Diego R. Lopez

Management and orchestration challenges in network functions virtualization

NFV continues to draw immense attention from researchers in both industry and academia. By decoupling NFs from the physical equipment on which they run, NFV promises to reduce CAPEX and OPEX, make networks more scalable and flexible, and lead to increased service agility. However, despite the unprecedented interest it has gained, there are still obstacles that must be overcome before NFV can advance to reality in industrial deployments, let alone delivering on the anticipated gains. While doing so, important challenges associated with network and function MANO need to be addressed. In this article, we introduce NFV and give an overview of the MANO framework that has been proposed by ETSI. We then present representative projects and vendor products that focus on MANO, and discuss their features and relationship with the framework. Finally, we identify open MANO challenges as well as opportunities for future research.

Xfuzzy: a design environment for fuzzy systems

Xfuzzy is a CAD tool that eases the development of fuzzy systems from their conception to their final implementation. It is composed of a set of modules and programs that share a common specification language and cover the different stages of the design process. Modules for describing, verifying and tuning the behavior of the system are integrated within the environment. In addition to these features, common to other fuzzy design tools, a relevant characteristic of Xfuzzy is that it includes several synthesis facilities for implementing the system on either software or hardware.

Integrated SDN/NFV management and orchestration architecture for dynamic deployment of virtual SDN control instances for virtual tenant networks [invited]

Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) have emerged as the most promising candidates for improving network function and protocol programmability and dynamic adjustment of network resources. On the one hand, SDN is responsible for providing an abstraction of network resources through well-defined application programming interfaces. This abstraction enables SDN to perform network virtualization, that is, to slice the physical infrastructure and create multiple coexisting application-specific virtual tenant networks (VTNs) with specific quality-of-service and service-levelagreement requirements, independent of the underlying optical transport technology and network protocols. On the other hand, the notion of NFV relates to deploying network functions that are typically deployed in specialized and dedicated hardware, as software instances [called virtual network functions (VNFs)] running on commodity servers (e.g., in data centers) through software virtualization techniques. Despite all the attention that has been given to virtualizing IP functions (e.g., firewall; authentication, authorization, and accounting) or Long-Term Evolution control functions (e.g., mobility management entity, serving gateway, and packet data network gateway), some transport control functions can also be virtualized and moved to the cloud as a VNF. In this work we propose virtualizing the tenant SDN control functions of a VTN and moving them into the cloud. The control of a VTN is a key requirement associated with network virtualization, since it allows the dynamic programming (i.e., direct control and configuration) of the virtual resources allocated to the VTN. We experimentally assess and evaluate the first SDN/NFV orchestration architecture in a multipartner testbed to dynamically deploy independent SDN controller instances for each instantiated VTN and to provide the required connectivity within minutes.

XFVHDL: a tool for the synthesis of fuzzy logic controllers

A tool for the synthesis of fuzzy controllers is presented in this paper. This tool takes as input the behavioral specification of a controller and generates its VHDL description according to a target architecture. The VHDL code can be synthesized by means of two implementation methodologies, ASIC and FPGA. The main advantages of using this approach are rapid prototyping, and the use of well-known commercial design environments like Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, or Cadence.

Network Slicing for 5G with SDN/NFV: Concepts, Architectures, and Challenges

The fifth generation of mobile communications is anticipated to open up innovation opportunities for new industries such as vertical markets. However, these verticals originate myriad use cases with diverging requirements that future 5G networks have to efficiently support. Network slicing may be a natural solution to simultaneously accommodate, over a common network infrastructure, the wide range of services that vertical- specific use cases will demand. In this article, we present the network slicing concept, with a particular focus on its application to 5G systems. We start by summarizing the key aspects that enable the realization of so-called network slices. Then we give a brief overview on the SDN architecture proposed by the ONF and show that it provides tools to support slicing. We argue that although such architecture paves the way for network slicing implementation, it lacks some essential capabilities that can be supplied by NFV. Hence, we analyze a proposal from ETSI to incorporate the capabilities of SDN into the NFV architecture. Additionally, we present an example scenario that combines SDN and NFV technologies to address the realization of network slices. Finally, we summarize the open research issues with the purpose of motivating new advances in this field.

Security Services Lifecycle Management in On-Demand Infrastructure Services Provisioning

Modern e-Science and high technology industry require high-performance and complicated network and computer infrastructure to support distributed collaborating groups of researchers and applications that should be provisioned on-demand. The effective use and management of the dynamically provisioned services can be achieved by using the Service Delivery Framework (SDF) proposed by Tele Management Forum that provides a good basis for defining the whole services life cycle management and supporting infrastructure services. The paper discusses conceptual issues, basic requirements and practical suggestions for provisioning consistent security services as a part of the general e-Science infrastructure provisioning, in particular Grid and Cloud based. The proposed Security Services Lifecycle Management (SSLM) model extends the existing frameworks with additional stages such as “Reservation Session Binding” and “Registration and Synchronisation” that specifically target such security issues as the provisioned resources restoration, upgrade or migration and provide a mechanism for remote executing environment and data protection by binding them to the session context. The paper provides a short overview of the existing standards and technologies and refers to the on-going projects and experience in developing dynamic distributed security services.

Transport Network Function Virtualization

In this paper, we present a network function virtualization (NFV) architecture to deploy different virtualized network functions (VNF) on an optical transport network. NFV concepts do not only apply to data plane functions (i.e., packet processing or forwarding), but also to control plane functions, such as path computation. First, we focus on the IT and network resources that are virtualized to provide the required VNFs. Second, we provide an example of VNF on top of the virtualized infrastructure, by proposing a path computation element (PCE) architecture to deploy a PCE by means of NFV. The instances of the virtualized PCE are deployed on demand, but they are perceived as a single-network element. We present the benefits of such approach by providing experimental validation.

Network Management Challenges and Trends in Multi-Layer and Multi-Vendor Settings for Carrier-Grade Networks

The exponential growth of Internet traffic gives no respite to the telecommunications industry and is visibly shortening the life-cycle of the technologies used for core networking. To cope with the traffic demand, the industry has primarily focused on the evolution of the data and control planes, and has rapidly made progress in both subjects. However, the innovations in the market have not reached the management plane at the same speed. This stems from a number of factors, most of which point to the segmentation of competencies in managing multi-layer infrastructures. Current carrier-grade networks are organized as multi-layer infrastructures, typically composed of two layers: IP routers deployed in tandem with optical transport nodes. In turn, each of the two layers is typically composed of devices from different vendors, each of which usually supplies its own (proprietary) network management system (NMS). In practice, the lack of broadly accepted mechanisms for enabling interoperability among the different NMSs has led to the isolation of these proprietary systems. As a result, the operation and maintenance tasks on the network are becoming increasingly complex, which is leading to duplication of functions, higher OPEX, and significant delays in the coordination of multi-layer provisioning processes. In this paper, we examine in detail the interoperability challenges of managing multi-layer and multi-vendor carrier-grade networks, and review the current trends and recent standards in the area, with strong focus on industrial advances. We cover the Multi-Technology Operations System Interface (MTOSI) as well as OpenFlow, and analyze their potential impact and reach. We also discuss some of the reasons why relevant carrier-grade management proposals have not been able to fulfill the requirements of Internet service providers (ISPs), and identify a set of features that might help pave the way to market for new management products.

The PAPI system: point of access to providers of information

Abstract The goal of this system is to solve the problems suffered by users trying to access an information provider outside their own network, since, in many cases, access control is performed by IP-address filters. The solution we present here is based on public and symmetric key encryption and allows users seamless access, during a limited period of time fixed by the authentication system, to information provider Web servers through points of access that evaluate the trust of the user requests. This paper describes the design of the system and presents an implementation of the system that is currently working at RedIRIS.

SDN/NFV orchestration for dynamic deployment of virtual SDN controllers as VNF for multi-tenant optical networks

We propose to virtualize the SDN control functions and move them to the cloud. We experimentally evaluate the first SDN/NFV orchestration architecture to dynamically deploy independent SDN controller instances for each deployed virtual optical network.