Design of a Hybrid Modular Switch

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) shed new light for the design, deployment, and management of cloud networks. Many network functions such as firewalls, load balancers, and intrusion detection systems can be virtualized by servers. However, network operators often have to sacrifice programmability in order to achieve high throughput, especially at networks' edge where complex network functions are required. Here, we design, implement, and evaluate Hybrid Modular Switch (HyMoS). The hybrid hardware/software switch is designed to meet requirements for modern-day NFV applications in providing high-throughput, with a high degree of programmability. HyMoS utilizes P4-compatible Network Interface Cards (NICs), PCI Express interface and CPU to act as line cards, switch fabric, and fabric controller respectively. In our implementation of HyMos, PCI Express interface is turned into a non-blocking switch fabric with a throughput of hundreds of Gigabits per second. Compared to existing NFV infrastructure, HyMoS offers modularity in hardware and software as well as a higher degree of programmability by supporting a superset of P4 language

A Survey on Load Balancing Algorithms for VM Placement in Cloud Computing

The emergence of cloud computing based on virtualization technologies brings huge opportunities to host virtual resource at low cost without the need of owning any infrastructure. Virtualization technologies enable users to acquire, configure and be charged on pay-per-use basis. However, Cloud data centers mostly comprise heterogeneous commodity servers hosting multiple virtual machines (VMs) with potential various specifications and fluctuating resource usages, which may cause imbalanced resource utilization within servers that may lead to performance degradation and service level agreements (SLAs) violations. To achieve efficient scheduling, these challenges should be addressed and solved by using load balancing strategies, which have been proved to be NP-hard problem. From multiple perspectives, this work identifies the challenges and analyzes existing algorithms for allocating VMs to PMs in infrastructure Clouds, especially focuses on load balancing. A detailed classification targeting load balancing algorithms for VM placement in cloud data centers is investigated and the surveyed algorithms are classified according to the classification. The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and comparative understanding of existing literature and aid researchers by providing an insight for potential future enhancements.Comment: 22 Pages, 4 Figures, 4 Tables, in pres

A framework for the joint placement of edge service infrastructure and User Plane Functions for 5G

Achieving less than 1 ms end-to-end communication latency, required for certain 5G services and use cases, is imposing severe technical challenges for the deployment of next-generation networks. To achieve such an ambitious goal, the service infrastructure and User Plane Function (UPF) placement at the network edge, is mandatory. However, this solution implies a substantial increase in deployment and operational costs. To cost-effectively solve this joint placement problem, this paper introduces a framework to jointly address the placement of edge nodes (ENs) and UPFs. Our framework proposal relies on Integer Linear Programming (ILP) and heuristic solutions. The main objective is to determine the ENs and UPFs’ optimal number and locations to minimize overall costs while satisfying the service requirements. To this aim, several parameters and factors are considered, such as capacity, latency, costs and site restrictions. The proposed solutions are evaluated based on different metrics and the obtained results showcase over 20% cost savings for the service infrastructure deployment. Moreover, the gap between the UPF placement heuristic and the optimal solution is equal to only one UPF in the worst cases, and a computation time reduction of over 35% is achieved in all the use cases studied.Postprint (author's final draft

A Study to Optimize Heterogeneous Resources for Open IoT

Recently, IoT technologies have been progressed, and many sensors and actuators are connected to networks. Previously, IoT services were developed by vertical integration style. But now Open IoT concept has attracted attentions which achieves various IoT services by integrating horizontal separated devices and services. For Open IoT era, we have proposed the Tacit Computing technology to discover the devices with necessary data for users on demand and use them dynamically. We also implemented elemental technologies of Tacit Computing. In this paper, we propose three layers optimizations to reduce operation cost and improve performance of Tacit computing service, in order to make as a continuous service of discovered devices by Tacit Computing. In optimization process, appropriate function allocation or offloading specific functions are calculated on device, network and cloud layer before full-scale operation.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, 2017 Fifth International Symposium on Computing and Networking (CANDAR2017), Nov. 201