Extending SDN to End Nodes Towards Heterogeneous Wireless Mobility

flaviomeneses — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 11:13:28 +0000

The connectivity capabilities of mobile wireless devices have been forever changing how networks operate, increasingly demanding resources from the network. This places a need for novel mobile network architectures and mechanisms, targeting tomorrows challenges, as envisaged by 5G networks research efforts. This paper sheds a light on an important 5G aspect, namely the interaction of the mobile node with the network for the optimization of mobility processes, defining a concept framework where Software Defined Networking (SDN) reaches the end device. In this way, SDN protocols such as OpenFlow are extended with mobility management capabilities, where the mobile terminal can provide details about perceived connectivity targets and conditions, and the controller is able to enforce necessary changes to data flows all the way to the terminal node. This framework was experimentally evaluated in a physical wireless testbed, with results showcasing its feasibility in a mobile offloading scenario.

Multiple Flow in Extended SDN Wireless Mobility

dcorujo — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 10:06:02 +0000

5G, as the next generation telecommunications architecture that aims to tackle the explosion of connected devices, services and access technologies, will heavily rely on Software Defined Mechanisms (SDN) to compose its underlying mechanisms. Notwithstanding, despite the need for novel control procedures to support and optimize increasingly challenging wireless mobile scenarios, SDN has been being deployed at the core and backhaul sections of the network and is not actively considering its impact directly over the wireless mobile terminals themselves. The challenges associated with the extension of SDN protocols, such as OpenFlow, all the way to the terminal requires the design and evaluation of frameworks that not only provide such mechanisms, but actually evaluate them and their benefits. This paper explores a framework where SDN mechanisms are extended all the way to the mobile node, in heterogeneous wireless environments featuring different mobile nodes with multiple data flows, which act both as consumers and producers of information. In this way, flow-based mobility management becomes available to the network controller entity, through the OpenFlow protocol, allowing as well the assistance of the mobile nodes in the execution of the mobility procedure. The concept framework was implemented over a physical wireless testbed, validating its contribution in a mobile source-mobility use case, with results highlighting the promising benefits of extending SDN approaches for end-to-end flow control in wireless environments.

(Archived) - Mobile Node

Extending SDN to End Nodes Towards Heterogeneous Wireless Mobility

Multiple Flow in Extended SDN Wireless Mobility