Abstract
In the last decade, the differences in the information communication technology (ICT) infrastructures between urban and rural areas have registered a tremendous increase. ICT infrastructures could strongly help rural communities where many operations are time consuming, labor-intensive and expensive due to limited access and large distances to cover. One of the most attractive solutions, which is widely recognized as promising for filling this gap, is the use of drone fleets. In this context, this paper proposes a video monitoring platform as a service (VMPaaS) for wide rural areas not covered by Internet access. The platform is realized with a Software-Defined Network (SDN)/Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)-based flying ad-hoc network (FANET), whose target is providing a flexible and dynamic connectivity backbone, and a set of drones equipped with high-resolution cameras, each transmitting a video stream of a portion of the considered area. After describing the architecture of the proposed platform, service chains to realize the video delivery service are described, and an analytical model is defined to evaluate the computational load of the platform nodes in such a way so as to allow the network orchestrator to decide the backbone drones where running the virtual functions, and the relative resources to be allocated. Numerical analysis is carried out in a case study.
Highlights
With the rapid development of digital information technology, digital convergence is expected to lead people to a smart society in which anyone can use personalized services anywhere and anytime [1]
This platform, thanks to its flexibility due to the application of the cloud/fog and the Software-Defined Network (SDN)/Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) paradigms, allows, on the one hand, third-party users to contribute to the whole service by installing new cameras on the area or launching new video-transmitter drones that automatically connect to the platform, and on the other hand, users to connect to the platform and, through their terminal, choose one or more cameras to receive video flows of interest
For this reason, limiting our attention to the traffic related to the considered platform, in the generic backbone drone ℘ the total network traffic is the sum of the traffic entering from the video transmitter (VT) and the traffic entering from the other backbone drones, to be forwarded to the clients
Summary
With the rapid development of digital information technology, digital convergence (i.e., integration of a variety of all types of information such as data, voice and video through convergence terminals and services) is expected to lead people to a smart society in which anyone can use personalized services anywhere and anytime [1]. One of the main challenges in deploying cloud and fog computing paradigms on fleet of drones is battery duration, since computing hardware is powered by the same energy source of the drone engine: an excessive computing power required by the fog-computing node installed on a drone would compromise its flight duration With all this in mind, this paper proposes a video monitoring platform as a service (VMPaaS) for wide rural areas not covered by Internet access. The platform is realized with a FANET, whose target is providing connectivity backbone, and a set of drones equipped with high-resolution cameras, each transmitting a video stream of a portion of the considered area This platform, thanks to its flexibility due to the application of the cloud/fog and the SDN/NFV paradigms, allows, on the one hand, third-party users to contribute to the whole service by installing new cameras on the area or launching new video-transmitter drones that automatically connect to the platform, and on the other hand, users to connect to the platform and, through their terminal, choose one or more cameras to receive video flows of interest.
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