Modern mobile phones often have multiple network interfaces. By utilising these interfaces concurrently, the user experience can be enhanced, e.g., increased performance, stability and reliability. The introduction of 5G has increased the theoretical bandwidth and lowered the latency compared to previous generations of cellular techniques. However, this leads to a larger parameter space, which in a multipath system, increases the likelihood of asymmetric paths. Path asymmetry affects the overall performance of a reliable multipath connection, due to, e.g.,variation in delay which can cause packets to arrive out-of-order. This thesis first explores how multipath systems perform in comparison to single-path systems. Secondly, when the simultaneous use of paths is not beneficial for 5G-like multipath systems, and finally, if its possible to translate the findings into an effective scheduling strategy to improve the performance. With the use of Mininet, a network emulator, path parameters relating to 3G, 4G, 5G and WiFi are used to generate results representing a large spectrum of path combinations. The results gives insight to how MPTCP performs, from symmetric to highly asymmetric paths. The results show that the usage of multiple paths is not beneficial when the round-trip times are of different orders-of-magnitude. Based on observations, a proof-of-concept scheduler is proposed that reduce the negative effect of path asymmetry while still performing low amount of calculations.

The ever-increasing applications of Big Data in improving networking application performancehave motivated the networking community to deploy it in SDN (Software defined network) toconstruct flexible, scalable, self-aware, and self-managing networks. The primary purpose ofthis research is to investigate the validity of tensor-decomposition, a well-knownmathematical approach for data reduction, to catch patterns in network traffic as an initialstep toward the network's intelligence.Using only three-dimensional (cubic) tensors (Source, Destination, Bandwidth). Theconducted research used both offline (not simulated) and online (Mininet and RYU controllersimulation) network traffic of the GEANT (TOTEM) dataset. From the tensor decompositionanalysis on the adjacency matricies, we caught traffic intensity patterns between nodes(switches), which provided suggestions that helps rebuild the topology (which nodes shouldbe physically connected to the others). However, capturing the patterns in the time revolutionwas invalid due to limitations in the three-dimensional tensor.

This is a Masters student Final Dissertation / In this project, two tests were performed. On the first test, Mininet-WiFi was used to simulate a Software Defined Network to demonstrate Mininet-WiFi’ s ability to be used as the Software Defined Network emulator which can also be integrated to the existing network using a Network Virtualized Function (NVF). A typical organization’s computer network was simulated which consisted of a website hosted on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) virtual machine, and an F5 application delivery controller (ADC) which provided load balancing of requests sent to the web applications. A website page request was sent from the virtual stations inside Mininet-WiFi. The request was received by the application delivery controller, which then used round robin technique to send the request to one of the web servers on the LAMP virtual machine. The web server then returned the requested website to the requesting virtual stations using the simulated virtual network. The significance of these results is that it presents Mininet-WiFi as an emulator, which can be integrated into a real programmable networking environment offering a portable, cost effective and easily deployable testing network, which can be run on a single computer. These results are also beneficial to modern network deployments as the live network devices can also communicate with the testing environment for the data center, cloud and mobile provides. On the second test, a Software Defined Network was created in Mininet using python script. An external interface was added to enable communication with the network outside of Mininet. The amazon web services elastic computing cloud was used to host an OpenDaylight controller. This controller is used as a control plane device for the virtual switch within Mininet. In order to test the network, a webserver hosted on the Emulated Virtual Environment – Next Generation (EVENG) software is connected to Mininet. EVE-NG is the Emulated Virtual Environment for networking. It provides tools to be able to model virtual devices and interconnect them with other virtual or physical devices. The OpenDaylight controller was able to create the flows to facilitate communication between the hosts in Mininet and the webserver in the real-life network / The University of South Africa The University of Johannesburg / College of Engineering, Science and Technology

In this project, two tests were performed. On the first test, Mininet-WiFi was used to simulate a Software Defined Network to demonstrate Mininet-WiFi’ s ability to be used as the Software Defined Network emulator which can also be integrated to the existing network using a Network Virtualized Function (NVF). A typical organization’s computer network was simulated which consisted of a website hosted on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) virtual machine, and an F5 application delivery controller (ADC) which provided load balancing of requests sent to the web applications. A website page request was sent from the virtual stations inside Mininet-WiFi. The request was received by the application delivery controller, which then used round robin technique to send the request to one of the web servers on the LAMP virtual machine. The web server then returned the requested website to the requesting virtual stations using the simulated virtual network. The significance of these results is that it presents Mininet-WiFi as an emulator, which can be integrated into a real programmable networking environment offering a portable, cost effective and easily deployable testing network, which can be run on a single computer. These results are also beneficial to modern network deployments as the live network devices can also communicate with the testing environment for the data center, cloud and mobile provides. On the second test, a Software Defined Network was created in Mininet using python script. An external interface was added to enable communication with the network outside of Mininet. The amazon web services elastic computing cloud was used to host an OpenDaylight controller. This controller is used as a control plane device for the virtual switch within Mininet. In order to test the network, a webserver hosted on the Emulated Virtual Environment – Next Generation (EVENG) software is connected to Mininet. EVE-NG is the Emulated Virtual Environment for networking. It provides tools to be able to model virtual devices and interconnect them with other virtual or physical devices. The OpenDaylight controller was able to create the flows to facilitate communication between the hosts in Mininet and the webserver in the real-life network. / Electrical and Mining Engineering

This project aims to enhance the capabilities of the Host Identity Protocol version 2 (HIPv2) within the Mininet network emulator and PyHIP framework. The objectives include integrating HIPv2 into Mininet to facilitate testing of HIPv2 environments and optimizing PyHIP for real-world applications. Integration with Mininet involves running the HIP daemon within a virtual host environment and ensuring successful ping replies between HIP-enabled Mininet hosts. Optimization efforts focus on potentially changing cryptographic algorithms. These enhancements aim to improve the testing and practical usability of HIPv2 in network emulation. The tests conducted for this thesis involved only two hosts, which limits the comprehensiveness regarding scalability and performance in larger network setups. While the initial findings are promising, a more extensive evaluation with varied scenarios and additional hosts is critical to fully grasp the system's capabilities. Regarding performance of the unmodified version, tests reveal that TCP window sizes ranging from 128,000 to 225,000 bytes and buffer settings at 3,000 $bytes$ were optimal for optimizing throughput. The last objective of throughput optimization, transitioning from PyCryptoDome to the cryptography library boosts throughput by approximately 20 Mbits/s, reaching up to 59 Mbits/s. Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that modifications were not extended to the symmetric cryptography libraries, like AES, which could potentially greatly influence system throughput. Therefore, we recommend to further extend these modifications to validate throughput improvements across all modified cryptography algorithms. Depending solely on a single high-performing setup may mislead the assessment of the changes, as various iPerf3 test combinations could yield different outcomes. Thus, it is essential to recognize that these limitations may impact the credibility of the findings.

In this project, two tests were performed. On the first test, Mininet-WiFi was used to simulate a Software Defined Network to demonstrate Mininet-WiFi’ s ability to be used as the Software Defined Network emulator which can also be integrated to the existing network using a Network Virtualized Function (NVF). A typical organization’s computer network was simulated which consisted of a website hosted on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) virtual machine, and an F5 application delivery controller (ADC) which provided load balancing of requests sent to the web applications. A website page request was sent from the virtual stations inside Mininet-WiFi. The request was received by the application delivery controller, which then used round robin technique to send the request to one of the web servers on the LAMP virtual machine. The web server then returned the requested website to the requesting virtual stations using the simulated virtual network. The significance of these results is that it presents Mininet-WiFi as an emulator, which can be integrated into a real programmable networking environment offering a portable, cost effective and easily deployable testing network, which can be run on a single computer. These results are also beneficial to modern network deployments as the live network devices can also communicate with the testing environment for the data center, cloud and mobile provides. On the second test, a Software Defined Network was created in Mininet using python script. An external interface was added to enable communication with the network outside of Mininet. The amazon web services elastic computing cloud was used to host an OpenDaylight controller. This controller is used as a control plane device for the virtual switch within Mininet. In order to test the network, a webserver hosted on the Emulated Virtual Environment – Next Generation (EVENG) software is connected to Mininet. EVE-NG is the Emulated Virtual Environment for networking. It provides tools to be able to model virtual devices and interconnect them with other virtual or physical devices. The OpenDaylight controller was able to create the flows to facilitate communication between the hosts in Mininet and the webserver in the real-life network. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)