Service Function Chaining (SFC) enriches the network functionalities to fulfill the increasing demand of value-added services. By leveraging SDN and NFV for SFC, it becomes possible to meet the demand fluctuation and construct a dynamic SFc. However, the integration of SDN with NFV requires packet header modifications, generates excessive network traffics, and induces additional I/O overheads for packet processing. These additional overheads result in a lower system performance, scalability, and agility. To improve the system performance, a co-optimized solution is proposed to implemented NF to achieve a better performance for software-based network functions. To improve the system scalability, a many-field packet classification is proposed to support a more complex ruleset. To improve the system agility, a network function-enabled switch is proposed to lower the network function content switching time. The experiment results show that the performance of a network function is improved by 8 times by leveraging GPU as a parallel computation platform. Moreover, the matching speed to steer network traffics with many-field ruleset is improved by 4 times with the proposed many-field packet classification algorithm. Finally, the proposed system is able to improve system bandwidth 5 times better compared the native solution and maintain the content switch time with the proposed SFC implementation using SDN and NFV.

In this thesis, we address the problem of service function chaining in a network. Currently, problems of chaining services in a network (i.e. service function chaining) can be broadly categorised into middlebox placement in a network and packet steering through middleboxes. In this work, we present a packet steering approach - One Pass Packet Steering (OPPS) - for use in multi-subscriber environments, with the aim that subscribers having similar policy chain composition should experience the same network performance. We develop and show algorithms with a proof of concept implementation using emulations performed with Mininet. We identify challenges and examine how OPPS could benefit from the Software Defined Data Center architecture to overcome these challenges. Our results show that, given a fixed topology and different sets of policy chains containing the same middleboxes, the end-to-end delay and throughput performance of subscribers using similar policy chains remains approximately the same. Also, we show how OPPS can use a smaller number of middleboxes and yet, achieve the same hop count as that of a reference model described in a previous work as ideal, without violating the subscribers' policy chains.

Submitted by PPG Ci?ncia da Computa??o (ppgcc@pucrs.br) on 2017-11-24T20:01:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael_Anton_Eichelberger_dis.pdf: 5090662 bytes, checksum: 0c27686648c0e4c286c555a921034507 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2017-12-04T11:49:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael_Anton_Eichelberger_dis.pdf: 5090662 bytes, checksum: 0c27686648c0e4c286c555a921034507 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-04T11:53:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael_Anton_Eichelberger_dis.pdf: 5090662 bytes, checksum: 0c27686648c0e4c286c555a921034507 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-15 / Service Function Chaining (SFC) ? um importante campo de pesquisa na ?rea de redes de computadores, com v?rias propostas de diferentes m?todos de encapsulamento e encaminhamento de pacotes. Os m?todos de encaminhamento de pacotes usados para implementar SFC podem inviabilizar o uso de ferramentas tradicionais de depura??o de rede, o que dificulta a detec??o de erros de configura??o ou poss?veis degrada??es de desempenho em ambientes SFC. Este trabalho apresenta o SFC Path Tracer, uma ferramenta para detec??o de problemas no dom?nio SFC em ambientes NFV/SDN. Essa ferramenta permite a identifica??o de problemas no dom?nio SFC, atrav?s da gera??o de trace de pacotes e medi??o de atrasos intra-hop a partir de um SFC Path espec?fico. SFC Path Tracer ? agn?stico em rela??o aos mecanismos de encapsulamento e encaminhamento usados para implementar SFC, sendo eficaz na detec??o de grande parte dos problemas em um ambiente SFC. / Service Function Chaining (SFC) is an important research field in networking area with many encapsulation and forwarding mechanisms being proposed. To implement SFC, non-standard forwarding methods are used which break the mechanism of regular network troubleshooting tools, challenging the detection of SFC misconfiguration or performance degradation. This work presents the SFC Path Tracer, a tool for roubleshooting SFC in NFV/SDN environments. This tool enables the identification of problems in the SFC environment by generating packet trace and computing intra-hop delays from a specific SFC path. SFC Path Tracer is agnostic regarding the SFC encapsulation and forwarding mechanisms being effective to detect most problems in an SFC environment.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has become increasingly popular in combination with Network Function Virtualization (NFV). SDN is a way to make a network more programmable and dynamic. However, in order to create a homogeneous network using this concept, legacy equipment will have to be substituted by SDN equipment, which is costly. To close the gap between the legacy world and SDN, we introduce the concept of a legacy Network Management System (NMS) that is connected to an SDN controller to perform service provisioning. This way, the NMS is capable of configuring both legacy as well as SDN networks to provide customers with the services that they have ordered, while still allowing for new SDN features in the SDN domain of the network. The main service we wish to provide using SDN is Service Function Chaining (SFC). Service provisioning consists of dynamically constructing a path through the ordered network services, in this case Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). This thesis focuses on the SDN controller and its interaction with the NMS. This project aims at configuring OpenFlow rules in the network using an SDN controller to perform SFC. Moreover, the focus will be on how to represent an SDN element and a service function chain in the legacy network NMS. The thesis also contains a discussion on what information should be exchanged between the management software and the controller. The management software used is called BECS, a system developed by Packetfront Software. Integrating SDN in BECS is done by creating a proof of concept, containing a full environment from the low level network elements to the NMS. By using a bottom-up approach for creating this proof of concept, the information that BECS is required to send to the SDN controller can be identified before designing and implementing the connection between these two entities. When sending the information, the NMS should be able to receive acknowledgement of successful information exchange or an error. However, when the proof of concept was created a problem arose on how to test and troubleshoot it. For this reason, a web Graphical User Interface (GUI) was created. This GUI shows the number of packets that have gone through a VNF. Because it is possible to see how many packets go through a VNF, one can see where a network issue occurs. The subsequent analysis investigates the impact of making such a GUI available for a network administrator and finds that the part of the network where the configuration error occurs can be narrowed down significantly. / Software Defined Networking (SDN) har blivit mer och mer populärt i kombination med Network Function Virtualization (NFV). SDN är en sätt för att göra ett nätverk mer programmerbart och dynamiskt. För att skapa ett homogent nätverk med detta koncept, behöver man dock ersätta traditionell utrustning med SDN utrustning som är dyr. För att stänga gapet mellan traditionella nätverk och SDN-världen, introducerar vi ett koncept med ett traditionell Network Management System (NMS) som är anslutet till en SDN-styrenhet för att utföra tjänsteprovisionering. På detta sätt kan NMS:et konfigurera både traditionella och SDN-nätverk, samt provisionera tjänster för kunderna medan nya SDN-funktioner möjliggörs i SDN-delen av nätverket. Den huvudsakliga tjänsten som vi vill lansera genom SDN är Service Function Chaining (SFC). Tjänsteprovisionering består av att konstruera en väg genom beställda tjänster, i detta fall Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Detta examensarbete fokuserar huvusakligen på SDN-styrenheten och dess interaktion med NMS:et. Projektet syftar till att konfigurera OpenFlow regler i SDN-styrenheten för att utföra SFC. Dessutom fokuserar arbetet på hur man kan representera SDN-element och SFCs i ett traditionellt NMS. Vidare diskuteras vilken information som ska utbytas mellan NMS:et och SDNstyrenheten. NMS:et som ska vara användas är BECS, ett system utvecklat av Packetfront Software. Uppgiften löses genom att skapa ett proof of concept, som innehåller ett komplett system med alla komponenter från nätverkselement till NMS:et. Genom att använda en bottom-up-strategi för detta proof of concept kan informationen som BECS måste skicka till SDN styrenheten indentifieras, innan design och implementation av förbindelsen mellan enheterna kan utföras. När informationen är skickad ska NMS:et kunna hämta information om huruvida styrenheten fick informationen utan fel. Dock uppstår ett problem gällande hur man testar och felsöker detta proof of concept. Av denna anledning skapades ett web Graphical User Interface (GUI). Användargränssnittet visar antalet paket som går genom varje VNF, samt var i nätverket fel uppstår. Analysen undersöker hur stor effekten är för en nätverkadministrator och visar att området där fel kan uppstå begränsas avsevärt.