Network functions virtualization: the long road to commercial deployments

Network operators are under pressure to offer efficient network-based services while keeping service deployment costs to a minimum. Network functions virtualization (NFV) can potentially revolutionize network-based services bringing low-deployment costs for network operators. The NFV has been introduced to ultimately extend the non-proprietary and open-standard-based model to network and service deployments, significant improvements to today’s proprietary locked implementations. Notwithstanding the continuous efforts of both academia and industry to support the NFV paradigm, the current NFV solutions offered are still in its infancy. In this survey, we provide a detailed background of NFV to establish a comprehensive understanding of the subject, ranging from the basics to more advanced topics. Moreover, we offer a comprehensive overview of the NFV main concepts, standardization efforts, the benefits of NFV, and discussions of the NFV architecture as defined by the European telecommunications standardization institute (ETSI). Furthermore, we discuss the NFV applicability and current open source projects. We then highlight NFV requirements, design considerations, and developmental architectural impairments and barriers to commercial NFV deployments. Finally, we conclude enumerating future directions for NFV developmentpublishe

A future-proof architecture for management and orchestration of multi-domain NextGen networks

The novel network slicing paradigm represents an effective turning point to operate future wireless networks. Available networking and computational resources may be shared across different (instantiations of) services tailored onto specific vertical needs, envisioned as the main infrastructure tenants. While such customization enables meeting advanced Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) introduced by upcoming 5G networks, advanced multi-tenancy approaches help to abate the cost of deploying and operating the network. However, the network slicing implementation requires a number of non-trivial practical considerations, including e.g. (i) how resource sharing operations are actually implemented, (ii) how involved parties establish the corresponding agreement to instantiate, operate and terminate such a sharing or, (iii) the design of functional modules and interfaces supporting these operations. In this paper, we present a novel framework that unveils proper answers to the above design challenges. While existing initiatives are typically limited to single-domain and single-owner scenarios, our framework overcomes these limitations by enlarging the administrative scope of the network deployments fostering different providers to collaborate so as to facilitate a larger set of resources even spread across multiple domains. Numerical evaluations confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of the presented solution.This work was supported in part by the 5G-MoNArch Project, in part by the Phase II of the 5th Generation Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP) Program, in part by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Framework Program under Grant 761445, in part by the 5G-MoNArch Project builds on the results of the 5G-PPP Phase I Project 5G-NORMA, and in part by the European Union Horizon 2020 Project 5G-CARMEN under Grant 825012. The work of UC3M has also received funding from the Horizon 2020 Programme under Grant 815074 - 5G EVE.Publicad

Software Defined Networks based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey

The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid (SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system. For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is built on different vendor specific devices and protocols. Therefore, the current SG systems are not protocol independent, thus leading to interoperability issue. Software defined network (SDN) has been proposed to monitor and manage the communication networks globally. This article serves as a comprehensive survey on SDN-based SGC. In this article, we first discuss taxonomy of advantages of SDNbased SGC.We then discuss SDN-based SGC architectures, along with case studies. Our article provides an in-depth discussion on routing schemes for SDN-based SGC. We also provide detailed survey of security and privacy schemes applied to SDN-based SGC. We furthermore present challenges, open issues, and future research directions related to SDN-based SGC.Comment: Accepte

Location Based Power Reduction Cloud Integrated Social Sensor Network

It is great to hear about the advancements in wireless sensor networks and their applications, as well as the integration of cloud computing to enhance data analysis and storage capabilities. Indeed, these technologies have opened up numerous possibilities across various fields, including infrastructure tracking, environmental monitoring, healthcare, and more. The concept of a social sensor cloud, as you mentioned, brings an interesting dimension to this technology landscape by focusing on knowledge-sharing and connecting like-minded individuals or organizations. This could potentially lead to more collaborative and efficient solutions across a wide range of domains. Energy efficiency is a critical consideration in the design and operation of wireless sensor networks and the cloud infrastructure that supports them. The limited battery life of sensors necessitates careful management of energy consumption to ensure optimal functionality and longevity. Sleep scheduling methods are a common technique used to manage energy consumption in these networks. By coordinating when sensors are active and when they are in a low-power sleep mode, energy consumption can be significantly reduced without compromising the network's overall effectiveness. In the context of the Social Sensor Cloud, managing energy efficiency becomes even more crucial due to the shorter battery life of the sensors involved. This is particularly relevant given the growing concerns about environmental sustainability and the need to reduce energy consumption across technological systems. It's clear that your research paper addresses these challenges head-on, by exploring energy-efficient techniques for the Social Sensor Cloud. Sleep scheduling is just one of the many strategies that researchers and engineers are working on to strike a balance between functionality and energy consumption. Other methods might include optimizing data transfer protocols, developing energy-harvesting mechanisms, and enhancing sensor hardware efficiency. As technology continues to evolve, the integration of wireless sensor networks, cloud computing, and social networks will likely pave the way for innovative solutions and transformative applications. Addressing energy efficiency concerns will undoubtedly play a crucial role in ensuring the long-term viability and positive impact of these technologies

Virtual machine cluster mobility in inter-cloud platforms

Modern cloud computing applications developed from different interoperable services that are interfacing with each other in a loose coupling approach. This work proposes the concept of the Virtual Machine (VM) cluster migration, meaning that services could be migrated to various clouds based on different constraints such as computational resources and better economical offerings. Since cloud services are instantiated as VMs, an application can be seen as a cluster of VMs that integrate its functionality. We focus on the VM cluster migration by exploring a more sophisticated method with regards to VM network configurations. In particular, networks are hard to managed because their internal setup is changed after a migration, and this is related with the configuration parameters during the re-instantiation to the new cloud platform. To address such issue, we introduce a Software Defined Networking (SDN) service that breaks the problem of network configuration into tractable pieces and involves virtual bridges instead of references to static endpoints. The architecture is modular, it is based on the SDN OpenFlow protocol and allows VMs to be paired in cluster groups that communicate with each other independently of the cloud platform that are deployed. The experimental analysis demonstrates migrations of VM clusters and provides a detailed discussion of service performance for different cases