The Service Provider Group framework: A framework for arranging trust and power to facilitate authorization of network services

Many scientific workflow applications are driven by simulation generated data, or data collected from sensors or instruments, and the processing of the data is commonly done at a different location from where the data is stored. Moving large quantities of data among different locations is thus a fr equently invoked process in scientific workflow applications. These data transfers often have high quality requirements on the network services, especially when the application requires steering from human interaction. Advanced networks such as hybrid networks make it feasible for high level applications to request network paths and service provisioning. However, current workflow applications tune the execution quality neglecting network resources, and by selecting only optimal software services and computing resources. Including network services in the resource scheduling adds an extra dimension for workflow applications to optimize the runtime performance. In this paper we present a system called NEtwork aware Workflow QoS Planner (NEWQoSPlanner) to complement existing workflow systems on selecting network resources in the context of workflow composition, scheduling and execution when advanced network services are available.

This paper presents a novel service-oriented network architecture to bridge the informational gap between user applications and optical networks providing technology-agnostic multigranular optical network services for clouds. A mediation layer (service plane) between user applications and network control is proposed to facilitate a mapping process between user application requests and the network services. At the network level, a multigranular optical network (MGON) is proposed and implemented to support dynamic wavelength and subwavelength granularities with different transport formats [optical burst switched (OBS), optical burst transport (OBT)], reservation protocols (one-way, two-way), and different quality-of-service (QoS) levels per service type. The service-oriented multigranular optical network has been designed, implemented, and demonstrated on an experimental testbed. The testbed consists of service and network resource provisioning, service abstraction, and network resource virtualization. The service-to-network interoperation is provided by means of a gateway that maps service requests to technology-specific parameters and a common signaling channel for both service and network resource provisioning.

This demo will present both real and mocked-up usecases of a software application that enables accurate probabilistic modeling of new IP based services and their impact on network resources. The demonstration should be of general interest to Network Service Providers (NSP), device manufacturers, and application developers. Network planning and service analysis is a very important issue for today’s NSP’s; new communications devices and services emerge quickly (e.g., VoIP, Peer-to-peer filesharing, etc.) and end-users demand network resources that are up to the task. For the analyst, our tool leverages familiar UML style views, used to capture prototypical service “sessions”. It then allows annotation of the service model with a rich grammar, model conversion into semi-Markov form, and algorithm execution for network resource usage estimation. Ultimately, analysts gain insight into the impact of new consumer devices and services on their networks.

This paper introduces an architecture for managing a wide range of different administrative domains, that already have its own management systems. The approach and requirements exposed enhance the different network resource provisioning system (NRPS) under scope, since the set of interfaces specified and implemented allow their interoperability through the network service provider (NSP). The northbound interface defined within the NSP provides single-step on-demand services across multi-domain networks, with advance reservation functionalities involving network resources. Another aim of the specifications defined, is the future interoperability with the JRA3 developments done within the GEANT2 project. The hierarchical client-server schema between the NSP and NRPSs could be replicated horizontally in order to allow different NSP communicating each other. The overall management system becomes more fault-tolerant and scales better than the single, centralised system. Moreover, hierarchical structures of NSPs could be implemented in order to add control over the management system, pursuing a balance between the scalability of the system and the control over the different domains.

To achieve end to end (E2E) quality management capability for different services (e.g. voice, video and data), an SOA-based E2E resource orchestration architecture based on hierarchical distributed model and virtualization mechanisms for individual networks is proposed. Possible implementations and operation mechanisms considering possible service scenarios are discussed. Prototype of resource management (RM) system is demonstrated for the first time to manage and control distributed GE-PON-based access network resources, RPR-based metro network resources and GMPLS-based core network resources. Proposed RM system consists of network resource managers (NRMs) virtualizing individual network resources and network resource broker (NRB) leading orchestration of NRMs with a single point of contact to a service control layer. Exposure of E2E network service to a service control layer as well as the exposure of virtualized network services to NRB are represented by a universal Web services interface (WSI). Using the RM system, the heterogeneous resources are orchestrated to provide appropriate bandwidth-managed E2E services following service demand of a network service client, and appropriate resources are applied to assumed voice, video and data flows.

Cloud radio access network (C-RAN) has become a promising scenario to accommodate high-performance services with ubiquitous user coverage and real-time cloud computing using cloud BBUs. In our previous work, we implemented cross stratum optimization of optical network and application stratums resources that allows to accommodate the services in optical networks. In view of this, this study extends to consider the multiple dimensional resources optimization of radio, optical and BBU processing in 5G age. We propose a novel multi-stratum resources optimization (MSRO) architecture with network functions virtualization for cloud-based radio over optical fiber networks (C-RoFN) using software defined control. A global evaluation scheme (GES) for MSRO in C-RoFN is introduced based on the proposed architecture. The MSRO can enhance the responsiveness to dynamic end-to-end user demands and globally optimize radio frequency, optical and BBU resources effectively to maximize radio coverage. The efficiency and feasibility of the proposed architecture are experimentally demonstrated on OpenFlow-based enhanced SDN testbed. The performance of GES under heavy traffic load scenario is also quantitatively evaluated based on MSRO architecture in terms of resource occupation rate and path provisioning latency, compared with other provisioning scheme.

In this paper, we present the main challenges for offering end‐to‐end virtual network services under user control. This work is motivated by the growing need for end‐to‐end virtual services to support high‐volume data transfer applications such as large data Center, grid applications and storage area networks over multi‐domain networks. The virtualization of network services has to deal with some important issues, such as dynamic provisioning, sharing control, isolation and security. We have developed and implemented a solution called user control Virtual Service that allows the user to deploy and share different virtual services over a multi‐domain network. UCVS is a network‐driven virtual service solution that enables the coordinated provisioning and reuse of physical and virtualized computing, storage and network resources from shared pools. UCVS ensures that applications are dynamically supported throughout multi‐domain infrastructure. UCVS also achieves cross‐technology orchestration, helping further progress towards a service‐oriented infrastructure. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

To deliver reliable differentiated services in optical networks, GMPLS requires a set of procedures to provide protection for the traffic carried on the light paths. In this paper we propose a hierarchical path protection mechanism that is simple, scalable, fast, and efficient. We describe in detail our design considerations, the communication of fault information to appropriate forwarding or/and switching elements, and the fault detection protocol. In particular, we propose a new notification protocol for efficient and fast distribution of fault notification messages. A new Hierarchical Path Protection (HPP) improves the utilization of network resources- Label Switched Paths (LSPs) such as Electrical LSP (E-LSP), Lambda-LSP (L-LSP), WaveBand-LSP (WB-LSP), Fiber-LSP (F-LSP), bandwidth etc.- that are necessary when recovery mechanism occurred in the GMPLS networks. The HPP is used in the multiple-layer networks made by priority number of paths. We assume that there are three kinds of priorities on LSPs by their traffic characteristics of multimedia services, real time, mission-critical and best-effort services in the GMPLS networks. When the faults of LSPs are detected, primary LSPs classified by the priority of multimedia traffic choose recovery mechanism according to their priorities. In the priority based LSPs, each LSP has its own recovery mechanism that the LSP of priority 1 (real-time traffic) has the dedicated protection scheme, the LSP of priority 2 (mission-critical traffic) has the preplanned restoration scheme and the LSP of priority 3 (best-effort traffic) has the dynamic restoration scheme. After recovery mechanism is accomplished, the information for setting up on LSP based on the given priority is transferred to the ingress Optical Cross Connect (OXC) for the purpose of making new LSP. The OXC has the structure capable of setting up new LSPs or releasing LSPs via a signaling to maintain the consistent recovery, regardless of fault count, based on the priority scheme. The HPP has some advantages expa

Technological and human factors have contributed to increase the complexity of the network management problem. Heterogeneity and globalization of network resources, on one hand, have increased user expectations for flexible and easy-to-use environments; on the other hand, they have suggested entirely novel ways to face the management problem. Several research efforts recognize the need for integrated solutions to manage both network resources and services in open, global, and untrusted environments. In addition, these solutions should permit the coexistence of different management models and should interoperate with legacy systems. In the paper, we define a general architecture based on a distributed processing environment (DFE) that offers a large set of facilities to the application level. We have developed the MESIS management environment shaped after the above architecture and its DPE facilities with mobile agents technology. MESIS handles, in a uniform way, both resources and services, and focuses on two crucial properties: interoperability to overcome heterogeneity, and security to grant users safe and protected operations. The Agent Interoperability Facility supports compliance with CORBA-based management systems and with MASIF agent platforms. The Agent Security Facility provides authentication, integrity, privacy, authorization, and secure interoperation with CORBA systems.

The development of information technology has brought changes in industrial technology. Traditional industry is declining and intelligent industry is rising. Compared with the traditional industry, intelligent industry has a stronger demand for computing resources and is more sensitive to delay. To meet these requirements, this paper designs a computing platform integrating edge and cloud resources. The platform is mainly composed of edge computing nodes, cloud system, and AI(Artificial Intelligence) component. Edge computing nodes provide network services and computing offload services, which can quickly respond to industrial tasks. Cloud system provides computing resources and storage services for high resource consumption tasks in industry. AI components make full use of idle resources in the edge network to form clusters to accelerate AI inference. Facing different industrial scenarios, the platform can flexibly allocate computing resources in the network and provide computing offload service for tasks in the industry. Finally, we designed three experimental scenarios to verify the effectiveness of our platform. In the three experimental scenarios, compared with the traditional task execution method, our platform has brought obvious productivity improvement and accelerated the completion speed of the task.

Network virtualization is a core technology in next-generation networks to overcome the ossification problem that is observed in the current Internet. The key idea of network virtualization is to split physical network resources into multiple logical networks, each supporting different network services and functionalities. One of the key challenges for virtual network infrastructure providers is to efficiently allocate network resources based on virtual network requests, which is referred to as the virtual network mapping problem. While several algorithms have been proposed previously to solve this mapping problem, their effectiveness is limited since virtual requests specify the internal topology of the virtual network. In this paper, we argue that such internal topologies lead to unnecessary constraints and less efficient solutions. Instead, we propose an alternate formulation of the problem that represents virtual network requests as traffic matrices. We provide a solutions to solving this traffic-matrix-based mapping problem using a mixed integer programming formulation. Our simulation results show that our approach can map significantly more virtual network requests on a physical network infrastructure than previous mapping algorithms and thus improves the efficient use of networking resources in virtual networks.

To deliver reliable differentiated services in optical networks, GMPLS requires a set of procedures to provide protection for the traffic carried on the light paths. In this paper we propose multiple hierarchical protection schemes that improve the utilization of network resources optical label switched paths (LSPs) such as Lambda-LSP (L-LSP), waveband-LSP (WB-LSP), fiber-LSP (F-LSP). In the priority based LSPs, each LSP has its own recovery mechanism that F-LSP has 1+1 protection, WB-LSP has 1:1 protection, and L-LSP has 1:n protection. And the differentiated services including EF (expedited forwarding), AF (assured forwarding) and DF (default forwarding) can be allocated into hierarchical LSP respectively. We also propose the structure of the OXC capable of setting up hierarchical LSPs or releasing LSPs by GMPLS control plane. The performance and effectiveness of our proposed multiple hierarchical protection schemes arc demonstrated by the results of simulations on the mesh network.

Sponsored content policy enables a content provider to pay a network operator, and thereby their users access contents from the content provider through network services from the network operator with lower charge. In this paper, we study the interaction among three entities under the sponsored content policy, namely, the network operator or service provider, the content provider and the end-users. We consider a hierarchical three-stage setting to formulate the game theoretic model to analyze the interaction. Using the game model, we derive the user content demand, optimal sponsoring of content provider, and pricing of service provider based on backward induction. The model incorporates the network effects in social domain and congestion in network domain which enables us to obtain insights from the sponsored content policy. We derive the closed-form solution, i.e., equilibrium, and prove its existence and uniqueness in each stage of the game. Additionally, we develop an iterative algorithm to obtain the Stackelberg equilibrium of the entire three-stage game. The simulation results indicate that the revenue, profit, and utility of the service provider, content provider, and end-users have been improved to a large extent under the sponsored content policy because of the network effects.

The design, management, and operation of network infrastructure have evolved during the last few years, leveraging on innovative technologies and architectures. With such a huge trend, due to the flexibility and significant economic potential of these technologies, software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) are emerging as the most indispensable key catalysers. SDN/NFV enhancing the infrastructure agility, thus network operators and service providers are able to program their own network functions (e.g., gateways, routers, load balancers) on vendor-independent hardware substrate. One of the most important considerations in NFV deployment is how to allocate the virtual resources that are needed to provide flexible virtual network services in an NFV-based network infrastructure. Thus, the most important prerequisite for NFV deployment is achieved fast, scalable and dynamic composition and allocation of networks functions (NFs) to implement network services (NSs). We have proposed a revised RA algorithm that integrates embedding and scheduling of virtual network functions (VNFs) simultaneously. In this paper, performance evaluation of the revised RA algorithm is performed and the proposed algorithm is applied more effectively in NFV environment where the demand for resources is flexible and concentrated.

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a novel network architecture yielding many optimization choices to Internet service providers due to its flexibility. Based on this technique, a network service is constructed from a chain of virtual network functions (VNFs). Although many studies deeply investigate the NFV and propose approaches to address the problem of deploying services in physical networks under different perspectives, they do not consider the importance of services. This issue becomes more critical once the number of network services ever-increasing while the network resources are limited. Here, each service is assigned a weight representing its importance. From this aspect, maximizing the total weight of services accepted to deploy over the physical network is a critical problem and poses many challenges, particularly for networks with limited resources. Therefore, we call this issue the VNF placement for weighted services (VPWS) problem. We then propose three algorithms termed first-fit server algorithm (FSA), best-fit server algorithm (BSA), and service segment-based algorithm (SSBA), respectively, to address the VPWS problem. Eventually, we perform simulations to evaluate the proposed algorithms and factors that affect the VNF placement. The experiment indicates that the total weight yielded by the SSBA outperforms those of the FSA and BSA.