Flexible traffic management in broadband access networks using Software Defined Networking

Over the years, the demand for high bandwidth services, such as live and on-demand video streaming, steadily increased. The adequate provisioning of such services is challenging and requires complex network management mechanisms to be implemented by Internet service providers (ISPs). In current broadband network architectures, the traffic of subscribers is tunneled through a single aggregation point, independent of the different service types it belongs to. While having a single aggregation point eases the management of subscribers for the ISP, it implies huge bandwidth requirements for the aggregation point and potentially high end-to-end latency for subscribers. An alternative would be a distributed subscriber management, adding more complexity to the management itself. In this paper, a new traffic management architecture is proposed that uses the concept of Software Defined Networking (SDN) to extend the existing Ethernet-based broadband network architecture, enabling a more efficient traffic management for an ISP. By using SDN-enabled home gateways, the ISP can configure traffic flows more dynamically, optimizing throughput in the network, especially for bandwidth-intensive services. Furthermore, a proof-of-concept implementation of the approach is presented to show the general feasibility and study configuration tradeoffs. Analytic considerations and testbed measurements show that the approach scales well with an increasing number of subscriber sessions.

[1]  Nick McKeown,et al.  Reproducible network experiments using container-based emulation , 2012, CoNEXT '12.

[2]  T Ansi Network and Customer Installation Interfaces - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) Metallic Interface , 1998 .

[3]  Kok-Kiong Yap,et al.  Putting home users in charge of their network , 2012, UbiComp.

[4]  Helmut Hlavacs,et al.  Network Virtualization in Future Home Environments , 2009, DSOM.

[5]  Kok-Kiong Yap,et al.  Slicing home networks , 2011, HomeNets '11.

[6]  Roberto Bifulco,et al.  Rethinking Access Networks with High Performance Virtual Software BRASes , 2013, 2013 Second European Workshop on Software Defined Networks.

[7]  Tom Rodden,et al.  Control and understanding: Owning your home network , 2012, 2012 Fourth International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS 2012).

[8]  Nick McKeown,et al.  OpenFlow: enabling innovation in campus networks , 2008, CCRV.

[9]  Alex C. Snoeren,et al.  High-fidelity switch models for software-defined network emulation , 2013, HotSDN '13.

[10]  Roberto Bifulco,et al.  A Practical Experience in Designing an OpenFlow Controller , 2012, 2012 European Workshop on Software Defined Networking.

[11]  Nick Feamster,et al.  Instrumenting home networks , 2010, HomeNets@SIGCOMM.

[12]  Sujata Banerjee,et al.  DevoFlow: cost-effective flow management for high performance enterprise networks , 2010, Hotnets-IX.

[13]  H. Hlavacs,et al.  Energy saving in future home environments , 2008, 2008 1st IFIP Wireless Days.

[14]  Jan Seedorf,et al.  Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) Problem Statement , 2009 .

[15]  Min Zhu,et al.  B4: experience with a globally-deployed software defined wan , 2013, SIGCOMM.

[16]  H. Hlavacs,et al.  An Economical Cost Model for Fair Resource Sharing in Virtual Home Environments , 2008, 2008 Next Generation Internet Networks.

[17]  Rob Sherwood,et al.  FlowVisor: A Network Virtualization Layer , 2009 .

[18]  Nick Feamster Outsourcing home network security , 2010, HomeNets '10.

[19]  Helmut Hlavacs,et al.  Distributed energy efficiency in future home environments , 2008, Ann. des Télécommunications.