Control Plane Functions Research Articles

Enhanced CPU Design for SDN Controller.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) revolutionizes network management by decoupling control plane functionality from data plane devices, enabling the centralized control and programmability of network behavior. This paper uses the ternary system to improve the Central Processing Unit (CPU) inside the SDN controller to enhance network management. The Multiple-Valued Logic (MVL) circuit shows remarkable improvement compared to the binary circuit regarding the chip area, propagation delay, and energy consumption. Moreover, the Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistor (CNTFET) shows improvement compared to other transistor technologies regarding energy efficiency and circuit speed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a ternary design has been applied inside the CPU of an SDN controller. Earlier studies focused on Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM) in SDN. This paper proposes a new 1-trit Ternary Full Adder (TFA) to decrease the propagation delay and the Power-Delay Product (PDP). The proposed design is compared to the latest 17 designs, including 15 designs that are 1-trit TFA CNTFET-based, 2-bit binary FA FinFET-based, and 2-bit binary FA CMOS-based, using the HSPICE simulator, to optimize the CPU utilization in SDN environments, thereby enhancing programmability. The results show the success of the proposed design in reducing the propagation delays by over 99% compared to the 2-bit binary FA CMOS-based design, over 78% compared to the 2-bit binary FA FinFET-based design, over 91% compared to the worst-case TFA, and over 49% compared to the best-case TFAs.

OSWireless: Hiding specification complexity for zero-touch software-defined wireless networks

In the current practice of wireless engineering, to optimize wireless networks engineers usually need to grapple simultaneously with network modeling, algorithm and protocol design as well as their implementation on distributed edge nodes. This process is tedious and error prone. In this article we attempt to address this challenge by designing OSWireless, a new control plane for optimizing software-defined wireless networks. At the core of OSWireless is the virtualization of four control plane functionalities, including intent, mathematical, algorithmic and forwarding specifications, and then provide them as a service to network engineers. To this end, we design two new subplanes for the control plane: Wireless Network Abstraction Specification (WiNAS) Subplane and Optimization-as-a-Service (OaaS) Subplane. The former converts intent specifications defined using high-level Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to the corresponding mathematical specifications, and the latter generates automatically operational (possibly distributed) algorithmic specifications. We prototype OSWireless and deploy it over NeXT, a newly developed software-defined experimentation testbed, and showcase the automated control program generation capability of OSWireless and the optimality of the resulting programs considering a variety of network control problems. We further test the applicability of OSWireless on UBSim, a newly-developed Python based simulator for integrated aerial-ground networks, considering location optimization of mobile nodes as an example. Through developing OSWireless, we hope to accelerate research towards future zero-touch software-defined wireless networks with reduced management complexity.

Delegating Data Plane With Cloud-Assisted Routing

Data centers are embracing the software-defined networking (SDN) as it is evident that this technology of completely separating the data plane from the control plane gives more flexibility for their internal routing management and provides better Quality-of-Service (QoS) to the users. Implementing a similar solution to serve the purpose of software-defined wide-area networking using public Internet routing is also gaining popularity. Although, instead of having a complete separation, a hybrid approach to keep most of the control plane along with the least of the data plane in the remote and vice-versa for the local platform may be more fitting. To this end, we propose a new hybrid SDN approach, Cloud-Assisted Routing (CAR), that utilizes the high computational services that cloud offers at a lower price by splitting both control and data plane functions between a local router and a remote cloud computing platform. Such delegation of data plane to a third-party authority requires proper control plane management policies and handling or avoiding possible loops and failures. We detail the architectural view of CAR, address its associated challenges, and present prototype-based evaluations of it for reducing routing table sizes.

An adaptive GA-based slice provisioning method for vertical industries in 5G and beyond networks

The fifth-generation of mobile communication networks are expected to support a large number of vertical industries requiring services with diverging requirements. In this vein, mobile networks have been witnessing a radical transformation to satisfy three key services types, ultra-reliable low-latency communication, enhanced mobile broadband, and massive machine-type communication, that will coexist on the same network infrastructure thanks to the network slicing paradigm. Moreover, a distributed user-plane deployment is introduced, allowing edge deployment of delay-sensitive applications thanks to the multi-access edge computing technology. However, designing resilient, elastic, end-to-end slice provisioning mechanisms is still an open issue. In this paper, we study the problem of end-to-end network slice provisioning for different vertical industries whose requested services are modeled as service function chains spanning from the radio access to the application and including user plane and control plane functionalities. Two slice provisioning strategies are considered by formulating a mixed integer linear programming problem and considering different objective functions allowing network operators to deploy the services while pursuing specific business logic. Further, an adaptive genetic algorithm based approach is proposed to solve the same problem in a short time scale by improving the search-space exploration while the population evolves. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach providing near-optimal solutions while drastically reducing the computational complexity.

Design and Implementation of Enhanced Programmable Data Plane Supporting ICN Mobility

Information-centric networking (ICN) separates the identifier and locator of network entities, providing a natural advantage in supporting mobility. To gain the advantage of ICN to support mobility, an urgent challenge is the problem of practical implementation with performance optimization. Software-defined networking (SDN) can be regarded as infrastructure to implement ICN mobility. However, it is difficult for the centralized SDN controller to quickly process mobile signaling. Therefore, this paper proposes enhanced programmable data plane supporting ICN mobility. By offloading mobility-related control plane functions from the controller to the data plane, the data plane can locally process mobile signaling without interacting with the controller. We propose an offloading mechanism for control plane functions, based on a rule table, where the controller authorizes the data plane to process the mobile signaling by loading the programmable rule table to data plane’s control element, and the control element intercepts the mobile signaling, matches the predefined rule table, and executes a series of application logic actions. In addition, we propose an improved SmartSplit algorithm to manage the rule table and speed up packets matching the rule table. Based on Intel’s Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), we implement the enhanced programmable data plane. Our experimental results prove that the proposed enhanced programmable data plane has a stronger ability to process mobile signaling and reduce latency.

SDN Security Review: Threat Taxonomy, Implications, and Open Challenges

Software-Defined networking (SDN) is a networking paradigm to enable dynamic, flexible, and programmatically efficient configuration of networks to revolutionize network control and management via separation of the control plane and data plane. The SDN technology has evolved in response to the demands from large data centers toward all types of networks, from IoT, enterprise, to ISP networks. On the one hand, SDN has provided solutions for high-demand resources, managing unpredictable data traffic patterns, and rapid network reconfiguration. It is further used to enhance network virtualization and security. On the other hand, SDN is still subject to many traditional network security threats. It also introduces new security vulnerabilities, primarily due to its logically centralized control plane infrastructure and functions. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive survey on the core functionality of SDN from the perspective of secure communication infrastructure at different scales. A specific focus is put forward to address the challenges in securing SDN-based communications, with efforts taken up to address them. We further categorize the appropriate solutions for specific threats at each layer of SDN infrastructures. Lastly, security implications and future research trends are highlighted to provide insights for future research.

Entropy based TOPSIS method for controller selection in software defined networking

SummarySoftware defined networking (SDN) architecture is easily manageable, flexible, and dynamic where controller selection plays a major role. In SDN, the controlling functions are handled by control plane and forwarding functions are handled by data plane. In general, the centralized controller supervises the control plane, and it communicates with the data plane using “Open Flow” (south bound interface). Moreover, OpenFlow based controllers such as POX, Floodlight, Beacon, and RYU have different features which suit different applications in real time. In this proposed work, a multi‐criteria decision making method named entropy based TOPSIS method is used to select the controller for load balancing in control plane. Initially, four controllers are selected and evaluated over tree topology with different parameters such as throughput, delay, response time, message cost using the network emulator called Mininet. Then, entropy based TOPSIS method is used to rank the controllers where Floodlight is chosen as the most excellent one based on our criteria.

ARES: A Framework for Management of Aging and Rejuvenation in Softwarized Networks

The recent trend of network softwarization suggests a radical shift in the implementation of traditional network intelligence. In Software Defined Networking (SDN), for instance, the control plane functions of forwarding devices are outsourced to the controller. Softwarized network components are expected to provide uninterrupted service during long periods of time, which makes them prone to the effects of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">software aging</i> , a phenomena that has been observed in operational software systems where the failure rate increases or the performance of the software degrades with the elapsed time since the last restart. The effects of software aging in operational networks are typically mitigated by <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">software rejuvenation</i> , i.e., planned restarts cleaning the internal system state in order to prevent or postpone aging-related failures. This article presents <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ARES</i> , a three-step methodological framework for the management of the effects of software aging in softwarized networks, applied to the case study of open source SDN orchestration platforms. Using ARES, we demonstrate that software aging is a systematic problem that cannot be neglected in network orchestration systems. It stems not only from aging-related bugs and natural aging due to fragmentation, but also from design choices, e.g., when implementing distributed systems. Measurements for Open Network Operating System (ONOS) and OpenDaylight (ODL) demonstrate how “simple” and common networking tasks let network performance degrade rapidly and even lead to crashes: for instance, adding and removing 300 intents per second in ONOS significantly increases the response time by 50% per day and depletes the memory at the rate of 18GB per day. Moreover, we demonstrate a first rejuvenation approach that can mitigate the effects of aging in ONOS.

Enabling Delegation of Control Plane Functionalities for Time Sensitive Networks

This paper proposes a new paradigm for control plane in Time Sensitive Networks (TSN). An SDN controller proactively instructs network elements on the reconfigurations to perform locally if some specific events occur (e.g., failures, performance degradations). Instructions are given in the form of Finite State Machines (FSMs), which store information related to the actions that each network element should execute to react against a specific event. Thus, if such event occurs, the SDN controller is by-passed reducing reaction (e.g., recovery) time. Such an approach is here implemented for recovery upon failures in TSN. Experiments of failure recovery are carried out and measurements are presented comparing the FSM-based solution with a fully-centralized reactive restoration. Moreover, the proposed approach is compared through simulations against Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability. Results will show how proactive FSM manipulation can strongly reduce recovery time in SDN-based TSN networks without overloading the network with frame replicas.

Software-Defined Networking: Concepts and Applications

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a revolutionary paradigm that has transformed the way networks are designed, deployed, and managed. By decoupling the control plane from the data plane, SDN provides centralized control and programmability, offering numerous advantages over traditional networking approaches. This paper provides a comprehensive review of SDN concepts and applications, focusing on key aspects such as architecture, fundamentals, challenges, and future directions. We begin with an introduction to SDN, discussing its definition, evolution, and relevance in modern networking. We then delve into the fundamentals of SDN, exploring its key components, architecture, and control plane functionality. Next, we examine various SDN applications, including network management, traffic engineering, security, and cloud computing. We also discuss the challenges facing SDN, such as scalability, security, and interoperability, and highlight emerging trends and future research directions in the field. Through this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of SDN's impact on modern networking and its potential for future innovation.

Network attacks classification using Long Short-term memory based neural networks in Software-Defined Networks

Abstract SDN (Software-Defined Network) is a network in which the control plane functionality is separated from the packet forwarding layer. The paper is devoted to the study of the SDN security. A comparison of neural networks with various parameters on existing dataset is presented. CSE-CIC-IDS2018 dataset [12] provided by Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity (CIC) on AWS (Amazon Web Services) was chosen. It contains of the most relevant types of network attacks. Results show that a simple neural network, such as a multi-layer perceptron, can be used to provide basic protection against most attacks. To provide more reliable protection, complex neural networks should be used. The presented LSTM-based model showed a very good result of intrusion detection.

Assessing the Maturity of SDN Controllers With Software Reliability Growth Models

In software defined networking (SDN), critical control plane functions are offloaded to a software entity known as the SDN controller. Today's SDN controllers are complex software systems, owing to heterogeneity of networks and forwarding devices they support, and are inherently prone to bugs. Our previous work showed that software reliability growth models (SRGM) can model the stochastic nature of bug manifestation process open source SDN controllers. In this paper, we focus on different applications of our SRGM framework crucial for an efficient management of SDN-based networks. We provide guidelines for network operators to decide when the controller software is mature enough to be deployed in operational environment, based on the reliability requirements of network applications, and quantify the marginal benefits of the prolonged testing phase on the software quality. We show how the accuracy of software reliability prediction in the early phase of the software lifecycle can be improved by extrapolating the behavior of previous controller software releases. We also propose software maturity metrics that can be used by operators to discriminate between the competing SDN controller designs, i.e., ONOS and OpenDaylight, when software reliability is a major concern.

Path to 5G: A Control Plane Perspective

This paper provides an overview of some specific control plane functionality that has developed in the 3GPP architecture, from GPRS to EPC and now the 5G core network. Innovations of the 5G control plane are considered in the areas of selecting and maintaining the control plane topology, as well as the handling of state within the network.

Experimental Validation of Time-Synchronized Operations for Software-Defined Elastic Optical Networks

Elastic optical networking (EON) has been proposed as a solution to efficiently exploit the spectrum resources in the physical layer of optical networks. Moreover, by centralizing legacy generalized multiprotocol label switching control-plane functionalities and providing a global network view, software-defined networking (SDN) enables advanced network programmability valuable to control and configure the technological breakthroughs of EON. In this paper, we review our recent proposal [Optical Fiber Communication Conf., 2017, paper W4J.6] of time-synchronized operations (TSO) to minimize disruption time during lightpath reassignment in EON. TSO has been recently standardized in SDN, and here we discuss its implementation using NETCONF and OpenFlow in optical networks. Subsequently, we update our analytical model considering an experimental characterization of the WSS operation time. Then, we extend our previous work with an experimental validation of TSO for lightpath reassignment in a five-node metropolitan optical network test-bed. Results validate the convenience of our TSO-based approach against a traditional asynchronous technique given its reduction of disruption time, while both techniques maintain a similar network performance in terms of optical signal-to-noise ratio and optical power budget.

Towards a Cost Optimal Design for a 5G Mobile Core Network Based on SDN and NFV

With the rapid growth of user traffic, service innovation, and the persistent necessity to reduce costs, today’s mobile operators are faced with several challenges. In networking, two concepts have emerged aiming at cost reduction, increase of network scalability and deployment flexibility, namely Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN). NFV mitigates the dependency on hardware, where mobile network functions are deployed as software virtual network functions on commodity servers at cloud infrastructure, i.e., data centers. SDN provides a programmable and flexible network control by decoupling the mobile network functions into control plane and data plane functions. The design of the next generation mobile network (5G) requires new planning and dimensioning models to achieve a cost optimal design that supports a wide range of traffic demands. We propose three optimization models that aim at minimizing the network load cost as well as data center resources cost by finding the optimal placement of the data centers as well the SDN and NFV mobile network functions. The optimization solutions demonstrate the trade-offs between the different data center deployments, i.e., centralized or distributed, and the different cost factors, i.e., optimal network load cost or data center resources cost. We propose a Pareto optimal multi-objective model that achieves a balance between network and data center cost. Additionally, we use prior inference, based on the solutions of the single objectives, to pre-select data center locations for the multi-objective model that results in reducing the optimization complexity and achieves savings in run time while keeping a minimal optimality gap.

Fixed Access Network Sharing

Deep fiber deployments for ultrafast broadband are both technically and economically challenging. Fixed access network sharing (FANS) offers a highly enhanced form of virtual unbundling of broadband access networks, enabling cost sharing and the dynamics of a competitive landscape. Data, control, and management interfaces are automated and harmonized among wholesale infrastructure providers and retail virtual network operators. Standardized FANS interfaces can greatly decrease OPEX while increasing customer satisfaction. When FANS is implemented, network slicing logically partitions and isolates network resources among the VNOs, and such sharing can split the cost of network upgrades among several entities. FANS works with virtualization, where control plane functions are migrated from dedicated network equipment into software running on commodity hardware, with FANS providing network as a service. This article describes the drivers behind FANS, several architectures supporting FANS, and emerging standards supporting FANS.

A Virtual Id Routing Protocol for Future Dynamics Networks and Its Implementation Using the SDN Paradigm

In this paper, we propose Virtual Id Routing (VIRO) a novel "plug-&-play" non-IP routing protocol for future dynamics networks. VIRO decouples routing/forwarding from addressing by introducing a topology-aware, structured virtual id layer to encode the locations of switches and devices in the physical topology. It completely eliminates network-wide flooding in both the data and control planes, and thus is highly scalable and robust. VIRO effectively localizes the effect of failures, performs fast re-routing and supports multiple (logical) topologies on top of the same physical network substrate to further enhance network robustness. We have implemented an initial prototype of VIRO using Open vSwitch, and we extend it (both within the user space and the kernel space) to implement VIRO switching functions in VIRO switches. In addition, we use the POX SDN controller to implement VIRO's control and management plane functions. We evaluate our prototype implementation through emulation and in the GENI (the Global Environment for Network Innovations) testbed using many synthetic and real topologies. Our evaluation results show that VIRO has better scalability than link-state based protocols (e.g. OSPF and SEATTLE) in terms of routing-table size and control overhead, as well as better mechanisms for failure recovery.

OPERETTA: An OPEnflow-based REmedy to mitigate TCP SYNFLOOD Attacks against web servers

TCP SYNFLOOD attacks are a type of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks usually carried out against web servers. TCP SYNFLOOD rely on the normal TCP Three-Way Handshake mechanism to consume resources on the targeted server. In this way server resources are blocked and the server is made unresponsive. To this purpose, the attacker sends multiple fake SYN packets as if it wants to set several TCP connections up, but then it does not finalize the Three-Way Handshake. In this way, it blocks the resources of the attacked server, uselessly. In traditional networks, these attacks have been counteracted by means of firewalls and intrusion detection schemes. However, these solutions are not effective since can be violated. Software Defined Networks (SDNs) offer new features like network programmability which make solutions to TCP SYNFLOOD attacks more effective. In fact, in SDN networks intelligence for counteracting security menaces can be moved to a single network element, i.e., the Controller, which has complete information about the network and is in the best condition to identify ongoing attacks. However, in this way TCP SYNFLOOD attacks can turn into attacks to the Controller, which becomes a unique point of failure for the network. In this paper we propose OPERETTA, an OPEnflow-based Remedy to TCP SYNFLOOD Attacks. OPERETTA is implemented in the Controller which manages incoming TCP SYN packets and rejects fake connection requests. The OPERETTA protocol works in heterogeneous networks, as it can be implemented not only on a centralized Controller, but also on delocalized Controllers available in the access routers at the users’ premises. OPERETTA has been tested using MININET and to this purpose prototypes of the relevant Control Plane functions have been implemented starting from the POX Controller. Numerical results show that OPERETTA achieves good performance in terms of resilience to TCP SYNFLOOD attacks and low level of CPU and memory consumption.

Future RAN Architecture: SD-RAN Through a General-Purpose Processing Platform

In this article, we identify and study the potential of an integrated deployment solution for energy-efficient cellular networks combining the strengths of two very active current research themes: 1) software-defined radio access networks (SD-RANs) and 2) decoupled signaling and data transmissions, or beyond cellular green generation (BCG2) architecture, for enhanced energy efficiency. While SD-RAN envisions a decoupled centralized control plane and data-forwarding plane for flexible control, the BCG2 architecture calls for decoupling coverage from the capacity and coverage provided through an always-on low-power signaling node for a larger geographical area; the capacity is catered by various on-demand data nodes for maximum energy efficiency. In this article, we show that a combined approach that brings both specifications together can not only achieve greater benefits but also facilitate faster realization of both technologies. We propose the idea and design of a signaling controller that acts as a signaling node to provide always-on coverage, consuming low power, and at the same time host the control plane functions for the SDRAN through a general-purpose processing platform. The phantom cell concept is also a similar idea where a normal macrocell provides interference control to densely deployed small cells, although our initial results show that the integrated architecture has a much greater potential for energy savings than phantom cells.

Transport Network Function Virtualization

In this paper, we present a network function virtualization (NFV) architecture to deploy different virtualized network functions (VNF) on an optical transport network. NFV concepts do not only apply to data plane functions (i.e., packet processing or forwarding), but also to control plane functions, such as path computation. First, we focus on the IT and network resources that are virtualized to provide the required VNFs. Second, we provide an example of VNF on top of the virtualized infrastructure, by proposing a path computation element (PCE) architecture to deploy a PCE by means of NFV. The instances of the virtualized PCE are deployed on demand, but they are perceived as a single-network element. We present the benefits of such approach by providing experimental validation.