Mobility-aware QoS assurance in software-defined radio access networks: an analytical study

Software-defined networking (SDN) has gained a tremendous attention in the recent years, both in academia and industry. This revolutionary networking paradigm is an attempt to bring the advances in computer science and software engineering into the information and communications technology (ICT) domain. The aim of these efforts is to pave the way for completely programmable networks and control-data plane separation. Recent studies on feasibility and applicability of SDN concepts in cellular networks show very promising results and this trend will most likely continue in near future. In this work, we study the benefits of SDN on the radio resource management (RRM) of future-generation cellular networks. Our considered cellular network architecture is in line with the recently proposed Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Release 12 concepts, such as user/control plane split, heterogeneous networks (HetNets) environment, and network densification through deployment of small cells. In particular, the aim of our RRM scheme is to enable the macro base station (BS) to efficiently allocate radio resources for small cell BSs in order to assure quality-of-service (QoS) of moving users/vehicles during handovers. We develop an approximate, but very time- and space-efficient algorithm for radio resource allocation within a HetNet. Experiments on commodity hardware show algorithm running times in the order of a few seconds, thus making it suitable even in cases of fast moving users/vehicles. We also confirm a good accuracy of our proposed algorithm by means of computer simulations

Quality of service in an information-centric network

QoS provisioning is one of the key challenges facing current as well as future Internet architectures. Its dependency on content recognition does not allow a straightforward support of QoS in the IP, host-centric, model. In contrast, Information-Centric Networking (ICN) offers native content identification in the network, which can be exploited to develop a common, elegant, framework for supporting QoS-based delivery. Therefore, ICN may naturally overcome many of the cumbersome fixes and limitations of today's solutions. In this work, we exploit the flexibility in semantic representation offered by ICN to present a flexible and scalable ICN-based QoS model. Our model defines QoS requirements as information items that can be linked to the content at various aggregation levels, independent of the communication approach. Therefore, it can be applied uniformly to various network types and hierarchies. Furthermore, our model offers enhanced traffic treatment as well as resource utilization while significantly reducing the overhead on the network

A midterm DBA algorithm for quality of service on aggregation layer EPON networks

This work presents a new approach on dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) for Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPONs). A brief introduction to the DBA area and major term definitions are given. The related research and standardization efforts are presented. Justification that EPONs can be used on the aggregation network is provided, based on their evolution and related research proposals. Focus is given to the Long Reach-Passive Optical Networks (LR-PONs) and their limitations which show the need for a non-polling, midterm DBA scheme for next-generation EPONs. The challenges arising, because of this new approach, are discussed along with possible solutions. Finally, this work proposes the EMDBA algorithm which is able to overcome the discussed issues. The correct operation of this algorithm is confirmed by a set of simulations using OMNet++ framework, and the outcome results show that EMDBA performance is satisfactory in terms of delay and service differentiation. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York