4 research outputs found
Towards Robust Traffic Engineering in IP Networks
To deliver a reliable communication service it is essential for
the network operator to manage how traffic flows in the network.
The paths taken by the traffic is controlled by the routing function.
Traditional ways of tuning routing in IP networks are designed
to be simple to manage and are not designed to adapt to the
traffic situation in the network. This can lead to congestion in
parts of the network while other parts of the network is
far from fully utilized. In this thesis we explore issues related
to optimization of the routing function to balance load in the network.
We investigate methods for efficient derivation of the
traffic situation using link count measurements. The advantage
of using link counts is that they are easily obtained and yield
a very limited amount of data. We evaluate and show that estimation
based on link counts give the operator a fast and accurate description
of the traffic demands. For the evaluation we have access to a unique data
set of complete traffic demands from an operational
IP backbone.
Furthermore, we evaluate performance of search heuristics to
set weights in link-state routing protocols. For the evaluation
we have access to complete traffic data from a Tier-1 IP network.
Our findings confirm previous studies who use partial traffic data or
synthetic traffic data. We find that optimization using estimated
traffic demands has little significance to the performance of
the load balancing.
Finally, we device an algorithm that finds a routing setting that is
robust to shifts in traffic patterns due to changes in the
interdomain routing. A set of worst case scenarios caused by the interdomain routing changes
is identified and used to solve a robust routing problem. The evaluation
indicates that performance of the robust routing is close to optimal for
a wide variety of traffic scenarios.
The main contribution of this thesis is that we demonstrate that it is
possible to estimate the traffic matrix with good accuracy and to develop
methods that optimize the routing settings to give strong and robust network
performance. Only minor changes might be necessary in order to implement our
algorithms in existing networks
Aspects of proactive traffic engineering in IP networks
To deliver a reliable communication service over the Internet
it is essential for
the network operator to manage the traffic situation in the network.
The traffic situation is controlled by
the routing function which determines what path traffic follows from source
to destination.
Current practices for setting routing parameters in IP networks are
designed to be simple to manage. This can lead to congestion in
parts of the network while other parts of the network are
far from fully utilized. In this thesis we explore issues related
to optimization of the routing function to balance load in the network
and efficiently deliver a reliable communication service to the users.
The optimization takes into account not only the traffic situation under
normal operational conditions, but also traffic situations that appear
under a wide variety of circumstances deviating from the nominal case.
In order to balance load in the network knowledge of the traffic
situations is needed. Consequently, in this thesis
we investigate methods for efficient derivation of the
traffic situation. The derivation is based on estimation of
traffic demands from link load measurements. The advantage
of using link load measurements is that they are easily obtained and consist
of a limited amount of data that need to be processed. We evaluate and demonstrate how estimation
based on link counts gives the operator a fast and accurate description
of the traffic demands. For the evaluation we have access to a unique data
set of complete traffic demands from an operational
IP backbone.
However, to honor service level agreements at all times the variability
of the traffic needs to be accounted for in the load balancing.
In addition, optimization techniques are often sensitive to errors and
variations in input data. Hence, when an optimized routing setting is
subjected to real traffic demands in the network, performance often
deviate from what can be anticipated from the optimization. Thus,
we identify and model different traffic uncertainties and describe
how the routing setting can be optimized, not only for a nominal case,
but for a wide range of different traffic situations that might appear
in the network.
Our results can be applied in MPLS enabled networks as well as in
networks using link state routing protocols such as the widely used
OSPF and IS-IS protocols. Only minor changes may be needed in current
networks to implement our algorithms.
The contributions of this thesis is that we: demonstrate that it is
possible to estimate the traffic matrix with acceptable precision, and
we develop methods and models for common traffic uncertainties to
account for these uncertainties in the optimization of the routing
configuration. In addition, we identify important properties in the
structure of the traffic to successfully balance uncertain and
varying traffic demands
Network management for community networks
Community networks (in South Africa and Africa) are often serviced by limited bandwidth network backhauls. Relative to the basic needs of the community, this is an expensive ongoing concern. In many cases the Internet connection is shared among multiple sites. Community networks may also have a lack of technical personnel to maintain a network of this nature. Hence, there is a demand for a system which will monitor and manage bandwidth use, as well as network use. The proposed solution for community networks and the focus within this dissertation, is a system of two parts. A Community Access Point (CAP) is located at each site within the community network. This provides the hosts and servers at that site with access to services on the community network and the Internet, it is the site's router. The CAP provides a web based interface (CAPgui) which allows configuration of the device and viewing of simple monitoring statistics. The Access Concentrator (AC) is the default router for the CAPs and the gateway to the Internet. It provides authenticated and encrypted communication between the network sites. The AC performs several monitoring functions, both for the individual sites and for the upstream Internet connection. The AC provides a means for centrally managing and effectively allocating Internet bandwidth by using the web based interface (ACgui). Bandwidth use can be allocated per user, per host and per site. The system is maintainable, extendable and customisable for different network architectures. The system was deployed successfully to two community networks. The Centre of Excellence (CoE) testbed network is a peri-urban network deployment whereas the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) network is a rural deployment. The results gathered conclude that the project was successful as the deployed system is more robust and more manageable than the previous systems
Programmability and management of software-defined network infrastructures
In a landscape where software-based solutions are evermore central in the design, development and deployment of innovative solutions for communication networks, new challenges arise, related to how to best exploit the new solutions made available by technological advancements.
The objective of this Thesis is to consolidate and improve some recent solutions for programmability, management, monitoring and provisioning in software-based infrastructures, as well as to propose new solutions for service deployment, management and monitoring over softwarized domains, along with working implementations, validating each point with punctual experimental validations and performance evaluations.
The treatise starts by introducing the key concepts the research work is based upon, then the main research activities performed during the three years of PhD studies are presented. These include a high-level interface for network programmability over heterogeneous softwarized domains, an implementation of a protocol for service function chaining over non-programmable networks for multi-domain orchestration, a modular system for unified monitoring of softwarized infrastructures, a protocol for the employment of unused channels to augment the capabilities of the softwarized infrastructure, and a XaaS-aware orchestrator designed to operate over Fog computing scenarios