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SDN-based Mobile Packet Core for Multicast and Broadcast Services
School of Electronics Engineering, Soongsil University, South Korea.
School of Electronics Engineering Soongsil UniversityDongjak-gu, SeoulKorea. (Distributed System and Communications (DISCO))ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9399-8425
School of Electronics Engineering, Soongsil University, South Korea.
2018 (English)In: Wireless networks, ISSN 1022-0038, E-ISSN 1572-8196, Vol. 24, no 5, p. 1715-1729Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The current mobile packet core network is evolving to cope with the pressure of the mobile traffic explosion and the advent of new services. Software-defined networking (SDN) is currently being adopted as one of the promising drivers for redesigning the mobile packet core network toward a 5G network. SDN-based mobile packet core approaches are expected to deliver features, such as fast service deployment, flexibility, and capital expenditure and operational expenditure reduction within future 5G networks. However, current SDN-based mobile packet core approaches only focus on providing unicast services without considering multicast and broadcast services. In this article, we propose an efficient SDN-based mobile packet core network architecture for supporting multicast and broadcast services. The proposed architecture takes advantage of the SDN paradigm and enables multicast and broadcast service deployment. In addition, a new SDN-based multicast subscription procedure is introduced to reduce network bandwidth resources. By numerical analysis, our scheme improves the current multicast and broadcast solution in terms of signaling cost.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
New York, USA: Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2018. Vol. 24, no 5, p. 1715-1729
Keywords [en]
SDN, Mobile Packet Core, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service, SDN-based Mobile Network
National Category
Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering Computer Sciences
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-66483DOI: 10.1007/s11276-016-1433-6ISI: 000435419300023OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-66483DiVA, id: diva2:1185699
Projects
HITS, 4707
Funder
Knowledge FoundationAvailable from: 2018-02-26 Created: 2018-02-26 Last updated: 2021-04-22Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Towards SDN/NFV-based Mobile Packet Core: Benefits, Challenges, and Potential Solutions
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Towards SDN/NFV-based Mobile Packet Core: Benefits, Challenges, and Potential Solutions
2018 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In mobile networks, the mobile core plays a crucial role in providing connectivity between mobile user devices and external packet data networks such as the Internet. Through the years, along with the dramatical changes in radio access networks, the mobile core has also been evolved from being a circuit-based analog telephony system in its first generation (1G) to become a purely packet-based network called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) in the current generation (4G). In recent years, the explosion of mobile data traffic and devices and the advent of new services have led to the investigation of the next generation of mobile networks, i.e., 5G. A wide range of technologies has been proposed as candidates for the development of 5G. Among other technology candidates, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been widely considered to be key enablers for the network architecture of 5G, especially the mobile packet core (MPC) network.

This thesis aims at identifying benefits and challenges of introducing SDN and NFV to re-achitect the current MPC network architecture towards 5G and addressing some of the challenges. To this end, we conduct a comprehensive literature review of the state-of-the-art work leveraging SDN and NFV to re-design the 4G EPC architecture. Through this survey work, several research questions for future work have been identified and we contribute to address two of them in this thesis. Firstly, since most of the current works focus on unicast services, we propose an SDN/NFV-based MPC architecture for providing multicast and broadcast services. Our numerical results show that the proposed architecture can reduce the total signaling cost compared to the traditional architecture. Secondly, we address the question regarding the scalability of the control plane. We take the Mobility Management Entity (MME) - one of the EPC key control plane entities - as a case study. In our work, the MME is deployed as a cluster of multiple virtual instances (vMMEs) and a front-end load balancer. We focus on investigating different approaches to achieve better load balancing among these vMMEs, which in turn improves scalability. Our experimental results suggest that carefully selected load balancing algorithms can significantly reduce the control plane latency.

Abstract [en]

In mobile networks, the mobile core plays a crucial role in providing connectivity between mobile user devices and external packet data networks such as the Internet. After more than three decades, the mobile core has been gradually evolved through four generations and is called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) in the current generation (4G). In recent years, the explosion of mobile data traffic and devices and the advent of new services have led to the investigation of the next generation of mobile networks, i.e., 5G. Among other technology candidates, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been widely considered to be key enablers for the network architecture of 5G, especially the mobile packet core (MPC) network.

This thesis aims at identifying benefits and challenges of introducing SDN and NFV to re-achitect the current MPC architecture towards 5G and addressing some of the challenges. To this end, we conduct a comprehensive survey of the existing SDN/NFV-based MPC architectures. Through this survey work, several research questions for future work have been identified and we contribute to address two of the research questions. Firstly, we propose an SDN/NFV-based MPC architecture for providing multicast and broadcast services. Secondly, we tackle the scalability problem of the Mobility Management Entity (MME) - one of the EPC key control plane entities. In particular, we investigate different approaches to achieve better load balancing among virtual MMEs in a virtual and distributed MME design, which in turn improves scalability.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlstad: Karlstads universitet, 2018. p. 16
Series
Karlstad University Studies, ISSN 1403-8099 ; 2018:25
Keywords
mobile packet core, evolved packet core, SDN, NFV, 5G, scalability, load balancing, control plane, open5Gcore
National Category
Computer Sciences
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-67132 (URN)978-91-7063-858-9 (ISBN)978-91-7063-953-1 (ISBN)
Presentation
2018-06-11, 1B309, 10:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Projects
HITS, 4707
Funder
Knowledge Foundation
Available from: 2018-05-23 Created: 2018-04-30 Last updated: 2019-11-07Bibliographically approved
2. Towards a Scalable and Low-Latency Softwarized Mobile Packet Core Network
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Towards a Scalable and Low-Latency Softwarized Mobile Packet Core Network
2021 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The mobile packet core – a central part of the overall mobile cellular network – has a long history of evolution. Through the years, its architecture has been drastically changed to meet the demand coming from the fast growth in the number of devices as well as the introduction of new types of applications and services. On one hand, the number of new devices and subscribers keeps increasing at an unprecedented rate, which can still give rise to scalability issues in the mobile packet core if it is not properly managed. On the other hand, the introduction of new types of services brings with it a new set of requirements, such as low-latency and high reliability. The network softwarization is widely considered as a promising approach to address these two challenges.

This thesis focuses on enhancing the scalability of a softwarized mobile packet core network for 5G and beyond, and the communication latency it provides. Moreover, the thesis provides an extensive survey of existing softwarized mobile packet core network solutions, identifying important questions and gaps for future research. This thesis also explores the possibility of leveraging the network softwarization concept to design a softwarized mobile packet core network to support multicast and broadcast services. In order to tackle the scalability issue in a softwarized mobile packet core, the thesis proposes several dynamic and adaptive load-balancing algorithms to efficiently manage the traffic load in both the control and the user plane. These load-balancing algorithms take into account different factors such as the current load of virtualized network functions and the estimation of the communication latency. On the latency aspect, the thesis studies the feasibility of using a softwarized mobile packet core for delivering time-critical messages in a smart-grid environment, and proposes several deployable communication solutions to support the study.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlstad: Karlstads universitet, 2021. p. 44
Series
Karlstad University Studies, ISSN 1403-8099 ; 2021:16
Keywords
Mobile Packet Core, Evolved Packet Core, 5G, SDN, NFV, Scalability, Control Plane, User Plane, MME, UPF, VPP, Load Balancing, Auto-Scaling, Time-Critical, Low-Latency, Smart Grid, GOOSE
National Category
Computer Sciences
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-83734 (URN)978-91-7867-211-0 (ISBN)978-91-7867-221-9 (ISBN)
Public defence
2021-06-07, Zoom, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Projects
HITSH2020 5Genesis
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 4707
Note

Article 6 part of thesis as manuscript, now published.

Available from: 2021-05-17 Created: 2021-04-22 Last updated: 2022-03-18Bibliographically approved

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