On the Need of Joint Bandwidth and NFV Resource Orchestration: A Realistic 5G Access Network Use Case

Abstract

5G envisages a "hyper-connected society" where an enormous number of devices are interconnected anywhere and at any time. Cloud-enabled radio access networks (RAN) where intelligence is placed in conjunction with the radio heads at the proximity of end users is a promising solution to fulfil the 5G expectations of sub-millisecond latency, huge traffic volumes and higher data rates. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) developments enable end users to access advanced features such as configurability, automation, scalability, improved resource utilization and multi tenancy over the cloud-enabled RANs. Management and orchestration techniques are the ultimate factor that determine the effectiveness of the novel SDN/NFV features being introduced. Our focus in this study is the resource allocation in a realistic cloud-enabled RAN, taking into account the dynamics of ~100,000 persons movement in a crowded event, i.e. a football match. The proposed solution jointly orchestrates NFV and bandwidth resources, as one resource affects the other. Simulation results clearly verify the benefits of the proposed solution over traditional disjoint schemes.

Genetic Algorithm for Effective Service Mapping in the Optical Backhaul of 5G Networks

“…Both types of cells are connected to a CO via 10 Gbps optical links. The nodes are equipped with the computational resources shown in Table 1 like in [7,8]. We assume that all the nodes are NFV-enabled.…”

“…A VNF is available if it processes less operations than its maximum number of concurrent operations per instance. The algorithm looks for VNFs at the local cell first, and only searches for VNFs in the CO when no available VNF are present at the local cell, like in [7], [8]. Once the algorithm finds an available VNF of the SC in the CO, it will not look for VNFs at MEC nodes again.…”

“…In order to improve the performance, two ad-hoc individuals are created in the first generation of the genetic algorithm together with other randomly generated ones. The first ad-hoc individual is created so that its solution is equivalent to following the policy used in [7], [8]. We call this policy "MEC First" since it first tries to instantiate or use VNFs at the radio node.…”

“…Last but not least, in [6] authors studied the impact of latency requirements on the placement of VNFs constituting an added value service in a static scenario. ONOFRE project (Optical Network Convergence of the Future Internet) proposed in [7], [8] an algorithm for service chaining allocation in a real-life scenario, with a very high density of population and offered traffic expectations changing rapidly; with the aim of reducing service blocking ratio due to either unavailability of optical network capacity or computing resources.…”

Design Considerations for an Energy-Aware SDN-Based Architecture in 5G EPON Nodes

“…The aim of this paper is to describe a novel architecture based on the SDN and NFV concepts for the 5G EPON network, where multiple Radio Access Networks (RANs) are converged to EPON nodes at the network edge. Recently, an initiative to realize converged SDN-enabled wireless-optical networks has introduced schemes to implement ONU-eNB [8], while [9] demonstrates the need of a joint resource orchestration over a realistic 5G access use case. The proposed framework reduces the complexity and increases the efficiency of the network operations, while it is capable to decrease the energy consumption of the edge network.…”