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With the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is introduced in the edge network to provide flexible and personalized service. However, there still exist some problems to be solved, such as high cost, unbalanced load, and low availability. Therefore, a reliability-and-energy-balanced Service Function Chain (SFC) mapping and migration method is presented for IoT applications. First, aiming at improving network performance and reducing expenditure, an SFC mapping algorithm based on cost optimization, load balancing, and reliability is proposed to map SFC requests onto the network and provide backup. Second, aiming at optimizing resource configuration, an SFC migration method based on energy consumption and quality of service is proposed to integrate network resources. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the compared algorithms by 15.5% and 24.55% in the acceptance ratio of SFC requests and the overall costs, respectively.

Our decade is marked by an increase in the use of mobile networks for industrial and administration actors as well as for the general public thanks to their evolution. The introduction of the 5th generation of mobile networks, 5G, brings a diversity of use cases for mobile networks and a growing number of demands with very heterogeneous needs and with strong quality of service (QoS) constraints. The development of 5G relies on new techniques such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) technologies. SDN allows the separation of control and data planes by providing centralised network management. NFV decouples network functions from the hardware that performs them through virtualisation. The use of these two technologies automates the management of the network and makes it much more flexible and adaptable to changing traffic flows and requirements. The introduction of the network slicing paradigm leads to a division of the network into multiple independent virtual networks cohabiting on the same infrastructure. This paradigm allows to meet the very heterogeneous needs of future applications. In this thesis, we focus on optimising the resource utilisation of next generation networks in order to decrease operational costs and to accept more demands. We first study the allocation of service function chains, to quickly accept requests and to meet the diverse and high-volume demands of mobile networks. We then study the feasibility of Make-Before-Break reconfiguration of requests, which allows to reconfigure without degrading the QoS. We then scale up our reconfiguration and adapt it to network slicing to be used on future 5G networks. Finally, we optimise the reconfiguration periods by implementing a reinforcement learning algorithm, minimising the management costs.; Notre décennie voit l’accroissement de l'utilisation des réseaux mobiles pour les acteurs industriels et administratifs ainsi que pour le grand public grâce à l'introduction de la 5ème génération de réseaux mobiles : la 5G. La 5G apporte une diversité de cas d'utilisation des réseaux mobiles et un nombre croissant de demandes avec des besoins très hétérogènes mais toujours avec de fortes contraintes de qualité de service (QoS).La 5G a été développée pour utiliser les technologies de réseaux définis par logiciel (SDN) et de virtualisation de fonctions réseaux (NFV). SDN sépare les plans de contrôle et de données et offre une gestion centralisée du réseau. NFV dissocie les fonctions réseaux du matériel qui les exécute grâce à la virtualisation. Ces technologies automatisent la gestion du réseau et le rendent plus flexible et adaptable à l'évolution du débit du trafic ainsi que de ses besoins. L'introduction du paradigme de découpage du réseau entraîne une division du réseau en des réseaux virtuels indépendants cohabitant sur la même infrastructure. Ce paradigme permettra de répondre aux besoins très hétérogènes des futures demandes. Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons à l'optimisation de l'utilisation des ressources des réseaux de nouvelle génération afin de diminuer les coûts opérationnels et d'accepter plus de demandes. Nous étudions d’abord l'allocation de chaînes de fonctions de services, pour accepter rapidement les requêtes et répondre aux demandes diverses et abondantes des réseaux mobiles. Nous étudions ensuite la faisabilité de la reconfiguration Make-Before-Break des requêtes, qui permet de reconfigurer sans dégrader la QoS. Nous adaptons ensuite notre reconfiguration au network slicing pour l'utiliser sur les futures réseaux 5G. Enfin nous optimisons les périodes de reconfiguration grâce à un algorithme d'apprentissage par renforcement, réduisant ainsi les coûts de gestion.

Background: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a paradigm shift in the way network operators deploy and manage their services. The basic idea behind this new technology is the separation of network functions from the traditional dedicated hardware by implementing them as a software that is able to run on top of general-purpose hardware. Thus, the resulting pieces of software are called Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). NFV is expected, on one hand, to lead to increased deployment flexibility and agility of network services and, on the other hand, to reduce operating and capital expenditures. One of the major challenges in NFV adoption is the NFV Infrastructure's Resource Allocation (NFVI-RA) for the requested VNF-Forwarding Graph (VNF-FG). This problem is named VNF-forwarding graph mapping problem and is known to be an NP-hard problem. Objective: To address the VNF-FG mapping problem, the objective is to design a solution that uses a meta-heuristic method to minimize the mapping cost. Methods: To cope with this NP-Hard problem, this paper proposes an algorithm based on Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP), a cost-efficient meta-heuristic algorithm, in which the main objective is to minimize the mapping cost. Another method named MARA (Most Available Resource Algorithm) was devised with the objective of reducing the Substrate Network’s resources use at the bottleneck clusters. Results: The Performance evaluation is conducted using real and random network topologies to confront the proposed version of GRASP with another heuristic, existing in the literature, based on the Viterbi algorithm. The results of these evaluations reveal the efficiency of the proposed GRASP ‘s version in terms of reducing the cost mapping and performs consistently well across all the evaluations and metrics. Conclusion: The problem of VNF-FG mapping is formalized, and a solution based on GRASP meta- heuristic is proposed. Performance analysis based on simulations are given to show the behavior and efficiency of this solution.

Service Function Chaining (SFC) paradigm improves network capabilities thanks to the support of application-driven-networking, which is realized through the invocation of an ordered set of Service Functions (SFs). The programmability and flexibility provided by emerging technologies such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are perfect features for efficiently managing the lifecycle of SFCs. However, the limitation of Ternary Content Address Memories (TCAMs) of the SDN nodes in SDN-based SFC scenarios can lead to network performance degradation when the SFC classifier is not able to install new classification rules. To tackle the Dynamic Chain Request Classification Offloading (D-CRCO) problem presented in this paper, a hybrid eviction and split-and-distribute approach is proposed, where i) the dynamic behavior of SFC requests is exploited by removing the corresponding idle rules from the flow tables if necessary; and ii) SFC classification is not forced to be carried out by the ingress node, but by any transit node in the domain. An Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation and an heuristic are provided to solve D-CRCO, with the goal of maximizing the number of SFC requests that can be served, respecting TCAM size, link capacity, and SF availability constraints. Simulation and emulation results over two real topologies show that the proposed solution is able to significantly increase the number of served SFC requests with a negligible impact on the network performance.

International audience; We focus on the placement of Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) chains in the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) context where NFV Infrastructures (NFVIs) are used to host the VNFs. The optimal placement of VNF (service) chains in hosting infrastructures is one of the key issues in the deployment of service functions in large-scale environments. The Virtualized Network Functions Chain Placement Problem VNF-CPP is NP-Hard and there is a need for placement approaches that can scale with problem size and find good solutions in acceptable times. We propose a matrix-based optimization and a multi-stage graph method that are cost efficient and improve scalability by finding solutions in polynomial times. These algorithms are compared with an exact formulation given by the Perfect 2-Matching leading to a polynomial variant of the VNF-CPP for VNF chains with 2 arcs. Simulation results for longer and more complex chains confirm the efficiency and scalability of the proposed methods and their ability to find good suboptimal solutions

Service Function Chaining (SFC) paradigm consists in steering traffic flows through an ordered set of Service Functions (SFs) so that to realize complex end to end services. SFC architecture introduces all the logical functions that need to be developed in order to provide the required service. The SFC overlay infrastructure can be built on top of many different underlay network technologies. The high flexibility and centrally controlled feature of Software Defined Networking (SDN), make SDN networks to be a perfect underlay to build the SFC architecture. Due to Ternary Content Address Memory (TCAM) limited size, SDN switches have a limitation in the number of flow rules that can be hosted. This constraint is particularly penalizing in case of the SFC classifier function, since it requires to manage a high number of different flows. The limitation imposed by the TCAM size on the SFC classifier can be a bottleneck for the number of SFC requests that the SDN-based SFC architecture can handle. In this paper we define the Dynamic Chain Request Classification Offloading (D-CRCO) problem, as the one of maximizing the number of accepted SFC requests, having the possibility of: i) implement the SFC classifier also in a node that is internal to the SDN-based SFC domain, and ii) install classification rules in a reactive fashion. Furthermore, we propose the Dynamic Nearest Node (DNN) heuristic to solve the D-CRCO problem. Performance evaluation shows that by using DNN heuristic it is possible to triple the number of accepted requests, with respect to existing solutions.

Traditional networks are based on an ever-growing variety of network functions that run on proprietary hardware devices called middleboxes. Designing these vendor-specific appliances and deploying them is very complex, costly and time-consuming. Moreover, with the ever-increasing and heterogeneous short-term services requirements, service providers have to scale up their physical infrastructure periodically, which results in high CAPEX and OPEX. This traditional paradigm leads to network ossification and high complexity in network management and services provisioning to address emerging use cases. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has attracted notable attention as a promising paradigm to tackle such challenges by decoupling network functions from the underlying proprietary hardware and implementing them as software, named Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), able to work on inexpensive commodity hardware. These VNFs can be arranged and chained together in a predefined order, the so-called Service Function chaining (SFC), to provide end-to-end services. Despite all the benefits associated with the new paradigm, NFV comes with the challenge of how to place the functions of the users' requested services within the physical network while providing the same resiliency as if a dedicated infrastructure were used, given that commodity hardware is less reliable than the dedicated one. This problem becomes particularly challenging when service requests have to be fulfilled as soon as they arise (i.e., in an online manner). In light of these new challenges, we propose new solutions to tackle the problem of online SFC placement while ensuring the robustness of the placed services against physical failures in data-center (DC) topologies. Although recovery solutions exist, they still require time in which the impacted services will be unavailable while taking smart placement decisions can help in avoiding the need for reacting against simple network failures. First, we provide a comprehensive study on how the placement choices can affect the overall robustness of the placed services. Based on this study we propose a deterministic solution applicable when the service provider has full knowledge and control on the infrastructure. Thereafter, we move from this deterministic solution to a stochastic approach for the case where SFCs are requested by tenants oblivious to the physical DC network, where users only have to provide the SFC they want to place and the required availability level (e.g., 5 nines). We simulated several solutions and the evaluation results show the effectiveness of our algorithms and the feasibility of our propositions in very large scale data center topologies, which make it possible to use them in a productive environment. All these solutions work well in trusted environments with a central authority that controls the infrastructure. However, in some cases, many enterprises need to collaborate together in order to run tenants' application, e.g., MapReduce applications. In such a scenario, we move to a completely untrusted decentralized environment with no trust guarantees in the presence of not only byzantine nodes but also rational nodes. We considered the case of MapReduce applications in such an environment and present an adapted MapReduce framework called MARS, which is able to work correctly in such a context without the need of any trusted third party. Our simulations show that MARS grants the execution integrity in MapReduce linearly with the number of byzantine nodes in the system., Les réseaux traditionnels reposent sur un grand nombre de fonctions réseaux très hétérogènes qui s'exécutent sur du matériel propriétaire déployé dans des boîtiers dédiés. Concevoir ces dispositifs spécifiques et les déployer est complexe, long et coûteux. De plus, comme les besoins des clients sont de plus en plus importants et hétérogènes, les fournisseurs de services sont contraints d'étendre ou de moderniser leur infrastructure régulièrement, ce qui augmente fortement les coûts d'investissement (CAPEX) et de maintenance (OPEX) de l'infrastructure. Ce paradigme traditionnel provoque une ossification du réseau et rend aussi plus complexe la gestion et la fourniture des fonctions réseau pour traiter les nouveaux cas d'utilisation. La virtualisation des fonctions réseau (NFV) est une solution prometteuse pour relever de tels défis en dissociant les fonctions réseau du matériel sous-jacent et en les implémentant en logiciel avec des fonctions réseau virtuelles (VNFs) capables de fonctionner avec du matériel non spécifique peu coûteux. Ces VNFs peuvent être organisés et chaînés dans un ordre prédéfini, formant des chaînes de Services (SFC) afin de fournir des services de bout-en-bout aux clients. Cependant, même si l'approche NFV comporte de nombreux avantages, il reste à résoudre des problèmes difficiles comme le placement des fonctions réseau demandées par les utilisateurs sur le réseau physique de manière à offrir le même niveau de résilience que si une infrastructure dédiée était utilisée, les machines standards étant moins fiables que les dispositifs réseau spécifiques. Ce problème devient encore plus difficile lorsque les demandes de service nécessitent des décisions de placement à la volée. Face à ces nouveaux défis, nous proposons de nouvelles solutions pour résoudre le problème du placement à la volée des VNFs tout en assurant la résilience des services instanciés face aux pannes physiques pouvant se produire dans différentes topologies de centres de données (DC). Bien qu'il existe des solutions de récupération, celles-ci nécessitent du temps pendant lequel les services affectés restent indisponibles. D'un autre côté, les décisions de placement intelligentes peuvent épargner le besoin de réagir aux pannes pouvant se produire dans les centres de données. Pour pallier ce problème, nous proposons tout d'abord une étude approfondie de la manière dont les choix de placement peuvent affecter la robustesse globale des services placés dans un centre de données. Sur la base de cette étude, nous proposons une solution déterministe applicable lorsque le fournisseur de services a une connaissance et un contrôle complets de l'infrastructure. Puis, nous passons de cette solution déterministe à une approche stochastique dans le cas où les SFCs sont demandées par des clients indépendamment du réseau physique du DC, où les utilisateurs n'ont qu'à fournir les SFC qu'ils veulent placer et le niveau de robustesse requis (e.g., les 5 neufs). Nous avons développé plusieurs algorithmes et les avons évaluées. Les résultats de nos simulations montrent l'efficacité de nos algorithmes et la faisabilité de nos propositions dans des topologies de centres de données à très grande échelle, ce qui rend leur utilisation possible dans un environnement de production. Toutes ces solutions proposées fonctionnent de manière efficace dans un environnement de confiance, comme les centres de données, avec la présence d’une autorité centrale qui contrôle toute l'infrastructure. Cependant, elles ne s'appliquent pas à des scénarios décentralisés comme c'est le cas lorsque différentes entreprises ont besoin de collaborer pour exécuter les applications de leurs clients. Nous étudions cette problématique dans le cadre des applications MapReduce exécutées en présence de nœuds byzantins et de nœuds rationnels et en l’absence de tiers de confiance.

International audience; Ce travail vise à montrer l’utilité de reconfigurer des chaînes de fonctions de services (SFC) dans le but d’améliorer le coût opérationnel du réseau. Nous proposons un modèle d’optimisation basé sur le mécanism emake-before-break, dans lequel l’ancien chemin n’est détruit que quand le nouveau chemin est complètement opérationnel, ceci afin de ne pas avoir d’interruption du trafic. Nous montrons qu’avec notre approche, nommée break-free, le coût opérationnel du réseau est réduit tout en augmentant le taux d’acceptation des SFC.

The current telecommunication infrastructures rely on the use of network functions implemented in dedicated hardware which are able to identify, handle, modify, and execute many protocols and services. However, difficulties related to the maintenance and upgrade of these dedicated hardwares leads to a process called Internet ossification, limiting the evolution of the Internet. In this context, the Network Function Virtualization paradigm arises as an option to migrate these functions from a dedicated and physical environment to a virtualized one, completely running on commercial off-the-shelf servers and inheriting the flexibility (e.g., monitoring, scale, sharing) typically found in virtualized environments. Thereby, new challenges emerge and are gradually explored by the scientific community to foster the adoption of NFV. Specifically, the deploymment of virtualized network services is composed by three main stages (composition, embedding, and scheduling) whose are named as Network Function Virtualization Resource Allocation. Therefore, diverse solutions were developed to solve specific requirements for single deployment scenarios (e.g., reducing the overall delay, minimizing the fincancial cost, increase the processing units availability) using, for that, particular and application oriented topological and service resquest models. This work, on the other side, proposes a holistic framework containing models, methods and solutions capable to describe and execute deployment process for generic scenarios through customized definitions, without the need to lead with low level processing details or source code modification. The main contribuitions are: a virtualized network service topology specification model; a virtualized network service request generic model; an indexing method applicable to any Network Function Virtualization Resource Allocation stage; and two solutions, one for composition and another for multi-domain embbeding, which use the developed tools. Finally, the framework was evaluated through the experimentation of the developed solutions to a security, content control and load balancing service for HTTP and HTTPS servers. The obtained results showed the the tested solutions’ correct operational behaviour and their results representativity in real instantiations, suggesting the using feasibility of the developed framework. As atuais infraestruturas de telecomunicações são baseadas em diferentes funções de rede implementadas através de equipamentos dedicados capazes de identificar, tratar, modificar e executar os mais variados protocolos e serviços. Entretanto, dificuldades relacionadas à manutenção e atualização desses equipamentos contribuem com o processo conhecido como ossificação da Internet, prejudicando a sua evolução de maneira geral. Nesse contexto, o paradigma Network Function Virtualization surge como uma opção para migração dessas funções de um meio físico com equipamentos dedicados a um ambiente virtualizado instanciado sobre máquinas de uso geral, permitindo usufruir da flexibilidade de operações (e.g., monitoramento, escala, compartilhamento) e baixo custo financeiro associados à virtualização. Com isso, novos desafios surgem e são gradualmente explorados pela comunidade científica em vista de viabilizar a adoção prática desse paradigma, entre os principais destaca-se o processo de implantação de serviços de rede virtualizados que, por sua vez, apresenta três etapas principais (composição, integração e agendamento da execução) cujo o conjunto é denominado Network Function Virtualization Resource Allocation. Logo, diversas soluções foram desenvolvidas com o objetivo de atender cenários de implantação com requisitos pontuais (e.g., reduzir o atraso, reduzir o custo financeiro, aumentar o tempo de disponibilidade de núcleos de processamento) utilizando, para isso, modelos topológicos e de requisição de serviço particulares e orientados a aplicação. Sendo assim, esta dissertação propõe um arcabouço holístico contendo modelos, metodologias e soluções capazes de descrever e executar o processo de implantação para cenários e serviços genéricos através da definição de multi-requisitos customizados, abstraindo os detalhes de processamento de baixo nível e eliminando quaisquer adaptações de código fonte. As principais contribuições deste trabalho são: um modelo para a especificação de topologias de serviços virtualizados de rede; um modelo genérico destinado a criação de documentos de requisição de serviços virtualizados de rede; uma metodologia baseada em indexadores aplicável a qualquer etapa do Network Function Virtualization Resource Allocation; e duas soluções, uma de composição e outra de integração multi-domínio, que utilizam o ferramental construído. Por fim, o arcabouço foi avaliado através da experimentação das soluções utilizando um serviço de segurança, controle de conteúdo e balanceamento de carga para servidores HTTP e HTTPS. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram o correto comportamento operacional das soluções testadas e a representatividade de seus resultados em instanciações reais, sugerindo a viabilidade de utilização do arcabouço desenvolvido.

ontemporary Service Function Chaining (SFC), and the requirements arising from privacy concerns, call for the increasing integration of security features such as encryption and isolation across Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) domains. Therefore, suitable adaptations of automation and encryption concepts for the development of interconnected data centre infrastructures are essential. Nevertheless, packet isolation constraints related to the current NFV infrastructure and SFC protocols, render current NFV standards insecure. Accordingly, the goal of our work was an experimental demonstration of a new SFC packet forwarding standard that enables contemporary data centres to overcome these constraints. This article presents a comprehensive view of the developed architecture, focusing on the elements that constitute a new forwarding standard of encrypted SFC packets. Through a Proof-of-Concept demonstration, we present our closing experimental results of how the architecture fulfils the requirements defined in our use case. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

International audience; Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is deemed as a mean to simplify deployment and management of network andtelecommunication services. With wireless access networks, NFV has to take into account the radio resources at wireless nodes inorder to provide an end-to-end optimal virtual network function (VNF) allocation. This topic has been well-studied in existingliterature, however, the effects of variations of networks over time have not been addressed yet. In this paper, we provide a model ofthe adaptive and dynamic VNF allocation problem considering VNF migration. Then we formulate the optimisation problem asan Integer Linear Programming (ILP) and provide a heuristic algorithm for allocating multiple service function chains (SFCs).The proposed approach allows SFCs to be reallocated so as to obtain the optimal solution over time. The results confirm thatthe proposed algorithm is able to optimize the network utilization while limiting the reallocation of VNFs which could interruptservices.

International audience; La virtualisation des réseaux, portée en partie par l'initiative virtualisation des fonctions de réseau (Network Function Virtualization-NFV), apporte une plus grande flexibilité aux opérateurs de réseaux ainsi qu'une baisse des coûts de gestion. Les fonctions réseau exécutées sur du matériel dédié peuvent maintenant être exécutées par des serveurs virtuels. Un service correspond alors à une séquence de fonctions, appelée chaîne de services, à effectuer dans un ordre précis sur l'ensemble des flots du service. Le problème considéré est alors de satisfaire les requêtes des chaînes de services tout en trouvant le meilleur compromis entre l'utilisation de la bande passante et le nombre d'emplacements pour héberger les fonctions réseau. Nous proposons un modèle de génération de colonnes pour le routage et le placement de chaînes de service. Nous montrons à l'aide d'expérimentations poussées que nous pouvons résoudre le problème de façon optimale en moins d'une minute pour des réseaux ayant une taille allant jusqu'à 65 noeuds et 16 000 requêtes. Nous étudions aussi le compromis entre l'utilisation de la bande passante et le nombre de noeuds capables d'héberger des fonctions réseau.

Currently, we are experiencing the era of digitization that is suffering challenges due to the fast growth in demand of bandwidth and services innovations which are leading to traditional networks at its limit. This situation is created from a change in telecommunication market that is in constantly development. Although networks have improved over time, the new needs exceed their reach and have to face up to new demands. This set of challenges leads to the creation of new solutions in order to be able to adapt current needs easily keeping up the levels of demand and service. The networks and services industry is changing into virtualization approach and moving away from the proprietary hardware in order to provide scalable, elastic and agile networks that make easier the development of services on demand in the shortest time and with the lowest cost possible. Transforming technologies SDN, NFV and SFC provide new possibilities completely changing the way of designing, deploying and managing networks offering notable improvements and increasing their efficiency. For this reason, there is a huge spectrum of chances in the investigation of these techniques in order to achieve a success in its implementation. The aim of this work has been focused on search information about these emerging technologies and their practical implementation through different scenarios using various methodologies (automatic installation, manual installation and the use of a predefined OPNFV scenario). The deployment of this scenario and its operation, can be extrapolate it to real environments and build a reliable teaching or production platforms where. The maturity lack of these techniques has complicated the procedure and the initial aim could not be fully achieved. Nevertheless, it has been concluded that the nested virtualization causes instability in configurations and it has been confirmed the global operation of SFC in the integration of the different projects has been fulfilled.

International audience; This paper focuses on placement and chaining of virtualized network functions (VNFs) in Network Function Virtualization Infrastructures (NFVI) for emerging software networks serving multiple tenants. Tenants can request network services to the NFVI in the form of service function chains (in the IETF SFC sense) or VNF Forwarding Graphs (VNF-FG in the case of ETSI) in support of their applications and business. This paper presents efficient algorithms to provide solutions to this NP-Hard chain placement problem to support NFVI providers. Cost-efficient and improved scalability multi-stage graph and 2-Factor algorithms are presented and shown to find near-optimal solutions in few seconds for large instances

Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicações OpenStack is a free and open-source cloud computing software platform. It is seen as a major technology enabler for the future of telecommunications. OpenStack eases the creation of virtualization environments, and is seen as a major technology for the development of network function virtualization (NFV). Currently, OpenStack is developing the use cases and the code for service function virtualization, but the higher layer management aspects are not being considered. This dissertation will address this challenge, and will work on the creation of an interface for a simple usage of the NFV functions, enabling the network manager to build services by concatenation of graphical elements. The Application Programming Interfaces that are currently being developed will be analyzed and a simple web interface to explore theirs potentialities will be created. O OpenStack é uma plataforma livre e open-source de cloud computing. É visto como uma importante tecnologia no futuro das telecomunicações. O OpenStack facilita a criação de ambientes de virtualização e é visto como uma grande tecnologia para o desenvolvimento da virtualização de funções de rede (NFV). Atualmente, a fundacão OpenStack está a desenvolver os casos de uso e o código para a virtualização funções de serviço, mas os aspectos das camadas mais elevadas de gestão não estão a ser considerados. Esta dissertação vai enfrentar este desafio, e vai trabalhar na criação de uma interface para um uso simples do NFV, permitindo que o operador de rede construa serviços por concatenação de elementos gráficos. As interfaces de programação de aplicações que estão actualmente a ser desenvolvidas serão analisadas e uma interface web simples para explorar potencialidades das mesmas será criada.

Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicações Submitted by Manuel Jesus (albertojesus@ua.pt) on 2017-11-07T12:01:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 OpenStack function chaining interface.pdf: 3031495 bytes, checksum: a6344ac9bf507230ad7915a0d5486b1c (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-07T12:01:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OpenStack function chaining interface.pdf: 3031495 bytes, checksum: a6344ac9bf507230ad7915a0d5486b1c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015

Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemática Service Function Chaining, Virtual Network Functions e Cloud Computing são os conceitos chave para resolver (em “grande plano”) uma necessidade actual dos operadores de telecomunicações: a virtualização dos equipamentos na casa dos consumidores, particularmente o Home Gateway. Dentro deste contexto, o objetivo desta dissertação será providenciar as Funções Virtuais de Rede (tais como um vDHCP, Classificador de Tráfego e Shaper) assim como respectivas APIs necessárias para se atingir essa solução de “grande plano”. A solução utilizará tecnologias Open Source como OpenStack, OpenVSwitch e OpenDaylight (assim como contribuições anteriores do Instituto de Telecomunicações) para concretizar uma Prova-de-Conceito do Home Gateway virtual. Após o sucesso da primeira PdC iniciar-se-á a construção da próxima prova, delineando um caminho claro para trabalho futuro. Service Function Chaining, Network Function Virtualization and Cloud Computing are the key concepts to solve (in “big-picture”) one of today’s operator’s needs: virtual Customer Premises Equipments, namely the virtualization of the Home Gateway. Within this realm, it will be the purpose of this dissertation to provide the required Virtual Network Functions (such as a vDHCP, Traffic Classifier and Traffic Shaper) as well as their respective APIs to build that “big-picture” solution. Open Source technologies such as OpenStack, OpenVSwitch and OpenDaylight (along with prior work from Instituto de Telecomunicações) will be used to make a working Proof-of-Concept of the Virtual Home Gateway. After the success of the first PoC, starts the construction of the next PoC and a path for future work is laid-down.

Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemática Submitted by Cristina Santos (cmaria@ua.pt) on 2017-12-13T11:02:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 32986_DI.PDF: 1503754 bytes, checksum: 0f95cc4223e4d56d053b38952e1cf731 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-13T11:02:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 32986_DI.PDF: 1503754 bytes, checksum: 0f95cc4223e4d56d053b38952e1cf731 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015

International audience; This paper presents an underlying framework to support and accelerate the production of applications and services in the context of programmable networks (SDN and NFV, clouds). The proposed framework addresses moreover the 5G KPI of "reducing the average service creation time from 90 hours to 90 minutes" as declared by 5G-PPP association in the early of 2015 among other KPIs. The proposed framework relies on SDN, NFV and Cloud principles and technologies and proposes extensions towards the end to end abstraction that is required for automation of service production. A Service Manager Architecture fulfilling the agility, acceleration and automation requirements is presented along with its relationships and interfaces with the applications and network levels. An application requiring network services, expressed in a network service descriptor, is used to illustrate the architecture usage and benefits and highlights the remaining future research needs and trails

Aquest ítem conté el treball original, defensat públicament amb data de 24 de febrer de 2017, així com una versió millorada del mateix amb data de 28 de febrer de 2017. Els canvis introduïts a la segona versió són 1) correcció d'errades 2) procediment del darrer annex. Telecommunications services have been traditionally designed linking hardware devices and providing mechanisms so that they can interoperate. Those devices are usually specific to a single service and are based on proprietary technology. On the other hand, the current model works by defining standards and strict protocols to achieve high levels of quality and reliability which have defined the carrier-class provider environment. Provisioning new services represent challenges at different levels because inserting the required devices involve changes in the network topology. This leads to slow deployment times and increased operational costs. To overcome the current burdens network function installation and insertion processes into the current service topology needs to be streamlined to allow greater flexibility. The current service provider model has been disrupted by the over-the-top Internet content providers (Facebook, Netflix, etc.), with short product cycles and fast development pace of new services. The content provider irruption has meant a competition and stress over service providers' infrastructure and has forced telco companies to research new technologies to recover market share with flexible and revenue-generating services. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Service Function Chaining (SFC) are some of the initiatives led by the Communication Service Providers to regain the lost leadership. This project focuses on experimenting with some of these already available new technologies, which are expected to be the foundation of the new network paradigms (5G, IOT) and support new value-added services over cost-efficient telecommunication infrastructures. Specifically, SFC scenarios have been deployed with Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV), a Linux Foundation project. Some use cases of the NFV technology are demonstrated applied to teaching laboratories. Although the current implementation does not achieve a production degree of reliability, it provides a suitable environment for the development of new functional improvements and evaluation of the performance of virtualized network infrastructures.