Markus Hidell

Fast circuit switching for the next generation of high performance networks

Dynamic synchronous transfer mode (DTM) is a broadband network architecture based on fast circuit-switching augmented with dynamic reallocation of resources. It provides a service based on multicast, multirate channels with short setup delay and supports applications with real-time requirements on quality of service as well as applications with bursty, asynchronous traffic. The paper describes the DTM architecture and its distributed resource management scheme. Performance analysis results from network simulations are presented. The analysis is performed with respect to throughput and access delay for two network topologies: a dual bus and a grid of dual buses. The effects of varying user requirements, internode distances and transfer size are studied for uniform traffic patterns. The results indicate that the overhead for establishing channels is low (a few hundred microseconds), which gives a high degree of utilization even for short transfers. The analysis also shows that when channels are established very frequently, the signaling capacity limits the performance.

Using hardware classification to improve PC-based OpenFlow switching

OpenFlow is a promising technology that offers a flexible flow-based forwarding scheme based on multiple fields in the packet headers of different protocol layers. It provides a feasibility to adopt new network protocols and innovations thanks to a more flexible forwarding compared to traditional IP forwarding. In this paper, we propose an architectural design to improve lookup performance of PC-based OpenFlow switching in Linux using a standard commodity network interface card based on the Intel 82599 Gigabit Ethernet controller. We introduce a fast data path based on caching of flow table entries in on-board classification hardware on the NIC. We describe our design, and we present an experimental evaluation of its performance. Our results show that the throughput of our fast path gives over 40 percent higher throughput compared to the regular software-based OpenFlow switching.

Converging the Evolution of Router Architectures and IP Networks

Although IP is widely recognized as the platform for next-generation converged networks, unfortunately, it is heavily burdened by its heritage of almost 30 years. Nowadays, network operators must devote significant resources to perform essential tasks, such as traffic engineering, policy enforcement, and security. In this article, we argue that one of the principal reasons for this is the way control and forwarding planes are interspersed in IP networks today. We review the architectural developments that led to the current situation, and we reason that centralization of network control functionality can constitute a solution to the pressing problems of the contemporary Internet.

Design and implementation of a distributed router

The requirements on IP routers are increasing for every new generation of designs. The driving forces are growing traffic volumes and demands for new services. We argue that a decentralized modular system design would improve the scalability, flexibility, and reliability of future routers. We have designed and implemented such a distributed router, based on physical separation between different functional modules for control and forwarding plane operations. This paper presents the design and implementation, focusing on the internal communication protocols and implementation aspects of the control plane

Control and forwarding plane interaction in distributed routers

The requirements on IP routers continue to increase, both from the control plane and the forwarding plane perspectives. To improve scalability, flexibility, and availability new ways to build future routers need to be investigated. This paper suggests a decentralized, modular system design for routers, based on control elements for functionalities like routing, and forwarding elements for packet processing. Further, we present measurements on the distribution of large routing tables in an experimental platform consisting of one control element and up to 16 forwarding elements.

Internet of Things for Smart Cities: Interoperability and Open Data

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a promising technology for addressing societal challenges by connecting smart devices and leveraging Big Data analytics to create smart cities worldwide. As the IoT scales up, its important to provide interoperability among different devices. Yet current simple standard protocols lack sufficient openness and interoperability. IoT for smart cities needs to guarantee the accessibility of open data and cloud services to allow industries and citizens to develop new services and applications. Here, the authors provide a case study of the GreenIoT platform in Uppsala, Sweden, to demonstrate the idea of interoperability and open data for smart cities.

Improving PC-based OpenFlow switching performance

In this paper, we propose an architectural design to improve lookup performance of OpenFlow switching in Linux using a standard commodity network interface card based on the Intel 82599 Gigabit Ethernet controller. We describe our design and report our preliminary results that show packet switching throughput increasing up to 25 percent compared to the throughput of regular software-based OpenFlow switching.

libNetVirt: The network virtualization library

Network virtualization has been an important research topic for many years but still suffers from the lack of an abstraction level like the one present in virtualization of computing and storage. Our work in progress presented here proposes an architecture for such a network virtualization abstraction. It is deployed as a library, similar to libvirt in computer virtualization, with a unified interface towards the underlying network specific drivers. The architecture will allow management tools to be independent of the underlying technologies. In addition, it will enable programmatic and on-demand creation of virtual networks. A common set of calls is defined to instantiate different virtual networks, using a single node view to provide the user with a suitable abstraction of the network. We describe a prototype of our proposed architecture on top of an OpenFlow-enabled network. We demonstrate its feasibility for creating isolated virtual networks in a programmatic and on demand fashion.

Enabling future internet research: the FEDERICA case

The Internet, undoubtedly, is the most influential technical invention of the 20th century that affects and constantly changes all aspects of our day-to-day lives nowadays. Although it is hard to predict its long-term consequences, the potential future of the Internet definitely relies on future Internet research. Prior to every development and deployment project, an extensive and comprehensive research study must be performed in order to design, model, analyze, and evaluate all impacts of the new initiative on the existing environment. Taking the ever-growing size of the Internet and the increasing complexity of novel Internet-based applications and services into account, the evaluation and validation of new ideas cannot be effectively carried out over local test beds and small experimental networks. The gap which exists between the small-scale pilots in academic and research test beds and the realsize validations and actual deployments in production networks can be bridged by using virtual infrastructures. FEDERICA is one of the facilities, based on virtualization capabilities in both network and computing resources, which creates custom-made virtual environments and makes them available for Future Internet Researchers. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art research projects that have been using the virtual infrastructure slices of FEDERICA in order to validate their research concepts, even when they are disruptive to the test beds infrastructure, to obtain results in realistic network environments.

Resource management in radio access and IP-based core networks for IMT Advanced and Beyond

The increased capacity needs, primarily driven by content distribution, and the vision of Internet-of-Things with billions of connected devices pose radically new demands on future wireless and mobile systems. In general the increased diversity and scale result in complex resource management and optimization problems in both radio access networks and the wired core network infrastructure. We summarize results in this area from a collaborative Sino-Swedish project within IMT Advanced and Beyond, covering adaptive radio resource management, energy-aware routing, OpenFlow-based network virtualization, data center networking, and access network caching for TV on demand.