to support the network services. In this paper, we describe the advantages of complementing the SRv6 technology with an SDN based approach in backbone networks. We discuss the architecture of a SRv6 enabled network based on Linux nodes. In addition, we present the design and implementation of the Southbound API between the SDN controller and the SRv6 device. We have defined a data-model and four different implementations of the API, respectively based on gRPC, REST, NETCONF and remote Command Line Interface (CLI). Since it is important to support both the development and testing aspects we have realized an Intent based emulation system to build realistic and reproducible experiments. This collection of tools automate most of the configuration aspects relieving the experimenter from a significant effort. Finally, we have realized an evaluation of some performance aspects of our architecture and of the different variants of the Southbound APIs and we have analyzed the effects of the configuration updates in the SRv6 enabled nodes

5G SA and NSA Solutions

This paper explains in detail the 5G packet core gateway solution. It also gives an overview of the 5G Architecture, the platform and the hardware details of this solution. 5G is the next generation of Third-Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) technology, after 4G/LTE, being defined for wireless mobile data communication. Starting with 3GPP Release 15 onward, this technology defines standards for 5G. As part of 3GPP Release 15, new 5G Radio and Packet Core evolution is being defined to cater to the needs of 5G networks. The two solutions that will be talked about in this paper are 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) and 5G Standalone (SA) both of which will coexist for some time together. As you might have understood by just looking at the names of these solutions, 5G Non-Standalone stands for the existing LTE radio access and core network (EPC) to be used as an anchor for mobility management and coverage to add the 5G carrier. This solution enables operators to provide 5G services with shorter time and lesser cost, and as for the 5G Standalone an all new 5G Packet Core will be introduced with several new capabilities built inherently into it. The SA architecture comprises of 5G New Radio (5G NR) and 5G Core Network (5GC)

Zero Touch Provisioning in NETCONF Server

Administrátori počítačových sietí potrebujú pokročilé nástroje na konfiguráciu sieťových zariadení. Pre tento účel vznikol protokol NETCONF a modelovací jazyk YANG. Cieľom tejto práce je implementovať mechanizmu Zero Touch, ktorý slúži na počiatočnú konfiguráciu NETCONF servera.Tento mechanizmus bude integrovaný do dátového úložiska sysrepo.Computer network administrators need advanced tools to configure network devices. For this purpose, the NETCONF protocol and the YANG modeling language were developed. The aim of this thesis is to implement the Zero Touch mechanism that serves the initial configuration of the NETCONF server. This mechanism will be integrated into the sysrepo datastore.

Orchestration and Lifecycle Management over Virtualized Network Functions

A crescente evolução da nova geração de redes móveis aproxima a comercialização de redes de quinta geração da realidade. Os operadores móveis já dizem possuir dispositivos preparados para o 5G e já demonstram protótipos de serviços criados e sustentados para estas redes. Na realidade, as Redes de Acesso Radio (Radio Access Network - RAN) planeadas para o 5G já estão desenvolvidas e testadas, existindo já algumas redes de acesso radio com novas antenas preparadas para 5G em várias partes do mundo. Porém, as redes 5G vão mais além que a evolução das RAN, sendo a principal novidade desta geração de redes móvel a virtualização das redes centrais, incluindo nestas serviços e funções de rede. A Virtualização de Funções de Rede (Network Function Virtualization - NFV) está a ser normalizada pela European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Esta tecnologia está a ser usada pela 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) para normalizar as redes 5G, nomeadamente a virtualização das suas redes centrais. A virtualização não só irá permitir o surgimento de novos serviços e funções de rede como também permitirá virtualizar serviços e funções de rede antigas. A virtualização não só irá melhorar significativamente as redes móveis, como também será mais fácil a gestão e a orquestração destas. Em Portugal, o consórcio 5GO, que envolve várias empresas com uma vasta experiência de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (Research & Development - R&D) na área de Telecomunicações, desenvolve o projeto Mobilizador 5G. Esta iniciativa portuguesa visa desenvolver soluções inovadoras para a rede 5G. Esta dissertação aborda inicialmente uma análise às tecnologias que permitem as redes 5G. De seguida foca-se nas plataformas de gestão e orquestração de redes existentes e por fim, nas operações de gestão de ciclo de vida (Lifecycle Management - LCM) que estas plataformas poderão realizar nas funções de redes. O objetivo final será testar e analisar essas operações em funções de rede através de uma das plataformas existentes.The growing evolution of the new mobile generation networks brings the commercialization of 5th generation networks closer to reality. Mobile operators already claim to have 5G-ready devices and already demonstrate prototypes of services created and sustained for these networks. In fact, the Radio Access Network (RAN) planned for 5G are already developed and tested, and there are already some radio access networks with new 5G-ready antennas in diverse parts of the world. However, 5G networks go beyond the evolution of RANs, with the main novelty of this mobile network generation being the virtualisation of central networks, including in these services and network functions. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is being standardized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). This technology is being used by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to standardise 5G networks, particularly the virtualisation of core networks. Virtualization will not only allow the development of new network services and functions, it will also allow the virtualization of legacy network services and functions. Virtualization will not only significantly improve mobile networks, but also make it easier to manage and orchestrate them. In Portugal, the 5GO consortium, which involves several companies with a vast experience in Research & Development (R&D) in the area of Telecommunications, develops the project Mobilizador 5G. This Portuguese initiative aims to develop innovative solutions for the 5G network. This dissertation initially addresses an analysis of the technologies that enable 5G networks. It then focuses on the existing network management and orchestration platforms and, finally, on the Lifecycle Management (LCM) operations that these platforms can perform in network functions. The final objective will be to test and analyse these operations in network functions through one of the existing platforms

Simulating and prototyping software defined networking (SDN) using Mininet approach to optimise host communication in realistic programmable networking environment

In this project, two tests were performed. On the first test, Mininet-WiFi was used to simulate a Software Defined Network to demonstrate Mininet-WiFi’ s ability to be used as the Software Defined Network emulator which can also be integrated to the existing network using a Network Virtualized Function (NVF). A typical organization’s computer network was simulated which consisted of a website hosted on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) virtual machine, and an F5 application delivery controller (ADC) which provided load balancing of requests sent to the web applications. A website page request was sent from the virtual stations inside Mininet-WiFi. The request was received by the application delivery controller, which then used round robin technique to send the request to one of the web servers on the LAMP virtual machine. The web server then returned the requested website to the requesting virtual stations using the simulated virtual network. The significance of these results is that it presents Mininet-WiFi as an emulator, which can be integrated into a real programmable networking environment offering a portable, cost effective and easily deployable testing network, which can be run on a single computer. These results are also beneficial to modern network deployments as the live network devices can also communicate with the testing environment for the data center, cloud and mobile provides. On the second test, a Software Defined Network was created in Mininet using python script. An external interface was added to enable communication with the network outside of Mininet. The amazon web services elastic computing cloud was used to host an OpenDaylight controller. This controller is used as a control plane device for the virtual switch within Mininet. In order to test the network, a webserver hosted on the Emulated Virtual Environment – Next Generation (EVENG) software is connected to Mininet. EVE-NG is the Emulated Virtual Environment for networking. It provides tools to be able to model virtual devices and interconnect them with other virtual or physical devices. The OpenDaylight controller was able to create the flows to facilitate communication between the hosts in Mininet and the webserver in the real-life network.Electrical and Mining EngineeringM. Tech. (Electrical Engineering

Deploying SDN architecture in Open Optical Transport Networks

Pro udrženı́ tempa s rostoucı́mi požadavky na přenosovou rychlost, latenci a bezpečnost je nutné zvážit současnou koncepci řı́zenı́ sı́tı́. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) je jedno z možných řešenı́, ke kterému telekomunikačnı́ průmysl směruje. Tato práce představuje současný stav Software-Defined Networking a zaměřuje se na vybraná open-source řešenı́ v oblasti SDN kontrolerů, jako je ONOS či OpenDaylight. Hlavnı́m cı́lem této části práce je vysvětlit, jak může SDN pomoci vyřešit rostoucı́ požadavky na rozšı́řenı́ automatizace v otevřených optických sı́tı́ch. Praktická část této práce je rozdělená do dvou oblastı́. V rámci prvnı́ oblasti jsem se zabýval rozšı́řenı́m funkčnosti SDN kontroleru pro umožněnı́ konfigurace a řı́zenı́ optických komunikačnı́ch zařı́zenı́. Hlavnı́m přı́nosem je implementace nových funkcionalit SDN driveru pro Nokia 1830 PSS (ROADM) a rozšı́řenı́ funkcionality driveru pro Nokia 1830 PSI-2T (optický transpondér). Ve druhé části práce jsem se zabýval problematikou korelace alarmů v otevřených optických sı́tı́ch. Výsledkem je funkce pro korelaci alarmů ve formě SDN aplikace, kterou jsem dále otestoval na emulovaných optických zařı́zenı́ch pro prokázánı́ funkčnosti celého konceptu.With the rising demands on the network throughput, latency and security, legacy control networking concepts should be reconsidered. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is one of the possible solutions, to which telecommunication industry is moving. This work presents current state-of-the-art in Software-Defined Networking and focuses on some open-source solutions of SDN controllers, like ONOS and OpenDaylight. Main focus is to understand how SDN can help to solve increasing demand for broader automation in Optical Transport Networks. The practical section is divided in two parts. Within the first part I focused on extending functionality of SDN controller to facilitate more efficient configuration and control of optical network devices. Main contribution was to implement additional features to SDN drivers for Nokia 1830 PSS (ROADM) and extend functionality of Nokia 1830 PSI-2T (Optical Transponder) driver. Second part is dedicated to the Alarm Correlation problematic in open optical networks. We designed, developed an Alarm Correlation function as a SDN application then we tested it on emulated optical devices to prove the concept

Transport API development and validation for the Netphony environment

This final degree project contributes to the development and implementation of the connectivity service and the topology service of the Transport API (T-API) in the set of Netphony modules, developed by Telefónica I + D, and then the validation of that. Netphony follows an Application-Based Network Operations (ABNO) architecture which can be defined as an architecture based on collaboration between different elements, for automation processes in the management of a network , as configuration of LSP routes, which makes the network more scalable and dynamic, where the main elements are the ABNO controller and the PCE. This is the purpose with software defined networks (SDN), to achieve a fully programmable network and the ability to modify any demand of the network automatically. Validation and performance tests with the Netphony controller have been performed in a GMPLS nodes emulated environment, with OSPF and RSVP to carry out the configuration of the LSPs between the nodes, thus conforming the emulated environment of Netphony GMPLS. The T-API standard meets the requirements to become the NBI (North Bound interface) of the Netphony. The main characteristics of this standard is its simplicity and usability to extend it in different types of transport networks. This work focuses on the implementation for optical networks. Documentation of the technologies used and the current state of the same is the first part of this work, to then present how the T-API has been integrated into the Netphony controller, use cases and definition of the validation tests. Finally, the implemented code has been compiled, the creation of LSPs has been configured and a performance evaluation has been carried out

Managing Device and Platform Heterogeneity through the Web of Things

The chaotic growth of the IoT determined a fragmented landscape with a huge number of devices, technologies, and platforms available on the market, and consequential issues of interoperability on many system deployments. The Web of Things (WoT) architecture recently proposed by the W3C consortium constitutes a novel solution to enable interoperability across IoT Platforms and application domains. At the same time, in order to see an effective improvement, a wide adoption of the W3C WoT solutions from the academic and industrial communities is required; this translates into the need of accurate and complete support tools to ease the deployment of W3C WoT applications, as well as reference guidelines about how to enable the WoT on top of existing IoT scenarios and how to deploy WoT scenarios from scratch. In this thesis, we bring three main contributions for filling such gap: (1) we introduce the WoT Store, a novel platform for managing and easing the deployment of Things and applications on the W3C WoT, and additional strategies for bringing old legacy IoT systems into the WoT. The WoT Store allows the dynamic discovery of the resources available in the environment, i.e. the Things, and to interact with each of them through a dashboard by visualizing their properties, executing commands, or observing the notifications produced. (2) We map three different IoT scenarios to WoT scenarios: a generic heterogeneous environmental monitoring scenario, a structural health monitoring scenario and an Industry4.0 scenario. (3) We make proposals to improve both the W3C standard and the node-wot software stack design: in the first case, new vocabularies are needed in order to handle particular protocols employed in industrial scenarios, while in the second case we present some contributions required for the dynamic instantiation and the migration of Web Things and WoT services in a cloud-to-edge continuum environment