Asit Chakraborti

Towards software defined ICN based edge-cloud services

ICN deployment will be based on the grounds of saving CAPEX/OPEX and/or enabling new services. This paper makes a case for the latter leveraging, emerging technologies such as network function virtualization (NFV) and software defined networking (SDN). We propose a framework to enable ICN based service platform as virtualized network functions to enable several edge-cloud services such as enterprise applications, big data analytic, or M2M/IoT services. This platform is generic to support several ICN protocols and corresponding real-time and non-real time services leveraging ICN features such as name based routing, caching, multicasting, and flexible security techniques. As an implementation of this architecture, we discuss how a scalable network based conferencing solution can be realized over the proposed ICN platform and compare it with a peer-to-peer design through a performance analysis.

Contextualized information-centric home network

We deploy information-centric networks (ICN) to serve several applications including content distribution, vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V), home networks (homenet), and sensor networks. These applications require policy and context-based interaction between service producers and consumers. We visualize the ICN service layer as a contextualized information-centric bus (CIBUS), over which diverse sets of service producers and consumers co-exist. We develop a prototype and demonstrate several desirable features of ICN for homenets such as contextual service publishing and subscription, zero-configuration based node and service discovery, policy based routing and forwarding with name-based firewall, and device-to-device communication. Furthermore the prototype is applicable to both ad hoc and infrastructure settings, and can deal with diverse devices and services.

5G-ICN: Delivering ICN Services over 5G Using Network Slicing

The challenging requirements of 5G, from both the applications and architecture perspectives, motivate the need to explore the feasibility of delivering services over new network architectures. As 5G proposes application-centric network slicing, which enables the use of new data planes realizable over a programmable compute, storage, and transport infrastructure, we consider information- centric networking as a candidate network architecture to realize 5G objectives. This can coexist with end-to-end IP services that are offered today. To this effect, we first propose a 5G-ICN architecture and compare its benefits (i.e., innovative services offered by leveraging ICN features) to current 3GPP-based mobile architectures. We then introduce a general application-driven framework that emphasizes the flexibility afforded by network functions virtualization and software defined networking over which 5G-ICN can be realized. We specifically focus on the issue of how mobility as a service (MaaS) can be realized as a 5G-ICN slice, and give an in-depth overview on resource provisioning and inter-dependencies and coordination among functional 5G-ICN slices to meet the MaaS objectives. The article tries to show the flexibility of delivering services over ICN where virtualization of control and data plane can be used by applications to meet complex service logic execution while creating value to its end users.

Seamless Producer Mobility as a Service in Information Centric Networks

In this paper, we present a service-driven mobility support architecture for Information Centric Networks that provides seamless mobility as an on-demand network service, which can be enabled/disabled based on network capabilities or resource availability. Proposed architecture relies on the ID/Locator split on ICN namespaces to support the use of persistent names and avoids name reconfiguration due to mobility. We implemented the proposed solution over a service-centric CCN platform, with multiple end-hosts running a video conferencing application acting as Consumers and Producers, and observed its capability to support seamless handover.

An Information Centric Networking approach towards contextualized edge service

Information Centric Networking (ICN) has been a popular research topic in the last few years, but has not attracted industry attention because of its disruptive view; this is expected considering the evolution from PSTN to IP. Towards its adoption, ICN should not only address challenges raised by current applications, but also enable a compelling service framework for next generation of networking. We envision that in the next generation networks, the network narrow waist will allow an efficient distribution of intelligence across terminals, access, edge and core network. This will enable new applications, services and future business models to be realized. Two other technologies, NFV and SDN, which in essence are frameworks that enable service-centric networking, fit well with the objective of information-centric networking, where the delivered content is a result of contextual interaction between consumers and services orchestrated to meet service objectives. Most significant benefit of this interaction will be in the network-edge considering sensitivity to service latency, customization, and contextualization. This paper provides an overview of an ICN based edge service framework, with comprehensive discussion on service composition, orchestration, and routing logic with mapping to resources in the underlying substrate. We also provide a discussion of the prototype to realize this platform and a network based conferencing system scalable to large number of participants; however the platform itself is generic to handle any service type including content distribution, video conferencing, and M2M applications.

Realtime multi-party video conferencing service over information centric network

Current video conferencing design based on client-server or peer-to-peer architecture do not scale to large number of users. ICN addresses this through network-based multicast built on applications semantics. Considering the pull-based content primitive, scalability is also required to learn the current state of the media names (text, audio, video) of participants considering adhoc join/leave behavior due to variable number of participants, or situations involving mobility. We propose a solution based on an overlay of ICN-based service edge routers (iSER). iSERs being CCN routers allow content multicasting which allows data plane scalability. In [1], we proposed an architecture to sync names using services hosted on the iSER, scalable to large number of conference participants. This paper extends [1] for video conferencing, focussing on a conference participant video production and ingestion, employing (iSER) services to sync conference state among participants, and a controller infrastructure to realize it as a service. We evaluate our design with experiments over a prototype system and share initial results considering several parameters that affect the real-time quality of a video conferencing session in our implementation.

Supporting dual-mode forwarding in content-centric network

Information-centric networking (ICN) aims to replace current host-centric IP architecture with one based on efficient, secure, and reliable dissemination of information. This paper extends content-centric networking (CCN), one of the ICN architectures, for dual-mode forwarding, wherein, the forwarding plane distinguishes sharable traffic from non-sharable traffic characterized by its global shareability. The proposed extensions allow sharable traffic to be forwarded in a non-expedite mode following the packet processing of CCN, while non-sharable traffic is forwarded in the proposed expedite mode subjected to fast-path forwarding only involving the FIB. We enable this dual-mode forwarding using a new header which optionally includes a source-object name. We support our proposal with simulation results where the benefit of separating these two types of traffic in the forwarding plane results in better utilization of content store, pending interest table, and improved user QoE for sharable applications in terms of content delivery latency.

Towards a context adaptive ICN-based service centric framework

Recent shift in the networking paradigm towards networking of information enables semantically rich interconnection and open interaction among the entities of well known services like video distribution and emerging applications like Internet of Things (IoT). Information-centric Networking (ICN) realizes a rich networking layer with ability to support computing and caching usable by any application. The success of ICN depends on enabling new services for which an ICN-based edge service framework was proposed. This paper extends our proposal by elaborating on service functions to enable contextual interaction between users and services. Towards this, an overview of the proposed ICN-based edge cloud framework is provided, with comprehensive discussion on service composition, orchestration, and routing logic with mapping to resources in the underlying substrate. In this work, we elaborate on an ICN perspective of a self managing network. We formulate the problem with optimization problems at different stages consisting of users context and requirements, Service Level Agreement (SLA) and available resources. We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach by means of simulation and analytical reasoning.

ICN Based Scalable Audio-Video Conferencing on Virtualized Service Edge Router (VSER) Platform

This paper proposes an audio/video conferencing architecture based on the VSER platform. The proposed solution follows a hybrid approach, where consumers are initialized to current producers media state through a media-dependent notification framework provided by the VSER; whereas the data exchange leverages ICN features, resulting in bandwidth efficiency. The hybrid design provides better scalability and reliability when compared to the ICN based P2P conferencing systems.

Demo overview: multi-party conference over virtual service edge router (vser) platform

Realizing large scale multi-party conference is a challenge today when realtime and high bandwidth multimedia components are involved due to lack of scalability of server and band-width resources. We demonstrate a scalable conference design over the Virtual Service Edge Router (VSER) platform which is an ICN edge service router with the capability of hosting arbitrary realtime and non-realtime services as virtual machines (VM). The platform services are orchestrated through a programmable framework and takes advantage of scalable forwarding plane for content distribution.