A Reference Model and Prototype Implementation for SDN-Based Multi Layer Routing in Fog Environments

Abstract

If compared with Cloud computing, Fog computing is proving to support challenging scenarios imposing strict delay requirements, e.g., tactile Internet and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and increased flexibility, e.g., dynamic Smart City and users' follow-me provisioning case. In fact, by exploiting computing, storage, and connectivity resources in the proximity of sensors and actuators (for IIoT) and of mobile nodes carried by citizens (for Smart Cities), significant portions of services and functionalities can be migrated outside datacenters. However, such scenarios are characterized by increased heterogeneity of nodes in terms of hardware/software, of time-varying applications possibly offered by multiple service providers at the same time, and frequent joining/leaving of nodes as a typical behavior.To overcome these issues, the paper originally proposes Multi-Layer Advanced Networking Environment (Multi-LANE), a Multi Layer Routing (MLR) solution based on Software Defined Networking (SDN) that specifically targets the emerging and promising Fog-based deployment environments. Multi-LANE dynamically selects and exploits (even at the same time) different routing strategies and mechanisms suitable for applications with heterogeneous features and requirements. Based on its centralized point of view, our Multi-LANE SDN controller determines the most suitable path and configures the proper MLR forwarding mechanism, ranging from traditional IP and sequence-based overlays to more articulated ones based on the inspection of payload content types and values. In addition to design/implementation insights and to the availability of the Multi-LANE prototype, this paper also provides the community with a significant contribution in terms of novel models for forwarding mechanisms specialized for Fog computing scenarios.

Application-Driven Network-Aware Digital Twin Management in Industrial Edge Environments

“…Each SDT hosted on an edge node is uniquely identifiable and reachable through a dedicated logical name or a distinctive identifier, e.g., logic-name:port such AS:1234), able to hide its actual IP address, thus allowing to route traffic flows and packets while reducing networking complexity. To this purpose, the developed ADTN middleware exploits the SDN-based Multi Layer Routing (MLR) approach, specifically supporting network management in edge-based multi-hop deployment environments [7]. MLR allows to exploit, even at the same time, different routing strategies and mechanisms suitable for applications with heterogeneous features and requirements.…”

“…To this purpose it adopts a unique SDN instance for IoT environments consisting of wireless and wired segments, by exploiting 6TiSCH as industrial IoT and open network platform allowing to orchestrate every network segment. Compared with this previous work, our solution adopts SDN to dynamically exploit the communication mechanisms most suitable to current application requirements, ranging from native IP to more articulated ones based on packet content [7] . In addition, it takes advantage of SenML enriched packet payload to efficiently enforce fine-grained content-based traffic flow rules, allowing to better satisfy per-application QoS requirements.…”

FUSION—Fog Computing and Blockchain for Trusted Industrial Internet of Things

“…• receive application-dependant control commands from administrators, e.g., technicians interacting with sensors either locally or remotely from the cloud, and dispatch control/configuration messages to L0FESN nodes; • efficiently manage sensed data to be delivered to remote locations, e.g., by creating tree-based overlay networks to minimize the latency of data delivery along edge nodes and also supporting the dynamic deployment/configuration of pre-processing mechanisms to reduce the amount of data delivered to the cloud. To support the flexible and dynamic QoS management we adopt the Multi-Layer Advanced Networking Environment (Multi-LANE) solution [42]. Multi-LANE dynamically selects and exploits (even at the same time) different routing strategies and mechanisms suitable for applications with heterogeneous features and requirements.…”

Optimizing the Response Time in SDN-Fog Environments for Time-Strict IoT Applications

“…In this factory, an SDN is leveraged to provide service discovery due to its properties as a modular, independent and transparent solution [8]. In fact, an SDN is the quickest mechanism for implementing service discovery by leveraging overlay networks [19]. Because SDNs need at least one controller, the factory uses the classic SDN control model and co-locates the controllers with SDN switches [10].…”