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

Review of network integration techniques for mobile broadband services in next generation network

Next Generation Network (NGN) is intended at integrating the existing heterogeneous wireless access networks in order to produce a composite network that provides users with ubiquitous broadband experience. Currently, it has been established that Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, as a backbone network, provides broadband capacity with high efficiency, reduced latency and improved resource provisioning. Resource provisioning on this backbone network is not without its limitation as more mobile broadband services (MBBs) are evolving and users demand for mobility is on the increase. This paper, therefore, reviewed the different integration techniques for the heterogeneous networks that use LTE network as backbone that supports mobile broadband services.Keywords: MBB, NGN, LTE, SIP, Qo

Novel Model of Adaptive Module for Security and QoS Provisioning in Wireless Heterogeneous Networks

Considering the fact that Security and Quality-Of-Service (QoS) provisioning for multimedia traffic in Wireless Heterogeneous Networks are becoming increasingly important objectives, in this paper we are introducing a novel adaptive Security and QoS framework. This framework is planned to be implemented in integrated network architecture (UMTS, WiMAX and WLAN). The aim of our novel framework is presenting a new module that shall provide the best QoS provisioning and secure communication for a given service using one or more wireless technologies in a given time

Securing Handover in Wireless IP Networks

In wireless and mobile networks, handover is a complex process that involves multiple layers of protocol and security executions. With the growing popularity of real time communication services such as Voice of IP, a great challenge faced by handover nowadays comes from the impact of security implementations that can cause performance degradation especially for mobile devices with limited resources. Given the existing networks with heterogeneous wireless access technologies, one essential research question that needs be addressed is how to achieve a balance between security and performance during the handover. The variations of security policy and agreement among different services and network vendors make the topic challenging even more, due to the involvement of commercial and social factors. In order to understand the problems and challenges in this field, we study the properties of handover as well as state of the art security schemes to assist handover in wireless IP networks. Based on our analysis, we define a two-phase model to identify the key procedures of handover security in wireless and mobile networks. Through the model we analyze the performance impact from existing security schemes in terms of handover completion time, throughput, and Quality of Services (QoS). As our endeavor of seeking a balance between handover security and performance, we propose the local administrative domain as a security enhanced localized domain to promote the handover performance. To evaluate the performance improvement in local administrative domain, we implement the security protocols adopted by our proposal in the ns-2 simulation environment and analyze the measurement results based on our simulation test

Handover management for hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks

9 pagesInternational audienceInitially envisaged to support handover between different wireless 802.x network technologies, the IEEE 802.21 standard also appears as the good candidate for handover management in future integrated satellite / terrestrial systems. This paper presents an analysis of how this standard could be implemented in the frame of a realistic scenario and taking into account the current trends in wireless network and mobility architectures. Our solution is then evaluated by means of emulation over a DVB-RCS representative testbed, and based on an experimental MIH implementation. We finally show that seamless handover can nearly be achieved with very short service outages

Introducing a novel authentication protocol for secure services in heterogeneous environments using Casper/FDR

Next Generation Networks is a convergence of networks such as 2G/3G, WLAN as well as the recently implemented Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. Future mobile devices will switch between these different networks to maintain the connectivity with end servers. However, to support these heterogeneous environments, there is a need to consider a new design of the network infrastructure, where currently closed systems such as 3G will have to operate in an open environment. Security is a key issue in this open environment; after authenticating the mobile terminal to access the network, there is a requirement for service-level mechanisms to protect the session between the mobile terminal and the remote service provider. Furthermore, since mobile terminals switch between networks of different characteristics in terms of coverage, Quality of Service and security, there is a need for re-assessing the security of the same session over the different networks to comply with the changes at the network level due to the mobility. Therefore, this paper introduces a Service-Level Authentication and Key Agreement protocol to secure the session between the mobile terminal and the end server. The proposed protocol considers user mobilities in an heterogeneous environment and reassesses the session's security level in case of handover. The proposed protocol has been verified using formal methods approach based on the well-established Casper/FDR compilers

Context-Awareness Enhances 5G Multi-Access Edge Computing Reliability

The fifth generation (5G) mobile telecommunication network is expected to support Multi- Access Edge Computing (MEC), which intends to distribute computation tasks and services from the central cloud to the edge clouds. Towards ultra-responsive, ultra-reliable and ultra-low-latency MEC services, the current mobile network security architecture should enable a more decentralized approach for authentication and authorization processes. This paper proposes a novel decentralized authentication architecture that supports flexible and low-cost local authentication with the awareness of context information of network elements such as user equipment and virtual network functions. Based on a Markov model for backhaul link quality, as well as a random walk mobility model with mixed mobility classes and traffic scenarios, numerical simulations have demonstrated that the proposed approach is able to achieve a flexible balance between the network operating cost and the MEC reliability.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Access on Feb. 02, 201