Experimental proof of concept of an SDN‐based traffic engineering solution for hybrid satellite‐terrestrial mobile backhauling

Satellite networks are expected to be an integral part of 5G service deployment. One compelling use case is mobile backhauling, where the exploitation of a satellite component can improve the reach, robustness, and economics of 5G rollout. The envisaged availability of new satellite capacity, together with the development of better integration approaches for the provisioning and operation of the satellite component in a more flexible, agile, and cost‐effective manner than done today, are expected to revamp such use case within the 5G ecosystem. In this context, sustained in the architectural designs proposed within H2020 VITAL research project, this paper presents an experimental proof of concept (PoC) of a satellite‐terrestrial integration solution that builds upon software‐defined networking (SDN) technologies for the realization of end‐to‐end traffic engineering (E2E TE) in mobile backhauling networks with a satellite component. A laboratory test bed has been developed and validated, consisting of a small‐scale private mobile network with a backhaul setting that combines Ethernet‐wired links, a satellite link emulator (OpenSAND), OpenFlow switches, and an OpenFlow controller running the network application for E2E TE. Provided results show the operation of a E2E TE application able to enforce different traffic routing and path failure restoration policies as well as the performance impact that it has on the mobile network connectivity services.     

On the characteristics of routing paths and the performance of routing protocols in vehicle‐formed mobile ad hoc networks on highways

Recently, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) is becoming an important research topic. One goal of ITS is to exchange information among vehicles in a timely and efficient manner. In the ITS research community, inter‐vehicle communications (IVC) is considered a way that may be able to achieve this goal. An information network built on the top of vehicles using IVC can be viewed as a type of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In the past, several unicast routing protocols for MANET have been proposed. However, most of them are designed for general MANETs rather than for IVC networks. In this paper, we first used more realistic vehicle mobility traces generated by a microscopic traffic simulator (VISSIM) to understand the characteristics of routing paths in an IVC network. Based on the insights gained from the derived path characteristics, we designed and implemented an intelligent flooding‐based routing protocol for small‐scale IVC networks. Via several field trials conducted on highways, we compared the performance of ad hoc on‐demand distance vector (AODV) and our protocol. Our experimental results show that (1) our protocol outperforms AODV greatly in IVC networks and (2) our protocol can provide text, image, audio, and video services for small‐scale IVC networks (e.g., a platoon) quite well. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Game of energy consumption balancing in heterogeneous sensor networks

In a multi‐hop sensor network, sensors largely rely on other nodes as a traffic relay to communicate with targets that are not reachable by one hop. Depending on the topology and position of nodes, some sensors receive more relaying traffic and lose their energy faster. Such imbalanced energy consumption may lead to server problems like network partitioning. In this paper, we study the problem of energy consumption balancing (ECB) in heterogeneous sensor networks by assuming general any‐to‐any traffic pattern. We consider both factors of transmission power and forwarding load in measuring energy consumption. To find a solution, we formulate the problem as a strategic network formation game with a new utility function. We show that this game is guaranteed to converge to strongly connected topologies which have better ECB and bounded inefficiency. We propose a localized algorithm in which every node knows only about its k‐hop neighbourhood. Through simulations on uniform and clustered networks with various densities, we show that the performance of our algorithm is comparable with global and centralized algorithms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Traffic analysis for multiparty videoconferencing in virtual path‐based ATM networks

With effective bandwidth concept encapsulating cell‐level behaviour, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network design and analysis at the call‐level may be formulated in the framework of circuit‐switched loss networks. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework for a kind of multiparty videoconferencing in the VP‐based ATM network at call‐level. For this kind of conference, only the video of the current speaker is broadcast to other conferees. We first address several conference management issues in the VP‐based ATM network, including the bandwidth allocation strategies, routing rule, call admission policy and speaker change management. Next, we formulate a traffic model for the conferences. Since an exact analysis of such a multiparty conference network is mathematically intractable, an approximate analysis for such conferences in a fully connected VP network is performed. The key of our method is to make use of the reduced‐load approximation and open Jackson network model to derive the traffic loads from new conferences as well as that from the speaker change of the on‐going conferences. Our study shows that the proposed analysis can give accurate predictions of the blocking probabilities for the new conference calls as well as video freeze probabilities for the on‐going conferences. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A time‐efficient shrinkage algorithm for the Fourier‐based prediction enabling proactive optimisation in software‐defined networks

This paper focuses on the problem of time‐efficient traffic prediction. The prediction enables the proactive and globally scoped optimisation in software‐defined networks (SDNs). We propose the shrinkage and selection heuristic method for the trigonometric Fourier‐based traffic models in SDNs. The proposed solution allows us to optimise the network for an upcoming time window by installing flow entries in SDN nodes before the first packet of a new flow arrives. As the mechanism is designed to be a part of a sophisticated routing‐support system, several critical constraints are considered and taken into account. Specifically, the system is traffic‐ and topology‐agnostic, thus the prediction mechanism must be applicable to the networks with highly variable traffic loads (e.g., observed inside intra‐DCNs: datacentre networks). Furthermore, the system must effectively optimise routing in large‐scale SDNs comprised of numerous nodes and handling millions of flows of a dynamic nature. Therefore, the prediction must be simultaneously accurate as well as being time efficient and scalable. These requirements are met by our Fourier‐based solution, which subtracts consecutive harmonics from the original signal and compares the result with an adaptive threshold adjusted to the signal's standard deviation. The evaluation is performed by comparing the proposed heuristic with the well‐known Lasso method of proven accuracy. The results show that our solution is able to retain prediction accuracy at a comparable level. Moreover, in accordance with our main aim, we operate in a manner which is always significantly faster. In some cases, computation times are reduced by as much as 50 times.     

Optical resources provisioning: multipoint‐to‐point lightpaths mapping in all‐optical networks

In wavelength‐division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, the bandwidth request of a traffic stream can be much lower than the capacity of a lightpath. Efficiently grooming low‐speed connections onto high‐capacity lightpaths will improve the network throughput and reduce the network cost. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a new concept of traffic aggregation in WDM mesh networks that aims to eliminate both the bandwidth under‐utilization and scalability concerns that are typical in all‐optical wavelength routed networks. This approach relies on the multipoint‐to‐point lightpath concept. In order to assess the efficiency of our proposal, all underlying network costs are compared. To achieve this aim, we devise a new provisioning algorithm to map the multipoint‐to‐point lightpaths in the network. Our results show that the proposed aggregation technique can significantly improve the network throughput while reducing its cost. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nodes organization for channel assignment with topology preservation in multi-radio wireless mesh networks

The wireless mesh network is a new emerging broadband technology providing the last-mile Internet access for mobile users by exploiting the advantage of multiple radios and multiple channels. The throughput improvement of the network relies heavily on the utilizing the orthogonal channels. However, an improper channel assignment scheme may lead to network partition or links failure. In this paper we consider the assignment strategy with topology preservation by organizing the mesh nodes with available channels, and aim at minimizing the co-channel interference in the network. The channel assignment with the topology preservation is proved to be NP-hard and to find the optimized solution in polynomial time is impossible. We have formulated a channel assignment algorithm named as DPSO-CA which is based on the discrete particle swarm optimization and can be used to find the approximate optimized solution. We have shown that our algorithm can be easily extended to the case with uneven traffic load in the network. The impact of radio utilization during the channel assignment process is discussed too. Extensive simulation results have demonstrated that our algorithm has good performance in both dense and sparse networks compared with related works.     

基于时延耦合映象格子的相继拥堵模型

实际网络中由于拥塞、带宽、传输速度等因素,通常存在耦合时延。该文提出一种带时延耦合映象格子的相继拥堵模型,在此基础上研究交通路网上各个节点的非线性动力学特征,交通拥堵在路网上的形成机理与传播的复杂动力学行为,拥堵故障在网络中扩散的过程。模拟网络中随机发生拥堵和蓄意攻击所引发的两种相继拥堵策略,并推导出网络中故障承受能力的阈值范围。     

Providing deterministic packet delays and packet losses in multimedia wireless networks

‘Anytime, anywhere’ communication, information access and processing are much cherished in modern societies because of their ability to bring flexibility, freedom and increased efficiency to individuals and organizations. Wireless communications, by providing ubiquitous and tetherless network connectivity to mobile users, are therefore bound to play a major role in the advancement of our society. Although initial proposals and implementations of wireless communications are generally focused on near‐term voice and electronic messaging applications, it is recognized that future wireless communications will have to evolve towards supporting a wider range of applications, including voice, video, data, images and connections to wired networks. This implies that future wireless networks must provide quality‐of‐service (QoS) guarantees to various multimedia applications in a wireless environment. Typical traffic in multimedia applications can be classified as either Constant‐Bit‐Rate (CBR) traffic or Variable‐Bit‐Rate (VBR) traffic. In particular, scheduling the transmission of VBR multimedia traffic streams in a wireless environment is very challenging and is still an open problem. In general, there are two ways to guarantee the QoS of VBR multimedia streams, either deterministically or statistically. In particular, most connection admission control (CAC) algorithms and medium access control (MAC) protocols that have been proposed for multimedia wireless networks only provide statistical, or soft, QoS guarantees. In this paper, we consider deterministic QoS guarantees in multimedia wireless networks. We propose a method for constructing a packet‐dropping mechanism that is based on a mathematical framework that determines how many packets can be dropped while the required QoS can still be preserved. This is achieved by employing: (1) An accurate traffic characterization of the VBR multimedia traffic streams; (2) A traffic regulator that can provide bounded packet loss and (3) A traffic scheduler that can provide bounded packet delay. The combination of traffic characterization, regulation and scheduling can provide bounded loss and delay deterministically. This is a distinction from traditional deterministic QoS schemes in which a 0% packet loss are always assumed with deterministically bounding the delay. We performed a set of performance evaluation experiments. The results will demonstrate that our proposed QoS guarantee schemes can significantly support more connections than a system, which does not allow any loss, at the same required QoS. Moreover, from our evaluation experiments, we found that the proposed algorithms are able to out‐perform scheduling algorithms adopted in state‐of‐the‐art wireless MAC protocols, for example Mobile Access Scheme Based on Contention and Reservation for ATM (MASCARA) when the worst‐case traffic is being considered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fixed channel assignment algorithm for multi‐radio multi‐channel MESH networks

Recently, multi‐radio mesh technology in wireless networks has been under extensive research. This is because of its potential of overcoming the inherent wireless multi‐hop throughput, scalability and latency problems caused by the half‐duplex nature of the IEEE 802.11. The concept of deploying multiple radios in wireless network access points (APs) has shown a promising way to enhance the channel selection and the route formation while the MESH topology allows more fine‐grained interference management and topology control. Within this realm, given a set of end‐to‐end objectives, there are multiple issues that need to be identified when we consider the optimization problem for fixed multi‐channel multi‐hop wireless networks with multiple radios. This paper addresses the static channel assignment problem for multichannel multi‐radio static wireless mesh networks. We first discuss its similarities and differences with the channel assignment problem in cellular networks (WMN). Next, we present four metrics based on which mesh channel assignments can be obtained. Three of these metrics attempt to maximize simultaneous transmissions in a mesh network, either directly or indirectly. The fourth metric quantifies the ‘diversity’ of a particular assignment and can be used as a secondary criterion to the other three metrics. Related optimization models have also been developed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integration of Mobile-IP and OLSR for a Universal Mobility

Trends in fourth generation (4G) wireless networks are clearly identified by the full-IP concept where all traffic (data, control, voice and video services, etc.) will be transported in IP packets. Many proposals are being made to enhance IP with the functionalities necessary to manage the mobility of nodes, so that networks can provide global seamless roaming between heterogeneous wireless and wired networks. In this paper, we focus on the management of universal mobility, including both large scale macro-mobility and local scale micro-mobility. We propose a hierachical architecture (i) extending micro-mobility management of a wireless access network to an ad-hoc access network, (ii) connecting this ad-hoc network to the Internet and (iii) integrating Mobile IP and OLSR, a routing protocol for ad-hoc networks, to manage universal mobility. This architecture is validated by an implementation based on DynamicsMobile-IP and OLSR version 7. We show how the brodcast of Mobile-IP Agent Advertisement can be optimized using OLSR MPR-flooding.     

Identification of Key Nodes in Microblog Networks

A microblog is a service typically offered by online social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. From the perspective of information dissemination, we define the concept behind a spreading matrix. A new WeiboRank algorithm for identification of key nodes in microblog networks is proposed, taking into account parameters such as a user's direct appeal, a user's influence region, and a user's global influence power. To investigate how measures for ranking influential users in a network correlate, we compare the relative influence ranks of the top 20 microblog users of a university network. The proposed algorithm is compared with other algorithms — PageRank, Betweeness Centrality, Closeness Centrality, Out‐degree — using a new tweets propagation model — the Ignorants‐Spreaders‐Rejecters model. Comparison results show that key nodes obtained from the WeiboRank algorithm have a wider transmission range and better influence.     

Modelling and analysis of routing and resource allocation techniques in multi‐service networks

In this paper a novel call level model based on the extension of the classical Erlang multi‐rate model for broadband integrated services networks is proposed. We use the model to study routing strategies in multi‐service networks where service classes with/without QoS guarantees coexist. Examples for such networks include ATM and IP‐based integrated networks. In ATM, the CBR and VBR service classes provide QoS guarantees, while the ABR and UBR service classes are of the best effort type. In IP, traditional TCP/IP traffic is of the best effort type, while new protocols like the RSVP or the differentiated services with central resource handling attempt to support QoS parameters. The coexistence of guaranteed and best effort traffic gives rise to new challenging problems since for a given elastic (best effort) connection the bottleneck link determines the available bandwidth and thereby puts constraints on the bandwidth at the other links along the connection's path. Since the available bandwidth fluctuates in time following the load on the links, routing and link allocation in this environment together with blocking probability calculations and fairness issues need to be studied. By means of our proposed model we are able to conduct a survey of various routing and link allocation techniques as well as to develop a modified shortest path routing algorithm which, according to the numerical examples, performs well in this environment. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Congestion management techniques for disruption‐tolerant satellite networks

Delay and disruption‐tolerant networks are becoming an appealing solution for extending Internet boundaries toward challenged environments where end‐to‐end connectivity cannot be guaranteed. In particular, satellite networks can take advantage of a priori trajectory estimations of nodes to make efficient routing decisions. Despite this knowledge is already used in routing schemes such as contact graph routing, it might derive in congestion problems because of capacity overbooking of forthcoming connections (contacts). In this work, we initially extend contact graph routing to provide enhanced congestion mitigation capabilities by taking advantage of the local traffic information available at each node. However, since satellite networks data generation is generally managed by a mission operation center, a global view of the traffic can also be exploited to further improve the latter scheme. As a result, we present a novel strategy to avoid congestion in predictable delay‐ and disruption‐tolerant network systems by means of individual contact plans. Finally, we evaluate and compare the performance improvement of these mechanisms in a typical low Earth orbit satellite constellation.     

A self‐adaptive algorithm for super‐peer selection considering the mobility of peers in cognitive mobile peer‐to‐peer networks

Cognitive peer‐to‐peer networks are obtained from a combination of cognitive networking concepts and peer‐to‐peer networks. These networks are able to improve their performance while operating under dynamic and unknown environments. A cognitive peer‐to‐peer network tries to learn an appropriate configuration for itself considering the unknown physical properties of peers. Cognitive mobile peer‐to‐peer networks refer to cognitive peer‐to‐peer networks which are built over mobile ad hoc networks. In these networks, heterogeneity of the mobility of peers and resource limitation in wireless networks create challenges for network management algorithms. Because of the dynamicity of these networks, the management algorithms should be designated in self‐adaptive manner. In one type of these networks, some peers, called super‐peers, undertake to perform network managerial tasks. The mobility of peers leads to connection failure among peers and reselection of new super‐peers. Therefore, the selection of super‐peers, due to their influential role, requires an algorithm that considers the peers' mobility. Up to now, no self‐adaptive algorithm has been designated for super‐peer selection considering the mobility of peers in a self‐adaptive manner. This paper proposes M‐SSBLA, a self‐adaptive algorithm for super‐peer selection considering the mobility of peers based on learning automata. The proposed algorithm is obtained from cooperation between a learning automata‐based cognitive engine and MIS. MIS is a well‐known super‐peer selection algorithm in mobile peer‐to‐peer networks. We compared the proposed algorithm with recently reported algorithms, especially for a network with high mobility. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can cover maximum ordinary‐peer with a few super‐peer and improve robustness against super‐peer failures while decreasing maintenance overhead.     

SDN/NFV‐based handover management approach for ultradense 5G mobile networks

With the great increase of connected devices and new types of applications, mobile networks are witnessing exponential growth of traffic volume. To meet emerging requirements, it is widely agreed that the fifth‐generation mobile network will be ultradense and heterogeneous. However, the deployment of a high number of small cells in such networks poses challenges for the mobility management, including frequent, undesired, and ping‐pong handovers, not to mention issues related to increased delay and failure of the handover process. The adoption of software‐defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) technologies into 5G networks offers a new way to address the above‐mentioned challenges. These technologies offer tools and mechanisms to make networks flexible, programmable, and more manageable. The SDN has global network control ability so that various functions such as the handover control can be implemented in the SDN architecture to manage the handover efficiently. In this article, we propose a Software‐Defined Handover (SDHO) solution to optimize the handover in future 5G networks. In particular, we design a Software‐Defined Handover Management Engine (SDHME) to handle the handover control mechanism in 5G ultradense networks. The SDHME is defined in the application plane of the SDN architecture, executed by the control plane to orchestrate the data plane. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with the conventional LTE handover strategy, the proposed approach significantly reduces the handover failure ratio and handover delay.     

Exploiting the control power of SDN during the transition from IP to SDN networks

The emerging software‐defined networking (SDN) paradigm introduces new opportunities to improve network performance due to the flexibility and programmability provided by a logically centralized element named controller. However, a rapid adoption of the full SDN architecture is difficult in the short term due to economic and technical reasons. This paper faces the SDN nodes replacement problem during the transition from traditional IP networks to fully deployed SDN networks. Six different replacement methods are proposed to select the most appropriate set of traditional IP nodes to be upgraded to SDN‐enabled switches at a particular transition stage. To show the effectiveness of the proposed methods, they have been applied on an optimization problem currently studied by the research community: the power consumption problem. An integer linear programming formulation is presented to solve it and a genetic algorithm is evaluated through simulations on realistic network topologies. Results highlight that energy‐efficiency in hybrid IP/SDN networks can be significantly improved by only replacing a reduced number of IP nodes.     

On the effects of traffic mixtures in direct broadcast satellite networks

In this paper we present a multi‐criterion control simulation in a realistically complex environment of a satellite network, involving non‐symmetric up and downlinks. Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) networks carrying heterogeneous traffic is characterized with challenges, such as high traffic burstiness, wireless channel dynamics, and large, but limited capacity. On the other hand, there are system characteristics that can be leveraged to address these challenges such as in centralized topology, different levels in quality of service (QoS) and priorities, availability of side information about channel conditions, flexibility in delivery of delay insensitive traffic, etc. We have developed an adaptive resource allocation and management (ARAM) system that takes the advantage of such characteristics to maximize the utilization of the available capacity on the forward DBS link, while maintaining QoS in the presence of channel effects and congestion in the network. Since variable‐bit‐rate (VBR) video traffic is given priority over available‐bit‐rate (ABR) data traffic in the ARAM concept, in this paper we investigate the impact of the fraction of VBR load in overall load. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cross‐layer optimization for CDMA/TDD wireless mesh networks

This paper proposes a new cross‐layer optimization algorithm for wireless mesh networks (WMNs). CDMA/TDD (code division multiple access/time division duplex) is utilized and a couple of TDD timeslot scheduling schemes are proposed for the mesh network backbone. Cross‐layer optimization involves simultaneous consideration of the signal to interference‐plus‐noise ratio (SINR) at the physical layer, traffic load estimation and allocation at medium access control (MAC) layer, and routing decision at the network layer. Adaptive antennas are utilized by the wireless mesh routers to take advantage of directional beamforming. The optimization formulation is subject to routing constraints and can be solved by general nonlinear optimization techniques. Comparisons are made with respect to the classic shortest‐path routing algorithm in the network layer. The results reveal that the average end‐to‐end successful packet rate (SPR) can be significantly improved by the cross‐layer approach. The corresponding optimized routing decisions are able to reduce the traffic congestion. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.