GNFC: Towards Network Function Cloudification

An increasing demand is seen from enterprises to host and dynamically manage middlebox services in public clouds in order to leverage the same benefits that network functions provide in traditional, in-house deployments. However, today's public clouds provide only a limited view and programmability for tenants that challenges flexible deployment of transparent, software-defined network functions. Moreover, current virtual network functions can't take full advantage of a virtualized cloud environment, limiting scalability and fault tolerance. In this paper we review and evaluate the current infrastructural limitations imposed by public cloud providers and present the design and implementation of GNFC, a cloud-based Network Function Virtualization (NFV) framework that gives tenants the ability to transparently attach stateless, container-based network functions to their services hosted in public clouds. We evaluate the proposed system over three public cloud providers (Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Engine) and show the effects on end-to-end latency and throughput using various instance types for NFV hosts

Design and Implementation of Monitoring Schemes for Software-Defined Routing over a Federated Multi-domain SDN Testbed

Emerging Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm has been widely affecting most networking fields. However, the real-world SDN application for inter-domain routing management is still limited since the routing exchange among wide-area networks is quite complicate due to the extreme scale of global Internet connectivity. Several SDN-leveraged routing ideas are being proposed to improve the routing exchange among wide-area networks. Thus, in this paper, an on-going experience for experimenting and validating the inter-domain routing proposals over OF@TEIN federated testbed in Asia is shared. By focusing on the design and implementation of monitoring deployment for visibility support, we try to identify practical key points and provide improved monitoring for validating the performance and anomaly of the exchange. Other design considerations are also discussed together with possible future research directions

Software defined utility: A step towards a flexible, reliable and low-cost smart grid

The Smart Grid relies in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) but usually there is still a lack of integration in their deployment. They are designed as separated systems and managed that way too. In addition, the changes in the electric network are so complex and dependable on a very rigid hardware architecture. Based on the work done in the European project FINESCE, this paper presents the “Software Defined Utility “(SDU) concept, which advocates the migration of the utility infrastructure to software systems instead of relying on complex and rigid hardware based systems. This new approach provides a prospective view on the evolution of power systems that will benefit from software systems and high-speed data network infrastructures. More concretely, as a first SDU building block, the paper proposes a data storage and management system based on a hybrid cloud infrastructure to meet the storage requirements of electric utilities. In this regard, the following dimensions have been analysed: the most appropriate methodology to select where data resources should be allocated; security requirements and threads taking into account its deployment in a critical infrastructure like a Smart Grid

Implementation and Provisioning of Federated Networks in Hybrid Clouds (pre-print)

Federated cloud networking is needed to allow the seamless and efficient interconnection of resources distributed among different clouds. This work introduces a new cloud network federation framework for the automatic provision of Layer 2 (L2) and layer 3 (L3) virtual networks to interconnect geographically distributed cloud infrastructures in a hybrid cloud scenario. After a revision of existing encapsulation technologies to implement L2 and L3 overlay networks, the paper analyzes the main topologies that can be used to construct federated network overlays within hybrid clouds. In order to demonstrate the proposed solution and compare the different topologies, the article shows a proof-of-concept of a real federated network deployment in a hybrid cloud, which spans a local private cloud, managed with OpenNebula, and two public clouds, two different regions of mazon EC2. Results show that L2 and L3 overlay connectivity can be achieved with a minimal bandwidth overhead, lower than 10%

Issues and Challenges for Network Virtualisation

In recent years, network virtualisation has been of great interest to researchers, being a relatively new and major paradigm in networking. This has been reflected in the IT industry where many virtualisation solutions are being marketed as revolutionary and purchased by enterprises to exploit these promised performances. Adversely, there are certain drawbacks like security, isolation and others that have conceded the network virtualisation. In this study, an investigation of the different state-of-the-art virtualisation technologies, their issues and challenges are addressed and besides, a guideline for a quintessential Network Virtualisation Environment (NVE) is been proposed. A systematic review was effectuated on selectively picked research papers and technical reports. Moreover a comparative study is performed on different Network Virtualisation technologies which include features like security, isolation, stability, convergence, outlay, scalability, robustness, manageability, resource management, programmability, flexibility, heterogeneity, legacy Support, and ease of deployment. The virtualisation technologies comprise Virtual Private Network (VPN), Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). Conclusively the results exhibited the disparity as to the gaps of creating an ideal network virtualisation model which can be circumvented using these as a benchmark

Enhanced IPFIX flow processing mechanism for overlay network monitoring

Cloud computing is an emerging technology. People are adopting cloud at a faster rate, due to this cloud network traffic is increasing at a pace which is challenging to manage. Monitoring tool is an essential aspect of cloud computing and becomes more apparent with the acquired of cloud services. Overlay network provides new path to converge network and run as an independent virtual network on top of physical network. Currently, cloud overlay network technologies in cloud infrastructure have visibility gaps, which mean cloud provider and consumers miss out the major performance issues for troubleshooting of overlay network traffic. Hence, to keep a close watch on network and catch potential problems, a network monitoring tool required, to track and report more in-depth for not only see the hidden traffic but also presents the related information of cloud overlay network technologies specifically suited to the modern cloud-scale data center. Therefore, this study proposes an enhanced IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) mechanism for cloud overlay network monitoring by adopting flexible flow based technique. Furthermore, the solution provided in this research consist of diverse mechanisms: enhanced packet filtering mechanisms using property match filtering technique and hash-based filtering technique. Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) based flow classification mechanisms using 6-tuple flow pattern and adoptable flow patterns. IPFIX message template mechanisms, which is comprise set of fields for data records within the IPFIX flow processing system. The findings demonstrate that the proposed mechanism can capture multi-tenant overlay network traffic to identify, track, analyze and continuously monitor the performance of cloud overlay network services. The proposed mechanisms are resource efficient where the combination of VFMFM+6tuple+VXLAN Message consume 4.63% less CPU, while the combination of VHFM+AFCM+AFCM Message consume 11.45% less CPU than Standard IPFIX. The contributions of this study would help cloud network operators and end-users to quickly and proactively resolve any overlay network based on performance issues with end-to end visibility and actionable insights

Software-Defined Networking in Datacenter Network Virtualization

Työn aiheena on tutustua SDN-arkkitehtuuriin ja selvittää, miten se soveltuu osaksi konesaliverkkojen virtualisointia. Työssä käydään läpi verkkoarkkitehtuurien historiaa, sekä tarpeita, joista SDN-arkkitehtuuri on syntynyt. Työssä käydään läpi muutamia avoimen ja suljetun lähdekoodin SDN-sovelluksia, sekä esitellään verkkojen virtualisoinnin perusteet. Tarkempaan käsittelyyn valitaan avoimen ja suljetun lähdekoodin sovellukset, jotka yhdistävät sekä SDN-arkkitehtuurin, että verkkojen virtualisoinnin. Tutkimustulokseksi saadaan, että SDN-arkkitehtuurista on konkreettista hyötyä konesaliverkkojen virtualisoinnista. Saavutettava hyöty riippuu kuitenkin lähtökohdista. Olemassa olevassa konesalissa SDN-sovellus on riippuvainen kytkinlaitteistosta. Uudessa konesalissa SDN-sovellus voidaan valita vapaammin