Energy efficiency considerations in integrated IT and optical network resilient infrastructures

The European Integrated Project GEYSERS - Generalised Architecture for Dynamic Infrastructure Services - is concentrating on infrastructures incorporating integrated optical network and IT resources in support of the Future Internet with special emphasis on cloud computing. More specifically GEYSERS proposes the concept of Virtual Infrastructures over one or more interconnected Physical Infrastructures comprising both network and IT resources. Taking into consideration the energy consumption levels associated with the ICT today and the expansion of the Internet in size and complexity, that incurring increased energy consumption of both IT and network resources, energy efficient infrastructure design becomes critical. To address this need, in the framework of GEYSERS, we propose energy efficient design of infrastructures incorporating integrated optical network and IT resources, supporting resilient end-to-end services. Our modeling results quantify significant energy savings of the proposed solution by jointly optimizing the allocation of both network and IT resources

The GEYSERS optical testbed: a platform for the integration, validation and demonstration of cloud-based infrastructure services

The recent evolution of cloud services is leading to a new service transformation paradigm to accommodate network infrastructures in a cost-scalable way. In this transformation, the network constitutes the key to efficiently connect users to services and applications. In this paper we describe the deployment, validation and demonstration of the optical integrated testbed for the “GEneralized architecture for dYnamic infrastructure SERviceS” (GEYSERS) project to accommodate such cloud based Infrastructure Services. The GEYSERS testbed is composed of a set of local physical testbeds allocated in the facilities of the GEYSERS partners. It is built up based on the requirements specification, architecture definition and per-layer development that constitutes the whole GEYSERS ecosystem, and validates the procedures on the GEYSERS prototypes. The testbed includes optical devices (layer 1), switches (layer 2), and IT resources deployed in different local testbeds provided by the project partners and interconnected among them to compose the whole testbed layout. The main goal of the GEYSERS testbed is twofold. On one hand, it aims at providing a validation ground for the architecture, concepts and business models proposed by GEYSERS, sustained by two main paradigms: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and the coupled provisioning of optical network and IT resources. On the other hand, it is used as a demonstration platform for testing the software prototypes within the project and to demonstrate to the research and business community the project approach and solutions. In this work, we discuss our experience in the deployment of the testbed and share the results and insights learned from our trials in the process. Additionally, the paper highlights the most relevant experiments carried out in the testbed, aimed at the validation of the overall GEYSERS architecture

Bringing optical networks to the Cloud: an architecture for a sustainable future Internet

Over the years, the Internet has become a central tool for society. The extent of its growth and usage raises critical issues associated with its design principles that need to be addressed before it reaches its limits. Many emerging applications have increasing requirements in terms of bandwidth, QoS and manageability. Moreover, applications such as Cloud computing and 3D-video streaming require optimization and combined provisioning of different infrastructure resources and services that include both network and IT resources. Demands become more and more sporadic and variable, making dynamic provisioning highly needed. As a huge energy consumer, the Internet also needs to be energy-conscious. Applications critical for society and business (e.g., health, finance) or for real-time communication demand a highly reliable, robust and secure Internet. Finally, the future Internet needs to support sustainable business models, in order to drive innovation, competition, and research. Combining optical network technology with Cloud technology is key to addressing the future Internet/Cloud challenges. In this context, we propose an integrated approach: realizing the convergence of the IT- and optical-network-provisioning models will help bring revenues to all the actors involved in the value chain. Premium advanced network and IT managed services integrated with the vanilla Internet will ensure a sustainable future Internet/Cloud enabling demanding and ubiquitous applications to coexist