Thierry Gayraud

Software-Defined Networking

Currently many aspects of the classical architecture of the Internet are etched in stone - a so called ossification of the Internet - which has led to major obstacles in IPv6 deployment and difficulty in using IP multicast services. Yet, there exist many reasons to extend the Internet, e.g., for improving intra-domain and inter-domain routing for high availability of the network, providing end-to-end connectivity for users, and allowing dynamic QoS management of network resources for new applications, such as data center, cloud computing, and network virtualization. To address these requirements, the next-generation architecture for the Future Internet has introduced the concept of Software-Defined Networking (SDN). At the core of this emerging paradigm is the separation and centralization of the control plane from the forwarding elements in the network as opposed to the distributed control plane of existing networks. This decoupling allows deployment of control plane software components (e.g., OpenFlow controller) on computer platforms that are much more powerful than traditional network equipment (e.g., switches/routers) while protecting the data and intellectual property of the vendors of such equipment.A critical understanding of this emerging paradigm is necessary to address the multiple challenges in realizing the Future Internet and to resolve the ossification problem of the existing Internet. To address these requirements, this paper surveys existing technologies and the wide range of recent and state-of-the-art projects on SDN followed by an in-depth discussion of the major challenges in this area.

On the impact of monitoring router energy consumption for greening the Internet

Research in the field of green-networking is raising more and more interest, in particular driven by energy saving purposes. The global Internet and its thousands of equipments consume an enormous energy amount, have an impact on global warming. In addition, nobody has a precise idea about what the Internet - or at least one of its AS (Autonomous System) - consumes. It is obvious designing new routing or management strategies for greening the Internet relies on an initial study of the energy consumption of network equipments at large, and routers on a more focuses way. That is why we study in this paper the power consumption of a router depending on several factors as the traffic rate it has to compute, and its configuration (in particular depending on queue management policy). This work then aims to establish an effective method to measure and analyze the power consumption of a router, as well as to provide data from a real router. This work was motivated by the fact that very little data on the power consumption of network devices is available, despite its huge importance for greening network communication. Based on these first results, a discussion is started on how it would be possible to change routing and management strategies and policies in the Internet for saving energy.

Validation of a QoS architecture for DVB-RCS satellite networks via the SATIP6 demonstration platform

Full integration of satellite technology in future terrestrial infrastructures requires support for high-quality broadband bi-directional communications. Research efforts in the field of satellite communications are currently oriented in the study of QoS-aware solutions for DVB-S and DVB-RCS which allow seamless deployment in the Internet. In this paper, the QoS architecture of the SATIP6 project, sponsored within the 5th EU Research Programme Framework, is presented, along with the implemented demonstrator and the obtained results. The QoS architecture is organized into two main modules, the Traffic Control and Access Control modules, whose aims are (i) to provide for differentiated service of conveyed IP flows and (ii) to achieve efficient utilization of uplink bandwidth, respectively. Experimental results obtained through the developed demonstration platform are reported and discussed to assess the effectiveness of the designed solution in terms of both service differentiation and efficient utilization of satellite resources.

Supporting End-to-End Quality of Service Properties in OMG Data Distribution Service Publish/Subscribe Middleware over Wide Area Networks

Assuring end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) in distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems is hard due to the heterogeneity and scale of communication networks, transient behavior, and the lack of mechanisms that holistically schedule di erent resources end-to-end. This paper makes two contributions to research focusing on overcoming these problems in the context of wide area network (WAN)-based DRE applications that use the OMG Data Distribution Service (DDS) QoS-enabled publish/subscribe middleware. First, it provides an analytical approach to bound the delays incurred along the critical path in a typical DDS-based publish/subscribe stream, which helps ensure predictable end-to-end delays. Second, it presents the design and evaluation of a policy-driven framework called Velox. Velox combines multi-layer, standards-based technologies—including the OMG DDS and IP Di Serv—to support end-to-end QoS in heterogeneous networks and shield applications from the details of network QoS mechanisms by specifying per-flow QoS requirements. The results of empirical tests conducted using Velox show how combining DDS with Di Serv enhances the schedulability and predictability of DRE applications, improves data delivery over heterogeneous IP networks, and provides network-level di erentiated performance.

Investigating Several Wireless Technologies to Build a Heteregeneous Network for the In-Flight Entertainment System inside an Aircraft Cabin

A primary difficulty when investigating communication requirements in an aircraft cabin is the diverse needs of passengers when compared to the strict constraints inside the cabin. It is recognized that there is an increasing need of passengers to use their electronic devices as well as the need for entertaining during the flight. This paper aims at integrating heterogeneous available communication technologies, showing their pros and cons -within this context while considering the imposed communication restrictions inside the aircrafts cabin.

A multimedia architecture for 802.11b networks

Wireless networks have become increasingly popular for the past few years, especially IEEE 802.11 as the most widespread wireless technology. This article proposes a new architecture for broadband 802.11 networks to support distributed multimedia applications. After discussing the differences between multimedia and traditional applications, we show how the 802.11b mechanism ensuring enhanced robustness connectivity for low signal to noise ratio (SNR) areas, penalizes multimedia stream transmissions. A new multimedia architecture disabling the dynamic rate shifting mechanism and using a performance enhancing proxy is then proposed.

Bringing mobility to synchronous collaborative activities: recent enhancements of the "Platine" platform

The interests of synchronous communications in collaborative activities have been recognized by an important number of researches and experiments. Some environments offer the use of synchronous communications as a collaborative learning solution for a group of distributed users. Each user is independent from the other and joins a collaboration activity by his/her own. Such kind of environments is only available for desktop computers. This constraint limits the use of synchronous communications for learning activities. Some activities such as situated learning would benefit from synchronous collaboration technologies. This paper presents a technical solution for mobile synchronous learning activities. First, we introduce educational situations that take advantage of mobility to stimulate participation of the user. Then, we present the technical solution Platine developed by the LAAS-CNRS. Platine is a synchronous collaborative learning environment previously developed for desktop or notebook computers. A specific client has been developed for personal digital assistant (PDA).

QoS-Enabled ANFIS Dead Reckoning Algorithm for Distributed Interactive Simulation

Dead Reckoning mechanisms are usually used to estimate the position of simulated entity in virtual environment. However, this technique often ignores available contextual information that may influence to the state of an entity, sacrificing remote predictive accuracy in favor of low computational complexity. A novel extension of Dead Reckoning is suggested in this paper to increase the network availability and fulfill the required Quality of Service in large scale distributed simulation application. The proposed algorithm is referred to as ANFIS Dead Reckoning, which stands for Adaptive-Network-based Fuzzy Inference Systems Dead Reckoning is based on a fuzzy inference system which is trained by the learning algorithm derived from the neuronal networks and fuzzy inference theory. The proposed mechanism is based on the optimization approach to calculate the error threshold violation in networking games. Our model shows it primary benefits especially in the decision making of the behavior of simulated entities and preserving the consistence of the simulation.

Distant e-learning using synchronous collaborative environment "Platine"

A lot of asynchronous systems have been developed to provide distance-learning solutions over the Internet. However, those environments are not able to give prompt feedback and they lack of interactivity. This research focuses on the provision of synchronous collaborative environments, focusing on the synchronous collaborative environment Platine designed and implemented in LAAS-CNRS with the help of Tokushima University. To evaluate such a solution, experiments were realized in Tokushima University. They were based on a synchronous environment that provides videoconferencing and collaborative tools. The aim of this research was to understand and to identify the requirements of the distance learners for such learning scenario. This paper presents the experience gained from the experiments, validating the improvement done to Platine which is not available on any other environment we know.

Ad hoc network QoS architecture for cooperative Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

New trends in cooperative human-machine system use in the domain of transportations are rising. These systems rely on a powerful interaction, or collaboration between humans and machines. This collaboration is made possible by an exchange of information between actors (humans or machines, commonly referred to as agents) in the transport of good or people. Cooperation in such a dynamic environment implies that the actors may have varying roles and/or tasks assigned to them, thus leading to changes in their communication needs. This paper presents an ad hoc network QoS architecture oriented toward cooperation between agents, called DAN. This architecture is aware of agents needs in term of communication and is able to provide, or inform of the impossibility to provide, a quality of service in accordance to those needs.