3,203 research outputs found
Container network functions: bringing NFV to the network edge
In order to cope with the increasing network utilization driven by new mobile clients, and to satisfy demand for new network services and performance guarantees, telecommunication service providers are exploiting virtualization over their network by implementing network services in virtual machines, decoupled from legacy hardware accelerated appliances. This effort, known as NFV, reduces OPEX and provides new business opportunities. At the same time, next generation mobile, enterprise, and IoT networks are introducing the concept of computing capabilities being pushed at the network edge, in close proximity of the users. However, the heavy footprint of today's NFV platforms prevents them from operating at the network edge. In this article, we identify the opportunities of virtualization at the network edge and present Glasgow Network Functions (GNF), a container-based NFV platform that runs and orchestrates lightweight container VNFs, saving core network utilization and providing lower latency. Finally, we demonstrate three useful examples of the platform: IoT DDoS remediation, on-demand troubleshooting for telco networks, and supporting roaming of network functions
Building Programmable Wireless Networks: An Architectural Survey
In recent times, there have been a lot of efforts for improving the ossified
Internet architecture in a bid to sustain unstinted growth and innovation. A
major reason for the perceived architectural ossification is the lack of
ability to program the network as a system. This situation has resulted partly
from historical decisions in the original Internet design which emphasized
decentralized network operations through co-located data and control planes on
each network device. The situation for wireless networks is no different
resulting in a lot of complexity and a plethora of largely incompatible
wireless technologies. The emergence of "programmable wireless networks", that
allow greater flexibility, ease of management and configurability, is a step in
the right direction to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of the wireless
networks. In this paper, we provide a broad overview of the architectures
proposed in literature for building programmable wireless networks focusing
primarily on three popular techniques, i.e., software defined networks,
cognitive radio networks, and virtualized networks. This survey is a
self-contained tutorial on these techniques and its applications. We also
discuss the opportunities and challenges in building next-generation
programmable wireless networks and identify open research issues and future
research directions.Comment: 19 page
Building an Emulation Environment for Cyber Security Analyses of Complex Networked Systems
Computer networks are undergoing a phenomenal growth, driven by the rapidly
increasing number of nodes constituting the networks. At the same time, the
number of security threats on Internet and intranet networks is constantly
growing, and the testing and experimentation of cyber defense solutions
requires the availability of separate, test environments that best emulate the
complexity of a real system. Such environments support the deployment and
monitoring of complex mission-driven network scenarios, thus enabling the study
of cyber defense strategies under real and controllable traffic and attack
scenarios. In this paper, we propose a methodology that makes use of a
combination of techniques of network and security assessment, and the use of
cloud technologies to build an emulation environment with adjustable degree of
affinity with respect to actual reference networks or planned systems. As a
byproduct, starting from a specific study case, we collected a dataset
consisting of complete network traces comprising benign and malicious traffic,
which is feature-rich and publicly available
Will SDN be part of 5G?
For many, this is no longer a valid question and the case is considered
settled with SDN/NFV (Software Defined Networking/Network Function
Virtualization) providing the inevitable innovation enablers solving many
outstanding management issues regarding 5G. However, given the monumental task
of softwarization of radio access network (RAN) while 5G is just around the
corner and some companies have started unveiling their 5G equipment already,
the concern is very realistic that we may only see some point solutions
involving SDN technology instead of a fully SDN-enabled RAN. This survey paper
identifies all important obstacles in the way and looks at the state of the art
of the relevant solutions. This survey is different from the previous surveys
on SDN-based RAN as it focuses on the salient problems and discusses solutions
proposed within and outside SDN literature. Our main focus is on fronthaul,
backward compatibility, supposedly disruptive nature of SDN deployment,
business cases and monetization of SDN related upgrades, latency of general
purpose processors (GPP), and additional security vulnerabilities,
softwarization brings along to the RAN. We have also provided a summary of the
architectural developments in SDN-based RAN landscape as not all work can be
covered under the focused issues. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on
the state of the art of SDN-based RAN and clearly points out the gaps in the
technology.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure
Can open-source projects (re-) shape the SDN/NFV-driven telecommunication market?
Telecom network operators face rapidly changing business needs. Due to their dependence on long product cycles they lack the ability to quickly respond to changing user demands. To spur innovation and stay competitive, network operators are investigating technological solutions with a proven track record in other application domains such as open source software projects. Open source software enables parties to learn, use, or contribute to technology from which they were previously excluded. OSS has reshaped many application areas including the landscape of operating systems and consumer software. The paradigmshift in telecommunication systems towards Software-Defined Networking introduces possibilities to benefit from open source projects. Implementing the control part of networks in software enables speedier adaption and innovation, and less dependencies on legacy protocols or algorithms hard-coded in the control part of network devices. The recently proposed concept of Network Function Virtualization pushes the softwarization of telecommunication functionalities even further down to the data plane. Within the NFV paradigm, functionality which was previously reserved for dedicated hardware implementations can now be implemented in software and deployed on generic Commercial Off-The Shelf (COTS) hardware. This paper provides an overview of existing open source initiatives for SDN/NFV-based network architectures, involving infrastructure to orchestration-related functionality. It situates them in a business process context and identifies the pros and cons for the market in general, as well as for individual actors
PEARL: a programmable virtual router platform
International audienceProgrammable routers supporting virtualization are a key building block for bridging the gap between new Internet protocols and their deployment in real operational networks. This article presents the design and implementation of PEARL, a programmable virtual router platform with relatively high performance. It offers high flexibility by allowing users to control the configuration of both hardware and software data paths. The platform makes use of fast lookup in hardware and software exceptions in commodity multicore CPUs to achieve highspeed packet processing. Multiple isolated packet streams and virtualization techniques ensure isolation among virtual router instances
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