Using CORBA's advanced services to enhance the integrity of QoS management programmable networks

The development of wideband network services and the new network infrastructures to support them have placed much more requirements on current network management systems. Issues such as scalability, integrity and interoperability have become more important. Existing management systems are not flexible enough to support the provision of Quality of Service (QoS) in these dynamic environments. The concept of Programmable Networks has been proposed to address these requirements. Within this framework, CORBA is regarded as a middleware technology that can enable interoperation among the distributed entities founds in Programmable Networks. By using the basic CORBA environment in a heterogeneous network environment, a network manager is able to control remote Network Elements (NEs) in the same way it controls its local resources. Using this approach both the flexibility and intelligence of the overall network management can be improved. This paper proposes the use of two advanced features of CORBA to enhance the QoS management in a Programmable Network environment. The Transaction Service can be used to manage a set of tasks, whenever the management of elements in a network is correlated; and the Concurrency Service can be used to coordinate multiple accesses on the same network resources. It is also shown in this paper that proper use of CORBA can largely reduce the development and administration of network management applications.

Introducing Automated Management Through Iteratively Increased Automation and Indicators

Introducing automation into a managed environment includes significant initial overhead and abstraction, creating a disconnect between the administrator and the system. In order to facilitate the transition to automated management, this paper proposes an approach whereby automation increases gradually, gathering data from the task deployment process. This stored data is analysed to determine the task outcome status and can then be used for comparison against future deployments of the same task and alerting the administrator to deviations from the expected outcome. Using a machinelearning
approach, the automation tool can learn from the administrator's reaction to task failures and eventually react to faults autonomously.

Adaptive Measurement-Based Policy-Driven QoS Management with Fuzzy-Rule-based Resource Allocation

Fixed and wireless networks are increasingly converging towards common connectivity with IP-based core networks. Providing effective end-to-end resource and QoS management in such complex heterogeneous converged network scenarios requires unified, adaptive and scalable solutions to integrate and co-ordinate diverse QoS mechanisms of different access technologies with IP-based QoS. Policy-Based Network Management (PBNM) is one approach that could be employed to address this challenge. Hence, a policy-based framework for end-to-end QoS management in converged networks, CNQF (Converged Networks QoS Management Framework) has been proposed within our project. In this paper, the CNQF architecture, a Java implementation of its prototype and experimental validation of key elements are discussed. We then present a fuzzy-based CNQF resource management approach and study the performance of our implementation with real traffic flows on an experimental testbed. The results demonstrate the efficacy of our resource-adaptive approach for practical PBNM systems

Implementation and Evaluation of Measurement-Based Admission Control Schemes Within a Converged Networks QoS Management Framework

Policy-based network management (PBNM) paradigms provide an effective tool for end-to-end resource
management in converged next generation networks by enabling unified, adaptive and scalable solutions
that integrate and co-ordinate diverse resource management mechanisms associated with heterogeneous
access technologies. In our project, a PBNM framework for end-to-end QoS management in converged
networks is being developed. The framework consists of distributed functional entities managed within a
policy-based infrastructure to provide QoS and resource management in converged networks. Within any
QoS control framework, an effective admission control scheme is essential for maintaining the QoS of
flows present in the network. Measurement based admission control (MBAC) and parameter basedadmission control (PBAC) are two commonly used approaches. This paper presents the implementationand analysis of various measurement-based admission control schemes developed within a Java-based
prototype of our policy-based framework. The evaluation is made with real traffic flows on a Linux-based experimental testbed where the current prototype is deployed. Our results show that unlike with classic MBAC or PBAC only schemes, a hybrid approach that combines both methods can simultaneously result in improved admission control and network utilization efficiency

Design and Implementation of a Measurement-Based Policy-Driven Resource Management Framework For Converged Networks

This paper presents the design and implementation of a measurement-based QoS and resource management framework, CNQF (Converged Networks’ QoS Management Framework). CNQF is designed to provide unified, scalable QoS control and resource management through the use of a policy-based network
management paradigm. It achieves this via distributed functional entities that are deployed to co-ordinate the resources of the transport network through centralized policy-driven decisions supported by measurement-based control architecture. We present the CNQF architecture, implementation of the
prototype and validation of various inbuilt QoS control mechanisms using real traffic flows on a Linux-based experimental test bed.

Measurement-based Policy-driven QoS Management in Converged Next Generation Networks

Policy-based management is considered an effective approach to address the challenges of resource management in large complex networks. Within the IU-ATC QoS Frameworks project, a policy-based network management framework, CNQF (Converged Networks QoS Framework) is being developed aimed at providing context-aware, end-to-end QoS control and resource management in converged next generation networks. CNQF is designed to provide homogeneous, transparent QoS control over heterogeneous access technologies by means of distributed functional entities that co-ordinate the resources of the transport network through policy-driven decisions. In this paper, we present a measurement-based evaluation of policy-driven QoS management based on CNQF architecture, with real traffic flows on an experimental testbed. A Java based implementation of the CNQF Resource Management Subsystem is deployed on the testbed and results of the experiments validate the framework operation for policy-based QoS management of real traffic flows.

Using smart people to form future mobile wireless networks

The concept of a body-to-body network, where smart communicating devices carried or worn by a person are used to form a wireless network with devices situated on other nearby persons. New innovations in this area will see the form factor of smart devices being modified, so that they may be worn on the human body or integrated into clothing, in the process creating a new generation of smart people. Applications of body-to-body networking will extend well beyond the support of cellular and Wi-Fi networks. They will also be used in short-range covert military applications, first responder applications, team sports and used to interconnect body area networks (BAN). Security will be a major issue as routing between multiple nodes will increase the risk of unauthorized access and compromise sensitive data. This will add complexity to the medium access layer (MAC) and network management. Antennas designed to operate in body centric communications systems may be broadly categorized as on- or off-body radiators, according to their radiation pattern characteristics when mounted on the human body.

Implementation of Selective Packet Destruction on Wireless Open-Access Research Platform

Interesting wireless networking scenarios exist wherein network services must be guaranteed in a dynamic fashion for some priority users. For example, in disaster recovery, members need to be able to quickly block other users in order to gain sole use of the radio channel. As it is not always feasible to physically switch off other users, we propose a new approach, termed selective packet destruction (SPD) to ensure service for priority users. A testbed for SPD has been created, based on the Rice University Wireless open-Access Research Platform and been used to examine the feasibility of our approach. Results from the testbed are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of SPD and show how a balance between performance and acknowledgement destruction rate can be achieved. A 90% reduction in TCP & UDP traffic is achieved for a 75% MAC ACK destruction rate.

A Configurable Packet Classification Architecture for Software-Defined Networking

Network management tools must be able to monitor and analyze traffic flowing through network systems. According to the OpenFlow protocol applied in Software-Defined Networking (SDN), packets are classified into flows that are searched in flow tables. Further actions, such as packet forwarding, modification, and redirection to a group table, are made in the flow table with respect to the search results. A novel hardware solution for SDN-enabled packet classification is presented in this paper. The proposed scheme is focused on a label-based search method, achieving high flexibility in memory usage. The implemented hardware architecture provides optimal lookup performance by configuring the search algorithm and by performing fast incremental update as programmed the software controller.