Towards an SDN network control application for differentiated traffic routing

In the last years, Software Defined Networking has emerged as a promising paradigm to foster network innovation and address the issues coming from the ossification of the TCP/IP architecture. The clean separation between control and data plane, the definition of northbound and southbound interfaces are key features of the Software Defined Networking paradigm. Moreover, a centralised control plane allows network operators to deploy advanced control and management strategies. Effective traffic engineering and resources management policies allow to achieve a better utilisation of network resources and improve endto- end service performance. This paper deals with the architectural design and experimental validation of a control application that enables differentiated routing for traffic flows belonging to different service classes. The new control application makes routing decisions leveraging on OpenFlow network statistics, i.e., taking advantage of real-time network status information. Moreover, a Deep Packet Inspection module has been developed and integrated in the control application to detect VoIP traffic with Session Initiation Protocol signalling, enforcing this way policies for a differentiated treatment of VoIP traffic. Finally, a functional validation is performed in emulated environment.This work was supported by the EPSRC INTERNET Project EP/H040536/1.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICC.2015.724925

A novel algorithm for software defined networks model to enhance the quality of services and scalability in wireless network

Software defined networks (SDN) have replaced the traditional network architecture by separating the control from forwarding planes. SDN technology utilizes computer resources to provide worldwide effective service than the aggregation of single internet resources usage. Breakdown while resource allocation is a major concern in cloud computing due to the diverse and highly complex architecture of resources. These resources breakdowns cause delays in job completion and have a negative influence on attaining quality of service (QoS). In order to promote error-free task scheduling, this study represents a promising fault-tolerance scheduling technique. For optimum QoS, the suggested restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) approach takes into account the most important characteristics like current consumption of the resources and rate of failure. The proposed approach's efficiency is verified using the MATLAB toolbox by employing widely used measures such as resource consumption, average processing time, throughput and rate of success

FENet: An SDN-based scheme for virtual network management

Virtual networking is vital to efficient resource management in Clouds, and it is in fact one of the main services provided by many Cloud Computing platforms. Virtual network management needs to meet specific requirements, including tenant isolation and adaption to virtual machines' lifecycle. Most of the existing schemes for virtual network management are based on the use of overlay networks in order to achieve a desirable degree of flexibility. However, these schemes suffer from a common limit, i.e. relatively high performance penalty due to a complicated forwarding process. We address this performance concern by developing a new management scheme, FENet, which makes use of Software-Defined Networks (SDN) to create virtual networks and manage them via the SDN controller programs. We present the design of an SDN controller, with the definition of flow entry rules based on the OpenFlow protocol and the specification of a routing algorithm. The results from our experimental evaluation show that our SDN-based prototype can control virtual network interconnections and tenant isolation appropriately. FENet achieves about 30% better network performance than the management scheme based on OpenVPN and lower latency in comparison with the traditional bridging scheme

Redes Definidas por Software (SDN): OpenFlow

[ES] Para garantizar retardos, ancho de banda y pérdidas en las redes IP es necesario la configuración adecuada de los equipos de interconexión como switches o routers. La configuración adecuada de los mismos permitirá ofrecer servicios como VoIP o videoconferencias con suficiente calidad. En el trabajo se configurarán equipos y se realizarán pruebas de calidad de servicio.Serrano Carrera, DA. (2015). Redes Definidas por Software (SDN): OpenFlow. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/62801.TFG

Satellite integration in 5G : contribution on network architectures and traffic engineering solutions for hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile backhauling

The recent technological advances in the satellite domain such as the use of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) with throughput rates that are magnitudes higher than with previous ones, or the use of large non- Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites constellations, etc, are reducing the price per bit and enhancing the Quality of Service (QoS) metrics such as latency, etc., changing the way that the capacity is being brought to the market and making it more attractive for other services such as satellite broadband communications. These new capabilities coupled with the advantages offered by satellite communications such as the unique wide-scale geographical coverage, inherent broadcast/multicast capabilities and highly reliable connectivity, anticipate new opportunities for the integration of the satellite component into the 5G ecosystem. One of the most compelling scenarios is mobile backhauling, where satellite capacity can be used to complement the terrestrial backhauling infrastructure, not only in hard to reach areas, but also for more efficient traffic delivery to Radio Access Network (RAN) nodes, increased resiliency and better support for fast, temporary cell deployments and moving cells. In this context, this thesis work focuses on achieving better satellite-terrestrial backhaul network integration through the development of Traffic Engineering (TE) strategies to manage in a better way the dynamically steerable satellite provisioned capacity. To do this, this thesis work first takes the steps in the definition of an architectural framework that enables a better satellite-terrestrial mobile backhaul network integration, managing the satellite capacity as a constituent part of a Software Defined Networking (SDN) -based TE for mobile backhaul network. Under this basis, this thesis work first proposes and assesses a model for the analysis of capacity and traffic management strategies for hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile backhauling networks that rely on SDN for fine-grained traffic steering. The performance analysis is carried out in terms of capacity gains that can be achieved when the satellite backhaul capacity is used for traffic overflow, taking into account the placement of the satellite capacity at different traffic aggregation levels and considering a spatial correlation of the traffic demand. Later, the thesis work presents the development of SDN-based TE strategies and algorithms that exploits the dynamically steerable satellite capacity provisioned for resilience purposes to better utilize the satellite capacity by maximizing the network utility under both failure and non-failure conditions in some terrestrial links, under the consideration of elastic, inelastic and unicast and multicast traffic. The performance analysis is carried out in terms of global network utility, fairness and connexion rejection rates compared to non SDN-based TE applications. Finally, sustained in the defined architectural framework designs, the thesis work presents an experimental Proof of Concept (PoC) and validation of a satellite-terrestrial backhaul links integration solution that builts upon SDN technologies for the realization of End-to-End (E2E) TE applications in mobile backhauling networks with a satellite component, assessing the feasibility of the proposed SDN-based integration solution under a practical laboratory setting that combines the use of commercial, experimentation-oriented and emulation equipment and software.Los recientes avances tecnológicos en el dominio de los satélites, como el uso de satélites de alto rendimiento (HTS) con tasas de rendimiento que son magnitudes más altas que los anteriores, o el uso de grandes constelaciones de satélites de órbita no geoestacionaria (GEO), etc. están reduciendo el precio por bit y mejorando las métricas de Calidad de Servicio (QoS) como la latencia, etc., cambiando la forma en que la capacidad se está llevando al mercado, y haciéndola más atractiva para otros servicios como las comunicaciones de banda ancha por satélite. Estas nuevas capacidades, junto con las ventajas ofrecidas por las comunicaciones por satélite, como la cobertura geográfica a gran escala, las inherentes capacidades de difusión / multidifusión y la conectividad altamente confiable, anticipan nuevas oportunidades para la integración de la componente satelital al ecosistema 5G. Uno de los escenarios más atractivos es el backhauling móvil, donde la capacidad del satélite se puede usar para complementar la infraestructura de backhauling terrestre, no solo en áreas de difícil acceso, sino también para la entrega de tráfico de manera más eficiente a los nodos de la Red de Acceso (RAN), una mayor resiliencia y mejor soporte para implementaciones rápidas y temporales de células, así como células en movimiento. En este contexto, este trabajo de tesis se centra en lograr una mejor integración de la red híbrida de backhaul satélital-terrestre, a través del desarrollo de estrategias de ingeniería de tráfico (TE) para gestionar de una mejor manera la capacidad dinámicamente orientable del satélite. Para hacer esto, este trabajo de tesis primero toma los pasos en la definición de un marco de arquitectura que permite una mejor integración de una red híbrida satelital-terrestre de backhaul móvil, gestionando la capacidad del satélite como parte constitutiva de un TE basado en Software Defined Networking (SDN). Bajo esta base, este trabajo de tesis primero propone y evalúa un modelo para el análisis de la capacidad y las estrategias de gestión del tráfico para redes híbridas satelital-terrestre de backhaul móvil basadas en SDN para la dirección de tráfico. El análisis de rendimiento se lleva a cabo en términos de aumento de capacidad que se puede lograr cuando la capacidad de la red de backhaul por satélite se utiliza para el desborde de tráfico, teniendo en cuenta la ubicación de la capacidad del satélite en diferentes niveles de agregación de tráfico y considerando una correlación espacial de la demanda de tráfico. Posteriormente, el trabajo de tesis presenta el desarrollo de estrategias y algoritmos de TE basados en SDN que explotan la capacidad dinámicamente orientable del satelite, provista con fines de resiliencia para utilizar de mejor manera la capacidad satelital al maximizar la utilidad de red en condiciones de falla y no falla en algunos enlaces terrestres, y bajo la consideración de tráfico elástico, inelástico y de unidifusión y multidifusión. El análisis de rendimiento se lleva a cabo en términos de tasas de rechazo, de utilidad, y equidad en comparación con las aplicaciones de TE no basadas en SDN. Finalmente, basado en la definición del diseño de marco de arquitectura, el trabajo de tesis presenta una Prueba de concepto (PoC) experimental y la validación de una solución de integración de enlaces de backhaul satelital-terrestre que se basa en las tecnologías SDN para la realización de aplicaciones de TE de extremo a extremo (E2E) en redes de backhaul móviles, evaluando la viabilidad de la solución propuesta de integración basada en SDN en un entorno práctico de laboratorio que combina el uso de equipos y software comerciales, orientados a la experimentación y emulación.Postprint (published version

Dynamic Workload Balancing and Scheduling in Hadoop Mapreduce with Software Defined Networking

Hadoop offers a platform to process big data. Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and MapReduce are two components of Hadoop. Hadoop adopts HDFS which is a distributed file system for storing data and MapReduce for processing this data for users. Hadoop stores data based on space utilization of datanodes, without considering the processing capability and busy level during the running time of each datanode. Furthermore datanodes may be not homogeneous as Hadoop may run in a heterogeneous environment. For these reasons, workload imbalances will appear and result in poor performance. We propose a dynamic algorithm that considers space availability, processing capability and busy level of datanodes to ensure workload balance between different racks. Our results show that the execution time of map tasks moved will be reduced by more than 50%. Furthermore, we propose a method in which Hadoop runs on a Software Defined Network in order to further improve the performance by allowing fast and adaptable data transfers between racks. By installing OpenFlow switches to replace classical switches on a Hadoop cluster, we can modify the topology of the network between racks in order to enlarge the bandwidth if large amounts of data need to be transferred from one rack to another. Our results show that the execution time of map tasks moved is significantly reduced by about 50% when employing our proposed Hadoop cluster Bandwidth Routing algorithm. Apache YARN is the second generation of MapReduce. YARN has three built-in schedulers: the FIFO, Fair and Capacity Scheduler. Though these schedulers provide users different methods to allocate resources of a Hadoop cluster to execute their MapReduce jobs, they do not guarantee that their jobs will be executed within a specific deadline. We propose a deadline constraint scheduler algorithm for Hadoop. This algorithm uses a statistical approach to measure the performance of datanodes and based on this information the proposed algorithm creates several check points to monitor the progress of a job. Based on the progress of jobs at every checkpoint the proposed scheduler will assign them to different job queues. These queues will have different priorities and the proportion of resources used by these queues will depend on their priority. The results of our experiments show that the proposed scheduler ensures that jobs will be completed within a given deadline whereas the native schedulers cannot guarantee this. Moreover, the average job execution time in the proposed scheduler is 56% and 15% less when compared to the Fair and EDF schedulers respectively.Computer Scienc

Software Defined Networking for resource allocation and monitoring: virtualization and hardware acceleration

Le reti di telecomunicazioni sono presenti in modo sempre più pervasivo nella nostra vita di tutti i giorni, e sempre più persone le usano per un numero crescente di operazioni. Gli utenti hanno aspettative sempre maggiori per le performance della rete, usandole per diverse applicazioni, con livelli sempre più alti di interattività. Le reti quindi si trovano ad avere non solo traffici sempre maggiori, e differenti pattern di traffico, ma anche una domanda crescente in termini di prestazioni offerte. In questo scenario, diviene di fondamentale importanza identificare le aree dove apportare modifiche, e le tecnologie da sfruttare e implementare in questo processo. In questa tesi, vengono esplorate le possibilità offerte dalle nuove tecnologie di virtualizzazione: nuovi approcci che permettono di virtualizzare le reti, vedendole come risorse fisiche sulle quali costruire funzioni che possono essere independenti dall’infrastruttura sottostante, esattamente come già accade con i sistemi operativi per i computer, che offrono all’utente una versione virtualizzata delle risorse hardware disponibili. In particolare, in questa tesi, ci si concentra sul concetto di Software Defined Netowrking, e su come questo approccio possa essere usato nella pratica per fornire risposte ad alcune questioni ancora aperte. Allo stesso tempo, riteniamo che al fine di operare su reti ad alte prestazioni e con throughput di rilievo, ci sia bisogno di basare le considerazioni, le decisioni da prendere, su dati il più possibile precisi, forniti da strumenti in grado di raggiungere alte risoluzioni. Questo tipo di azioni richiedono l’utilizzo di hardware ad alte prestazioni per la misura e il monitoraggio, e anche questo aspetto è stato tenuto in considerazione in questo percorso di ricerca Communication networks are more and more present in everyday life, as more and more people use them for an increasing number of operations. Users have growing expectations about network performances, while they use them with different applications, with increasing levels of interactivity. Networks not only have to deal with higher traffics, different traffic patterns, new demands, but also with higher requirements for performing operations. In this scenario, it becomes of fundamental importance to identify novel promising technologies, and understand when, where and how to deploy them in the most effective ways. In this thesis, we explore the possibilities offered by virtualization technologies: novel approaches that allow to virtualize networks, seeing them as general physical resources on which to run functions that can be separated from the real underlying infrastructure, just as it happens with the well-known operating systems for computers, that offer to the user a virtualizes version of the pool of resources available. In particular, in this thesis, we focused on studying Software Defined Networking, and how such technology can be deployed to give answers to some open issues in networking. At the same time, we have always kept in mind that in order to perform high performance operations on networks that experience high throughputs, we need to base our calculations and decisions on precise data, and have tools that allow to reach higher precisions and resolutions. These kinds of actions require the deployment of high performing hardware for measuring and monitoring, and we have kept also this aspect in consideration in our researc