Archi Delphinanto

Remote Discovery and Management of End-User Devices in Heterogeneous Private Networks

End-to-end broadband service delivery requires remote management of devices in the home network, beyond the home gateway (HG). The service provider can only put limited requirements to these of-the-shelf devices, and therefore has to make intelligent use of their given control and management protocols. The authors propose architectures for the unique remote discovery and management of such devices in a highly heterogeneous home network. We suggest to have the HG discovering these devices and to proxy management and control actions to the providers remote servers. This approach has been recently adopted by the Home Gateway Initiative. A proof-of-concept is described for the remote management of UPnP devices in the home with a simple TR-069/UPnP proxy on the HG, but the architecture is basically generic for any combination of web-services like protocols.

Real-time probing of available bandwidth in home networks

Prioritization of flows in a home network based on traffic classification is still no guarantee that enough bandwidth will be available between a content server and a client. Besides, such QoS technologies need to be supported by every device in the end-to-end path to be effective, which is relatively expensive for the owners of home networks. In any small-scale IP network, best effort or QoS-enabled, at home or anywhere else, it is therefore preferable to diagnose the network in real time before admitting a new flow. In this article we analyze existing probing techniques, and demonstrate a new method to probe the available bandwidth between a server and a client in a heterogeneous IP-based home network. The tool works with existing end-user devices, is non-intrusive, has a short measurement time, does not require preknowledge of the link layer network topology, and is accurate enough to make decisions about the admission of high-throughput high-quality streams such as for IPTV services.

Architecture of a Bi-Directional Bluetooth-UPnP Proxy

The current service- and device discovery protocols are not platform- and network independent Therefore, proxy servers will be needed to extend the range of IP-based discovery protocols to non-IP domains. We developed an architecture of a proxy that enables UPnP devices and services to be discovered on the Bluetooth network and vice versa, and allows Bluetooth devices and UPnP control points to access and utilize services located on devices in the other network. We managed to keep all functionality needed for effective proxying running on a single device, e.g. the mobile phone or the Residential Gateway.

Path capacity estimation in heterogeneous, best-effort, small-scale IP networks

Current QoS solutions for IP networks are usually based on traffic classification and need to be supported by every device in the end-to-end path to be effective. This is relatively expensive for home networks. Alternative techniques have been proposed that require end-user services to pragmatically adapt their properties to the actual condition of the network. For this, the condition of the network needs to be known in real time. In this article we demonstrate a new method to probe the path capacity between a server and a client in a home network or any other best-effort small-scale IP network. The tool requires adaptation of the server side only, is non-intrusive, has a short measurement time, does not require pre-knowledge of the link-layer network topology, and is accurate enough to make educated predictions about the admission of IPTV services and the like.

Proxying UPnP service discovery and access to a non-IP Bluetooth network on a mobile phone

The current service-and device discovery protocols are not platform-and network independent. Therefore, proxy servers will be needed to extend the range of IP-based discovery protocols to non-IP domains. We developed an architecture of a proxy that enables Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices and services to be discovered and accessed on the Bluetooth network and vice versa. We optimized and implemented the architecture on a mobile computing platform. This proxy implementation is then used for interworking the UPnP Content Directory service with the Bluetooth File Transfer profile. Our performance study showed that our proxy implementation reduces invocation time and data throughput to about 50% of the bare Bluetooth and UPnP performance, but it is still acceptable for an end user.

End-to-end available bandwidth probing in heterogeneous IP home networks

Prioritization of flows in a home network based on traffic classification is still no guarantee that enough bandwidth will be available between a server and a client. Besides, such QoS technologies need to be supported by every device in the end-to-end path to be effective, which is relatively expensive for the owners of home networks. In any small-scale IP network (best-effort or QoS-enabled) it is therefore preferable to diagnose the network in real time, before admitting a new flow. In this paper we demonstrate a new method to probe the available bandwidth between a server and a client in an IP-based home network. The tool works with existing end-user devices, is non-intrusive, has a short measurement time, does not require pre-knowledge of the link layer network topology, and is accurate enough to make decisions about the admission of high-throughput high-quality streams such as for IPTV services.

Performance analysis of home network topology discovery protocols

Service providers are demanding the development of novel diagnostic tools with which they can remotely troubleshoot the home network. One of the tools should be able to gather information about the topology of the home network. In this paper we propose a set of key performance indicators for home network topology discovery architectures, and how they should be measured. We apply them to the Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol and the Link-Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), and show that these protocols do not fulfill all the requirements as formulated by the service providers.

On managed services lanes and their use in home networks

Home networks show an increasing level of heterogeneity regarding the devices connected, network technologies used, and services supported. Heterogeneity inhibits quality assurance for new services, such as online gaming, energy management, and health care. This paper focuses on the role that the concept of Managed Services Lanes (MSLs) plays in Dutch smart-city initiatives to solve these issues. MSLs provide third-party service providers quality guarantees without infringing network neutrality. Our preliminary experiments with extending MSLs into the home network indicate that end users indeed have a better quality of experience for the supported Neighborhood TV service than without MSLs. We also show that extension of MSLs into the home network requires advanced home networking monitoring technologies including dynamic home network traffic models. Our research provides evidence that such models will be very different from the standard Internet models.

Real-time probing of end-to-end capacity and available bandwidth in heterogeneous local networks

Current QoS solutions for home networks are inspired by Internet technologies and typically based on traffic classification and prioritization. They are not well adopted because they need to be supported by every device in the end-to-end path to be effective. Besides, their use still does not guarantee that enough bandwidth will be available between a server and a client. It is therefore preferable to diagnose a home network in real time before admitting a new flow. We demonstrate a new method which probes the end-to-end path capacity as well as the available bandwidth in a small-scale IP network. Its distinguishing features are the applicability to networks consisting of legacy devices and any mixture of wired, wireless, and no-new-wires links, in combination with fast convergence, high accuracy, and non-intrusiveness.