A method for implementing a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunnel protocol (GTP) in a packet core (PC) of a third generation (3G) network having a split architecture where a control plane of the PC of the 3G network is in a cloud computing system, the cloud computing system including a controller, the controller to execute a plurality of control plane modules, the control plane to communicate with the data plane of the PC through a control plane protocol, the data plane implemented in a plurality of network elements of the 3G network by configuring switches implementing a data plane of the SGSN and GGSN and intermediate switches to establish a first and second GTP tunnel endpoint.

Implementing a 3g packet core in a cloud computer with openflow data and control planes

A method implements a control plane of an evolved packet core (EPC) of a long term evolution (LTE) network in a cloud computing system. A cloud manager monitors resource utilization of each control plane module and the control plane traffic handled by each control plane module. The cloud manager detects a threshold level of resource utilization or traffic load for one of the plurality of control plane modules of the EPC. A new control plane module is initialized as a separate virtual machine by the cloud manager in response to detecting the threshold level. The new control plane module signals the plurality of network elements in the data plane to establish flow rules and actions to establish differential routing of flows in the data plane using the control protocol, wherein flow matches are encoded using an extensible match structure in which the flow match is encoded as a type-length-value (TLV).

Implementing EPC in a cloud computer with openflow data plane

The crucial role that networking plays in Cloud computing calls for a holistic vision that allows combined control, management, and optimization of both networking and computing resources in a Cloud environment, which leads to a convergence of networking and Cloud computing. Network virtualization is being adopted in both telecommunications and the Internet as a key attribute for the next generation networking. Virtualization, as a potential enabler of profound changes in both communications and computing domains, is expected to bridge the gap between these two fields. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), when applied in network virtualization, enables a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) paradigm that may greatly facilitate the convergence of networking and Cloud computing. Recently the application of SOA in network virtualization has attracted extensive interest from both academia and industry. Although numerous relevant research works have been published, they are currently scattered across multiple fields in the literature, including telecommunications, computer networking, Web services, and Cloud computing. In this article we present a comprehensive survey on the latest developments in service-oriented network virtualization for supporting Cloud computing, particularly from a perspective of network and Cloud convergence through NaaS. Specifically, we first introduce the SOA principle and review recent research progress on applying SOA to support network virtualization in both telecommunications and the Internet. Then we present a framework of network-Cloud convergence based on service-oriented network virtualization and give a survey on key technologies for realizing NaaS, mainly focusing on state of the art of network service description, discovery, and composition. We also discuss the challenges brought in by network-Cloud convergence to these technologies and research opportunities available in these areas, with a hope to arouse the research community's interest in this emerging interdisciplinary field.

A Survey on Service-Oriented Network Virtualization Toward Convergence of Networking and Cloud Computing

In one embodiment, a method comprises identifying, by an orchestrator executed by a physical machine, a plurality of virtualized network functions required for implementation of a virtualized network service for a customer, each virtualized network function having a corresponding and distinct virtualized container specifying attributes for defining execution of the corresponding virtualized network function within one or more physical machines; and setting by the orchestrator an interdependency indicator within each virtualized container based on association with the virtualized network service, enabling identification of each of the virtualized network functions as interdependent for coordinated execution of the virtualized network service.

Defining interdependent virtualized network functions for service level orchestration

A system (85) and method (102) for controlling mobility of a subscriber-specific Virtual Machine (VM) instance from one VM to another VM using a network node (such as an Evolved Packet Gateway (EPG)) (108) in an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) (90) in a mobile communication network (87). The EPG may control the VM mobility for each subscriber in the context of cloud-based services or virtuaiized applications. The EPG may use GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) tunnels (112) rooted at the EPG to Data Center (DC) VMs (58-60, 62-64, 66-68) to govern intra-DC and inter-DC mobility of VMs and also to tie in the mobility triggers to service provider's policies. Each VM session for the mobile subscribers is anchored in the EPG, which then assumes the control of VM mobility for each subscriber through the new GTP interface with the VMs. The EPC-based control of VM mobility can provide optimization of cloud services accessed by a subscriber over a mobile connection.

Virtual machine mobility with evolved packet core

A virtualized telecom system and a method for managing service continuity and mobility in a virtualized telecom system. The system comprises a plurality of execution nodes each configured to execute a network function by registering; and a manager node for registering each of the plurality of execution nodes, assigning a node identifier (Node ID) to each of the plurality of execution nodes, periodically polling each of the plurality of execution nodes for a status, and issuing control instructions to each of the plurality of execution nodes based upon the status of a respective execution node. Each of the plurality of execution node responds to the polling by transmitting its status to the manager node. The status includes runtime information and pre-configuration information.

System method and program for telecom infrastructure virtualization and management

While there have been tremendous efforts to develop the architecture and protocols to support advanced Internet-based services over 3G and 4G networks, IMS is far from being deployed in a wide scale manner. Effort to create an operator controlled signaling infrastructure using IP-based protocols has resulted in a large number of functional components and interactions between those components. Thus, the carriers are trying to explore alternative ways to deploy IMS that will allow them to manage their network in a cost effective manner while offering the value-added services. One of such approaches is self organization of IMS. The self organizing IMS can enable the IMS functional components and corresponding nodes to adapt them dynamically based on the features like network load, number of users and available system resources. This paper introduces such a self organizing and adaptive IMS architecture, describes the advanced functions and demonstrates the initial results from the prototype test-bed. In particular, we show how all IMS functional components can be merged and split among different nodes as the network demand and environment change without disrupting the ongoing sessions or calls. Although it is too early to conclude the effectiveness of self organizing IMS, initial results are encouraging and it may provide additional incentives to the operators for network evolution.

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Self organizing IP Multimedia Subsystem

The User-Generated Contents (UGC) and User-Generated Services (UGS) concepts allow end-users to create their own contents and services as well as to share and to manage the lifecycle of these services. Web Services paradigm has been widely used for services composition in Internet to create Web applications that are flexible and rapidly deployable. In Telecom, on the other hand, the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) architecture enables valued-added services composition for IP-based networks. Several ongoing efforts are attempting to leverage service-oriented architecture (SOA) for Telecom environment. The IEEE Next-Generation Service Overlay Networks (NGSON) working group is focusing on this integration and an architecture has been proposed. This paper work along NGSON concept and provide its extension for services composition. Finally, we discuss an illustrative use case scenario to help bring clarity to our proposed "Enhanced" NGSON architecture.

Services Composition Based on Next-Generation Service Overlay Networks Architecture

In order to provide various attractive services to users, a user-centric approach such as usergenerated contents and services and a platform which can create a service easily and efficiently have been studied and designed during the past two decades. The IEEE NGSON standard has defined a functional architecture that provides advanced overlay functions for value-added services by collaboration of services with features of context awareness, dynamic adaptation and self-organizing management. Its service composition mechanism is comparable with service oriented architecture. However, due to SOA's complexity, it has not become as popular for user-generated services and contents as so-called mashup technologies, which also provide attractive and simple service creation. In this article we propose the adoption of loosely coupled service composition into the NGSON framework that can easily integrate existing communications and data services with little to no dependence on the underlying implementation and service description language details. Furthermore, the NGSON prototype supporting our proposal is presented as a proof of concept and to verify its advantages for operators, service providers, and end users.

Loosely coupled service composition for deployment of next generation service overlay networks

With the increasing interest in deploying 4G/LTE networks, IMS has a potential to be deployed in a wide scale in order to support mobile Internet and value-added services over next-generation networks. Moreover, the effort to create an operator-controlled signaling infrastructure using IP-based protocols has resulted in a large number of functional components and interactions between core networks elements. Thus, the carriers are trying to explore alternative ways to deploy IMS that will allow them to manage their network in a cost effective manner while offering rich communications services. One of such approaches is self-organization of IMS (SOIMS). The self-organizing IMS can enable the IMS functional components to adapt dynamically based on the features like network load, number of users, node failures and available system resources. This paper proposes different mechanisms to handle self-organizing IMS with usage of load balancing paradigm. The proposed solution enables topology hiding, IMS nodes failure recovery, session continuity support, and IMS scalability.

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Satoshi Komorita

Papers

System method and program for telecom infrastructure virtualization and management

Self organizing IP Multimedia Subsystem

Services Composition Based on Next-Generation Service Overlay Networks Architecture

Loosely coupled service composition for deployment of next generation service overlay networks

Service continuity support in self-organizing IMS networks