Implementation of multi-layer techniques using FEDERICA, PASITO and OneLab network infrastructures

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. V. López, J. L. Añamuro, V. Moreno, J. E. L. De Vergara, J. Aracil, C. García, J. P. Fernández-Palacios, and M. Izal, "Implementation of multi-layer techniques using FEDERICA, PASITO and OneLab network infrastructures", in 17th IEEE International Conference on Networks, ICON 2011, p. 89-94This paper describes an implementation of multilayer techniques using the network infrastructure provided by FEDERICA, PASITO and OneLab projects. FEDERICA project provides a network infrastructure, based on virtualization capabilities in both network and computing resources, which creates custom-made virtual environments. PASITO is a layer- 2 network that connects universities and research centers in Spain. OneLab measurements tools allow carrying out highaccuracy active network measurements. Thanks to FEDERICA and PASITO, we have a multi-layer architecture where the traffic is routed based on the measurements of OneLab equipment. To carry out this experiment, we have developed a Multi-layer Traffic Engineering manager and an implementation of the Path Computation Element Protocol to solve the lack of a control plane in IP oriented networks. This work shows the feasibility of multilayer techniques as a convenient solution for network operators and it validates our Path Computation Element implementation.This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under project ANFORA (TEC2009-13385), by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade under PASITO project, and by the European Union under project OneLab2 (FP7-224263). Authors would like to thank Mauro Campanella (GARR, the project coordinator of FEDERICA) and Miguel Angel Sotos (RedIris) for their support to carry out this work

A Survey on Data Plane Programming with P4: Fundamentals, Advances, and Applied Research

With traditional networking, users can configure control plane protocols to match the specific network configuration, but without the ability to fundamentally change the underlying algorithms. With SDN, the users may provide their own control plane, that can control network devices through their data plane APIs. Programmable data planes allow users to define their own data plane algorithms for network devices including appropriate data plane APIs which may be leveraged by user-defined SDN control. Thus, programmable data planes and SDN offer great flexibility for network customization, be it for specialized, commercial appliances, e.g., in 5G or data center networks, or for rapid prototyping in industrial and academic research. Programming protocol-independent packet processors (P4) has emerged as the currently most widespread abstraction, programming language, and concept for data plane programming. It is developed and standardized by an open community and it is supported by various software and hardware platforms. In this paper, we survey the literature from 2015 to 2020 on data plane programming with P4. Our survey covers 497 references of which 367 are scientific publications. We organize our work into two parts. In the first part, we give an overview of data plane programming models, the programming language, architectures, compilers, targets, and data plane APIs. We also consider research efforts to advance P4 technology. In the second part, we analyze a large body of literature considering P4-based applied research. We categorize 241 research papers into different application domains, summarize their contributions, and extract prototypes, target platforms, and source code availability.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (COMS) on 2021-01-2

A new Framework to enable rapid innovation in Cloud Datacenter through a SDN approach

Dissertação de mestrado em Redes e Serviços de ComunicaçõesIn the last years, the widespread of Cloud computing as the main paradigm to deliver a large plethora of virtualized services significantly increased the complexity of Datacenters management and raised new performance issues for the intra-Datacenter network. Providing heterogeneous services and satisfying users’ experience is really challenging for Cloud service providers, since system (IT resources) and network administration functions are definitely separated. As the Software Defined Networking (SDN) approach seems to be a promising way to address innovation in Datacenters, the thesis presents a new framework that allows to develop and test new OpenFlow–based controllers for Cloud Datacenters. More specifically, the framework enhances both Mininet (a well–known SDN emulator) and POX (a Openflow controller written in python), with all the extensions necessary to experiment novel control and management strategies of IT and network resources. Further more, the framework was validated by implementing and testing well known policies. Hybrid allocation policies (considering both network and servers) were also implemented and scalability tests were performed. This work was developed under the ERASMUS student mobility program, in the Telecommunication Networks Research Group, Dept. of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, and resulted in the paper Datacenter in a box: test your SDN cloud-datacenter controller at home that was accepted into EWSDN2013.Nos últimos anos, a difusão da computação em nuvem como o principal paradigma para oferecer uma grande variedade de serviços virtualizados aumentou significativamente a complexidade da gestão de Datacenters e trouxe novos problemas de desempenho para a sua rede interna. A prestação de serviços heterogêneos e a satisfação dos utilizadores tornou-se um desafio para os provedores de serviços em nuvem, uma vez que as funções de administração de rede e do sistema (recursos de TI) estão definitivamente separados. Como o Software Defined Networking (SDN) aparenta ser um caminho promissor para tratar a inovação em Datacenters, a tese apresenta uma nova framework que permite desenvolver e testar novos controladores baseados em Openflow para Datacenters. Mais especificamente, a framework melhora o Mininet (um emulador SDN) e POX (um controlador OpenFlow escrito em python), com todas as extensões necessárias para o desenvolvimento de novas estratégias de TI e de gestão das redes de controlo. Além disso, a framework foi validada através da implementação e teste de políticas conhecidas. Políticas híbridas de alocação de máquinas virtuais (considerando tanto os servidores como as redes) foram implementadas e testes de escalabilidade foram realizados. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido no âmbito do programa de mobilidade de estudantes ERASMUS, no Grupo de Investigação em Redes de Telecomunicações TLCNETGRP, Departamento de Engenharia de Informação da Universidade de Pisa, do qual resultou a elaboração do artigo Datacenter in a box: test your SDN cloud-datacenter controller at home que foi aceite no EWSDN2013

Towards a power consumption estimation model for routers over TCP and UDP protocols

Due to the growing development in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, the usage of routers has increased rapidly. Meanwhile, these devices that are produced and developed today consume a definite amount of power, Furthermore, with limited focus on power estimation techniques and the increased demands of networking devices, it led to an increase of the vitality consumption as a result. While new high capacity router components are installed, energy intake in system elements will be rising due to the higher capability network consuming larger component of the vitality. This study considers providing estimating power model in different traffic settings over TCP and UDP protocols, this study is mainly concerned about the transport protocols power consumption. Isolating the power consuming components within an electronic system is a very precise process that requires deep understanding of the role of each component within the system and a thorough study of the component datasheet. The study started by simulating the protocols mechanism then followed by protoclos power measurements, a simple simulation has been provided for Xilinx Virtex-5, it is very complicated to simulate the whole system due to the need of an external devices, so the simulation focused on wavelengths, frequencies and traffic types. This study found that the estimated power stokes was high when the 1480nm, 1580nm, and 1750nm power source increase. while there were differrence in the consumed power while transiting different types of traffic such as CBR and HTTP through UDP and TCP. The effect of different frequencies has been noticed also while applying different frequencies to the protocols. So it is believed that this study may enhance the power scenarios in the network and routers throug applying different techniques to UDP and TC

Design and implementation of the OFELIA FP7 facility: The European OpenFlow testbed

The growth of the Internet in terms of number of devices, the number of networks associated to each device and the mobility of devices and users makes the operation and management of the Internet network infrastructure a very complex challenge. In order to address this challenge, innovative solutions and ideas must be tested and evaluated in real network environments and not only based on simulations or laboratory setups. OFELIA is an European FP7 project and its main objective is to address the aforementioned challenge by building and operating a multi-layer, multi-technology and geographically distributed Future Internet testbed facility, where the network itself is precisely controlled and programmed by the experimenter using the emerging OpenFlow technology. This paper reports on the work done during the first half of the project, the lessons learned as well as the key advantages of the OFELIA facility for developing and testing new networking ideas. An overview on the challenges that have been faced on the design and implementation of the testbed facility is described, including the OFELIA Control Framework testbed management software. In addition, early operational experience of the facility since it was opened to the general public, providing five different testbeds or islands, is described

Progressive Network Deployment, Performance, and Control with Software-defined Networking

The inflexible nature of traditional computer networks has led to tightly-integrated systems that are inherently difficult to manage and secure. New designs move low-level network control into software creating software-defined networks (SDN). Augmenting an existing network with these enhancements can be expensive and complex. This research investigates solutions to these problems. It is hypothesized that an add-on device, or shim could be used to make a traditional switch behave as an OpenFlow SDN switch while maintaining reasonable performance. A design prototype is found to cause approximately 1.5% reduction in throughput for one ow and less than double increase in latency, showing that such a solution may be feasible. It is hypothesized that a new design built on event-loop and reactive programming may yield a controller that is higher-performing and easier to program. The library node-openflow is found to have performance approaching that of professional controllers, however it exhibits higher variability in response rate. The framework rxdn is found to exceed performance of two comparable controllers by at least 33% with statistical significance in latency mode with 16 simulated switches, but is slower than the library node-openflow or professional controllers (e.g., Libfluid, ONOS, and NOX). Collectively, this work enhances the tools available to researchers, enabling experimentation and development toward more sustainable and secure infrastructur

Advancing SDN from OpenFlow to P4: a survey

Software-defined Networking (SDN) marked the beginning of a new era in the field of networking by decoupling the control and forwarding processes through the OpenFlow protocol. The Next Generation SDN is defined by Open Interfaces and full programmability of the data plane. P4 is a domain-specific language that fulfills these requirements and has known wide adoption over recent years from Academia and Industry. This work is an extensive survey of the P4 language covering domains of application, a detailed overview of the language, and future directions