Evolutionary gaming approach for decision making of Tier‐3 Internet service provider networks migration to SoDIP6 networks

Abstract

Summary With the increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, current networking world is suffering in terms of management and operations with lack of IPv4 addresses leading to issues like network address translation (NAT) proliferation, security and quality of services. Software‐defined networking (SDN) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) are the new networking paradigms evolved to address related issues of legacy IPv4 networking. To adapt with global competitive environment and avoid all existing issues in legacy networking system, network service providers have to migrate their networks into IPv6 and SDN‐enabled networks. But immediate transformations of existing network are not viable due to several factors like higher cost of migration, lack of technical human resources, lack of standards and protocols during transitions, and many more. In this paper, we present the migration analysis for proper decision making of network transition in terms of customer demand, traffic engineering, and organizational strength with operation expenditure for network migration using evolutionary gaming approach. Joint migration to SDN‐enabled IPv6 network from game theoretic perspective is modeled and is validated using numerical results obtained from simulations. Our empirical analysis shows the evolutionary process of network migration while different internal and external factors in the organization affect the overall migration. Evolutionary game in migration planning is supportive in decision making for service providers to develop suitable strategy for their network migration. The proposed approach for migration decision making is mostly applicable to fairly sustained service providers who lack economics, regulation/policy, and resources strengths.

Legacy Network Integration with SDN-IP Implementation towards a Multi-Domain SoDIP6 Network Environment

“…For the optimization of migration cost, the upgrade of network devices is economically feasible compared to replacement. We presented an approach for network migration planning with migration cost optimization via simulations and empirical analysis in our previous works [2,7,11], where we focused on skilled HR management, technical issues like hardware/software standards and protocols, and managerial issues like proper scheduling and migration planning for network upgrades.…”

“…IPv6 and the SDN are not backward-compatible, leading to complexities and challenges in the real-time migration of the legacy IPv4 networking system, which is currently operating world-wide. Network migration is inevitable for service providers, though there have been several challenges with migration from the technical, financial, as well as business perspectives [2]. The higher costs of network migration to replace or upgrade network devices, transformations in software systems and related services, along with a lack of skilled human resources to operate and maintain the newer networking systems are becoming the major hurdles of technology migration in service provider networks.…”

“…However, the global IPv6 adoption rate is not satisfactory [4]; it has just crossed 25% adoption worldwide, while the adoption rate in developing countries is still below 1% [5]. The early stage of IPv6 network migration and the premature stage of SDN migration [2,5] in telecommunications (Telcos) and ISP networks indicate that sufficient efforts in the research and development of SDN and IPv6 network migration are needed. IPv6 and SDN are interrelated, because IPv6 deals with routing and addressing in the IP layer, while SDN deals with the controlling of the operations of the networking management layer.…”

“…These two networking paradigms, which are recognized in the network operation layer, are operated by service providers. Hence, in our previous works, we introduced a joint SDN and IPv6 network as an SDN-enabled IPv6 network called the software-defined IPv6 (SoDIP6) network, with its benefits and challenges for efficient migration planning [1,2,6]. Combining the features of IPv6 and SDN creates more robust networks.…”

“…Combining the features of IPv6 and SDN creates more robust networks. Those combined features [2] are more attractive for service providers for the timely migration of their legacy networks. For migration cost reduction with optimization of the capital and operational expenditures (CapEX and OpEX), the joint migration planning of SDN and the IPv6 network is beneficial for service providers [7].…”