IP Networks Research Articles

Smart control plane for information centric network-internet service provider networks

The information centric network (ICN) has been widely discussed in current researches. The ICN interoperation with a traditional IP network and caching methods are one of the research topics of interest. For economic reasons, the capability of applying the ICN to internet service providers (ISPs) with various traditional IP protocols already implemented, especially IGP, MPLS, VRF, and TE, does not require any change on the IP network infrastructure. The biggest concern of ISPs is related to their customers’ contents delivery speed. In this paper, we consider ICN caching locations in ISP by using the concept of locator/ID separation protocol (LISP) for interoperation between a traditional IP address and name-based ICN. To be more specific, we propose a new procedure to determine caching locations in the ICN by using the cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) for finding the best caching locations of information chunks. Moreover, we create the smart control plane (SCP) scheme which is an intelligent controlling, managing, and mapping system. Its function is similar to the software defined network concept. We show how the proposed SCP system works in both synthetic small network and real-world big network. Finally, we show and evaluate the performance of our algorithm comparison with the simple search method using the shortest path first algorithm.

A new analytical model of TCP Hybla for satellite IP networks

TCP Hybla is increasingly being recognized for yielding high throughput over satellite IP links. However, due to the difficulty in measuring the expected performance over such links, the deployment decision is not trivial. A good analytical model of TCP Hybla can help spread its deployment by allowing easy estimation of its performance using network parameters like packet loss probability and round trip time (RTT) over the target satellite connection. Also, it can lead to design of congestion control mechanisms based on Hybla friendly rate control. In this paper, we therefore propose new analytical models for (i) steady-state throughput and (ii) latency for TCP Hybla over satellite IP links. The new model for steady-state throughput results from a major overhaul of our previously devised model for the same. The latency model has been devised newly. Using the latency model, the throughput and the average transmission time can be estimated. We verify the accuracy of our model by comparing with simulation and emulation results. It is observed that for packet loss probability of 10−4 or below that correspond to real life packet loss probability over satellite link, our analytical models for throughput and latency closely match both the simulation and emulation outcomes. That is, our analytical models correctly represent the behavior of satellite links. Our new model leads to up to 3% more accuracy than our previously proposed model while calculating steady-state throughput.

Coordinated and Unified Control Scheme of IP and Optical Networks for Smart Power Grid

As new services of the smart power grid emerge with diversity and complexity, great challenge and demand is presented for traditional IP data network and optical network to realize coordinated control. Benefiting from advantages of concentration, open, manageability and controllability, this paper proposes a power-grid oriented concentrated unification control architecture of IP and optical networks, together with coordinated services control mechanism, with the aim to achieve highly efficient coordination between IP network and optical network. Under this concentrated unification control architecture, an OpenFlow protocol based unified control scheme is also proposed and designed, by making full use of existing connections on optical layer to reach fast establishment for services produced by smart power grid. Therefore, the support ability of IP and optical networks to power-grid services can be greatly improved.

3DQoE-Oriented and Energy-Efficient 2D plus Depth Based 3D Video Streaming Over Centrally Controlled Networks

IP networks have become the dominant platform for video delivery. However, bandwidth-hungry video is pushing networks to their limits: costs are rising for the operators and the viewing experience is not always satisfactory for the users. When considering 3D video delivery, the previous problems are exacerbated because of the higher volume of data that must be communicated, and the difficulty in characterizing the viewing experience of the end user. Consequently, network operators may be reluctant to deliver 3D video due to costs and unclear quality improvements to their users. In this setting, the true immersive experience of 3D video remains elusive. In this paper, we focus on the efficient delivery of 3D video in terms of quality and energy cost over centrally controlled networks. As a representative example of a centrally controlled network, a software-defined network (SDN) is assumed. Our approach is based on a comprehensive network-dependent 3D quality of experience (3DQoE) model and an energy cost model for 3D video streaming. By using the developed models, we formulate the problem of energy-efficient and 3DQoE-optimized 3D video flow path routing. The particular characteristic of video/depth rate allocation presented in 3D video is embedded seamlessly into the selection of the optimal routing paths for multiple 3D video streams. The formulated problem is NP-hard and is solved with a heuristic algorithm based on the branch-and-bound method after significant reduction of the solution search space. Extensive 3D video streaming experiments are conducted over an OpenFlow-based SDN with subjective and objective evaluations and they highlight the significant benefits of the proposed approach.

Multi-Layer Virtual Network Embedding

Network virtualization (NV), considered as a key enabler for overcoming the ossification of the Internet allows multiple heterogeneous virtual networks to co-exist over the same substrate network. Resource allocation problems in NV have been extensively studied for single layer substrates such as IP or Optical networks. However, little effort has been put to address the same problem for multi-layer IP-over-optical networks. The increasing popularity of multi-layer networks for deploying backbones combined with their unique characteristics ( e.g., topological flexibility of the IP layer) calls for the need to carefully investigate the resource provisioning problems arising from their virtualization. In this paper, we address the problem of multi-layer virtual network embedding (MULE; similar to multi-layer networks, this hybrid species brings the best of two species together.) on IP-over-optical networks. We propose two solutions to MULE: 1) an integer linear program formulation for the optimal solution (OPT-MULE) and 2) a heuristic to address the computational complexity of the optimal solution (FAST-MULE). We demonstrate through extensive simulations that on average our heuristic performs within $\boldsymbol \approx 1.47\boldsymbol \times $ of optimal solution while executing several orders of magnitude faster. Simulation results also show that FAST-MULE incurs ≈66% less cost on average than the state-of-the-art heuristic while accepting ≈60% more virtual network requests on average.

A User‐Centered Multi‐space Collaborative Visual Analysis for Cyber Security

Based on a university's practice in upgrading its network management platform, presents a visual analytic system which integrates network topological space, IP space and network geographical space into a collaborative solution to help network administrators address difficulties in locating end user and troubleshooting. Throughout the development cycle, we worked alongside with users to clarify their actual demands and habitual operations through scenario application, interviews and a variety of evaluation. This user-centered approach guides us step by step to apply cyber security visualization and visual analytic technology to actual use.

An Easy In-Service Optical IP Network System for Residential Complex, Employing 1550 nm-Band CWDM and Layer-3 Switch

Abstract We have proposed and demonstrated a novel architecture to implement in Coarse Wavelength-Division-Multiplexing (CWDM) technologies to give integrated broadband services for residential complex use system. For keeping the speed of 1000 Mbps at the bus IFs, CWDM technology is employed, and eight wavelengths are allocated to eight bus IFs, respectively. We also have evaluated characteristics of the transmission by calculated and measured the throughputs. The optical IP network can be easy in-service by adjusting the number of wavelengths and optical transceivers. We believe this novel scheme can be applied for future broadband network.

固定電話網（PSTN）からIP網への移行に当っての課題

固定電話網（PSTN）からIP網への移行に当っての課題

Constraint-aware software-defined network for routing real-time multimedia

Traditional Ethernet-based IP networks do not have the capability to provide the Quality of Service (QoS) required for professional real-time multimedia applications. This is because they operate on a best-effort network service model that does not provide service guarantee. Network operators and service providers require a novel network architecture to efficiently handle the increasing demands of this changing network domain. Software-Defined Networking has emerged as an effective network architecture that decouples the control plane and data plane, which makes it capable of handling the dynamic nature of future network functions and intelligent applications while reducing cost through simplified hardware, software, and management. This paper presents an SDN architecture for real-time low latency applications that offer adaptive path provisioning based on the calculated end-to-end delay, available bandwidth, and traditional shortest path first algorithm. The SDN architecture utilises the Ryu OpenFlow application programming interface (API) to perform real-time monitoring to collect network statistics and computes the appropriate paths by using this information. The experiment to ascertain the feasibility and evaluate the effectiveness of this approach is carried out in an emulated network environment using Mininet.

Security Policy Violations in SDN Data Plane

Software-defined networking (SDN) utilizes a centralized controller to distribute packet processing rules to network switches. However, rules are often generated by the applications developed by different organizations, so they may conflict with each other in data plane and lead to violations with security rules. The problem is similar to firewall conflicts in IP networks. Rule conflict resolution should incur negligible process delay, such that all rules can be correctly and safely enforced in the data plane in real time. However, since SDN allows users to use more than 35 fields to specify rules (including field transition rules), it is much more complicated to prevent enforcement of SDN rules from violating with security rules than to resolve firewall rule violation, and in particular, field transition rules are enforced. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to resolve such rule conflicts in real time before the rules are installed in SDN data plane. In this paper, we investigate the rule conflict problem in SDN and identify new covert channel attacks due to rule conflicts. To the end, we propose the covert channel defender (CCD) that prevents covert channel attacks by verifying and resolving rule conflicts. Specifically, CCD tracks all rule insertion and modification messages from applications running on the controller. It analyzes the correlation among rules based on multiple packet header fields and resolves any identified rule conflict in real time before rule installation. We implement CCD with the Floodlight controller and evaluate its performance with the real-world Stanford topology. We show that CCD can efficiently detect and prevent rule conflicts in the data plane that may raise covert channels within hundreds of microseconds and brings small overhead to the packet delivery.

Traffic Engineering Using Segment Routing and Considering Requirements of a Carrier IP Network

Internet Service Providers are challenged by increasing traffic demands. Advanced Traffic Engineering (TE) is one way to overcome this challenge. Segment Routing (SR) is a relatively new approach for TE. To decide whether SR is a good approach for deployment in carrier IP backbone networks, it has to show its benefits in real-world scenarios and still needs to be feasible from the network operation and management point of view. In this paper, we analyze traffic data from a European tier one backbone network from 2011 to 2015. The total traffic increases significantly throughout that period. We analyze geographic differences to select representative traffic peak times as reference scenarios for an evaluation of TE using SR for real-world topologies and traffic demands. Finally, we extend the existing SR formulations to consider requirements from network operation and management. Our evaluation results show that the SR yields close to optimal results while still being deployable with reasonable effort.

Wireless Enabled Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Network Application Using Asterisk PBX

This paper reechoes the need to use VOIP-based communication channels in order to reduce the heavy cost burden of communication in Sub Saharan Africa and other developing countries. We focus specifically on the context of the campus environment and implement IP PBX to cut down the cost of placing and receiving voice calls, instant messaging and voice mails with other colleagues connected to an Asterisk server on WIFI-enabled networks. We are motivated by the ease and cost-effectiveness of setting up WIFI-enabled IP network infrastructure which in recent times could be extended to allow inter-institutional linkage to allow collaboration and research.

Embedding Dependence-Aware Service Function Chains

Network function virtualization (NFV) provides an effective way to decouple network functions from the proprietary hardware, allowing the network providers to implement network functions as virtual machines running on standard servers. In the NFV environment, an NFV service request is provisioned in the form of a service function chain (SFC). The SFC defines the exact sequence of actions or virtual network functions (VNFs) that the data stream from the service request is subjected to. These actions or VNFs need to bemapped onto specific physical networks to provide network services for end users. In this paper,we investigate the problem of dependence-aware service function chain (D_SFC) design and mapping. We study how to efficiently map users’ service requests over the physical network while taking into consideration the computing resource demand, function dependence of the VNFs, and the bandwidth demand for the service request. We propose an efficient algorithm, namely, Dependence-Aware SFC Embedding With Group Mapping (D_SFC_GM), which integrates the proposed techniques of dependence sorting, independent grouping, adaptive mapping, and tetragon remapping to jointly design and map users’ service requests. The proposed D_SFC_GM algorithm takes advantage of VNF’s dependence relationships and the available resources in the physical network to efficiently design the chain and reserve the computing/bandwidth in the physical network. The extensive performance analysis in both IP and physical networks shows that the proposed D_SFC_GM significantly outperforms the traditional approach based on topological sorting and sequential embedding.

PERFORMANCE-OPTIMAL PHASE-LOCKED SYSTEM FOR DEVICE OF SYNCHRONIZATION AND FORMATION OF THE EXACT TIME SIGNALS

Background. The generating reference time signals problem to meet the all consumers’ requirements for time and frequency information is targeted on researching the time scale IP-technologies transmission systems quality improvement and optimizing the synchronization devices self-tuning, as one of the most common systems’ elements in a today’s world. Objective. The aim of the paper is the phase locked loop (PLL) system performance optimization of the device for the exact time signal synchronization and formation. Methods. The linearized model construction of a closed automatic control system for a synchronization device, obtaining performance optimal control law in an analytical form and its implementation in the synchronization device PLL system using an adaptive digital phase discriminator. Results. The performance optimal control law in synchronization PLL device using an adaptive digital phase discriminator was practically implemented. Conclusions. The synchronization information transmission over existing IP networks based on the PTP protocol allows spreading the time scale with an accuracy of hundreds nanoseconds in real networks. Improving the exact time signals formation quality causes the optimizing performance need for the PLL synchronization devices. The adaptive digital phase discriminator use is protected by the Ukraine invention patent and provides the ability to control the phase discriminator (PD) characteristic shape for the transient process duration in PLL system. Keywords: standard; exact time; self-tuning; optimization; synchronization; control system; IP-technologies.

A controller-based architecture for information centric network construction and topology management

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has recently emerged as a result of the increased demand to access contents regardless of their location in the network services. This new approach facilitates content distribution as a service of the network with lower delay and higher security in comparison with the current IP network. Applying ICN in current IP infrastructure leads to major complexities. One approach to deploy ICN with less complexity is to integrate ICN with Software Defined Networking (SDN). The SDN controller manages the content distribution, caching, and routing based on the users' requests. In this paper, we extend these context by addressing the ICN topology management problem over the SDN network to achieve an improved user experience as well as network performance. In particular, a centralized controller is designed to construct and manage the ICN overlay. Experimental results indicate that this adopted topology management strategy achieves high performance, in terms of low failure in interest satisfaction and reduced download time compared to a plain ICN.

Video Streaming over IP using the DASH Technique

Modern Internet serves as a high-performance platform for an ever-increasing number of services. Some of them – video services in particular – are of the broadband variety. So, it is not surprising that segments of networks can rapidly become congested, which may lead to a deterioration in quality. It is hoped that the new MPEG-DASH technique will alleviate congestion. This paper contains an analysis of the new technology’s impact on the quality of service in IP networks. It also explains a new numerical tool QoSCalc(DASH) that has been used to analyze the DASH method in different scenarios. The results are presented graphically and interpreted.

Evaluation of video payload over low latency networks: Flexilink

ABSTRACTBroadcast organisations need to handle both time deterministic traffic and best effort traffic. The adoption of packet networks allows a single converged network for handling both real-time (RT) media traffic as well as data traffic. Due to the historic pervasive growth of IP network, they are widely used to realise this converged network. However, they do have several drawbacks like big header size, software switching delays and inability to support multiple addressing schemes. To overcome these issues, solutions like traffic engineering, quality of service and over-provisioning are implemented in IP networks but has resulted in higher cost, power and system requirements. Flexilink network has been tested for audio payloads using simulation model and outperforms any existing RT network by providing an exceptional average end-to-end delay of microsecond range and a jitter below the audible threshold for live digital audio streaming. However, it is not tested for video payloads. A review of various networks used RT media distribution is included in this paper. The Flexilink architecture design modification to support the most widely used video formats such as MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS and SDI streams is explained. The average delay for multiple video streams over Flexilink is provided using simulation model. The recommendation for testing Flexilink using hardware is also explained in this paper.The Flexilink Mac design uses dual-buffer system to handle AF (asynchronous flow) and SF (synchronous flow) separately, with the Frame structure that supports current Ethernet frames.

Performance Measure and Analysis of MPLS and conventional IP network through VoIP: Effect in Video and Audio transmission

Performance Measure and Analysis of MPLS and conventional IP network through VoIP: Effect in Video and Audio transmission

Performance Analysis of Multi-Photovoltaic (PV)-Grid Tied Plant in Malaysia

This paper evaluates and analyzes the performance of three different types of photovoltaic (PV) arrays connected to utility-grid without any storage system in Malaysia. The three types modules include Poly-Crystalline, Mono-Crystalline and Thin-Film modules, each works separately and are connected to three DC/AC inverters where it monitored and controlled over an IP network system. The system installed and monitored for one-year period and this is the first work describing such systems of different PV types at the same plant in the proposed location. The system continuously collects and stores all data sets of DC/AC current, voltage, frequency and power for a 5-minutes period. Besides, the weather parameters that include ambient temperature, module temperature, solar irradiation and wind speed. The performance of this plant is evaluated by analyzing the collected data sets and then applying performance indices such as final energy output, array yield, final yield, reference yield, system efficiency and performance ratio. The results show that the PV performance is depending directly on the solar irradiation as well as the surrounding environmental conditions. Also, the results show a very-good efficiency of the proposed modules and demonstrate the potential of using such systems in any area with the similar conditions.

Optimum bandwidth allocation in wireless networks using differential evolution

Wireless networking is experiencing a tremendous growth in new standards of communication and computer applications. Currently, wireless networks exist in various forms, providing different facilities. However, due to some limitations as compared with wired counterparts, wireless networks face several major challenges and one of them is optimum bandwidth allocation. The focus of optimum bandwidth allocation is to reduce the losses and satisfying quality of service (QoS) requirements. In wireless networks, the term bandwidth allocation is attributed as the distribution of bandwidth resources among different users, which affects the serviceability of the entire system. Though many studies related to bandwidth allocation have been reported already, however, only sub-optimal solutions have been provided so far. In this research, we proposed to use the differential evolution (DE) algorithm to allocate bandwidth through a bandwidth reservation scheme in the Cellular IP network, in order to improve the QoS at an acceptable level. DE belongs to a class of evolutionary algorithms (EA), like particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm. A DE-based method is used which looks for any free bandwidth in the cell or in adjacent cells and provides it to the cell where required. In case, it fails to find the free available bandwidth then it will search the bandwidth which is standby for non real-time users and allocates it to the real-time users that will help in improving the QoS in terms of connection/call dropping probability for real-time users. Simulation results show that the proposed method performs better as compared to previously used EA models for bandwidth allocation.