IP Routing Research Articles

Power-consumption analysis for different IPoWDM network architectures with ZR/ZR+ and long-haul muxponders

Operators are constantly faced with the need to increase optical-network capacity to accommodate rapid traffic growth while minimizing the cost-per-bit and power-per-bit. The drastic reduction of the power consumption of IP routers and ZR/ZR+ pluggable transponders seen in the past several years has renewed the interest in “opaque” optical-network architectures, where no optical bypassing is allowed. In this work, we aim to quantify and compare the power consumption of four “IP over wavelength division multiplexing” (IPoWDM) transport network architectures employing ZR/ZR+ modules versus long-haul muxponders, considering different grooming, regeneration, and optical bypassing capabilities. We first propose a power consumption model for different IPoWDM node architectures with ZR/ZR+ modules and long-haul muxponders. Then, to obtain the power consumption of different architectures, we propose a compact auxiliary-graph-based network-design algorithm extensible to different network architectures. Moreover, we investigate how the continuous decrease in the power consumption of ZR/ZR+ and IP routers can impact the power consumption of different architectures through a sensitivity analysis. Illustrative numerical results on networks of different sizes show that, despite drastic reductions of power consumption at the IP layer, optical bypassing is still the most power-efficient solution, reducing consumption by up to 48%.

Enabling IP-optical integration in core and metro networks [Invited

IP-optical (Internet protocol and optical) integration, or “IP over DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing),” is a concept spanning over two decades since the advent of coherent DSP (digital signal processing). In recent years, coherent DSP technology has progressed to a point where it can be integrated on small pluggable form factors that can be equipped in optical line systems and disaggregated transponders or directly in IP routers to support a range of metro and core applications. The option of equipping pluggable digital coherent optics (DCOs) directly in IP routers has the biggest potential for operational cost savings but hinges on the availability of a unified management environment with a single pane of glass to coordinate and automate IP routing and optical transport functions. This work presents alternative software-defined networking (SDN) architectures and evaluates the challenges associated with the evolution to IP over DWDM network architectures. It demonstrates the first, to our knowledge, implementation of the Transport API supporting colored pluggable interfaces in routers in a real network testbed. This work contributes to the realization of end-to-end network management for IP-optical networks, offering operators comprehensive visibility into multi-layer and multi-domain services and empowering revenue generation.

Transforming Network Management: Intent-Based Flexible Control Empowered by Efficient Flow-Centric Visibility

The Internet architecture has recently shifted towards a framework characterized by multiple interconnected cloud sites, all linked via an L3 IP network. With this shift, managing networking controls among multiple cloud sites is becoming a significant operational challenge. In particular, ensuring effective networking control necessitates a deeper understanding of flow-level dynamics for comprehensively monitoring interconnection statuses across multiple sites. In this paper, we first propose an IO Visor-enabled tracing solution for Linux-based boxes to efficiently enable the comprehensive collection of network packet flows across interconnected sites. Next, we apply IP prefix-based flow-level analysis at a centralized location to support the intent-based networking control application. This flow-level analysis involves generating policy-based specific action (i.e., redirect) via SDN controllers for specific source IP prefixes, which are causing unknown or potentially vulnerable flows. Furthermore, we employ an open-source ONOS SDN controller to tackle the challenge of managing the hybrid SDN-IP interconnections. By leveraging intent-based networking control, we effectively apply ONOS intents based on IP routing information and generated a set of forwarding action. We evaluate our proposed solution in an experimental SDN-cloud testbed, demonstrating its effectiveness in real-world scenarios. Overall, through the seamless integration of these monitoring and control approaches, we manage to enhance the adaptability and security of the interconnected cloud sites of the testbed.

Design of CapEx and OpEx aware IP-over-WDM network using different types of traffic bypass and grooming techniques

To improve efficiency in setting up and operation of IP-over-WDM (IPoWDM) network, the network can be designed by minimizing either the capital expenditure (CapEx) or the operational expenditure (OpEx) in the planning phase. However, the CapEx-aware designed network may differ from the OpEx-aware designed network. Thus, Capex and OpEx need to be considered together to develop an expenditure-efficient network for a given planning period. Lightpath bypass and traffic grooming techniques help to minimize the required line card number in the core IP router. We design an expenditure (i.e., CapEx and OpEx put together for a given planning period) efficient IPoWDM network. We also review the effect of lightpath bypass and traffic grooming in the design. To design IPoWDM networks, we develop an optimization model and auxiliary-matrix-based heuristics to reduce the network’s total expenditure. The proposed methods judiciously deploy the network equipment at different places to reduce the total expenses and provide solutions for traffic grooming and placement of regenerators. We assume a realistic network framework where the bidirectional WDM equipment has finite transparent reach limit. The performance analysis shows that the multi-hop bypass approach provides more expenditure-efficient networks compared with the direct bypass and the non-bypass methods.

Selective wakeup for parallel forward engines under variable load towards energy conservation in IP routers

SummaryRecent studies have shown that a large amount of energy consumption in the communication medium occurs at the data processing plane. The data plane executes the forwarding decisions in the routers and switches. Through initial studies, the line card was identified as the most granular component of the router and later forward engine, a sub component of line card has been recognized as the most power intensive component of routers. Fundamental techniques like link rate adaption, sleep and wake‐up have been imposed to reduce the energy at line cards and forward engines. On the other hand, router's architectures undergo drastic changes like empowering data plane with parallel processing due to the rise of gigabit routers. In this paper, to increase the degree of local autonomy and better energy savings, we have adopted the parallel processing design and imposed a variable amount of traffic on different line cards. The existing parallel forward engines perform load balancing in synchronous manner. In our design, asynchronous behavior is imposed such that every line card could independently decide to wake up or turn off their forward engine based on the traffic parameters. We have done simulations and witnessed increased energy savings (average sleeping time) without compromising the completion of lookup process.

A Multipath Data-Scheduling Strategy Based on Path Correlation for Information-Centric Networking

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has revolutionized the manner of content acquisition by shifting the communication mode from host-centric to information-centric. Considering the existing, large amount of IP infrastructure in current networks, the new ICN architecture is proposed to be compatible with existing networks in order to reduce deployment cost. However, due to compatibility with IP networks, ICN data packets must be transmitted through the default path provided by IP routing regulations, which also limits the transmission efficiency and reliability of ICN. In order to address this issue, this paper introduces a multipath transmission method applied in ICN which takes full advantage of the functions and characteristics of ICN and builds multiple end-to-end relay paths by using the ICN routers as relay nodes. We then propose a relay-node-selection algorithm based on path correlation to minimize the impact of overlapping links. Moreover, we comprehensively calculate the path state value by combining the round-trip time and packet loss rate and propose a multipath data-scheduling algorithm based on the path state value. Simulation experiments show that the proposed method can maintain high bandwidth utilization while reducing the number of out-of-order packets.

A compass time-space model-based virtual IP routing scheme for NTSN satellite constellations

Recently, Non-Terrestrial Satellite Networks (NTSTs) have gained more and more attentions due to global coverage, low latency, and high-speed communications. The routing scheme is one of the primary challenges for NTSNs, due to the mega scale of an NTSN constellation and the dynamic topology feature. To solve many pressing problems, a Compass time-space Model-based Virtual IP (CMVIP) routing scheme is proposed in this paper. In order to compensate for discontinuities in existing topology models, a compass-shaped time-space model is proposed. It can be adapted with Inter-Satellite-Link (ISL) and Ground-Satellite-Link (GSL) transmissions. A distributed algorithm with multiple optimization objectives and multiple constraints is applied for routing path discovery. To more realistically verify the specific scheme, a traffic model that supports two different services is proposed. Access and bearer services are the two main applications of an NTSN. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves superior Quality-of-Service (QoS) performance. In addition, comparison results demonstrate that the CMVIP routing scheme is superior to the Virtual-Topology-based Shortest Path (VT-SP) routing algorithm.

A Novel Multipath Transmission Scheme for Information-Centric Networking

Due to the overload of IP semantics, the traditional TCP/IP network has a number of problems in scalability, mobility, and security. In this context, information-centric networking (ICN) is proposed to solve these problems. To reduce the cost of deployment and smoothly evolve, the ICN architecture needs to be compatible with existing IP infrastructure. However, the rigid underlying IP routing regulation limits the data transmission efficiency of ICN. In this paper, we propose a novel multipath transmission scheme by utilizing the characteristics and functions of ICN to enhance data transmission. The process of multipath transmission can be regarded as a service, and a multipath transmission service ID (MPSID) is assigned. By using the ICN routers bound to the MPSID as relay nodes, multiple parallel paths between the data source and the receiver are constructed. Moreover, we design a path management mechanism, including path selection and path switching. It can determine the initial path based on historical transmission information and switch to other optimal paths according to the congestion degree during transmission. The experimental results show that our proposed method can improve the average throughput and reduce the average flow completion time and the average chunk completion time.

Network architecture and ROA protection of government mail domains: A case study

Email is a crucial technology used in daily interactions of citizens, enterprises and organizations with their respective governments. In this work we are concerned with the country-wide network architecture of mail domains of public administrations. We analyze a dataset of government mail domains in Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America in order to investigate the opportunities for a network attacker to violate security properties of email communication, including availability, in large portions of a country. Issues of this kind are particularly relevant in times of high international tension and in which every country should treat its networks as a potential target for other countries.We define a framework for describing the opportunities for a network attacker in the resolution of mail domain names, resolution of mail server names, access to a mail server. Based on this framework, we investigate in detail a number of issues related to redundancy and distribution of dependencies among networks and autonomous systems. We also analyze the usage in the access to mail domains of Route Origin Authorization (ROA), an important defensive technology for detecting attacks at the IP routing level. Our analysis allows gaining important insights into the actual network architecture of such an important piece of critical infrastructure as government mail domains.

Design and analysis of lightweight anonymity protocol for host- and AS-level anonymity

Lightweight anonymity protocols in the network layer are promising in terms of high throughput and low latency. The realistic and weak assumption of local adversaries deletes the need for hop-by-hop encryption of onion routing, and this contributes to high throughput and low latency. Among them, PHI and its successor dPHI are promising due to the fact that path-setup packets for anonymous paths are forwarded according to IP routing. This feature enables easy deployment of the protocol on the Internet infrastructure. However, PHI and dPHI are vulnerable to adversaries such as malicious ASes who compromise servers for path setup, called helpers, and malicious ASes who leverage topological information and routing policies of the IP network. The paper resolves the vulnerabilities in the two steps. In the first step, we design attacks that leverage the vulnerabilities to break anonymity. In the second step, we extend dPHI to mitigate such attacks by adding a new server called a guard. The extended protocol is called gPHI, and gPHI is resilient against adversaries who perform such attacks. This paper designs gPHI and validates its resilience through formal proof and simulation.

Iptables for Security of Linux-based Information Networks

Abstract. The article discusses the main components of information security: confidentiality, integrity and accessibility. Passwords, encryption, authentication, and intrusion protection are methods designed to ensure confidentiality. Integrity means maintaining the data in its original state and preventing its modification: accidental or malicious. Ensuring the availability of information is understood as the compliance of network and computing resources with the expected amount of data access and the implementation of a backup policy for disaster recovery purposes. To ensure the security of information networks based on RedOS, the iptables utility, used to configure the Linux kernel firewall, has proven itself in the best way. Despite the fact that at first glance the implementation of IP routing in Linux may look quite complicated, in practice the most common use cases (NAT and/or basic Internet firewall) are much easier to implement. Iptables is a custom utility that allows you to work with chains/rules. The article describes in detail the principles of iptables operation, provides a detailed description of the NAT, mangle, filter, raw tables and chains. The NAT table is used to translate network addresses, mangle is used to distort packets, filter makes it possible to filter packets, raw and its chains are used before any other tables in netfilter. The input chain is used to process incoming packets and connections, forward — for passing packets, output — for outgoing packets. It is shown that to ensure the safety of the functioning of computer classes and the entire network infrastructure as a whole, only two tables are sufficient: filter and nat. Other tables are designed for complex configurations involving multiple routers and routing solutions. The results of using iptables based on the experience of administration of information networks based on RedOS in the federal state budgetary educational institution of higher education PSUTI are presented.

Plastic Waste Management System Using Metal Shredder for Clean Environment

With the high rise in population and a huge level of unwanted materials, conventional methods of waste disposal are becoming outdated as it involves more manual scavenging work and unwanted human potential. In order to overcome the above manual issues, there is a need to design a machine that can clear the litter and leftover wastes without much involvement of human indulgence. To overcome the above issues, the smart garbage collector was designed and implemented. It consists of a vacuum machine that sucks out leftover trash on the ground. Then, it is lifted to a certain height by servo motors to drop it into the shredding area. The shredder then cuts the waste into very tiny pieces. Then, the waste pieces are transferred to the storage box. This box is placed at an inclined angle to support the disposal of waste without human intervention. The box opening and closing actions are controlled by a servo motor that is placed outside the box and the slide opens vertically to avoid any unwanted residual waste in the storage box. The storage box consists of an ultrasonic sensor to notify the level of waste accumulated inside the box, and when the maximum threshold value is attained, the proposed machine has to dispose of the crushed waste. All the actions of the controller are monitored by a private server hosted on the Blynk platform that can be accessed only by the user. The server can be controlled through a mobile interface that acts as a remote control for the proposed machine. The Local Server is set up using Raspberrypi which enables ease of access to the Blynk server hosted in our home router IP.

Spectrum-Entropy-Minimized Routing and Spectrum Allocation in IP over Mixed-Fixed/Flex-Grid Optical Networks

Mixed-Fixed/Flex-Grid Optical Networks (MFGONs) are a new paradigm that emerged during the brown-field migration from fixed-grid Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical networks to flex-grid Elastic Optical Networks (EONs). Based on the flex-grid, we can accommodate IP traffic directly to the optical layer by configuration. Considering the different granularities of spectrum resources and complex constraints in MFGONs, it is difficult to apply Routing and Wavelength/Spectrum Allocation (RWA/RSA) algorithms proposed in either fixed-grid or flex-grid optical networks. This paper first proposes two concepts, i.e., Link Spectrum Compactness (LSC) and Radiancy of Nodes (RoNs), to evaluate different scenarios of candidate paths for the end-to-end requests in MFGONs. Then, based on these two concepts, a Spectrum Entropy (SE) model is proposed in MFGONs. Here, the SE is the metric that combines LSC and RoNs to judge the fragmentation of network resources, and the value of SE is treated as the cost of candidate paths during the RSA operation. Finally, an SE-minimized RSA algorithm in MFGONs is designed. Simulation results prove that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the Bandwidth Blocking Ratio (BBR) and increase the revenues for upgrading the nodes compared to the state-of-the-art RSA algorithm. Particularly, the performance improvement is more obvious for highly connected networks.

QoS-VNS-CS: QoS constraints Core Selection Algorithm based on Variable Neighborhood Search Algorithm

Within the development of network multimedia technology, more and more real-time multimedia applications arrive with the need to transmit information using multicast communication. Multicast IP routing is an important topic, covering both theoretical and practical interest in different networks layers. In network layer, there are several multicast routing protocols using multicast routing trees different in the literature. However PIM-SM and CBT protocols remains the most used multicast routing protocols; they propose using a shared Core-based Tree CBT. This kind of tree provides efficient management of multicast path in changing group memberships, scalability and performance. The prime problem concerning construction of a shared tree is to determine the best position of the core. QoS-CS’s problem (QoS constraints core Selection) consists in choosing an optimal multicast router in the network as core of the Shared multicast Tree (CBT) within specified QoS constraints associated. The choice of this specific router, called RP in PIM-SM protocol and core in CBT protocol, affects the structure of multicast routing tree, and therefore influences performances of both multicast session and routing scheme. QoS-CS is an NP complete problem need to be solved through a heuristic algorithm, in this paper, we propose a new core Selection algorithm based on Variable Neighborhood Search algorithm and new CMP fitness function. Simulation results show that good performance is achieved in multicast cost, end-to-end delay, tree construction delay and others metrics.

Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Routing in IP Media Broadcast Networks: Feasibility and Performance

The Media Broadcast industry has evolved from Serial Digital Interface (SDI) based infrastructures to IP networks. While IP based video broadcast is well established in the data plane, the use of IP networks to transport media flows still poses challenges in terms of resource management and orchestration. SDN based orchestration architectures have emerged in the industry that use SDN to route the media flows of a broadcast service across the provider IP network. Several approaches to multimedia flow routing in IP based SDN networks have been proposed in the context of streaming applications over the Internet. These range from model based linear optimization solutions that have high complexity to simple shortest path based routing heuristics with either static or dynamic link costs. More recently model-free optimization methods such as Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) have been proposed for routing and Traffic Engineering of multimedia flows in SDN networks. The media broadcast scenario however has specific requirements, with services like Master Control Room operation and Live broadcasting of events, and it has been rarely addressed in the literature. In this work we propose a DRL based routing method for this scenario and compare it to static and dynamic link cost algorithms based on Dijkstra shortest paths. This is to our knowledge the first work to follow this approach in the context of Media Broadcast services in IP infrastructures. The algorithm is designed considering the specifications and capabilities of one of the leading SDN orchestrators in the market and considers the more common Service Level Agreement requirements in the industry. Three different DRL algorithms are implemented and compared and we evaluate them using a real service provider network topology. The results indicate that DRL based routing is applicable in real production scenarios and that it achieves considerable performance gains when compared to the static and dynamic link cost shortest path algorithms commonly used today.

МОДЕЛЬ ФУНКЦИОНИРОВАНИЯ МУЛЬТИСЕРВИСНОЙ ТРАНСПОРТНОЙ СЕТИ СВЯЗИ СПЕЦИАЛЬНОГО НАЗНАЧЕНИЯ ПРИ ОБСЛУЖИВАНИИ РАЗНОРОДНОГО ТРАФИКА

The article deals with the developing model of a special purpose multiservice transport network, which allows calculating the quality of service indicator (QoS) for heterogeneous traffic both in the direction of communication and at each site of these directions, taking into account the increasing load. A significant feature of such a transport network is an application of the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), which enables to control the distribution of streams among independent routes. The MPLS has a definite advantage over a standard IP routing. Hence, the study is important today due to the need of developing a mathematical model of operation that allows distributing flows to several independent routes and performing calculations of QoS. The article focuses on the description of the proposed model, which is based on the method of iterative calculation of quality indicators that depend on the initial data obtained on the branches of the model under consideration and calculated at each step, taking into account the values at the previous one. The iterative calculation method is based on the method of evaluation analysis with an adaptive route selection. The main point of it lies in the gradual loading of the network with incoming flows with an intensity less than the nominal one, and each subsequent state differs from the previous one by a quantized increment in the intensities of these flows. This approach makes it possible to calculate the values of QoS in individual routes and in communication directions based on estimated load value in communication channel.

Scalable Balanced Pipelined IPv6 Lookup Algorithm

One of the most critical router’s functions is the IP lookup. For each incoming IP packet, IP lookup determines the output port to which the packet should be forwarded. IPv6 addresses are envisioned to replace IPv4 addresses because the IPv4 address space is exhausted. Therefore, modern IP routers need to support IPv6 lookup. Most of the existing IP lookup algorithms are adjusted for the IPv4 lookup, but not for the IPv6 lookup. Scalability represents the main problem in the existing IP lookup algorithms because the IPv6 address space is much larger than the IPv4 address space due to longer IPv6 addresses. In this paper, we propose a novel IPv6 lookup algorithm that supports very large IPv6 lookup tables and achieves high IP lookup throughput.

Routing Performance Evaluation of a Multi-Domain Hybrid SDN for Its Implementation in Carrier Grade ISP Networks

Legacy IPv4 networks are strenuous to manage and operate. Network operators are in need of minimizing the capital and operational expenditure of running network infrastructure. The implementation of software-defined networking (SDN) addresses those issues by minimizing the expenditures in the long run. Legacy networks need to integrate with the SDN networks for smooth migration towards the fully functional SDN environment. In this paper, we compare the network performance of the legacy network with the SDN network for IP routing in order to determine the feasibility of the SDN deployment in the Internet Service provider (ISP) network. The simulation of the network is performed in the Mininet test-bed and the network traffic is generated using a distributed Internet traffic generator. An open network operating system is used as a controller for the SDN network, in which the SDN-IP application is used for IP routing. Round trip time, bandwidth, and packet transmission rate from both SDN and legacy networks are first collected and then the comparison is made. We found that SDN-IP performs better in terms of bandwidth and latency as compared to legacy routing. The experimental analysis of interoperability between SDN and legacy networks shows that SDN implementation in a production level carrier-grade ISP network is viable and progressive.

Crafting optimal and resilient iBGP-IP/MPLS overlays for transit backbone networks

The Internet is a collection of interconnected Autonomous Systems (ASes) that use the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to exchange reachability information. In this regard, BGP stability and scalability in the inter-domain scope have been matters of major concern for many years, and network engineers have been applying several techniques to cope with these issues. BGP is also used intra-domain (internal BGP - iBGP), to disseminate reachability information inside each AS, and works together with the Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs) such as OSPF or IS-IS, to build routing tables. Route reflection is a widely adopted technique to tackle BGP scalability in the intra-domain scope, and choosing which routers will play the reflector role and which BGP sessions will be established among reflectors and clients (i.e. the routers which are not elected as reflectors), building an overlay of iBGP sessions, is known as the iBGP overlay design problem. The design of an optimal iBGP overlay is known to be a NP-Hard problem, and we proposed solutions for pure IP networks (i.e. best effort traffic forwarding) in our previous work. However, most Internet providers implement their backbones by combining IP routing with MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) for QoS-aware traffic forwarding. MPLS forwarding incorporates traffic engineering and more efficient failover mechanisms; under this traffic forwarding paradigm, the design of traffic-engineered Label Switched Paths (LSPs, also referred as MPLS tunnels) shall be combined with the aforementioned iBGP overlay design. The present work introduces a coordinated design of both the iBGP overlay and the IP/MPLS substrates. Our contribution is the proposal of an optimal and resilient topology design for an IP/MPLS Internet backbone, which takes advantage of traffic engineering features to optimize the demands, while guaranteeing iBGP overlay optimality. We present a complete solution for a real world scenario, and we study the scalability of the solution for synthetic topologies, achieving encouraging results.

Implementation of Threat policies and Routing process in Firepower Threat Defense

A firewall is a guard of the network which inspects the packets based on the rules adopted to be executed in the threat environment. This is used to block the flow of undesirable content, forbids unauthorized remote access, and impedes immoral contents, assures security based on protocol and IP address, insulates seamless activity in Enterprise networks, shields conversation and coordination contents and thus this cybersecurity tool secures the system when administering on the internet with humongous amount of malicious data threatening the performance and data of the network structure. Cisco’s next-generation firewalls are equipped to combat the menace and in this project, initially, it is focused on the working of the FTD and analyzes the steps carried out in the processes. FMC is the graphical user interface to control FTD which is connected through the management interface. Various policies such as file policy, Prefilter policy, malware policies, provide the firewall to work more efficiently on the firewall. Additionally, these firewalls are equipped with a routing process to uphold the efficiency of the firewall which behaves as a router to establish a connection between the network nodes. The routing process is implemented using the firewall which is an IP routing software suite that provides a robust facility to adapt the firewall for routing conditions.