Context-Awareness Enhances 5G Multi-Access Edge Computing Reliability

The fifth generation (5G) mobile telecommunication network is expected to support Multi- Access Edge Computing (MEC), which intends to distribute computation tasks and services from the central cloud to the edge clouds. Towards ultra-responsive, ultra-reliable and ultra-low-latency MEC services, the current mobile network security architecture should enable a more decentralized approach for authentication and authorization processes. This paper proposes a novel decentralized authentication architecture that supports flexible and low-cost local authentication with the awareness of context information of network elements such as user equipment and virtual network functions. Based on a Markov model for backhaul link quality, as well as a random walk mobility model with mixed mobility classes and traffic scenarios, numerical simulations have demonstrated that the proposed approach is able to achieve a flexible balance between the network operating cost and the MEC reliability.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Access on Feb. 02, 201

A survey of machine learning techniques applied to self organizing cellular networks

In this paper, a survey of the literature of the past fifteen years involving Machine Learning (ML) algorithms applied to self organizing cellular networks is performed. In order for future networks to overcome the current limitations and address the issues of current cellular systems, it is clear that more intelligence needs to be deployed, so that a fully autonomous and flexible network can be enabled. This paper focuses on the learning perspective of Self Organizing Networks (SON) solutions and provides, not only an overview of the most common ML techniques encountered in cellular networks, but also manages to classify each paper in terms of its learning solution, while also giving some examples. The authors also classify each paper in terms of its self-organizing use-case and discuss how each proposed solution performed. In addition, a comparison between the most commonly found ML algorithms in terms of certain SON metrics is performed and general guidelines on when to choose each ML algorithm for each SON function are proposed. Lastly, this work also provides future research directions and new paradigms that the use of more robust and intelligent algorithms, together with data gathered by operators, can bring to the cellular networks domain and fully enable the concept of SON in the near future

Markov Decision Processes with Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost, WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are to make optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process (MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs

Data center's telemetry reduction and prediction through modeling techniques

Nowadays, Cloud Computing is widely used to host and deliver services over the Internet. The architecture of clouds is complex due to its heterogeneous nature of hardware and is hosted in large scale data centers. To effectively and efficiently manage such complex infrastructure, constant monitoring is needed. This monitoring generates large amounts of telemetry data streams (e.g. hardware utilization metrics) which are used for multiple purposes including problem detection, resource management, workload characterization, resource utilization prediction, capacity planning, and job scheduling. These telemetry streams require costly bandwidth utilization and storage space particularly at medium-long term for large data centers. Moreover, accurate future estimation of these telemetry streams is a challenging task due to multi-tenant co-hosted applications and dynamic workloads. The inaccurate estimation leads to either under or over-provisioning of data center resources. In this Ph.D. thesis, we propose to improve the prediction accuracy and reduce the bandwidth utilization and storage space requirement with the help of modeling and prediction methods from machine learning. Most of the existing methods are based on a single model which often does not appropriately estimate different workload scenarios. Moreover, these prediction methods use a fixed size of observation windows which cannot produce accurate results because these are not adaptively adjusted to capture the local trends in the recent data. Therefore, the estimation method trains on fixed sliding windows use an irrelevant large number of observations which yields inaccurate estimations. In summary, we C1) efficiently reduce bandwidth and storage for telemetry data through real-time modeling using Markov chain model. C2) propose a novel method to adaptively and automatically identify the most appropriate model to accurately estimate data center resources utilization. C3) propose a deep learning-based adaptive window size selection method which dynamically limits the sliding window size to capture the local trend in the latest resource utilization for building estimation model.Hoy en día, Cloud Computing se usa ampliamente para alojar y prestar servicios a través de Internet. La arquitectura de las nubes es compleja debido a su naturaleza heterogénea del hardware y está alojada en centros de datos a gran escala. Para administrar de manera efectiva y eficiente dicha infraestructura compleja, se necesita un monitoreo constante. Este monitoreo genera grandes cantidades de flujos de datos de telemetría (por ejemplo, métricas de utilización de hardware) que se utilizan para múltiples propósitos, incluyendo detección de problemas, gestión de recursos, caracterización de carga de trabajo, predicción de utilización de recursos, planificación de capacidad y programación de trabajos. Estas transmisiones de telemetría requieren una utilización costosa del ancho de banda y espacio de almacenamiento, particularmente a mediano y largo plazo para grandes centros de datos. Además, la estimación futura precisa de estas transmisiones de telemetría es una tarea difícil debido a las aplicaciones cohospedadas de múltiples inquilinos y las cargas de trabajo dinámicas. La estimación inexacta conduce a un suministro insuficiente o excesivo de los recursos del centro de datos. En este Ph.D. En la tesis, proponemos mejorar la precisión de la predicción y reducir la utilización del ancho de banda y los requisitos de espacio de almacenamiento con la ayuda de métodos de modelado y predicción del aprendizaje automático. La mayoría de los métodos existentes se basan en un modelo único que a menudo no estima adecuadamente diferentes escenarios de carga de trabajo. Además, estos métodos de predicción utilizan un tamaño fijo de ventanas de observación que no pueden producir resultados precisos porque no se ajustan adaptativamente para capturar las tendencias locales en los datos recientes. Por lo tanto, el método de estimación entrena en ventanas corredizas fijas utiliza un gran número de observaciones irrelevantes que produce estimaciones inexactas. En resumen, C1) reducimos eficientemente el ancho de banda y el almacenamiento de datos de telemetría a través del modelado en tiempo real utilizando el modelo de cadena de Markov. C2) proponer un método novedoso para identificar de forma adaptativa y automática el modelo más apropiado para estimar con precisión la utilización de los recursos del centro de datos. C3) proponer un método de selección de tamaño de ventana adaptativo basado en el aprendizaje profundo que limita dinámicamente el tamaño de ventana deslizante para capturar la tendencia local en la última utilización de recursos para el modelo de estimación de construcción.Postprint (published version

ARTS and CRAFTS: Predictive Scaling for Request-based Services in the Cloud

Modern web services can see well over a billion requests per day. Data and services at such scale require advanced software and large amounts of computational resources to process requests in reasonable time. Advancements in cloud computing now allow us to acquire additional resources faster than in traditional capacity planning scenarios. Companies can scale systems up and down as required, allowing them to meet the demand of their customers without having to purchase their own expensive hardware. Unfortunately, these, now routine, scaling operations remain a primarily manual task. To solve this problem, we present CRAFTS (Cloud Resource Anticipation For Timing Scaling), a system for automatically identifying application throughput and predictive scaling of cloud computing resources based on historical data. We also present ARTS (Automated Request Trace Simulator), a request based workload generation tool for constructing diverse and realistic request patterns for modern web applications. ARTS allows us to evaluate CRAFTS\u27 algorithms on a wide range of scenarios. In this thesis, we outline the design and implementation of both ARTS and CRAFTS and evaluate the effectiveness of various prediction algorithms applied to real-world request data and artificial workloads generated by ARTS

Accessibility Degradation Prediction on LTE/SAE Network Using Discrete Time Markov Chain (DTMC) Model

In this paper, an algorithm for predicting accessibility performance on an LTE/SAE network based on relevant historical key performance indicator (KPI) data is proposed. Since there are three KPIs related to accessibility, each representing different segments, a method to map these three KPI values onto the status of accessibility performance is proposed. The network conditions are categorized as high, acceptable or low for each time interval of observation. The first state shows that the system is running optimally, while the second state shows that the system has deteriorated and needs full attention, and the third state indicates that the system has gone into degraded conditions that cannot be tolerated. After the state sequence has been obtained, a transition probability matrix can be derived, which can be used to predict future conditions using a DTMC model. The results obtained are system predictions in terms of probability values for each state for a specific future time. These prediction values are required for proactive health monitoring and fault management. Accessibility degradation prediction is then conducted by using measurement data derived from an eNodeB in the LTE network for a period of one month