Browsing by Author "Flinck, Hannu"
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Item AI-based Network-aware Service Function Chain Migration in 5G and Beyond Networks(IEEE, 2021-04) Addad, Rami Akrem; Dutra, Diego Leonel Cadette; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs Finland; Federal University of Rio de JaneiroWhile the 5G network technology is maturing and the number of commercial deployments is growing, the focus of the networking community is shifting to services and service delivery. 5G networks are designed to be a common platform for very distinct services with different characteristics. Network Slicing has been developed to offer service isolation between the different network offerings. Cloud-native services that are composed of a set of inter-dependent micro-services are assigned into their respective slices that usually span multiple service areas, network domains, and multiple data centers. Due to mobility events caused by moving end-users, slices with their assigned resources and services need to be re-scoped and re-provisioned. This leads to slice mobility whereby a slice moves between service areas and whereby the inter-dependent service and resources must be migrated to reduce system overhead and to ensure low-communication latency by following end-user mobility patterns. Recent advances in computational hardware, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning have attracted interest within the communication community to study and experiment self-managed network slices. However, migrating a service instance of a slice remains an open and challenging process, given the needed co-ordination between inter-cloud resources, the dynamics, and constraints of inter-data center networks. For this purpose, we introduce a Deep Reinforcement Learning based agent that is using two different algorithms to optimize bandwidth allocations as well as to adjust the network usage to minimize slice migration overhead. We show that this approach results in significantly improved Quality of Experience. To validate our approach, we evaluate the agent under different configurations and in real-world settings and present the results.Item AI-Based Resource Management in beyond 5G Cloud Native Environment(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2021-03) Boudi, Abderrahmane; Bagaa, Miloud; Pöyhönen, Petteri; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs Finland5G system and beyond targets a large number of emerging applications and services that will create extra overhead on network traffic. These industrial verticals have aggressive, contentious, and conflicting requirements that make the network have an arduous mission for achieving the desired objectives. It is expected to get requirements with close to zero time latency, high data rate, and network reliability. Fortunately, a ray of hope comes shining the way of telecom providers with the new progress and achievements in machine learning, cloud computing, micro-services, and the ETSI ZSM era. For this reason there is a colossal impetus from industry and academia toward applying these techniques by creating a new concept called CCN environment that can cohabit and adapt according to the network and resource state, and perceived KPIs. In this article, we pursue the aforementioned concept by providing a unified hierarchical closed-loop network and service management framework that can meet the desired objectives. We propose a cloud-na-tive simulator that accurately mimics cloud-native environments, and enables us to quickly evaluate new frameworks and ideas. The simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of our simulator for parroting the real testbeds in various metrics.Item Coalitional Game for the Creation of Efficient Virtual Core Network Slices in 5G Mobile Systems(2018-03-12) Bagaa, Miloud; Taleb, Tarik; Laghrissi, Abdelquoddouss; Ksentini, Adlen; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; EURECOM; Nokia Bell Labs FinlandMany ongoing research activities relevant to 5G mobile systems concern the virtualization of the mobile core network, including the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) elements, aiming for system scalability, elasticity, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. Virtual EPC (vEPC)/5G Core will principally rely on some key technologies such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Cloud Computing; enabling the concept of Mobile Carrier Cloud. The key idea beneath this concept, known also as Core Network as a Service (CNaaS), consists in deploying virtual instances (i.e., Virtual Machines or containers) of key core network functions (i.e., Virtual Network Functions - VNF of 4G or 5G) such as the Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving GateWay (SGW), Packet Data network gateWay (PGW), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), and User Plane Functions (UPF) over a federated cloud. In this vein, an efficient VNF placement algorithm is highly needed to sustain Quality of Service (QoS) while reducing the deployment cost. Our contribution in this paper is two fold. First, we devise an algorithm that derives the optimal number of virtual instances of 4G (MME, SGW, PGW) or 5G (AMF, SMF and AUSF) core network elements to meet the requirements of a specific mobile traffic. Second, we propose an algorithm for the placement of these virtual instances over a federated cloud. While the first algorithm is based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP), the second is based on Coalition formation game, wherein the aim is to build coalitions of Cloud Networks (CNs) to host the virtual instances of the vEPC/5G Core elements. The obtained results clearly indicate the advantages of the proposed algorithms in ensuring QoS given a fixed cost for vEPC/5G Core deployment, while maximizing the profits of cloud operators.Item Content delivery network slicing(IEEE, 2017-07-28) Retal, Sara; Bagaa, Miloud; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Nokia Bell Labs FinlandContent Delivery Networks (CDNs) emerged to manage the great amount of content, as well as the transmissions over long distances. In recent years, this concept proves to be a promising solution for emergent enterprises. In this paper, we present a Content Delivery Network as a Service (CDNaaS) platform which can create virtual machines (VMs) through a network of data centers and provide a customized slice of CDN to users. CDNaaS manages a great number of videos by means of caches, transcoders, and streamers hosted in different VMs. However, an optimal placement of VMs with adequate flavors for the different images is required to obtain an efficient slice of CDN. In this work, we argue the need to find a convenient slice for the CDN owner while respecting his performance requirements and minimizing as much as possible the incurred cost. We first formulate the VMs placement problem as two Linear Integer problem solutions, aiming at minimizing the cost and maximizing the quality of experience of streaming. Then,extensive simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed models.Item Distributed media server system(1997) Hautanen, Topi; Flinck, Hannu; Sähkö- ja tietoliikennetekniikan osasto; Teknillinen korkeakoulu; Helsinki University of Technology; Kantola, RaimoItem End-to-end network slicing enabled through network function virtualization(IEEE, 2017-09) Afolabi, Ibrahim; Bagaa, Miloud; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs FinlandWireless networks have gone through several years of evolution until now and will continue to do so in order to cater for the varying needs of users. These demands are expected to grow in the future, both in size and variability. Hence, the 5G technology considers these variabilities in service demands and potential data explosion which could accompany users' demands at the core of its architecture. To enable 5G mobile handle these foreseen challenges, network slicing [24] is seen as a way forward as its standardization is progressing. In light of the proposed 5G network architecture base on network slicing, it is essential to be able to determine the correct virtual machine (VM) flavours in which to host the right type of network function based on the slice service requirements. In order to determine this, we carried out series of experiments involving the deployment of different VM flavours which may be suitable for different slices.Item Experimental implementation of a compact routing based mapping system for the locator/ID separation protocol (LISP)(2012) Huq, A. M. Anisul; Flinck, Hannu; Tietotekniikan laitos; Ylä-Jääski, AnttiItem Extremely Interactive and Low-Latency Services in 5G and beyond Mobile Systems(IEEE, 2021-06-25) Taleb, Tarik; Nadir, Zinelaabidine; Flinck, Hannu; Song, JaeSeung; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs Finland; Sejong UniversityThis article provides an overview on extremely interactive and low-latency immersive services as well as the relevant industry and standardization activities. Immersive services immerse a viewer or the viewed digital objects into an environment that is either real, virtual, or a mixture of both. The applications are accordingly named virtual reality, augmented reality, extended reality, and holography applications. These applications benefit from the ongoing advances in user interfaces, computing technologies, and networking technologies. Such applications are expected to generate most of the traffic in the next generation networks, particularly 6G networks. In this article, the main relevant use cases are introduced along with their respective requirements. The article also provides insights on the relevant architectures and solutions, and highlights some research challenges and directions.Item Fast Service Migration in 5G Trends and Scenarios(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2020-03-01) Addad, Rami; Cadette Dutra, Diego; Bagaa, Miloud; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs Finland; Federal University of Rio de JaneiroThe need for faster and higher-capacity networks that can sustain modern, high-demanding applications has driven the development of 5G technology. Moreover, support for low-latency communication (1ms -10ms) is one of the main requirements of 5G systems. Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) has been seen as a key component to attain the 5G objectives, since it allows hosting and executing critical services at the vicinity of users, thus reducing the latency to its minimum. Motivated by the evolution of real-time applications, we propose and evaluate two different mechanisms to improve the end-user experience by leveraging container-based live migration technologies. The first solution is aware of the users' mobility patterns, while the other is oblivious to the users' paths. Our results show approximately 50 percent reduction in downtime, which demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed solutions compared to prior works using similar underlying technology, i.e., LXC or Docker.Item High Throughput Rings for Multiprocessors(1993) Flinck, Hannu; Tietotekniikan osasto; Teknillinen korkeakoulu; Helsinki University of Technology; Simula, OlliItem Immersive Services over 5G and Beyond Mobile Systems(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2021) Nadir, Zinelaabidine; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Bouachir, Ouns; Bagaa, Miloud; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs Finland; Zayed University5G and beyond mobile systems target a plethora of emerging industrial and entertainment verticals that incur extra overhead to the network. These verticals are characterized by vigorous, continuous, and conflicting requirements that make the desired system's mission strenuous and more challenging. These verticals, such as autonomous driving, will accommodate immersive services, including virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) and Holography services. Immersive services, in particular, have strict requirements for latency, throughput, and positioning. This article discusses VR-based remote services' potential, which occupies an important place among immersive services such as remote surgery, remote space control, and remote driving of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or cars. Such services require an ultra-low Glass-to-Glass latency to avoid any failure and accidents when remotely controlling devices. We evaluate an immersive remote control service from the end-to-end communication perspectives using different camera devices that stream real-time 360° videos to a VR Head Mounted Device (HMD). The obtained results demonstrate the challenges of such service and the need for more advanced and optimized techniques, devices, and protocols to achieve less than 20 ms of Glass-to-Glass latency.Item Latency-aware Service Placement and Live Migrations in 5G and beyond Mobile Systems(2020-06) Mada, Badr Eddine; Bagaa, Miloud; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs Finland5G system and beyond will build on the network slicing for offering high customizable services with different requirements that run on top of the same shared infrastructure. Each network slice, such as Ultra-Reliable Low latency Communications (URLLC) and Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), has different requirements that can be even contradicting from a slice to another. A network slice consists of a set of physical or virtual network functions (VNF/PNF) that have various capabilities and run across multiple administrative and cloud domains of different technology. A user can simultaneously request multiple services from different network slices. In this paper, we address the problem of initial placement and live migration of multiple mobile services across centralized and edge cloud by taking into account service types, network conditions and users' mobility features. As a solution to this problem, in this paper, we suggest and evaluate a solution that orchestrates the network services in a cost-efficient way, ensuring that each user could be simultaneously served by multiple slices while perceiving a high QoS and ensuring that the service level agreements (SLAs) of the consumed services are not violated.Item Lightweight service replication for ultra-short latency applications in mobile edge networks(IEEE, 2017-07-28) Farris, Ivan; Taleb, Tarik; Iera, Antonio; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; University Institute of Architecture of Reggio Calabria; Nokia Bell Labs FinlandEdge Cloud infrastructure will play a key role in extending the range of supported real-time cloud applications, by guaranteeing extremely fast response times. However, user mobility requires fast relocation of service instances, which represents an open challenge for resource-constrained cloudlets interconnected by high-latency and low-bandwidth links. In this paper, we investigate container-based virtualization techniques to support dynamic Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) environments. In particular, we design a framework to guarantee fast response time, by proactively exploiting service replication. A preliminary performance analysis is conducted to identify the possible advantages introduced by the proposed approach compared to classic migration procedures.Item Management of Video-on-Demand(1995) Palo, Matti; Flinck, Hannu; Sähkötekniikan osasto; Teknillinen korkeakoulu; Helsinki University of Technology; Rahko, KaukoItem mMTC Deployment over Sliceable Infrastructure: The Megasense Scenario(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2021) Motlagh, Naser Hossein; Afolabi, Ibrahim; Pozza, Matteo; Bagaa, Miloud; Taleb, Tarik; Tarkoma, Sasu; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; University of Helsinki; Nokia Bell Labs FinlandMassive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) has long been identified as a major vertical sector and enabler of the industry 4.0 technological evolution that will seamlessly ease the dynamics of machine-to-machine communications while leveraging 5G technology. To advance this concept, we have developed and tested an mMTC network slice called Megasense. Megasense is a complete framework that consists of multiple software modules, which is used for collecting and analyzing air pollution data that emanates from a massive amount of air pollution sensors. Taking advantage of 5G networks, Megasense will significantly benefit from an underlying communication network that is traditionally elastic and can accommodate the on-demand changes in requirements of such a use case. As a result, deploying the sensor nodes over a sliceable 5G system is deemed the most appropriate in satisfying the resource requirements of such a use case scenario. In this light, in order to verify how 5G-ready our Megasense solution is, we deployed it over a network slice that is totally composed of virtual resources. We have also evaluated the impact of the network slicing platform on Megasense in terms of bandwidth and resource utilization. We further tested the performances of the Megasense system and come up with different deployment recommendations based on which the Megasense system would function optimally.Item Mobile Edge Computing Potential in Making Cities Smarter(2017-03) Taleb, Tarik; Dutta, Sunny; Ksentini, Adlen; Iqbal, Muddesar; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; EURECOM; London South Bank University; Nokia Bell Labs FinlandThis article proposes an approach to enhance users' experience of video streaming in the context of smart cities. The proposed approach relies on the concept of MEC as a key factor in enhancing QoS. It sustains QoS by ensuring that applications/services follow the mobility of users, realizing the "Follow Me Edge" concept. The proposed scheme enforces an autonomic creation of MEC services to allow anywhere anytime data access with optimum QoE and reduced latency. Considering its application in smart city scenarios, the proposed scheme represents an important solution for reducing core network traffic and ensuring ultra-short latency through a smart MEC architecture capable of achieving the 1 ms latency dream for the upcoming 5G mobile systems.Item Network Slice Mobility in Next Generation Mobile Systems: Challenges and Potential Solutions(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2020-01-01) Addad, Rami A; Taleb, Tarik; Flinck, Hannu; Bagaa, Miloud; Dutra, Diego; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Nokia Bell Labs Finland; Federal University of Rio de JaneiroNetwork slicing offers numerous benefits, particularly the ability to deliver highly customizable services to new industry sectors that have been unserved or inadequately served by current mobile network operators. Among new industry use cases that are targeted by the fifth generation (5G) mobile systems, there exist scenarios that go beyond what the current device-centric mobility approaches can support. The mobility of low latency communication services, shared by a group of moving devices, e.g., autonomous vehicles that share sensor data, is a prime example of these cases. These use cases' demands for ultra-low latency can be addressed by leveraging the Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) concept, techniques for live migration of virtual resources, Software Defined Networking (SDN), and network slicing. In this article, we define different slice mobility patterns, different methods for grouping users, and different triggers for network slice mobility. Furthermore, we evaluate the mobility of services and network slices based on the simultaneous migrations of multiple containers.Item Network Slice Provisioning Approaches for Industry Verticals: New Business Models and Feasibility(IGI GLOBAL, 2021) Walia, Jaspreet Singh; Hammainen, Heikki; Kilkki, Kalevi; Flinck, Hannu; Matinmikko-Blue, Marja; Yrjölä, Seppo; Network Economics; Department of Communications and Networking; Nokia Bell Labs Finland; University of Oulu; NokiaNetwork slicing is widely studied as an essential technological enabler for supporting diverse use case specific services through network virtualization. Industry verticals, consisting of diverse use cases requiring different network resources, are considered key customers for network slices. However, different approaches for network slice provisioning to industry verticals and required business models are still largely unexplored and require further work. Focusing on technical and business aspects of network slicing, this article develops three new business models, enabled by different distributions of business roles and management exposure between business actors. The feasibility of the business models is studied in terms of; the costs and benefits to business actors, mapping to use cases in various industry verticals, and the infrastructure costs of common and dedicated virtualization infrastructures. Finally, a strategic approach and relevant recommendations are proposed for major business actors, national regulatory authorities, and standards developing organizations.Item Network Slicing & Softwarization: A Survey on Principles, Enabling Technologies & Solutions(2018) Afolabi, Ibrahim; Taleb, Tarik; Samdanis, Konstantinos; Ksentini, Adlen; Flinck, Hannu; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Huawei European Research Center; EURECOM; Nokia Bell Labs FinlandNetwork slicing has been identified as the backbone of the rapidly evolving 5G technology. However, as its consolidation and standardization progress, there are no literatures that comprehensively discuss its key principles, enablers and research challenges. This paper elaborates network slicing from an end-to-end perspective detailing its historical heritage, principal concepts, enabling technologies and solutions as well as the current standardization efforts. In particular, it overviews the diverse use cases and network requirements of network slicing, the pre-slicing era, considering RAN sharing as well as the end-to-end orchestration and management, encompassing the radio access, transport network and the core network. This paper also provides details of specific slicing solutions for each part of the 5G system. Finally, this paper identifies a number of open research challenges and provides recommendations towards potential solutions.Item On Multi-Access Edge Computing: A Survey of the Emerging 5G Network Edge Cloud Architecture and Orchestration(2017-07-01) Taleb, Tarik; Samdanis, Konstantinos; Mada, Badr; Flinck, Hannu; Dutta, Sunny; Sabella, Dario; Department of Communications and Networking; Mobile Network Softwarization and Service Customization; Huawei European Research Center; Nokia Bell Labs Finland; Aalto University; IntelMulti-access edge computing (MEC) is an emerging ecosystem, which aims at converging telecommunication and IT services, providing a cloud computing platform at the edge of the radio access network. MEC offers storage and computational resources at the edge, reducing latency for mobile end users and utilizing more efficiently the mobile backhaul and core networks. This paper introduces a survey on MEC and focuses on the fundamental key enabling technologies. It elaborates MEC orchestration considering both individual services and a network of MEC platforms supporting mobility, bringing light into the different orchestration deployment options. In addition, this paper analyzes the MEC reference architecture and main deployment scenarios, which offer multi-tenancy support for application developers, content providers, and third parties. Finally, this paper overviews the current standardization activities and elaborates further on open research challenges.
