5,454 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
BPFabric: Data Plane Programmability for Software Defined Networks
In its current form, OpenFlow, the de facto implementation
of SDN, separates the networkâs control and data
planes allowing a central controller to alter the matchaction
pipeline using a limited set of fields and actions.
To support new protocols, forwarding logic, telemetry,
monitoring or even middlebox-like functions the currently
available programmability in SDN is insufficient.
In this paper, we introduce BPFabric, a platform, protocol,
and language-independent architecture to centrally
program and monitor the data plane. BPFabric leverages
eBPF, a platform and protocol independent instruction
set to define the packet processing and forwarding functionality
of the data plane. We introduce a control plane
API that allows data plane functions to be deployed onthe-fly,
reporting events of interest and exposing network
internal state.
We present a raw socket and DPDK implementation
of the design, the former for large-scale experimentation
using environment such as Mininet and the latter for
high-performance low-latency deployments. We show
through examples that functions unrealisable in OpenFlow
can leverage this flexibility while achieving similar
or better performance to todayâs static design
Platform Competition as Network Contestability
Recent research in industrial organisation has investigated the essential
place that middlemen have in the networks that make up our global economy. In
this paper we attempt to understand how such middlemen compete with each other
through a game theoretic analysis using novel techniques from decision-making
under ambiguity. We model a purposely abstract and reduced model of one
middleman who pro- vides a two-sided platform, mediating surplus-creating
interactions between two users. The middleman evaluates uncertain outcomes
under positional ambiguity, taking into account the possibility of the
emergence of an alternative middleman offering intermediary services to the two
users. Surprisingly, we find many situations in which the middleman will
purposely extract maximal gains from her position. Only if there is relatively
low probability of devastating loss of business under competition, the
middleman will adopt a more competitive attitude and extract less from her
position.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figure
Ruru: High-speed, Flow-level Latency Measurement and Visualization of Live Internet Traffic
End-to-end latency is becoming an important metric for many emerging applications (e.g., 5G low-latency services) over the Internet. To better understand end-to-end latency, we present Ruru1, a DPDK-based pipeline that exploits recent advances in high-speed packet processing and visualization. We present an operational deployment of Ruru over an international high-speed link running between Auckland and Los Angeles, and show how Ruru can be used for latency anomaly detection and network planning
Pricing in Economies with a Variable Number of Commodities
We present a general equilibrium model that encompasses the endogenous selection of a set of tradeable commodities. At its foundation we introduce the notion of a trade infrastructure as a set of social institutions describing the trade and production technologies available to the agents in the economy. Our model bridges the analyses of economies with a finite number of commodities and those with an infinite number, and it provides a general framework for investigating a very large class of possible applications. We discuss in detail a simple example on the development of a guild economy into a market based economy. We introduce an equilibrium concept that describes the pricing of trade infrastructures, based on the notion of valuation equilibrium for economies with abstract public goods, as in Diamantaras and Gilles (1996, International Economic Review, 37, 851-860). Through this concept we are able to price the tradeability of a commodity by itself. As our main results we obtain the existence as well as the decentralization of Pareto efficient allocations using the concept of valuation equilibrium. JEL classification: D23, D41, D46, D59, D90, H40, O12Trading systems infrastructures welfare theorems general equilibrium Public economics
Book vs. fair value accounting in banking and intertemporal smoothing
The aim of this paper is to examine the pros and cons of book and fair value accounting from the perspective of the theory of banking. We consider the implications of the two accounting methods in an overlapping generations environment. As observed by Allen and Gale(1997), in an overlapping generation model, banks have a role as intergenerational connectors as they allow for intertemporal smoothing. Our main result is that when dividends depend on profits, book value ex ante dominates fair value, as it provides better intertemporal smoothing. This is in contrast with the standard view that states that, fair value yields a better allocation as it reflects the real opportunity cost of assets. Banking regulation play an important role by providing the right incentives for banks to smooth intertemporal consumption whereas market discipline improves intratemporal efficiency.Banking, shocks, insurance, intertemporal, Overlapping Generations Equilibrium
Roaming Edge vNFs using Glasgow Network Functions
While the network edge is becoming more important for the provision of customized services in next generation mobile networks, current NFV architectures are unsuitable to meet the increasing future demand. They rely on commodity servers with resource-hungry Virtual Machines that are unable to provide the high network function density and mobility requirements necessary for upcoming wide-area and 5G networks.
In this demo, we showcase Glasgow Network Functions (GNF), a virtualization framework suitable for next generation mobile networks that exploits lightweight network functions (NFs) deployed at the edge and transparently following users' devices as they roam between cells
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