Miroslaw Kantor

General framework for techno-economic analysis of next generation access networks

A large variety of access network technologies and architectures that provide wide service portfolio to the customer are available for the network operators. Each of the potential access network architectures and technologies varies in complexity, network functionality, services supported and overall network costs. A detailed comparison of the economic viability of different access network scenarios is crucial for operators due to the high cost of this network segment. This paper identifies all essential elements of a general framework for the techno-economic analysis of different access network technologies and architectures, as well as describes some specific issues/problems related to the techno-economic evaluation of next generation (NG) access networks. The goal is to have at operators disposal a methodology allowing the techno-economic comparison of the proposed access network solutions and their introduction/rollout.

A survey on methods to provide multipath transmission in wired packet networks

IP networks were designed to provide general connectivity. At their advent, routing methods focused only on finding one optimal path between given endpoints. Although many solutions to sending traffic via multiple paths have appeared over time, the majority of current IP networks are still managed to support only single-path transmissions. This survey examines various approaches which can provide multipath transmissions in existing IP networks. Firstly, the most recognizable solutions are presented, and later, less well-known proposals are introduced. We show how it is possible to realize multipath transmission in source and hop-by-hop routing, multi-topology routing, bio-inspired routing solutions, Valiants routing, Multi-Protocol Label Switching, Software-Defined Networks, Flow-Aware Multi-Topology Adaptive Routing, Shortest-Path Bridging, Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links, network virtualization, and Multipath TCP. Moreover, the mentioned approaches are compared, contrasted and subjectively assessed. The goal of the survey is to show that multipath transmissions can be achieved in the current IP networks and in many different ways.

Geometric versus geographic models for the estimation of an FTTH deployment

Optical access networks provide a future proof platform for a wide range of services, and today, several operators are deploying fibre to the home (FTTH) networks. Installing an FTTH infrastructure, however, involves very high investment cost. Therefore, a good estimation of the investment cost is important for building a successful business strategy and, consequently, to speed up the FTTH penetration. In this paper, for calculating the amount of cable and fibre in the outside plant together with the associated civil works, and the number of required network elements, two different approaches are investigated: (1) geometric modelling of the fibre plant based on approximate mathematical models and (2) geographic modelling of the fibre plant based on map-based geospatial data. The results obtained from these two approaches can then be used as input for preliminary investment cost calculations and/or techno-economic evaluations. Compared to more complex and accurate geographic modelling, we verify that especially with uneven population density and irregular street system, simple geometric models do not provide accurate results. However, if no geospatial data is available or a fast calculation is desired for a first estimation, geometric models definitely have their relevance. Based on the case studies presented in this paper, we propose some important guidelines to improve the accuracy of the geometric models by eliminating their main distortion factors.

Cost-Driven Peer Rating Algorithm

The paper presents a concept of a rating algorithm aiming at overall peer-to-peer traffic reduction (and locality awareness) and decrease of load on costly links, thus diminishing operators costs. The rating algorithm is not only performed by a sole Oracle, as is typically proposed, but its operation is also supported by a similar entity located in other domains. Due to this concept, a usually omitted fact that the inter-domain routes are asymmetrical is properly dealt with. Simulations performed on a real topology show the usefulness of the presented approach.

Experimental Evaluation of PCE-Based Batch Provisioning of Grid Service Interconnections

If dynamic bandwidth-guaranteed connections between distributed services (e.g., grid services) are provisioned through a centralized system, the policy to serve connection requests might heavily impact both the success in and the time required for setting up user services (e.g., grid-enabled applications). In this paper, the implementation of a batch queue in the centralized system is proposed. By implementing different service policies for the queued requests, connections and, in consequence, user services can be set up with different guarantees. In this study, a bulk-service policy is proposed and implemented to maximize connection set up success. The experimental evaluation results show that the utilization of the proposed policy brings advantages in terms of percentage of accepted connection requests as the number of requests served in one batch increases. Moreover, the achieved improvement does not impact the time required to set up the connections because of the specific LSP set up procedures implemented in the utilized commercial routers.

Economic analysis of future access network deployment and operation

In this paper we take into account the business aspects of building wireless and optical access networks. A detailed view on broadband access network deployment costs, including both capital (CapEx) and operational expenditures (OpEx) is given. Main cost components of optical and wireless access networks have been identified, and the deployment costs of different architectures have also been presented.

Video delivery over next generation cellular networks

The rapidly increasing use of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, as well as the high popularity of mobile applications and especially video streaming incur an increasing traffic demand on mobile cellular systems. The cloud computing and the software defined networking (SDN) paradigms constitute suitable tools for mobile networks to efficiently handle the increasing video traffic. In this paper, we focus on content and, in particular, video delivery services on top of emerging and next generation cellular networks which employ SDN in their core, mainly from a business standpoint. We analyze the stakeholders and their business interests and relationships, also providing a value network and business model analysis for both existing and emerging use cases of interest.

A flexible provisioning module optimizing utilization of resources for the future internet IIP initiative

In this paper, we present design and implementation aspects of a network resource provisioning module proposed for the Polish Initiative of Future Internet called System IIP (being currently one of major European projects aimed at designing the Internet of the Future). In particular, we introduce novel LP optimization models of network resource provisioning designed to minimize the resource consumption, as well as maximize the residual capacity. In the latter part of the paper, we provide evaluation of the proposed models characteristics, and additionally outline the aspects of module implementation and integration with the respective network management module.

Impact of protection mechanisms on cost in PONs

Passive optical networks (PONs) are considered as a promising solution for broadband access networks. Due to the growing demand for reliable service delivery, fault management in the network is becoming very significant. However, there is a trade off between the cost of protection and the level of service reliability. Since economical aspects are most critical in the access part of the networks, improving reliability performance by duplication of network resources can be too expensive. Therefore, some recent works focused on PON protection schemes with reduced capital expenditures (CAPEX). The future trend will probably migrate towards minimizing the operational expenditures (OPEX) during the access network lifetime. This work presents a cost comparison of different protection mechanisms that can be applied in passive optical networks. The impact that different protection approaches have on the cost related both to the equipment to be deployed and the failure reparation and service penalties to be paid is evaluated.

Experimental evaluation of batch versus per-request service interconnection activation in PCE-based Grid networking

When dynamic service interconnection requests are managed by a centralized system (e.g., a network management system — NMS), the time required for the connections to be fully operational might be heavily impacted by the policy utilized to serve them. The policies must be devised for mitigating issues that increase this time, such as commercial router irresponsiveness to configuration commands during configuration commit. In this paper a batch provisioning policy is proposed to be implemented in a Grid-augmented NMS (GNMS) to serve grid computing clients interconnection requests and mitigate router irresposiveness. Based on the proposed policy, requests are queued in the GNMS and they are activated in a batch, based on a time-out. The proposed batch provisioning policy is experimentally compared to a per-request provisioning policy that serves the requests as soon as they are received by the GNMS. Experimental evaluation results show that, when connection requests are not rare, the average time elapsing between the reception of a connection request by the GNMS and the connection being fully operational (i.e., the service time) is much shorter, on average, if batch provisioning policy is utilized.