Control Plane Latency Research Articles

Countering ARP spoofing attacks in software-defined networks using a game-theoretic approach

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing is a form of attack typically used by attackers to cause a denial of service or man-in-the-middle attacks. This attack comes from ARP weaknesses and aims to compromise victims' ARP caches by sending ARP packets containing fake IP-MAC pairs. To overcome ARP spoofing attacks, several approaches leverage the advantages of software-defined networking (SDN) to detect malicious users in the network. To achieve their goal, the SDN controller consecutively checks the characteristics of each ARP packet to ensure its correctness. However, this verification method can lead to latency and congestion at the controller level or render the system unusable for large-scale networks. To address this drawback, we propose a game-theoretic approach to provide an optimal verification method that considers the intelligent attackers' decision-making process during an ARP cache poisoning attempt. This approach is a zero-sum game between the attacker who wants to poison the victims' ARP caches and the defender who must avoid this poisoning. The game model results in mixed-strategy Nash equilibria that identify optimal verification methods to prevent control plane latency and congestion during attacker detection. The results show that an intelligent attacker will refrain from poisoning ARP caches with a high-impact strategy because the defender frequently checks such a strategy. In addition, the attacker's penalty value can deter both rational and irrational attackers from poisoning ARP caches. Simulations in the Mininet simulator have shown that the proposed approach can significantly mitigate control plane latency and congestion during the attacker's characteristic checking.

4MIDable: Flexible Network Offloading For Security VNFs

The ever-growing volume of network traffic and widening adoption of Internet protocols to underpin common communication processes augments the importance of network security. In order to enforce network security policies, network managers adopt a widening set of middleboxes and network appliances to improve traffic monitoring and processing capabilities. The resource requirements to support network security appliances are constantly increasing, making efficiency of these systems an essential aspect. The move toward Software-Defined Networking and programmable data planes offers a mean to offload traffic processing functionalities to within the network itself. To this end, we present the 4MIDable framework: a platform that facilitates the integration of existing middleboxes and monitoring appliances with an SDN (P4) network infrastructure. We also present P4Protect, a 4MIDable agent that protects the network from control plane DoS attacks with negligible impact on control plane latency, and P4ID (P4-Enhanced Intrusion Detection), a 4MIDable agent that offers stateful processing and feedback to unmodified Intrusion Detection System middleboxes and reduces traffic processing by over 80% without affecting threat detection rates.

Design of Two-Step Random Access Procedure for URLLC Applications.

The International Telecommunication Union has required that the control plane (C-plane) latency in the fifth generation (5G) ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) application scenarios should not exceed 20 ms and encouraged technical innovation to further reduce it to less than 10 ms. However, the average C-plane latency in the fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) system is 80 ms. Such a high latency is because of the execution of the contention-based random access procedure (RAP). In this paper, we simplify the conventional contention-based RAP from 4 to 2 steps. Furthermore, utilization of demodulation reference signal for representing the UE ID and reservation of preambles for URLLC users significantly reduces the proposed 2-step RAP latency. From the perspectives of fixing the number of URLLC users and fixing the number of preambles reserved for URLLC users, simulation results show the percentage of successes for the 2-step RAP is 83.81% and 71.83% higher than that of the 4-step RAP, respectively. Consequently, the 10 ms latency requirement of the 5G URLLC is achieved.

The quality of service of the deployed LTE technology by mobile network operators in Abuja-Nigeria

In this study, the real-world performance analysis of four Nigerian mobile network operators (MNOs), namely MTN, GLO, Airtel, and 9Mobile long-term evolution (LTE) cellular network, were analyzed and compared. The Nigerian MNOs utilize 5 MHz, 10 MH, and 20 MHz channel bandwidths based on third-generation partnership project’s (3 GPPs) recommendation. The presented analysis shows the uplink (UL), and downlink (DL) throughputs gaps in mobility condition as well as other LTE’s system quality of service (QoS) key performance indicators (KPI’s) of: Connection drop rate, connection failure rate, peak physical downlink throughput, minimum radio link control (RLC) downlink throughput threshold and latency are not strictly followed. The reason may be due to a lack of regulatory oversight enforcement. The comparative studies showed that MTN provides the best QoS. The introduction of novel LTE QoS metrics herein referred to as national independent wireless broadband quality reporting (NIWBQR) is the significant contribution of this study. The goal of this study is to show the quality of the network as it affects the user's experience. Important observation showed that all the MNOs are not adhering to the 3 GPPs specified user plane latency of 30 ms and control plane latency of 100 ms, respectively, which makes video streaming and low latency communication a near-impossible task.

CleanG—Improving the Architecture and Protocols for Future Cellular Networks With NFV

With the rapid increase in the number of users and changing pattern of network usage, cellular networks will continue to be challenged meeting bandwidth and latency requirements. A significant contributor to latency and overhead is cellular network’s complex control-plane. We propose CleanG, a new packet core architecture and significantly more efficient control-plane protocol, that exploits the capabilities of modern-day Network Function Virtualization (NFV) platforms. CleanG is a single component NFV-based architecture. With the elastic scalability offered by NFV, the data and control sub-components of the core can scale, adapting to workload demand. CleanG eliminates the use of GTP tunnels for data packets and the associated complex protocol for coordination across multiple, distributed components for setting up and managing them. We carefully examine the use of each protocol message exchange (and the component fields of those messages) in developing a substantially simplified protocol, while retaining similar essential functionality for security, mobility, and air-interface resource management. We have implemented CleanG on the OpenNetVM platform and perform an apples-to-apples comparison with the existing 3GPP LTE architecture and an architecture that separates the control and user plane (the CUPS-based architecture like the 5G architecture). Measurements on our testbed show that CleanG substantially reduces both control and data plane latency, and significantly increases system capacity.

5G Mixed Mode: NR Multicast-Broadcast Services

This work presents a potential solution for enabling the use of multicast in the 5G New Radio Release 17, called 5G NR Mixed Mode. The proposed multicast/broadcast mode follows one of the two approaches envisaged in 3GPP, which enables a dynamic and seamless switching between unicast and multicast, both in the downlink and the uplink. This paper also provides a performance evaluation of several IMT-2020 KPIs, including available data rate and spectral efficiency, user and control plane latencies, energy efficiency, and mobility, highlighting the potential advantages of this solution over unicast in relevant scenarios. Finally, other multipoint-based KPIs such as coverage or packet loss rate are also evaluated by means of system level simulations.

Mobile edge communications, computing, and caching (MEC3) technology in the maritime communication network

With the increasing maritime activities and the rapidly developing maritime economy, the fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication system is expected to be deployed at the ocean. New technologies need to be explored to meet the requirements of ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) in the maritime communication network (MCN). Mobile edge computing (MEC) can achieve high energy efficiency in MCN at the cost of suffering from high control plane latency and low reliability. In terms of this issue, the mobile edge communications, computing, and caching (MEC3) technology is proposed to sink mobile computing, network control, and storage to the edge of the network. New methods that enable resource-efficient configurations and reduce redundant data transmissions can enable the reliable implementation of computing-intension and latency-sensitive applications. The key technologies of MEC3 to enable URLLC are analyzed and optimized in MCN. The best response-based offloading algorithm (BROA) is adopted to optimize task offloading. The simulation results show that the task latency can be decreased by 26.5' ms, and the energy consumption in terminal users can be reduced to 66.6%.

State-Based Uplink-Scheduling Scheme for Reducing Control Plane Latency of MCPTT Services

This paper addresses an uplink (UL) scheduling issue that arises in the midst of the recent trend in applying the commercial long term evolution (LTE) technology to public safety. Mission critical push-to-talk (MCPTT), which specifies a group communication service over LTE in public-safety scenarios, needs to satisfy the requirements of extremely short latency for its control procedures. We herein propose a practical UL-scheduling scheme, which can be feasible in the LTE system to shorten the time for the initial UL transmissions. Through the empirical assessment conducted on our LTE-based MCPTT testbed, the proposed scheme is validated to reduce the control plane latency with the little increment of implementation complexity.

RRC State Handling for 5G

Standardization work for the 5th Generation of mobile communications (5G) is under way in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The design of the user equipment (UE) state machine is one of the central questions related to the overall control plane design. In this article, we present a state machine for 5G that consists of a novel Radio Resource Control (RRC) Connected Inactive state in addition to the conventional RRC Idle and RRC Connected states. In RRC Connected Inactive, the UE Context is stored in the UE and in the network, and the connection between the Radio Access Network (RAN) and the Core Network (CN) is kept active to minimize control plane latency and UE power consumption during state transition. In addition, RRC Connected Inactive is configurable so that requirements of diverse 5G use cases can be fulfilled without increasing the overall number of RRC states. Performance analysis shows that RRC Connected Inactive can achieve up to 8x latency improvement, 5x power efficiency and 3.5x signaling overhead reduction, when compared to Long Term Evolution (LTE) RRC Idle.

An FPGA-Oriented Baseband Modulator Architecture for 4G/5G Communication Scenarios

The next evolution in cellular communications will not only improve upon the performance of previous generations, but also represent an unparalleled expansion in the number of services and use cases. One of the foundations for this evolution is the design of highly flexible, versatile, and resource-/power-efficient hardware components. This paper proposes and evaluates an FPGA-oriented baseband processing architecture suitable for communication scenarios such as non-contiguous carrier aggregation, centralized Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) processing, and 4G/5G waveform coexistence. Our system is upgradeable, resource-efficient, cost-effective, and provides support for three 5G waveform candidates. Exploring Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR), the proposed architecture expands the design space exploration beyond the available hardware resources on the Zynq xc7z020 through hardware virtualization. Additionally, Dynamic Frequency Scaling (DFS) allows for run-time adjustment of processing throughput and reduces power consumption up to 88%. The resource overhead for DPR and DFS is residual, and the reconfiguration latency is two orders of magnitude below the control plane latency requirements proposed for 5G communications.

Control plane latency reduction for OpenFlow/NFV-based mobile service network

Control plane latency reduction for OpenFlow/NFV-based mobile service network

Software-defined networking control plane for seamless integration of multiple silicon photonic switches in Datacom networks.

Silicon photonics based switches offer an effective option for the delivery of dynamic bandwidth for future large-scale Datacom systems while maintaining scalable energy efficiency. The integration of a silicon photonics-based optical switching fabric within electronic Datacom architectures requires novel network topologies and arbitration strategies to effectively manage the active elements in the network. We present a scalable software-defined networking control plane to integrate silicon photonic based switches with conventional Ethernet or InfiniBand networks. Our software-defined control plane manages both electronic packet switches and multiple silicon photonic switches for simultaneous packet and circuit switching. We built an experimental Dragonfly network testbed with 16 electronic packet switches and 2 silicon photonic switches to evaluate our control plane. Observed latencies occupied by each step of the switching procedure demonstrate a total of 344 µs control plane latency for data-center and high performance computing platforms.

5G for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications

The articles in this special section focus on fifth generation (5G) mobile communication for ultra-reliable low-latency communications. With the expected superior performance to the current generation of mobile networks, 5G systems are poised to support new and diverse usage scenarios and applications, thus enriching the lives of citizens and the productivity of industry and public sectors. The widely accepted scenarios for 5G include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), addressing human-centric use cases for access to multimedia content, services and data; ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) with strict requirements, especially in terms of latency and reliability; and massive machine type communications (mMTC) for a very large number of connected devices typically transmitting a relatively low volume of non-delay-sensitive data. The articles in this section present the most relevant scenarios, prominent research outcomes, and state-of-the-art advances of 5G systems for URLLC achieving the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) targets on latency and reliability requirements to successfully deliver delay-sensitive information. In 3GPP, the performance target for control plane latency is 10 ms, and for user plane latency it is 0.5 ms for downlink and uplink directions, separately.

From LTE to 5G for Connected Mobility

Long Term Evolution, the fourth generation of mobile communication technology, has been commercially deployed for about five years. Even though it is continuously updated through new releases, and with LTE Advanced Pro Release 13 being the latest one, the development of the fifth generation has been initiated. In this article, we measure how current LTE network implementations perform in comparison with the initial LTE requirements. The target is to identify certain key performance indicators that have suboptimal implementations and therefore lend themselves to careful consideration when designing and standardizing next generation wireless technology. Specifically, we analyze user and control plane latency, handover execution time, and coverage, which are critical parameters for connected mobility use cases such as road vehicle safety and efficiency. We study the latency, handover execution time, and coverage of four operational LTE networks based on 19,000 km of drive tests covering a mixture of rural, suburban, and urban environments. The measurements have been collected using commercial radio network scanners and measurement smartphones. Even though LTE has low air interface delays, the measurements reveal that core network delays compromise the overall round-trip time design requirement. LTE's breakbefore- make handover implementation causes a data interruption at each handover of 40 ms at the median level. While this is in compliance with the LTE requirements, and lower values are certainly possible, it is also clear that break-before-make will not be sufficient for connected mobility use cases such as road vehicle safety. Furthermore, the measurements reveal that LTE can provide coverage for 99 percent of the outdoor and road users, but the LTE-M or NarrowBand-IoT upgrades, as of LTE Release 13, are required in combination with other measures to allow for additional penetration losses, such as those experienced in underground parking lots. Based on the observed discrepancies between measured and standardized LTE performance, in terms of latency, handover execution time, and coverage, we conclude the article with a discussion of techniques that need careful consideration for connected mobility in fifth generation mobile communication technology.

Control Plane Latency With SDN Network Hypervisors: The Cost of Virtualization

Software defined networking (SDN) network hypervisors provide the functionalities needed for virtualizing software-defined networks. Hypervisors sit logically between the multiple virtual SDN networks (vSDNs), which reside on the underlying physical SDN network infrastructure, and the corresponding tenant (vSDN) controllers. Different SDN network hypervisor architectures have mainly been explored through proof-of-concept implementations. We fundamentally advance SDN network hypervisor research by conducting a model-based analysis of SDN hypervisor architectures. Specifically, we introduce mixed integer programming formulations for four different SDN network hypervisor architectures. Our model formulations can also optimize the placement of multi-controller switches in virtualized OpenFlow-enabled SDN networks. We employ our models to quantitatively examine the optimal placement of the hypervisor instances. We compare the control plane latencies of the different SDN hypervisor architectures and quantify the cost of virtualization, i.e., the latency overhead due to virtualizing SDN networks via hypervisors. For generalization, we quantify how the hypervisor architectures behave for different network topologies. Our model formulations and the insights drawn from our evaluations inform network operators about the trade-offs of the different hypervisor architectures and help choosing an architecture according to operator demands.

Latency in Software Defined Networks

We conduct a comprehensive measurement study of switch control plane latencies using four types of production SDN switches. Our measurements show that control actions, such as rule installation, have surprisingly high latency, due to both software implementation inefficiencies and fundamental traits of switch hardware. We also propose three measurement-driven latency mitigation techniques---optimizing route selection, spreading rules across switches, and reordering rule installations---to effectively tame the flow setup latencies in SDN.

Mitigating Performance Degradation in LTE Advance using Relaying Node

Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) is the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) candidate technology which is expected to enhance cell edge capacity, system throughput as well as reduce the user and control plane latencies. Generally in the wireless networks, the cell edge users are experiencing a low signal-to-noise-interference ratio (SINR), causes the low user throughput which leads to overall bad system performance. Similarly, it also causes the small cell coverage and capacity at the cell edge. Moreover,the 3GPP LTE-Advanced is required to provide peak data rates in order to support the high data services and applications. In order to solve this problem, the relaying technique has been proposed. Relays are expected to improve the system capacity and coverage as the low SINR users will hand over to the relay node and utilize the system resources efficiently. To meet these requirements, different LTE-Advanced technologies have been studied in which includes relay