5G & SLAs: Automated proposition and management of agreements towards QoS enforcement

Efficient Service Level Agreements (SLA) management and anticipation of Service Level Objectives (SLO) breaches become mandatory to guarantee the required service quality in software- defined and 5G networks. To create an operational Network Service, it is highly envisaged to associate it with their network-related parameters that reflect the corresponding quality levels. These are included in policies but while SLAs target usually business users, there is a challenge for mechanisms that bridge this abstraction gap. In this paper, a generic black box approach is used to map high-level requirements expressed by users in SLAs to low-level network parameters included in policies, enabling Quality of Service (QoS) enforcement by triggering the required policies and manage the infrastructure accordingly. In addition, a mechanism for determining the importance of different QoS parameters is presented, mainly used for “relevant” QoS metrics recommendation in the SLA template

Benchmarking Blockchains: The case of XRP Ledger and Beyond

Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies appear to be at a worldwide threshold of acceptance and adoption. Since their inception, several innovative projects have been proposing solutions to the blockchain trilemma, improving blockchain features and its technical limitations. However, the adoption of blockchain as a technology requires a comprehensive understanding and characterization of its technical aspects. The latter introduces an uncertainty for an organization to decide which blockchain protocol best meets its needs and demands. In general, there is a lack of proper testing and software engineering practices for assessing the usage of different blockchain protocols and understanding their performance. Toward that direction, this paper presents an architecture for a blockchain benchmarking framework that aims at the deployment and evaluation of different blockchain protocols. Moreover, we introduce a set of modules for testing and evaluating their behavior under different test-cases and scenarios. To illustrate the usefulness of the proposed architecture we demonstrate an instantiation with the deployment of a private XRPL Network. The experiments conducted in this work were focused on how XRPL behaves under heavy load

Internet of Medical Things (IoMT): Acquiring and Transforming Data into HL7 FHIR through 5G Network Slicing

The Healthcare 4.0 era is surrounded by challenges varying from the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices’ data collection, integration and interpretation. Several techniques have been developed that however do not propose solutions that can be applied to different scenarios or domains. When dealing with healthcare data, based on the severity and the application of their results, they should be provided almost in real-time, without any errors, inconsistencies or misunderstandings. Henceforth, in this manuscript a platform is proposed for efficiently managing healthcare data, by taking advantage of the latest techniques in Data Acquisition, 5G Network Slicing and Data Interoperability. In this platform, IoMT devices’ data and network specifications can be acquired and segmented in different 5G network slices according to the severity and the computation requirements of different medical scenarios. In sequel, transformations are performed on the data of each network slice to address data heterogeneity issues, and provide the data of the same network slices into HL7 FHIR-compliant format, for further analysis

Validating the Blockchain Benchmarking Framework Through Controlled Deployments of XRPL and Ethereum

In the evolving domain of blockchain, a critical challenge lies in the performance analysis of blockchains under controlled test conditions. This paper focuses on validating the Blockchain Benchmarking Framework (BBF), developed for the evaluation of blockchain protocols in a controlled environment. The BBF’s robustness and versatility are demonstrated through its application to the official Docker clients of Ripple’s XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ethereum, deployed in private, local and controlled environments. These deployments are utilized to simulate network dynamics, transaction throughput, and resilience in a variety of scenarios. Our methodology encompasses tests ranging from standard operational conditions to adverse scenarios, including node failures and simulated double-spend attacks. These controlled environments are essential for evaluating the BBF’s efficacy in stress testing blockchain protocols and assessing their stability and robustness. The BBF’s ability to accurately capture and analyze performance characteristics is highlighted, providing insights into the operational mechanics, scalability, and resilience of these blockchain clients. The findings emphasize the BBF’s adaptability and effectiveness in managing different blockchain protocols, reaffirming its potential for broader application in pre-launch testing and analysis of blockchain performance. This study contributes to the understanding of how blockchain clients can be preliminarily assessed before mainnet deployment as well as to validate all the design decisions made by the protocol under different settings and synthetic scenarios

An Integrated SLA Management Framework in a 5G Environment

A key feature of fifth generation (5G) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) is the assurance of high levels of the quality of service (QoS). To this end, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are introduced in order to fulfill the gap between network operators and their customers. An SLA is a contract between the operator and the internal or external customer, which determines what Network Services (NSs) are offered and the guaranteed level of performance. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned needs, in this paper, we are introducing a fully integrated SLA management framework in a real 5G environment. In this demonstration we aim to bind business requirements as Service Level Objectives (SLOs) between network operators and the customers, with measurable recourse attributes. To achieve this, we allow network operators to choose between different SLOs during the SLA Template generation, and then automatically formulate an Agreement, based on each network slice instantiation and the corresponding NS. Finally, we provide a monitoring system in order to detect and alert for any violations.Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other work

Blockchain application in P2P energy markets: social and legal aspects

Flexible and distributed energy markets are a reality that is progressively reaching many regions. Despite their clear benefits, they should be accepted by the prosumers. Additionally, blockchain technology and smart contracts have been characterised as a technological enabler for the energy sector and P2P Energy Markets (PEM). However, little research has been done to explore blockchain's user-centred perspective. Therefore, this paper analyses the reluctance and/or concerns of prosumers regarding smart contracts, and investigates their perception on blockchain within PEMs. The authors present the results of a survey conducted across several European countries addressing the implementation of automated trading systems and analysing the adoption of smart contracts. Considering that the main survey outcomes are related to the regulation and legislation uncertainty around blockchain usage, this paper explores also the fit of smart contracts from a legal perspective. Additionally, a set of recommendations to be used as the basis for the design and development of PEMs is delivered, aiming to adopt blockchain and smart contracts. As a key take-away, the authors confirm the crucial role that blockchain will play in the deployment of fair, secure, flexible and distributed energy markets by ensuring transparency in the exchange of information between prosumers and energy stakeholders

Comparison of management and orchestration solutions for the 5G era

5G is considered to be the technology that will accommodate the development and management of innovative services with stringent and diverse requirements from end users, calling for new business models from the industry. In this context, the development and efficient management of Network Services (NS) serving specific vertical industries and spanning across multiple administrative domains and heterogeneous infrastructures is challenging. The main challenges regard the efficient provision of NSs considering the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements per vertical industry along with the optimal usage of the allocated resources. Towards addressing these challenges, this paper details an innovative approach that we have developed for managing and orchestrating such NSs, called SONATA, and compare it with OSM and Cloudify, which are two of the most known open-source Management and Orchestration (MANO) frameworks. In addition to examining the supported orchestration mechanisms per MANO framework, an evaluation of main operational and functional KPIs is provided based on experimentation using a real testbed. The final aim is the identification of their strong and weak points, and the assessment of their suitability for serving diverse vertical industry needs, including of course the Internet of Things (IoT) service ecosystem

SLA-controlled proxy service through customisable MANO supporting operator policies

Service Level Agreements are essential tools enabling clients and telco operators to specify required quality of service. The 5GTANGO NFV platform enables SLAs through policies and custom service lifecycle management components. This allows the operator to trigger certain lifecycle management events for a service, and the network service developer to define how to execute such events (e.g., how to scale). In this demo we will demonstrate this unique 5GTANGO concept using an elastic proxy service supported by a high availability SLA enforced through a range of traffic regimes