Mario Ullio

Providing Data Dissemination Services in the Future Internet

In this paper authors examine benefits and motivations for the Information-Centric Networking (ICN) concept [1][2] under the point of view of an Internet Service Provider (ISP). A proposal for a Global Information Network (GIN) is advanced, which should follow a standardization path. Authors believe that ICN will enable ISPs to provide native support to typical data dissemination services (e.g. file sharing, distributed storage, caching, instant messaging, VoIP, etc.) currently provided by overlay networks and P2P applications (e.g. eMule/eDonkey [3], BitTorrent [4], Kazaa [5], Skype [6], Akamai [7], etc.). This will be possible by integrating most of the basic features of the current P2P overlay networks into the ISPs network infrastructure. As a result, new advanced communication services will be offered at a new networking layer, sitting on top of a transport infrastructure, based either on IP or whatever new transport technology. The potential of this change in the Internet architecture could be dramatic, since ICN impacts both the communication model and the network infrastructure. Furthermore, it is foreseeable that the business relationships among most of the actors (customers, network providers, ISPs, content providers, search engines) will be also deeply changed.

Scalability of ONOS reactive forwarding applications in ISP networks

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a powerful approach that enhances network control and management, and provides a flexible way to develop network applications. However, scalability of SDN networks is an important concern for many network operators. The main peculiarities of SDN when applied to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) network are the large geographical extension and the need of in-band transmission of control traffic. Therefore, the control traffic exchanged between the SDN controller and the network nodes must be carefully evaluated for the network design and dimensioning.We consider an ISP network controlled by the recently ONOS (Open Network Operating System) controller developed by ON.Lab. We devise a quantitative model to compute the exact number of exchanged OpenFlow messages and the corresponding bandwidth needed to install a traffic flow when running the default ONOS layer-2 forwarding applications. We compute also the exact number of flow rules installed in each switch. We show the general applicability of our models for a Point Of Presence (POP) network and for a large set of real nation-wide and world-wide ISP networks.Our quantitative models can be used for a safe network planning also when the network applications are not fully reactive.

Evaluating the SDN control traffic in large ISP networks

Scalability of Software Defined Networking (SDN) approach is one of the key issues that many network operators are willing to address and understand. Indeed, the promised programmability and flexibility of a SDN network is paid with a non-negligible control traffic exchanged between the network nodes and the SDN controllers. We consider a network controlled by a real OpenFlow-enabled controller, i.e. OpenDaylight. We evaluate analytically the number of OpenFlow messages for installing a new traffic flow, assuming the default reactive forwarding application available in OpenDaylight. We apply these results to the specific case of a large ISP network, comprising a backbone interconnecting many POPs. By evaluating exactly the amount of generated control traffic, we are able to assess the scalability of the reactive forwarding application in a practical relevant scenario for ISPs.

Per-user NFV services with mobility support

This paper presents an architecture to provide endto- end per-user services with support to client mobility, designed according to the SDN and NFV paradigms. Our service platform dynamically configures and launches service requests when the client connects to the network, which are used by a multidomain orchestration system to arrange the required network configuration and computational resources. Service configuration is dynamically updated when a movement of the client is detected, that is, when a client device changes its access point to the network. A prototype implementing the idea has been developed and validated over JOLNET, a real, geographical, OpenFlowbased experimental network connecting several sites in Italy and operated by Telecom Italia.

Design and implementation of locality-aware P2P system

One of the most relevant problem for an Internet Service Provider is the large bandwidth usage on international links, mainly due to peer-to-peer applications adopted for file-sharing. The Collaborative Locality-aware Overlay SERvice (CLOSER) technology has been recently proposed to solve this issue by properly modifying the behavior of peer-to-peer application. The technology is also covered in two recent patent applications. This paper presents possible design guidelines to actually implement CLOSER in a DHT-based peer-to-peer system and describe a real implementation based on the popular aMule application