Deploying building information modeling software on Desktop as a Service platform

Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is a novel cloud computing service that provides cloud-based virtual desktops on-demand to end users. The major advantage of DaaS is the capability to quickly deliver expeditious control of a full desktop environment to end users from various device platforms such as Android, iOS, MacOS or Web access from anywhere and at any time. This master thesis is a proof of concept to demonstrate the practicability to deploy the case company's graphics-intensive building information modeling software, Tekla Structures on Amazon Web Services' DaaS solution, named Amazon WorkSpaces. We investigated the whole deployment process of the software to the Amazon WorkSpaces. After clarifying the deployment process, we developed the working prototype consisting of different Amazon Web Services to automate the process. Furthermore, we implemented operational test cases for the prototype and for the Tekla Structures running on Amazon WorkSpaces to determine the feasibility of using this novel cloud service for the production purpose in the case company. In summary, Amazon WorkSpaces is a highly anticipated DaaS solution that can simplify the desktop and software delivery process to the case company's customers. The prototype developed in the thesis can automate the deployment process and launch new Amazon WorkSpaces to a sufficient extent. Moreover, the evaluation shows that the prototype can handle its automation tasks correctly based on the proposed architectural design and the Amazon WorkSpaces with Graphics hardware configuration are capable of operating Tekla Structures impeccably as in physical Windows desktops

Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results

Wireless resource virtualization: opportunities, challenges, and solutions

Wireless resource virtualization (WRV) is currently emerging as a key technology to overcome the major challenges facing the mobile network operators (MNOs) such as reducing the capital, minimizing the operating expenses, improving the quality of service, and satisfying the growing demand for mobile services. Achieving such conflicting objectives simultaneously requires a highly efficient utilization of the available resources including the network infrastructure and the reserved spectrum. In this paper, the most dominant WRV frameworks are discussed where different levels of network infrastructure and spectrum resources are shared between multiple MNOs. Moreover, we summarize the major benefits and most pressing business challenges of deploying WRV. We further highlight the technical challenges and requirements for ion and sharing of spectrum resources in next generation networks. In addition, we provide guidelines for implementing comprehensive solutions that are able to and share the spectrum resources in next generation network. The paper also presents an efficient algorithm for base station virtualization in long‐term evolution (LTE) networks to share the wireless resources between MNOs who apply different scheduling polices. The proposed algorithm maintains a high‐level of isolation and offers throughput performance gain. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Wireless resource virtualization (WRV) is emerging as a key technology to reduce cost and increase the total network capacity by sharing wireless resources between multiple mobile operators. In this paper, we present the concepts, highlight the benefits, and discuss the technical challenges and requirements for ion and sharing of WRV in next generation networks. Furthermore, an efficient WRV approach for long‐term evolution base stations is proposed and evaluated

OpenEPC Integration within 5GTN as an NFV proof of concept

Abstract. Gone are the days, when a hardware is changed on every malfunctioning and the whole operation either stays down or load on the replacing hardware becomes too much which ultimately compromises the QoS. The IT industry is mature enough to tackle problems regarding scalability, space utilization, energy consumption, cost, agility and low availability. The expected throughput and network latency with 5G in the cellular Telecommunication Networks seems to be unachievable with the existing architecture and resources. Network Function Virtualization promises to merge IT and Telecommunications in such an efficient way that the expected results could be achieved no longer but sooner. The thesis work examines the compatibility and flexibility of a 3GPP virtual core network in a virtualization platform. The testbed is established on an LTE (Long Term Evolution) based network being already deployed and OpenEPC is added as virtual core network on it. The integration of OpenEPC in 5GTN (5TH Generation Test Network) is discussed in details in the thesis which will give an account of the possibility of implementing such a simulated vEPC (Virtual Evolved Packet Core) in a real network platform. The deployed setup is tested to check its feasibility and flexibility for a platform which could be used for NFV deployment in future. The monitoring of OpenEPC’s individual components while utilizing the major resources within them, forms the primary performance test. The CPU Load and Memory Utilization is tested on different CPU stress levels having a constant data traffic from actual UEs. At the completion of the thesis work, a consensus is built up based on the test results that the test setup can hold number of subscribers to a certain amount without any performance degradation. Moreover, the virtual core network throughput and network latency is also compared to the commercial LTE networks and theoretical maximum values on similar resources to check performance consistency OpenEPC must offer

A service-oriented hybrid access network and clouds architecture

Many telecom operators are deploying their own cloud infrastructure with the two-fold objective of providing cloud services to their customers and enabling network function virtualization. In this article we present an architecture we call SHINE, which focuses on orchestrating cloud with heterogeneous access and core networks. In this architecture intra and inter DC connectivity is dynamically controlled, maximizing the overall performance in terms of throughput and latency while minimizing total costs. The main building blocks are: a future-proof network architecture that can scale to offer potentially unlimited bandwidth based on an active remote node (ARN) to interface end-users and the core network; an innovative distributed DC architecture consisting of micro-DCs placed in selected core locations to accelerate content delivery, reducing core network traffic, and ensuring very low latency; and dynamic orchestration of the distributed DC and access and core network segments. SHINE will provide unprecedented quality of experience, greatly reducing costs by coordinating network and cloud and facilitating service chaining by virtualizing network functions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Enabling Disaster Resilient 4G Mobile Communication Networks

The 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the cellular technology expected to outperform the previous generations and to some extent revolutionize the experience of the users by taking advantage of the most advanced radio access techniques (i.e. OFDMA, SC-FDMA, MIMO). However, the strong dependencies between user equipments (UEs), base stations (eNBs) and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) limit the flexibility, manageability and resiliency in such networks. In case the communication links between UEs-eNB or eNB-EPC are disrupted, UEs are in fact unable to communicate. In this article, we reshape the 4G mobile network to move towards more virtual and distributed architectures for improving disaster resilience, drastically reducing the dependency between UEs, eNBs and EPC. The contribution of this work is twofold. We firstly present the Flexible Management Entity (FME), a distributed entity which leverages on virtualized EPC functionalities in 4G cellular systems. Second, we introduce a simple and novel device-todevice (D2D) communication scheme allowing the UEs in physical proximity to communicate directly without resorting to the coordination with an eNB.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Magazin

Integrated SDN/NFV management and orchestration architecture for dynamic deployment of virtual SDN control instances for virtual tenant networks

Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) have emerged as the most promising candidates for improving network function and protocol programmability and dynamic adjustment of network resources. On the one hand, SDN is responsible for providing an abstraction of network resources through well-defined application programming interfaces. This abstraction enables SDN to perform network virtualization, that is, to slice the physical infrastructure and create multiple coexisting application-specific virtual tenant networks (VTNs) with specific quality-of-service and service-level-agreement requirements, independent of the underlying optical transport technology and network protocols. On the other hand, the notion of NFV relates to deploying network functions that are typically deployed in specialized and dedicated hardware, as software instances [called virtual network functions (VNFs)] running on commodity servers (e.g., in data centers) through software virtualization techniques. Despite all the attention that has been given to virtualizing IP functions (e.g., firewall; authentication, authorization, and accounting) or Long-Term Evolution control functions (e.g., mobility management entity, serving gateway, and packet data network gateway), some transport control functions can also be virtualized and moved to the cloud as a VNF. In this work we propose virtualizing the tenant SDN control functions of a VTN and moving them into the cloud. The control of a VTN is a key requirement associated with network virtualization, since it allows the dynamic programming (i.e., direct control and configuration) of the virtual resources allocated to the VTN. We experimentally assess and evaluate the first SDN/NFV orchestration architecture in a multipartner testbed to dynamically deploy independent SDN controller instances for each instantiated VTN and to provide the required connectivity within minutes