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In mobile networks, the mobile core plays a crucial role in providing connectivity between mobile user devices and external packet data networks such as the Internet. Through the years, along with the dramatical changes in radio access networks, the mobile core has also been evolved from being a circuit-based analog telephony system in its first generation (1G) to become a purely packet-based network called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) in the current generation (4G). In recent years, the explosion of mobile data traffic and devices and the advent of new services have led to the investigation of the next generation of mobile networks, i.e., 5G. A wide range of technologies has been proposed as candidates for the development of 5G. Among other technology candidates, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been widely considered to be key enablers for the network architecture of 5G, especially the mobile packet core (MPC) network. This thesis aims at identifying benefits and challenges of introducing SDN and NFV to re-achitect the current MPC network architecture towards 5G and addressing some of the challenges. To this end, we conduct a comprehensive literature review of the state-of-the-art work leveraging SDN and NFV to re-design the 4G EPC architecture. Through this survey work, several research questions for future work have been identified and we contribute to address two of them in this thesis. Firstly, since most of the current works focus on unicast services, we propose an SDN/NFV-based MPC architecture for providing multicast and broadcast services. Our numerical results show that the proposed architecture can reduce the total signaling cost compared to the traditional architecture. Secondly, we address the question regarding the scalability of the control plane. We take the Mobility Management Entity (MME) - one of the EPC key control plane entities - as a case study. In our work, the MME is deployed as a cluster of multiple virtual instances (vMMEs) and a front-end load balancer. We focus on investigating different approaches to achieve better load balancing among these vMMEs, which in turn improves scalability. Our experimental results suggest that carefully selected load balancing algorithms can significantly reduce the control plane latency. / In mobile networks, the mobile core plays a crucial role in providing connectivity between mobile user devices and external packet data networks such as the Internet. After more than three decades, the mobile core has been gradually evolved through four generations and is called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) in the current generation (4G). In recent years, the explosion of mobile data traffic and devices and the advent of new services have led to the investigation of the next generation of mobile networks, i.e., 5G. Among other technology candidates, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been widely considered to be key enablers for the network architecture of 5G, especially the mobile packet core (MPC) network. This thesis aims at identifying benefits and challenges of introducing SDN and NFV to re-achitect the current MPC architecture towards 5G and addressing some of the challenges. To this end, we conduct a comprehensive survey of the existing SDN/NFV-based MPC architectures. Through this survey work, several research questions for future work have been identified and we contribute to address two of the research questions. Firstly, we propose an SDN/NFV-based MPC architecture for providing multicast and broadcast services. Secondly, we tackle the scalability problem of the Mobility Management Entity (MME) - one of the EPC key control plane entities. In particular, we investigate different approaches to achieve better load balancing among virtual MMEs in a virtual and distributed MME design, which in turn improves scalability. / HITS, 4707

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-11-01T15:35:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Clebio Dossa_.pdf: 1252617 bytes, checksum: 784b95c29ee09e2a922686b26cb7aa51 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-01T15:35:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Clebio Dossa_.pdf: 1252617 bytes, checksum: 784b95c29ee09e2a922686b26cb7aa51 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-18 / Nenhuma / Atualmente, muitos serviços distribuem a carga entre diversos nós computacionais direcionando as conexões com alguma estratégia de balanceamento para divisão da carga. O advento do uso de redes definidas por software (SDN) está mudando paradigmas da administração de redes, absorvendo serviços especializados, automatizando processos e gerando inteligência para regras estáticas com uma grande variedade de opções de implementação. O balanceamento de carga é um dos serviços especializados que pode usufruir dos conceitos de SDN, sem definições e processos estáticos como ocorre muitas vezes nos atuais modelos usados de balanceamento de carga. A definição dos protocolos que suportam SDN usualmente permitem soluções alternativas e eficientes para este problema, desta forma, neste trabalho, é apresentada uma proposta de metodologia para balanceamento de carga entre distintos servidores de um pool com a troca do destino de tráfego realizada pela rede. Esta solução é chamada Core-based load balance (CoreLB), pois o serviço especializado de balanceamento de carga é realizado pela rede onde a administração de pacotes é nativamente realizada. A metodologia faz uso do protocolo SNMP para análise de recursos dos servidores com o objetivo de avaliar a situação de carga de cada nó computacional e de estatísticas de consumo de rede através do protocolo OpenFlow. Este trabalho avaliou o balanceamento de carga em serviços Web e a união de estatísticas de rede e da carga dos servidores, para a tomada de decisão de balanceamento, mostra-se uma metodologia eficiente e com melhores tempos de resposta ao usuário comparado com outras metodologias de avaliadas. Também melhorou a distribuição de consumo de recursos entre os servidores. / Currently, most services balance the load between distinct hosts forwarding connections with a load balance strategy in front. Usually, a dedicated appliance is responsible to performthe balance and may be a fault point and become expensive. The new concepts of computer network architecture with Software-Defined Networking (SND) are changing the network management, absorving specialist services, automating process and building intelligence to statics rules with loads of delivery options. The load balance is a specialized service that can enjoy in a positive way of SDN concepts, with low costs, in a flexible way as per the process needs instead of a plastered process definitions that occurs in many actual models. The OpenFlow protocol definition allow us to use a new solution to address this issue. This work shows a load balance purpose between distinct hosts with the destination change of connections made by the network core. It calls Core-based load balance (CoreLB) because the specialized load balance service move to the network core where the package forwarding is naturally made. This solution intend to use the SNMP protocol to analyse the hosts resources to evaluate server’s load. Using the network forwarding statistics and OS load informations, an efficient solution of load balance, the metodology proved to be efficient with better users’ response times average of 19% than no balanced scenario as well as around 9% better than others load balance strategies and a properly balance consumption of resources from hosts side. This process can be inhered in distinct models, however, this research intend to evaluate Web Services.

Les réseaux optiques dynamiques et flexibles font partie des scénarios d'évolution des réseaux de transport optique. Ceux-ci formeront la base de la nouvelle génération des réseaux optiques de demain et permettront le déploiement efficace des services tel que le Cloud Computing. Cette évolution est destinée à apporter flexibilité et automatisation à la couche optique, mais s'accompagne d'une complexité supplémentaire, notamment au niveau de la gestion et de la commande de cette toute nouvelle génération de réseau. Jusqu'à récemment, les protocoles de routage et de signalisation normalisés ont pris en compte plusieurs paramètres physiques tels que l'information spectrale de la bande passante, le format de modulation, et la régénération optique. Cependant, d'autres paramètres sont encore nécessaires (par exemple, les puissances optiques des liens, le gain des amplificateurs) afin de faire fonctionner efficacement de grands réseaux. Dans ce contexte, il y a un besoin d'étudier les réseaux optiques existants ainsi que les différentes méthodes de prise en compte de la couche photonique dans le plan de contrôle. Le but est d'avoir un réseau optique automatique, flexible et programmable, mais surtout efficace de point de vue économique et opérationnel. L'utilisation de la technologie à grille flexible a un impact sur les réseaux optiques existants, où presque tous les équipements devront être remplacés, ce qui entraînera un coût additionnel pour les opérateurs. Dans ce travail, nous étudions les réseaux optiques actuels et évaluons l'impact de la flexibilité sur les infrastructures existantes. Ensuite, nous identifions plusieurs paramètres optiques à contrôler et proposons des extensions protocolaires afin d'intégrer ces paramètres dans un plan de contrôle GMPLS. De plus, nous développons les algorithmes de routage et de signalisation qui permettent la mise en œuvre d'un plan de contrôle efficace qui répond au besoin de la flexibilité. Enfin, l'ensemble de nos propositions et de nos solutions sont évaluées sur plusieurs topologies réseaux avec des modèles de trafic différents dans le but de valider leur pertinence. / Dynamic and flexible optical networks are among the evolution scenarios of the optical transport networks. These form the basis of the new generation of optical networks of tomorrow and enable the effective deployment of services such as cloud computing. This evolution is intended to provide flexibility and automation to the optical layer. However, it results in additional complexity, particularly in terms of the management and control of this new network generation. Until recently, the standardized routing and signaling protocols have been taking into account several optical parameters like the spectral bandwidth information, modulation format, and optical regeneration. However, other parameters (e.g., link optical powers, gain of optical amplifiers) are still required in order to efficiently operate large optical networks. In this context, there is a need to study the existing optical networks and the different integration methods of the photonic layer in a control plane. The goal is to get an automatic optical network that is flexible, programmable, and at the same time efficient from an economical and operational perspective. The use of flexible grid technology has an impact on existing optical networks, where almost all the equipment must be replaced, resulting in an additional cost to network operators. In this work, we study the current optical networks and evaluate the impact of flexibility on the existing infrastructures. Then, we identify several physical parameters to be controlled and propose protocol extensions in order to integrate these parameters in the GMPLS control plane. In addition, we develop the routing and signaling algorithms that allow the implementation of an efficient control plane that addresses the need for flexibility. Finally, the set of our proposals and solutions are evaluated on multiple network topologies with different traffic patterns in order to validate their relevance.