132 research outputs found
Segment Routing: a Comprehensive Survey of Research Activities, Standardization Efforts and Implementation Results
Fixed and mobile telecom operators, enterprise network operators and cloud
providers strive to face the challenging demands coming from the evolution of
IP networks (e.g. huge bandwidth requirements, integration of billions of
devices and millions of services in the cloud). Proposed in the early 2010s,
Segment Routing (SR) architecture helps face these challenging demands, and it
is currently being adopted and deployed. SR architecture is based on the
concept of source routing and has interesting scalability properties, as it
dramatically reduces the amount of state information to be configured in the
core nodes to support complex services. SR architecture was first implemented
with the MPLS dataplane and then, quite recently, with the IPv6 dataplane
(SRv6). IPv6 SR architecture (SRv6) has been extended from the simple steering
of packets across nodes to a general network programming approach, making it
very suitable for use cases such as Service Function Chaining and Network
Function Virtualization. In this paper we present a tutorial and a
comprehensive survey on SR technology, analyzing standardization efforts,
patents, research activities and implementation results. We start with an
introduction on the motivations for Segment Routing and an overview of its
evolution and standardization. Then, we provide a tutorial on Segment Routing
technology, with a focus on the novel SRv6 solution. We discuss the
standardization efforts and the patents providing details on the most important
documents and mentioning other ongoing activities. We then thoroughly analyze
research activities according to a taxonomy. We have identified 8 main
categories during our analysis of the current state of play: Monitoring,
Traffic Engineering, Failure Recovery, Centrally Controlled Architectures, Path
Encoding, Network Programming, Performance Evaluation and Miscellaneous...Comment: SUBMITTED TO IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIAL
Supporting QoE/QoS-aware end-to-end network slicing in future 5G-enabled optical networks
Copyright 2019 Society of Photo‑Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this publication for a fee or for commercial purposes, and modification of the contents of the publication are prohibited.Network slicing with Quality of Experience/Quality of Service (QoE/QoS) guarantees is seen as one of the key enablers
of future 5G networks. Nevertheless, it poses several challenges in both resource provisioning and management that
need to be addressed for the efficient end-to-end service delivery. In particular, network slice deployments considering
operation across several domains and network segments, require of inter-domain configurations, continuous monitoring,
potential actuations, inter-slice isolation, among other, in order to be provisioned and maintained, looking forward to
guaranteeing their assured Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In such scenario, optical networks are of prime
importance, enabling the inter-connectivity between multiple far away segments and Points of Presence (PoPs). In light
of this, in this paper we present an architecture design enabling network slice provisioning for 5G service chaining in
multi-segment/multi-domain optical network scenarios. The presented design is enriched with a policy-based monitoring
and actuation framework able to maintain the desired QoS for the provisioned end-to-end (E2E) network slice. We
experimentally validated the proposal against real slice deployments and traffic generation, providing a proof of concept
for the presented architecture, with special emphasis in the demonstration of the actuation framework as a key element
for quality guarantees.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
AN ADOPTIVE AND RESILIENT SEGMENT ROUTING VERSION 6 POLICY TO ADDRESS TIGHT SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT REQUIREMENTS IN 5G NETWORKS
There is ongoing work positioning Segment Routing version 6 (SRv6) as a replacement to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol User Plane (GTP-U). The main benefits of using SRv6 include coupling of the mobility overlay with the underlay (transport Traffic Engineering (TE)) and service chaining (GiLAN) and reusing high performance routers with SRv6 capabilities as User Plane Functions (UPFs). Techniques are described herein for enabling the creation of specific network slices where in the underlay a high resiliency is achieved with zero packet loss for tight Service Level Agreement (SLA) enterprise premium traffic. This same mechanism may be reused for path monitoring (e.g., latency, jitter, etc.) using in-band mechanisms for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC)
QoE-Centric Control and Management of Multimedia Services in Software Defined and Virtualized Networks
Multimedia services consumption has increased tremendously since the deployment of 4G/LTE networks. Mobile video services (e.g., YouTube and Mobile TV) on smart devices are expected to continue to grow with the emergence and evolution of future networks such as 5G. The end user’s demand for services with better quality from service providers has triggered a trend towards Quality of Experience (QoE) - centric network management through efficient utilization of network resources. However, existing network technologies are either unable to adapt to diverse changing network conditions or limited in available resources.
This has posed challenges to service providers for provisioning of QoE-centric multimedia services. New networking solutions such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) can provide better solutions in terms of
QoE control and management of multimedia services in emerging and future networks. The features of SDN, such as adaptability, programmability and cost-effectiveness make it suitable for bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications such as live video streaming, 3D/HD video and video gaming. However, the delivery of multimedia services over SDN/NFV networks to achieve optimized QoE, and the overall QoE-centric network resource management remain an open question especially in the advent development of future softwarized networks.
The work in this thesis intends to investigate, design and develop novel approaches for QoE-centric control and management of multimedia services (with a focus on video streaming services) over software defined and virtualized networks.
First, a video quality management scheme based on the traffic intensity under Dynamic Adaptive Video Streaming over HTTP (DASH) using SDN is developed. The proposed scheme can mitigate virtual port queue congestion which may cause
buffering or stalling events during video streaming, thus, reducing the video quality.
A QoE-driven resource allocation mechanism is designed and developed for improving the end user’s QoE for video streaming services. The aim of this approach is to find the best combination of network node functions that can provide an optimized QoE level to end-users through network node cooperation. Furthermore, a novel QoE-centric management scheme is proposed and developed, which utilizes Multipath TCP (MPTCP) and Segment Routing (SR) to enhance QoE for video streaming services over SDN/NFV-based networks. The goal of this strategy is to enable service providers to route network traffic through multiple
disjointed bandwidth-satisfying paths and meet specific service QoE guarantees to the end-users. Extensive experiments demonstrated that the proposed schemes in this work improve the video quality significantly compared with the state-of-the-
art approaches. The thesis further proposes the path protections and link failure-free MPTCP/SR-based architecture that increases survivability, resilience, availability and robustness of future networks. The proposed path protection and dynamic link recovery scheme achieves a minimum time to recover from a failed link and avoids link congestion in softwarized networks
Automated service provisioning in programmable network infrastructures
Modern networks are undergoing a fast and drastic evolution, with software taking a more predominant role. Virtualization and cloud-like approaches are replacing physical network appliances, reducing the management burden of the operators. Furthermore, networks now expose programmable interfaces for fast and dynamic control over traffic forwarding. This evolution is backed by standard organizations such as ETSI, 3GPP, and IETF.
This thesis will describe which are the main trends in this evolution. Then, it will present solutions developed during the three years of Ph.D. to exploit the capabilities these new technologies offer and to study their possible limitations to push further the state-of-the-art.
Namely, it will deal with programmable network infrastructure, introducing the concept of Service Function Chaining (SFC) and presenting two possible solutions, one with Openstack and OpenFlow and the other using Segment Routing and IPv6. Then, it will continue with network service provisioning, presenting concepts from Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC). These concepts will be applied to network slicing for mission-critical communications and Industrial IoT (IIoT). Finally, it will deal with network abstraction, with a focus on Intent Based Networking (IBN).
To summarize, the thesis will include solutions for data plane programming with evaluation on well-known platforms, performance metrics on virtual resource allocations, novel practical application of network slicing on mission-critical communications, an architectural proposal and its implementation for edge technologies in Industrial IoT scenarios, and a formal definition of intent using a category theory approach
Definition and specification of connectivity and QoE/QoS management mechanisms – final report
This document summarizes the WP5 work throughout the project, describing its functional architecture and the solutions that implement the WP5 concepts on network control and orchestration. For this purpose, we defined 3 innovative controllers that embody the network slicing and multi tenancy: SDM-C, SDM-X and SDM-O. The functionalities of each block are detailed with the interfaces connecting them and validated through exemplary network processes, highlighting thus 5G NORMA innovations. All the proposed modules are designed to implement the functionality needed to provide the challenging KPIs required by future 5G networks while keeping the largest possible compatibility with the state of the art
Hybrid SDN Evolution: A Comprehensive Survey of the State-of-the-Art
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an evolutionary networking paradigm
which has been adopted by large network and cloud providers, among which are
Tech Giants. However, embracing a new and futuristic paradigm as an alternative
to well-established and mature legacy networking paradigm requires a lot of
time along with considerable financial resources and technical expertise.
Consequently, many enterprises can not afford it. A compromise solution then is
a hybrid networking environment (a.k.a. Hybrid SDN (hSDN)) in which SDN
functionalities are leveraged while existing traditional network
infrastructures are acknowledged. Recently, hSDN has been seen as a viable
networking solution for a diverse range of businesses and organizations.
Accordingly, the body of literature on hSDN research has improved remarkably.
On this account, we present this paper as a comprehensive state-of-the-art
survey which expands upon hSDN from many different perspectives
Intent-based zero-touch service chaining layer for software-defined edge cloud networks
Edge Computing, along with Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization, are causing network infrastructures to become as distributed clouds extended to the edge with services provided as dynamically established sequences of virtualized functions (i.e., dynamic service chains) thereby elastically addressing different processing requirements of application data flows. However, service operators and application developers are not inclined to deal with descriptive configuration directives to establish and operate services, especially in case of service chains. Intent-based Networking is emerging as a novel approach that simplifies network management and automates the implementation of network operations required by applications. This paper presents an intent-based zero-touch service chaining layer that provides the programmable provision of service chain paths in edge cloud networks. In addition to the dynamic and elastic deployment of data delivery services, the intent-based layer offers an automated adaptation of the service chains paths according to the application's goals expressed in the intent to recover from sudden congestion events in the SDN network. Experiments have been carried out in an emulated network environment to show the feasibility of the approach and to evaluate the performance of the intent layer in terms of network resource usage and adaptation overhead
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