Network Function Virtualization Networks Research Articles

Machine Learning-Based Anomaly Detection in NFV: A Comprehensive Survey.

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a rapidly growing technology that enables the virtualization of traditional network hardware components, offering benefits such as cost reduction, increased flexibility, and efficient resource utilization. Moreover, NFV plays a crucial role in sensor and IoT networks by ensuring optimal resource usage and effective network management. However, adopting NFV in these networks also brings security challenges that must promptly and effectively address. This survey paper focuses on exploring the security challenges associated with NFV. It proposes the utilization of anomaly detection techniques as a means to mitigate the potential risks of cyber attacks. The research evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various machine learning-based algorithms for detecting network-based anomalies in NFV networks. By providing insights into the most efficient algorithm for timely and effective anomaly detection in NFV networks, this study aims to assist network administrators and security professionals in enhancing the security of NFV deployments, thus safeguarding the integrity and performance of sensors and IoT systems.

Energy-Aware Service Function Chaining Embedding in NFV Networks

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a new networking paradigm based on decoupling network functions from dedicated hardware, so these network functions can be run as pieces of software on general-purpose computation servers, which are called virtual network functions. In addition to guarantee the service qualities provided by NFV networks comparable to those provided by traditional telecommunication networks, energy consumption becomes one of the challenges faced by NFV. This is due to a large number of general computation servers that consume a significant amount of energy. We address here the problem of how to provide an energy-aware service function chaining (SFC) embedding in NFV networks with a hierarchical resource allocation, where an SFC has a set of virtual network functions to be executed in a specific sequential order providing a specific network service. Assuming a dynamic traffic scenario, we introduce for this new problem an integer linear programming (ILP) and three polynomial heuristic algorithms for resource allocation. All three heuristic algorithms achieve energy savings by shutting down idle devices and balance the tradeoff between energy cost and SFC request acceptance ratio. Numerical results demonstrate the quality of the proposed heuristic algorithms in terms of acceptance ratio by comparing them with the ILP method and a method extended from an exiting algorithm despite the fact that they save energy.

A Survey of NFV Network Acceleration from ETSI Perspective

Network function virtualization (NFV) enables network operators to save costs and flexibility by replacing dedicated hardware with software network functions running on commodity servers. There is a high need for network acceleration to achieve performance comparable to hardware, which is vital for the implementation of NFV. The necessity of NFV acceleration stems from the lengthy packet delivery path following virtualization and the unavailability of generic operating system designs to serve network-specific scenarios. Therefore, the software approach alters the operating system’s processing architecture through Kernel Bypass or offload packet processing to hardware. A typical classification scheme divides it into two main categories based on technology with software and hardware. Only these two categories can be utilized to rapidly and easily establish a classification system. However, it is difficult to suggest the specifics and peculiarities of any acceleration approach during real-world operation. For a more comprehensive classification of NFV acceleration, we refer to the ETSI NFV architectural framework in this research. As the framework clearly illustrates, the technical infrastructure layer of NFV and the corresponding management roles provides a comprehensive and intuitive view of the differences between these acceleration technologies, solutions, and initiatives. Additionally, we conducted an analysis to identify opportunities for improvement in existing solutions and propose new research programs. We expect that NFV will increasingly rely on cloud services in the future. Since cloud services do not offer a choice of hardware, our acceleration method will be primarily software-based.

Dynamic Controller/Switch Mapping: A Service Oriented Assignment Approach

With the capability of decoupling the control plane and the data plane of networks, Software-Defined Network (SDN) enables flexible and efficient implementations in networks. In addition, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) with Virtual Network Function (VNF) service chain capabilities provides high-performance networks with greater scalability, elasticity, and adaptability. Such an elastic deployment of service chains results in different Service Level Agreements (SLA) and resource requirements on the control plane. In this work, we illustrate the impact of service chains on the control plane and formulate the dynamic controller/switch mapping (DCSM) problem in NFV networks in order to reduce the operational cost. We address the combinatorial optimization problem, DCSM, by designing a novel mechanism to relax DCSM into a tractable problem based on the Penalty Successive Upper Bound Minimization (PSUM) method. In doing so, we conduct several simulation scenarios to evaluate the performance. The experimental results show that our proposed algorithms can achieve a near-optimal result and reduce the operational cost up to 31.7% and 28.3% compared to K-Mean and the matching game-based approaches, respectively.

Optimizing Service Function Chaining Migration With Explicit Dynamic Path

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) can support customized on- demand network services with flexibility and cost-efficiency. Virtual Network Function (VNF) instances need to be scaled out, scaled in, and reallocated across the NFV infrastructure (NFVI) to avoid a violation of service agreements when the demand traffic changes. However, selecting the new placement of VNFs for migrating a service function chain (SFC) is an issue of efficient NFV control. We propose two novel integer linear programming (ILP) models and two approximation algorithms for SFC placement and migration to maximize the cost-efficiency of an NFV network regarding the changes of service demands and dynamic routing. The ILP models allow us to obtain the optimal solutions of SFC placement and migration with explicit dynamic paths. The approximation migration results provided by our proposed heuristic and reinforcement learning algorithms are close to the optimal solution. Evaluation results carried out with real datasets and synthetic network topologies provide a helpful suggestion of a migration strategy for an NFV service provider to optimize the operating cost of an NFV network in the long term.

Energy efficiency through joint routing and function placement in different modes of SDN/NFV networks

Network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) are two promising technologies to enable 5G and 6G services and achieve cost reduction, network scalability, and deployment flexibility. However, migration to full SDN/NFV networks in order to serve these services is a time-consuming process and costly for mobile operators. This paper focuses on energy efficiency during the transition of mobile core networks (MCN) to full SDN/NFV networks and explores how energy efficiency can be addressed during such migration. We propose a general system model containing a combination of legacy nodes and links, in addition to newly introduced NFV and SDN nodes. We refer to this system model as partial SDN and hybrid NFV MCN, which can cover different modes of SDN and NFV implementations. Based on this framework, we formulate energy efficiency by considering joint routing and function placement in the network. Since this problem belongs to the class of non-linear integer programming problems, to solve it efficiently, we present a modified Viterbi algorithm (MVA) based on multi-stage graph modeling and a modified Dijkstra’s algorithm. We simulate this algorithm for a number of network scenarios with different fractions of NFV and SDN nodes and evaluate how much energy can be saved through such transition. Simulation results confirm the expected performance of the algorithm, which saves up to 70% energy compared to a network where all nodes are always on. Interestingly, the amount of energy saved by the proposed algorithm in the case of hybrid NFV and partial SDN networks can reach up to 60%–90% of the saved energy in full NFV/SDN networks.

A KPI-Enabled NFV MANO Architecture for Network Slicing with QoS

Communication systems are used not only by voice or file exchange applications, but also by other types of applications due to the coexistence of multiple and different verticals. Each vertical has its own requirements in terms of key performance indicators (KPIs) for their applications. Mapping the verticals KPIs into network quality of service (QoS) parameters and enforcing it at the network level is a complex procedure. Network slicing allows the deployment of multiple virtual networks (one per vertical) to work in parallel with their specific QoS based on the KPIs. This article presents and experimentally validates a KPI-enabled network function virtualization (NFV) management and orchestration (MANO) architecture able to manage network slices, to monitor the vertical KPI requirements and react in case they are not met. We address this objective from a holistic perspective, defining the network QoS parameters that enable meeting vertical KPIs along all levels of the NFV MANO architecture: the NSs using the 5G QoS Identifier parameter, the NFV network services using service level agreements, and the networking and computing services with QoS parameters. Finally, the described architecture is validated through an experimental use case based on a vertical realtime communications application.

A Network Measurement System for NFV Networks based on SDN

As a promising innovation to totally change how we design, install and oversee different organizations, Software-based Network Function Virtualization (NFV) empowers hardware-free, adaptable, quickand proficient network service process. With the expanding prevalence of NFV, the Internet has likewise changed to be a hybrid environment where NFV-based network exists together with traditional gadgets. To ease our understanding, plan, assess and handling of such novel organization environment, there is an incredible requirement for new NFV-compatible measurement framework which is still missing till now. To overcome this issue, a framework, named Software Defined Network Measurement System (SDNMS) is introduced. First the architecture of SDNMS is proposed. In this design, a conventional strategy to portray the working method of the network measurement is defined. This technique can likewise be used to produce network measurement middle box (NMMB) in a particular location of the NFV network as per the customized description file, and to flexibly install the network measurement function. Besides, the innovation of virtual network measurement function (VNMF) joined with LXC is said to be shape NMMB function.Thirdly, a control strategy is introduced to control the beginning, stop, and update NMMB to produce a particular network measurement system. At last, a model of SDNMS with network observing function to screen network performance anomalies and locate fault is presented. Test results have shown that SDNMS design and related advancements are practical and successful to launch and control network measurement functions in NFV network. We trust SDNMS could give another strategy to experts to do network management and examine at the age of NFV

Detection of Misuse Attack in NFV Networks Using Machine Learning

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) represents a virtual network whose service is provided by virtual parts of virtual machines. This type of network is easy to implement and update. In addition, NFV leading to low cost due to sharing the same resources. As is the case with other networks, NFV is not safe from attacks. Since all parts of this NFV network share the same resources, misuse attack is regarded to be the most common attack in NFVs, particularly because the attack use one or more of the resources which affect all parts of the NFV. This paper is based on using machine learning to extract rules of misuse attack detections. The tree decision C4.5 algorithm has been used to extract these rules, with nine features of network data flow. When testing the propose work with a server traffic data having more than 5 million network connections, the results show that a comparatively higher performance of the algorithm C4.5 with an accuracy of about 96%.

An Open Source Testbed for Virtualized Communication Networks

Communication networks and the systems they interconnect are going through a phase of tremendous change. The former agnostic delivery of content between endpoints has given way to networks increasingly adding functionality beyond moving data. Softwarization technologies including network function virtualization (NFV) and soft-ware-defined networking (SDN) are key enablers that introduce computing into the network. This revolution, especially for mobile communication networks, represents a major paradigm shift away from agnostic data delivery. Subsequently, there is a significant need to provide well-defined environments offering replicability to effectively test and evaluate protocols and mechanisms that integrate computing into networks. This article presents the Communication Networks Emulator (ComNetsEmu), which provides an SDN and NFV network emulation environment based on community-embraced open source packages and enables replicable research and development on limited resource commodity hardware. In this article, we describe the underlying ComNetsEmu architecture and provide a hands-on description of its use for researchers, practitioners, and educators alike.

Capacitated Shortest Path Tour Problem-Based Integer Linear Programming for Service Chaining and Function Placement in NFV Networks

Network functions virtualization (NFV) is a new paradigm to achieve flexible and agile network services by decoupling network functions from proprietary hardware and running them on generic hardware as virtual network functions (VNFs). In the NFV network, a network service can be modeled as a sequence of VNFs, called a service chain. Given a connection request (e.g., origin, destination, and a sequence of required functions), we have to solve both the service chaining and function placement problems to find an appropriate service path that optimizes the objective (e.g., minimization of the total path delay) while satisfying the service chain requirements. In this article, focusing on the similarity between the service chaining problem and the shortest path tour problem (SPTP) and developing the novel network model called augmented network, we formulate capacitated SPTP-based integer linear programs (ILPs) for the service chaining and function placement. Through numerical results obtained by the existing solver, we show the proposed ILP for the service chaining can support 1.22–1.90 times as large-scale systems as the existing ILP. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the proposed ILP for both the service chaining and function placement can shorten the total delay by 15.8% compared with that only for the service chaining. For further scalability, we propose a shortest-path-based heuristic algorithm to solve the ILPs and show the heuristic for service chaining and function placement can calculate the optimal solution with high accuracy in strongly polynomial time.

Traffic routing in stochastic network function virtualization networks

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is emerging as an attractive solution, which can transform complex network functions from the dedicated hardware implementations into software instances running in a virtualized environment. In NFV, the requested service is implemented by a sequence of Virtual Network Functions (VNF) that can run on generic servers by leveraging the virtualization technology. These VNFs are placed in a predefined order, which is also known as the Service Function Chaining (SFC). While most of the existing work on traffic routing in NFV networks assume deterministic link delay and bandwidth, the real-life network usually behaves in a stochastic manner, due to e.g., inaccurate data, expired exchanged information, insufficient estimation to the network. Motivated by this, we consider the stochastic NFV networks, where the link bandwidth and delay are assumed to be random variables and their cumulative distribution functions are known. We first study how to calculate the delay and bandwidth value in an SFC such that their realizing probabilities are satisfied. Subsequently, we formally define the traffic routing problem in stochastic NFV networks and prove it is NP-hard. We present an exact solution and a tunable heuristic to solve this problem. The proposed heuristic is a sampling-based algorithm, and it leverages the Tunable Accuracy Multiple Constraints Routing Algorithm (TAMCRA) to find a multi-constraint path for each adjacent VNF pair. It dynamically adjusts the link weights as well as delay and bandwidth realizing probability constraint after finding the path for each VNF pair so that the cumulated probabilities will not violate the specified values. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms via extensive simulations.

OpenBNG: Central office network functions on programmable data plane hardware

SummaryTelecommunication providers continuously evolve their network infrastructure by increasing performance, lowering time to market, providing new services, and reducing the cost of the infrastructure and its operation. Network function virtualization (NFV) on commodity hardware offers an attractive, low‐cost platform to establish innovations much faster than with purpose‐built hardware products. Unfortunately, implementing NFV on commodity processors does not match the performance requirements of the high‐throughput data plane components in large carrier access networks. Therefore, programmable hardware architectures like field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), network processors, and switch silicon supporting the flexibility of the P4 language offer a promising way to account for both performance requirements and the demand to quickly introduce innovations into networks. In this article, we propose a way to offer residential network access with programmable packet processing architectures. On the basis of the highly flexible P4 programming language, we present a design and open source implementation of a broadband network gateway (BNG) data plane that meets the challenging demands of BNGs in carrier‐grade environments. In addition, we introduce a concept of hybrid openBNG design, realizing the required hierarchical quality of service (HQoS) functionality in a subsequent FPGA. The proposed evaluation results show the desired performance characteristics, and our proposed design together with upcoming P4 hardware can offer a giant leap towards highest performance NFV network access.

Looking Glass of NFV: Inferring the Structure and State of NFV Network From External Observations

The rapid development of network function virtualization (NFV) enables a communication network to provide in-network services using virtual network functions (VNFs) deployed on general IT hardware. While existing studies on NFV focused on how to provision VNFs from the provider's perspective, little is done about how to validate the provisioned resources from the user's perspective. In this work, we take a first step towards this problem by developing an inference framework designed to “look into” the NFV network. Our framework infers the structure and state of the overlay formed by VNF instances, ingress/egress points of measurement flows, and critical points on their paths (branching/joining points). Our solution only uses external observations such as the required service chains and the end-to-end performance measurements. Besides the novel application scenario, our work also fundamentally advances the state of the art on topology inference by considering (i) general topologies with general measurement paths, and (ii) information of service chains. Our evaluations show that the proposed solution significantly improves both the reconstruction accuracy and the inference accuracy over existing solutions, and service chain information is critical in revealing the structure of the underlying topology.

Automatic deployment and control of network services in NFV environments

With the rapid development and deployment of the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology, the number and types of Network Services (NSs) in virtualized environments keep increasing significantly. However, due to the dynamic network and service status, manually customizing an NS in an NFV environment is a professional, time-consuming and error-prone task, and there is an urgent need to develop a new mechanism to automate the deployment and control process of NSs. In this work, we propose a novel Software Defined NS Deployment and Control mechanism (SDNSDC) in NFV environments. By executing the uniquely defined NS deployment and control description files, one can have the orchestrator to generate some specific virtualized middleboxes, based on which the predefined NS functions can be further configured in the NFV network. Finally, a prototype system of the proposed SDNSDC has been implemented based on the Linux container technology. The experimental results show that the proposed methods can efficiently deploy customized network services and accurately control their behaviors.

Realizing the Network Service Federation Vision: Enabling Automated Multidomain Orchestration of Network Services

The 5G-Transformer (5GT) project proposes a network function virtualization (NFV)-/software-defined networking (SDN)-based architecture to manage the end-to-end (E2E) deployment of composite NFV network services (NSs), which may involve multiple administrative domains (ADs), and hence require NS federation (NSF) capabilities. At the architectural level, this article presents the service federation functionality of the 5GT service orchestrator (5GT-SO). It covers the gaps identified in European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) NFV reports and specifications [e.g., Interfaces and Architecture (IFA) 028]. Some recommendations are also presented based on this experience, particularly on the relevance of multidomain resource orchestration. Experimental results show that the federated service under evaluation is deployed in under 5 min. The time profiling of the various processing federation-related operations shows its reduced impact in the experienced deployment time. A comparison of service deployments of increasing complexity also offers valuable insights.

Traffic Dynamics Evaluation for the Future NFV Deployment

To adapt the rapid upgradation of the communication technology (e.g., from 5G to 6G) and reduce the redeployment cost, the Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is regarded as a key technology to reduce the capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX) by decoupling traditional network functions from proprietary hardware appliances to software appliances. However, with increasing data transmission requirements, the limited traffic capacity is still the bottleneck of NFV network and strongly related to three aspects: 1) NFV network structure construction; 2) resource allocation; 3) routing design for packet navigation. In this brief, we first present a preferential link attachment mechanism to model the growth evolution of the NFV network. Secondly, we propose to efficiently allocate virtual resource for every Virtualized Network Fucntion (VNF). Thirdly, we propose a new routing mechanism to fully make use of the network resource and enhance the traffic capacity. Finally, extensive experiments demonstrate that our integrated solution systematically formulates the traffic dynamics for the future NFV deployment.

Congestion Games With Player-Specific Utility Functions and Its Application to NFV Networks

In this paper, a variation of the congestion situation is considered and a new game, the congestion game with player-specific (CGPS) utility functions, is proposed. This paper is motivated by some application scenarios that rule out the possibility of employing the existing game model to study such congestion situations. The CGPS game is characterized by adding a player-specific term and a weighted parameter with respect to the utility function. By using the semitensor product of matrices, the algebraic representation of the CGPS game is given and the existence of the weighted potential function is proved. Finally, the results are applied to solve the service chain composition problem in network function virtualization (NFV) and to analyze the effect of player-specific function on service chain configuration in NFV. Note to Practitioners —This paper is motivated by resource allocation problems in congestion networks where strategic users behave selfishly and aim at optimizing their own individual utility in the absence of a central controller. Compared with the centralized algorithms of poor reliability and scalability, game-theoretic control provides a promising distributed approach for resource allocation. In the game-theoretic framework, the existence and seeking of the desired solution are important issues. In this paper, a novel model is established to extend the utility functions space guaranteeing the existence of the solution. The developed utility design is used to capture users’ different sensitivities to the effects of the network system. Simultaneously, it is more meaningful from the view of engineering to design the utility functions so that the desirable behavior is reachable. We also give an explicit scheme to seek the desired solution. The proposed model is finally applied to the service chain composition problem in NFV, of which the aim is to find the best service chain of users that accommodates their individual requirements. The proposed model shows reliable and effective.

SDNMS: A software defined network measurement system for NFV networks

As a promising technology to completely transform how we architect, deploy, operate and manage various networks, software-based Network Function Virtualization (NFV) enables hardware-independent, flexible, fast and efficient network service provision. With the increasing popularity of NFV paradigm, the Internet has also transformed to be a hybrid environment where NFV-based network entities coexist with traditional network devices. To facilitate our understanding, design, evaluate and manage of such novel network environment, there is a great need for a new NFV-compatible network measurement system which is still in absent so far. To bridge this gap, a system, named Software Defined Network Measurement System (SDNMS), is presented in this paper. Firstly, the architecture of SDNMS is proposed. In this architecture, a formal method to describe the working mode of the network measurement is defined. This method can also be utilized to generate a network measurement middle box (NMMB) in a specific location of the NFV network according to the customized description file, and to flexibly deploy the network measurement function. Secondly, the technology of virtual network measurement function (VNMF) combined with LXC is studied to form NMMB function. Thirdly, a control method is presented to control the start, stop, and update NMMB to form a specific network measurement system function. Finally, a prototype of SDNMS with network monitoring function to monitor network performance anomalies and locate faults is introduced. Experimental results have shown that SDNMS architecture and related technologies are feasible and effective to deploy and control network measurement functions in NFV networks. We hope SDNMS could provide a new method for practitioners to conduct network management and research at the age of NFV.

Towards Supporting Security and Privacy for Social IoT Applications: A Network Virtualization Perspective

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a new way to provide services to users in a network. Different from dedicated hardware that realizes the network functions for an IoT application, the network function of an NFV network is executed on general servers, and in order to achieve complete network functions, service function chaining (SFC) chains virtual network functions to work together to support an IoT application. In this paper, we focus on a main challenge in this domain, i.e., resource efficient provisioning for social IoT application oriented SFC requests. We propose an online SFC deployment algorithm based on the layered strategies of physical networks and an evaluation of physical network nodes, which can efficiently reduce bandwidth resource consumption (OSFCD-LSEM) and support the security and privacy of social IoT applications. The results of our simulation show that our proposed algorithm improves the bandwidth carrying rate, time efficiency, and acceptance rate by 50%, 60%, and 15%, respectively.