B.M.S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
(Autonomous College Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University,
Belgaum)
Bull temple road, Bengaluru, Karnataka - 560019
Case study on
Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
Submitted by:
Mitesh V Bhat
1BM19EC077
Under the guidance of
Prof G Poornima
(Associate Professor, ECE, BMSCE)
Computer Communication Network
(19EC6PCCCN)
2021-2022
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Any achievement, be it scholastic or otherwise does not depend solely on the individual
efforts but the guidance, encouragement, and cooperation of intellectuals, elders and
friends. A number of personalities, in their own capacities, have helped us in carrying out
this project work. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them all. I express
profound gratitude to respected principal Dr. S. Muralidhara, BMS College of
Engineering for providing a congenial environment to work in. My sincere gratitude to
Dr. Siddappaji, Head of the Department, of Electronics and Communication Engineering
for encouraging and providing this opportunity to carry out the work in the department and
who helping us in all the ways to carry out the work. I’m thankful to Dr. Poornima G,
Associate Professor Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, BMSCE
for the guidance. We thank all our professors for providing the basic knowledge. Last but
not least we thank our family and friends, who made their valuable support and compelled
us to maintain a standard throughout our endeavor.
- Mitesh V Bhat 1BM19EC077
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
ABSTRACT
The idea of network slicing creates opportunities for addressing the intricate needs of
multitenancy in 5G. SDN/NFV can serve as a technological facilitator in this regard. With an
emphasis on an SDN wireless backhaul use case, this paper proposes a centralized and dynamic
approach for building and provisioning network slices for virtual network operators'
consumption to provide services to their end customers. In a testbed, we present our method for
dynamic end-to-end slice and service provisioning.
New networking paradigms that are emerging, such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), are considered promising enablers of programmable
networks and offer a way to fix these issues as the 5G network evolves. SDN is used in network
slicing to build numerous end-to-end virtual networks over a shared infrastructure. Each newly
constructed virtual network is logically separated and can be devoted to serving various service
types with various requirements. Routing decisions can be made dynamically to meet various
service demands with maximum cost-efficiency using the centralized SDN controller, which has
a broad network perspective. Depending on a set of QoS and SLA factors, the necessary network
and cloud resources within a slice can be allocated as needed.
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
Contents
Sl.n
o
Topic
Page
no.
1.
Introduction
5
2.
Literature survey
6
3.
Problem Statement
7
4.
Implementation
8
5
Results and discussions
13
6
Future scope
14
7
References
15
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
1. Introduction
In order to provide services to end users, current generation networks rely on static or
pre-defined configurations. They provide many services by prioritizing network traffic based on
the demands of that particular service. They emphasize best-effort delivery. Though this works
for voice, text, and most broadband services, customers are encountering delays, buffering, and
other issues as demand for feature-rich services grows. As a result, this style of network
management is ineffective because it fails to adapt to the allocation of resources and
configuration depending on the actual demands of consumers and services.
The 5G era offers cutting-edge new services, including driving assistance, remote surgery, and
immersive learning, as well as ultra-broadband and the widespread IoT connectivity needed to
enable a smarter world. Each service has various bandwidth, latency, capacity, security, and
packet delay variation needs. As a result, there is a need to transition from a traditional
monolithic network to one that is logically partitioned to suit these varied demands. To handle
various service kinds, programmable network slicing is the ideal approach. Network slicing
allows for the support of numerous sub-networks on a single infrastructure. As a result, it enables
the efficient delivery of a wide range of services with varying performance characteristics and
service level agreements (SLAs).
Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are prospective
facilitators of network slicing. End-to-end network slicing is proven in this study by utilizing
SDN wireless backhaul as the use case.
The publication alluded to here is "SDN/NFV-based End to End Network Slicing for 5G
Multitenant Networks," in the IEEE conference paper published in 2017. P.K.Chartsias, A.
Amiras, I. Plevrakis, I. Samaras, K. Katsaros, D. Kritharidis, E. Trouva, I. Angelopoulos,
A.Kourtis, M.S. Siddiqui, A. Vines, and E. Escalona are the authors of this study. This study
focuses on end-to-end network slicing, which addresses the challenging multi-tenancy
requirements of 5G. It uses a dynamic technique to create and provision network slices for
Virtual Network Operators (VNOs) to employ in providing services to their end consumers.
SDN/NFV technology enables network slicing and is centered on SDN wireless backhaul use
cases.
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
2. Literature survey
[1] Network virtualization is a concept that is used in network slicing. Additionally, it is believed
that SDN and NFV are essential tools for implementing network slicing. The use of SDN and
NFV to enable 5G network slicing is discussed in the work that follows.
[2] Multi Datacenter service ChaIN Emulator (MEDICINE), an NFV-based platform, has been
created for network services. It enables the deployment of virtual network resources for network
services in a multi-domain architecture via management and orchestration (MANO) systems.
This platform's conception and execution demonstrate how crucial NFV is to the realization of
network slicing.
[3] To enable the coexistence of different services and to construct services fast, a flexible 5G
network design is suggested. The authors suggest using SDN and NFV in the architecture to
enable automatic resource orchestration and resource sharing between various services. In the
proposed architecture, the idea of resource slicing is comparable to network slicing.
[4] On the basis of SDN, NFV, and cloud computing, it suggests a revolutionary slice-based 5G
architecture. They create the components needed to put network slicing into practice and show a
validation prototype. This work's "network store" approach enables dynamic 5G network slicing.
To deploy 5G network slicing, mobile carriers, hardware manufacturers, and open source
communities are all engaged in active research.
[5] They talk about a number of important technologies, including security and network
management systems, to accomplish service-guaranteed network slicing, which is beneficial for
the network industry.
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
3. Problem statement
Network slicing is used to support many sorts of services in the 5G future. It makes use of
technologies such as SDN to enable multi-tenant networks. Network slicing is the process of
creating virtual networks from end to end using a single shared infrastructure. This is done so
that each virtual network is logically separated from the others. Each network can be used for a
variety of reasons with varying needs. Within each network slice, resources are assigned on
demand based on QoS and SLA factors relating to customer service as well as other parameters
such as energy efficiency that are concerned with network operator profits. Physical
infrastructure in 5G networks is divided into many standalone and independent virtual networks.
Each of these distinct networks is referred to as a network slice. A network slice can contain both
virtual and physical resources. Different network operators own different network slices and
offer unique services to their subscribers. This is simply multi-tenancy. Multiple network
operators can be accommodated on the same physical infrastructure. Each tenant or network
operator is in charge of its own network slice and services. Virtual Network Operators (VNOs)
can avoid the cost and complexity of establishing and operating their own infrastructure by
dynamically allocating virtual resources. As a result, VNOs may focus their efforts and resources
on providing software-based services to end customers. When opposed to hardware services that
require specific hardware components, this will significantly cut time to market. As a result,
VNOs may concentrate on providing more innovative services, resulting in quick development
and healthy competition. Furthermore, because the network is virtual, allocation can closely
follow demand, resulting in flexible, correct, effective, and efficient resource use. This results in
an efficient resource consumption environment and prevents resource waste.
Virtualization of resources: From end to end, including the complete 5G access network,
resource virtualization is necessary to allow multi-tenancy. This implies that the underlying
infrastructure's hardware resources must be virtualized and shared. As the 5G infrastructure
landscape becomes more sophisticated, this resource set is likely to become more diverse and
extensive across the network.
Isolation of Resources: When multiple tenants share the same physical infrastructure, the allotted
resources must be completely isolated. The amount and availability of assigned resources per
tenant should not be influenced by the allocation of resources to other tenants or the use of other
tenants' resources, such as network traffic load and CPU utilization thresholds.
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4. Implementations
The SDN architecture, the concepts of programmable network infrastructure and the
decoupling of network control and data planes of switches, SDN promises a paradigm revolution
in networking. It allows for easier network management and the installation of new services or
improvements. SDN must alter and eventually seamlessly control both the access and transport
sections of the network in order to achieve the 5G architectural vision of unified, end-to-end
software-defined operation across the network and enable the launch of new, innovative services.
Within CHARISMA, Converged Heterogeneous Advanced 5G Cloud-RAN Architecture for
Intelligent and Secure Media Access based on SDN and open standards, the network slicing idea
is extended over a wireless backhaul network. The figure depicts the architectural design.
Mostly employ an NFV-based orchestrator at the top of the architecture to enable the automatic
deployment of network services. For slicing, the CMO (Control, Management, and Orchestration
platform) communicates with various network devices via the Open Access Manager (OAM),
which interacts with the SDN controller by submitting queries to the controller's REST API. The
controller "translates" these requests into detailed instructions that are sent to the SDN-enabled
switch via its southbound interface. Finally, instead of a traditional switch, a mmWave
Point-to-Point backhaul device was designed to be SDN compatible and to provide the essential
network slicing service via software programmability.
Within CHARISMA, Converged Heterogeneous Advanced 5G Cloud-RAN Architecture for
Intelligent and Secure Media Access based on SDN and open standards, the network slicing idea
is implemented across a wireless backhaul network. The figure depicts the architectural layout.
SDN architecture
To facilitate the autonomous deployment of network services, we use an orchestrator based on
NFV at the top of the architecture. The Open Access Manager (OAM), which communicates
with the SDN controller and sends the appropriate queries to the controller's REST API, is used
by the CMO (Control, Management, and Orchestration platform) to connect with various
network devices for the purpose of slicing. These requests are "translated" by the controller into
specific instructions that are sent to the SDN-capable switch through its southbound interface.
Finally, a mmWave Point-to-Point backhaul device was designed to replace a conventional
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
switch by being SDN compliant and capable of providing the necessary network slicing service
through software programmability.
The Open Access Manager (OAM), a component of the CMO, is in charge of making available a
single point of control and management so that Infrastructure Providers (InfP) can set up network
settings and give Virtual Network Operators customized end-to-end network slices (VNOs). The
Open Access Manager works with the network and cloud controller to present the proper
interfaces needed for the physical and virtual resources to achieve unified control and
management capability. Support for both SDN-enabled and non-SDN physical equipment is
essential for enabling a smooth transition to 5G technologies and adaption of the slicing concept.
This is mainly because some devices in the infrastructure may incorporate physical equipment.
OLT and eNodeB, lack the capability for control/data plane separation and intrinsic
virtualization. In order to provide control and management flexibility to higher layers for the
latter, the open access manager may need to directly interface with the management API exposed
by those specific devices.
A network slice's formation, allocation, expiration, and deletion are all handled by the Slice
Lifecycle Manager. A current inventory of the network slices and physical resources is available
through the Slice and Resource repositories, respectively. AuthC and AuthZ provide the
necessary access control for the slices' proper operation. When two separate VNOs attempt to
reserve the same resources at the same time, a dispute may develop. This is settled by the
conflict resolution module. The aforementioned Open Access Manager modules work together to
make it easier for VNOs to dynamically provision network slices across the same physical
infrastructure.
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
Wireless Backhaul Q-in-Q Slicing
Services for carrier Ethernet Since CE 2.0 is a simple, flexible, and affordable approach to
offering transport services at the mobile backhaul, it is accepted. Since CE 2.0 addresses issues
relating to managing rapidly increasing backhaul data growth while scaling costs to new returns,
it is widely accepted for use in mobile backhaul. Q-in-Q tunneling is the quickest and most
effective way to do network slicing because backhaul is a data link layer device.
The utilization of VLANs is increased by Q-in-Q tunneling, which also aids in the isolation and
differentiation of numerous users. The private network VLAN tag is enclosed within the public
network VLAN tag in a Q-in-Q VLAN. The outer VLAN tag is used in a public network to
transfer packets and includes information about the private network VLAN tags. Since it is a
more scalable paradigm than EPL, CE 2.0 EVPL (Ethernet Virtual Private Line) service is
employed in this implementation (Ethernet Private Line). In order to handle numerous EVCs
(Ethernet Virtual Connections) at the user network interface (UNI) and to map more than one
CVLAN ID per EVC, the EVPL service offers the option of service multiplexing and bundling.
As a result, the structure is set up so that an EVC corresponds to a virtual slice of each VNO.
An S-VLAN ID assigned to each EVC provides the necessary slice isolation. The CVLANs
connected to an SVLAN ID stand for various VNO clients. Additionally, as shown in the picture,
each EVC may be associated with a separate service level agreement, such as a different set of
QoS settings.
Control Plane
CE 2.0 over OpenFlow By transmitting data to network equipment via southbound interfaces,
the SDN Controller serves as the network operating system. Due to its open-source nature,
production-level performance, support for open, multivendor networking, the sizeable
development community, and solid industry backing, Open Daylight SDN controller is chosen
for this implementation. Because it allows Q-in-Q tunneling and has widespread support from
open-source controllers, OpenFlow is used to connect with switches at the southbound interface.
A portion of the CE 2.0 standards are provided by an SDN controller CE application, which was
created.
The InfP, using the Open Access Manager, sends a request to the SDN controller's REST API,
indicating the switches and ports where the services will be deployed as well as the number of
VNOs and the C-VLANs per VNO, in order to install the network slices per VNO. The
controller is originally wired up to the backhaul switches. The Datapath ID (DPID) and port
names of each switch are identified by the controller. The controller determines the topology of
the network using the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). The SDN controller computes an
end-to-end path between the chosen network nodes using a graph traversal technique to ensure
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
loop prevention. The backhaul switches receive particular flow modification messages (FLOW
MOD) that are used to install the proper OpenFlow flow entries and deploy the slices. All other
ports are defined from the end-to-end route algorithm and are topology-dependent, with the
exception of those that are defined from the Open Access Manager as UNIs and are known to the
InfP beforehand. Consider the following scenario: We define VNO 1 with customer C-VLAN 5,
VNO 2 with customer C-VLAN 6, and C-VLAN 7 as our example. The installed flows at the
OpenFlow-enabled switches are as displayed in Table.
The switches at the backhaul network's endpoints push VNO-specific S-VLAN IDs while
matching C-VLANs. On the other hand, they strip an SVLAN from packets they receive and
forward them to the port specified in the flow entry. Simply by matching the S-VLAN ID, the
intermediary nodes that are a part of the S-VLAN domain send the packet to the proper port.
When defining a higher number of VNOs and associated clients, the same guidelines apply.
Data Plane
The diagram below depicts the switching system architecture of the backhaul device. A device
must have an adaption functionality implemented in order for it to be compatible with
OpenFlow. SDN states that the control plane of a switch is shifted to the controller. The Network
Processor's (NP) CPU handles the OpenFlow adaption, and the NP's hardware accelerators
handle the data plane logic at line speed. The OpenFlow agent and the adaptation layer make up
the adaptation functionality (Data Path Abstraction). The adaption layer is a device-specific
module, whereas the OpenFlow agent is device-independent. On backhaul switches, the
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Software Defined Networking & Network Functions Virtualization
device-independent agent allows support for OpenFlow by, for example, establishing
connections and managing OpenFlow messaging.
By communicating the OpenFlow rules in a proprietary language that the packet processor can
understand, the adaption layer abstracts away the device-specific functionality. The mapping of
the abstract OpenFlow objects to the underlying network processor architecture is done as part of
the procedure to enable OpenFlow at the backhaul device. The objective is to give a compliant
structure to the top layer (OpenFlow agent) that includes elements like tables, flows, instructions,
meters, ports, etc. that would implement the forwarding engine. In addition to data path
forwarding, the controller is provided with essential configuration data, including the number of
ports, their names, their states (up or down), and features like the number of buffers.
Figure: data plane
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5. Results
For network slicing, a centralized and dynamic technique is used. The administration of the
physical and virtual resources that make up each VNO slice is handled by the Control,
Management, and Orchestration platform, which is described and shown. To support
multitenancy, Open Access Manager is characterized as controlling SDN and non-SDN network
devices in a unified manner. To achieve network slicing, a specific SDN backhaul use case is
taken into account, and SDN architecture is shown for both the control plane and the data plane.
This network slicing strategy will be helpful in the current 5G age to offer seamless network
services to end users. By allowing the creation of virtual networks that are appropriate for their
intended use and have variable degrees of independence, network slicing opens up new
economic options for communications service providers across a wide range of use cases and
industries. Just recently network slicing caught the interest of both academia and business. To
encourage the adoption and use of network slicing technology, it is important to take up the
relevant specification and standardization. We can infer that network slicing will be a crucial
piece of technology for the next 5G networks.
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6. Future scope
A potential method for enabling network operators to swiftly and flexibly generate service
instances that allow various services to have their own logical slice instances on a common
infrastructure is emerging as network slicing. The service-oriented 5G network architecture will
be based on technologies like network slicing, SDN, NFV, MEC, and others.
Some future works
of Application services are deployed individually in various VNOs.
In 5G networks, various services have various requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to have
specialized virtual resources to ensure service quality at each stage. The slices must be
completely isolated from one another for this to happen. Effective work must be done to separate
the control plane from the data plane.
Another crucial element is mobility management. Just some network slices require quick
handover. For instance, mobility management is not necessary for industry control services.
Additionally, the mobility needs for various services, such as the automated driving service slice
and mobile broadband service slice, vary.
As a result of resource sharing between slices, security in network slicing is a crucial issue that
needs to be addressed. Different levels of security policy requirements may apply to network
slices providing various services. Therefore, the impact on other slices and the overall network
systems must be taken into account when creating network-slicing security protocols.
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References
1. P. K. Chartsias et al., "SDN/NFV-based end to end network slicing for 5G multi-tenant
networks," 2017 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC),
Oulu, Finland, 2017, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/EuCNC.2017.7980670.
2. M. Peuster, H. Karl and S. van Rossem, "MeDICINE: Rapid prototyping of
productionready network services in multi-PoP environments," 2016 IEEE Conference
on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN), 2016,
pp. 148-153, doi: 10.1109/NFV-SDN.2016.7919490.
3. C. Simon, M. Maliosz, J. Bíró, B. Gerő and A. Kern, "5G exchange for inter-domain
resource sharing," 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area
Networks (LANMAN), 2016, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/LANMAN.2016.7548842.
4. Schiller, Eryk & Nikaein, Navid & Favraud, Romain & Kostas, Katsalis & Stavropoulos,
Donatos & Alyafawi, Islam & Zhao, Zhongliang & Braun, Torsten & Korakis, Thanasis.
(2015). Network Store: Exploring Slicing in Future 5G Networks.
10.1145/2795381.2795390.
5. White Paper, 5G Service Guaranteed Network Slicing White Paper, March 2017.
6.
J. Ordonez-Lucena, P. Ameigeiras, D. Lopez, J. J. Ramos-Munoz, J. Lorca and J.
Folgueira, "Network Slicing for 5G with SDN/NFV: Concepts, Architectures, and
Challenges," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 80-87, May 2017,
doi: 10.1109/MCOM.2017.1600935.
7. X. Li et al., "Network Slicing for 5G: Challenges and Opportunities," in IEEE Internet
Computing, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 20-27, 2017, doi: 10.1109/MIC.2017.3481355.
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