post@simula.no

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Research objectives

The SimulaMet Interoperability lab (SMIL) support a wide range of research activities at SimulaMet, and will in particular address the following research areas:

Benchmark and improve time-sensitive networking technologies for 5G networks between base stations and edge computing for 5G.
Study and improve mechanisms for network slicing to ensure successful co-use of 5G networks for critical applications.
Study how legacy computers can be used to realize Cloud Radio Access Networks by using software defined radio and lower cost of deployment by moving functionality from hardware to software. Of particular interest is real-time scheduling of Cloud RAN workloads in edge data centres.
Study new 5G and IoT applications enabled by edge computing using features such as low latency, high throughput and quality of service guarantees combined with edge computing capabilities available in 5G cellular networks.
Develop and improve self-driving networks for fast recovery with technologies such as SDN, P4 and Network Function Virtualization in combination with machine learning of large-scale data analytics of the entire networked system.
Understand and improve mechanisms required to establish Robust cellular networks for reliable infrastructure for new user groups which relies on dependable networks.

Time sensitive networking

Traditionally, dedicated point-to-point connections using Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) have been used to interconnect smart cellular antennas to base stations. In 5G, the main infrastructure vendors have proposed e-CPRI, based on the Ethernet standard. With Ethernet, one would expect to leverage traditional switches for aggregation and simultaneous data transport in addition to e-CPRI, but Ethernet and legacy switches are not built for the timing requirements of 5G. To overcome this problem, different technologies have been suggested to enable Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) with Ethernet as the transport technology. In this research activity, we study how TSN can be realized in 5G front haul networks, combining the requirements of synchronization, bound latency in combination with traditional best-effort packet transport. In the laboratory we collaborate with TransPacket for access to FPGA-based implementations of TSN using the Fusion network technology implemented in Xilinx FPGAs enabling 100 Gbit/s Ethernet transport aggregating 5G base stations using 10Gbit/s ethernet with guaranteed transport service.

TSN for Ethernet-based transport between base station and edge computers in 5G

Network slicing

In 5G networks, the concept of Network slicing enables different classes of applications to share the same physical network. 5G is expected to be able to handle applications like emergency networks, real-time industry applications in combination with supporting demanding multimedia applications for consumers. These requirements require ability to express and enforce Quality of Service requirements ranging from frequency resource allocation, 5G base station resource allocation, network quality of service and allocation of processing resources in edge computers.

Initial work has focused on SDN-based implementations using the opensource Open Air interface, and future work will extend this to network slicing in 5G-NR and 5G front-haul and back-haul network guarantees for network slicing.

Cloud Radio Access Networks (Cloud RAN)

Cloud RAN enable the use of general purpose computers placed in edge data centres for realizing virtualized radio functions by using software defined radio techniques to lower cost of deployment by moving functionality from hardware to software. Of a particular interest to our research group is real-time scheduling of Cloud RAN workloads, how to partition between real-time and non-real-time workloads in the Cloud RAN, and how to handle the strict requirements to enable services like Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) which can enable new applications previously not possible in cellular networks. Vendors are already introducing Cloud RAN solutions, such as the Nokia AirScale CloudRAN , the 4G/5G C-RAN architecture from Ericsson and 5G oriented C-RAN solutions from Huawei. It is of a particular interest to study if such network architectures can be realized in a multi-vendor environment. At what level should interoperability be ensured? Can Virtual Network Functions from different vendors run in the same edge computer environment?

New 5G and IoT applications enabled by edge computing

With edge computing deployed in the distributed 5G networks, new 5G and IoT applications can be made possible since response times can be guaranteed, and computing resources can be made available close to the application. An example is the real-time application of collision avoidance for cars sharing their sensor data with a local edge data center which can execute collision avoidance algorithms within specified time deadlines to provide drivers or self-driving vehicles with time-critical information to avoid collision. Other applications like games using augmented reality and real-time collaboration in industrial applications can be enabled by low latency and high throughput communication service with processing in edge data centres. Finally, IoT sensors with very low power consumption can leverage high sensitivity 5G NR capabilities to provide very long battery life for embedded applications. In SMIL, we will collaborate with other research groups and the 5G industry to investigate applications previously not possible in cellular networks and suggest improvements to applications and networks.

Self-driving Networks

The complexity of configuration and adjustment of telecommunication networks to respond to rapid changes in demand has led to the vision of Self-driving networks which measure, analyze and control themselves in an automated manner. Self-driving networks can react to changes in the environment (e.g., demand), while exploiting existing flexibilities to optimize themselves. Furthermore, the advent of large-scale machine learning can also benefit self-driving networks and over time develop to faster reconfiguration and more reliable operation compared to manual configuration by human operators, see for example the paper Why (and How) Networks Should Run Themselves for an in-depth discussion.

This method is of particular interest in 5G to ensure rapid reconfiguration in case of failure which requires automated response to demand, changes in geographic load in the network, change in network capacity and loss of connectivity with minimal impact for critical applications. The requirement for reconfiguration can also be used for business purposes, for example optimized use of software licenses, where an operator can install hardware at all relevant locations but deploy software licenses only for operation of a subset of this hardware based on actual demand and moved with users. This research area is closely related to Software Defined Networking which until recently has focused mostly on the data plane with technologies such as OpenFlow and Netconf/Yang.

Main components of an OpenFlow switch (OpenFlow Switch specification)

Recent developments such as the Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors language (P4) has enabled software control also of the data plane which opens for software defined processing in the actual packet flow. In SMIL, we plan to leverage these advances together from SDN controllers such as OpenDaylight to enable Self-driving networks for access and transport networks for 5G. In the laboratory, we will use the latest MX-series routers from Juniper Networks with P4 capabilites to explore self-driving networks for 5G.

Robust cellular networks

New user groups are encouraged to share a common infrastructure to save cost and leverage state of the art technologies. This trend increases the requirements of robustness of the underlying architecture since our society relies not only on critical consumer services like communication services, banking, shopping and logistics, but also applications traditionally served by dedicated networks such as military, emergency (e.g. TETRA) and railroad signalling networks (e.g. GSM-R) which all consider 5G as their network infrastructure in the future.

We believe Heterogeneous infrastructure has several benefits to ensure interoperability and open standards in 5G but this requirement also adds to the complexity of the network since different vendors may rely on different network structures, and different communication protocols even if they are defined by standard bodies such as 3GPP. When the goal of heterogenous infrastructure is added to requirements from new users, we can see that 5G represents very demanding requirements for the cellular operators and the network infrastructure vendors.

Expectation of heterogeneous infrastructure and demands from new users groups in 5G place demanding requirements for interoperability and robustness.

SimulaMet Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications have studied this topic over many years in fixed networks, in 4G cellular networks and for IoT applications. With the new laboratory, we will extend our studies to 5G New Radio and will also address how to provide robustness of the 5G core network by reducing the dependency for a centralized 5G infrastructure by virtualization.

Department:

The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications

Afilliation:

Communication Systems

Publications for SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab

2022

Proceedings, refereed

Load Distribution for Mobile Edge Computing with Reliable Server Pooling

In Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Recent Advances for Multi-Clouds and Mobile Edge Computing (M2EC) in conjunction with the 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA). Sydney, New South Wales/Australia: Springer, 2022.

Status: Accepted

Abstract

Energy-efficient computing model is a popular choice for high performance as well as throughput oriented computing ecosystems. Mobile (computing) devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous to our computing domain, but with limited resources (true both for computation as well as for energy). Hence, workload offloading from resource-constrained mobile devices to the Edge and maybe (later) to the cloud become necessary as well as useful. Thanks to the persistent technical breakthroughs in global wireless standards (or in mobile networks) together with the almost limitless amount of resources in public cloud platforms, workload offloading is possible and cheaper. In such scenarios, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) resources could be provisioned in proximity to the users for supporting latency-sensitive applications. Here, two relevant problems could be: i) How to distribute workload to the resource pools of MEC as well as public (multi-)clouds? ii) How to manage such resource pools effectively? To answer these problems in this paper, we examine the performance of our proposed approach using the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework in more detail. We also have outlined the resource pool management policies to effectively use RSerPool for workload offloading from mobile devices into the cloud/MEC ecosystem.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2022
Conference Name	Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Recent Advances for Multi-Clouds and Mobile Edge Computing (M2EC) in conjunction with the 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA)
Publisher	Springer
Place Published	Sydney, New South Wales/Australia
Keywords	Cloud computing, Load Distribution, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Serverless Computing

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Talks, contributed

T. Dreibholz, A. H. M. Ahmed, M. Fida, A. F. Ocampo and F. I. Michelinakis

Detecting Issues with In-Band Telemetry in OSM-Orchestrated Core Networks

In Virtual. Virtual: ETSI, 2022.

Status: Published

Abstract

Open Source MANO is a helpful tool to manage and orchestrate the instantiation of core network setups, like Network Service (NS) instances of our SimulaMet OpenAirInterface Virtual Network Function (VNF) for Enhanced Packet Cores (EPC). We furthermore extended our NS with VNF instances of Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors (P4) switches, in order to allow for in-band telemetry. With in-band telemetry, it is possible to flexibly add, process, and remove telemetry information to traffic within the packet core, in order to allow for fine-granular evaluation of the system performance and the users' experienced quality of service. In our presentation and demo, we would like to provide an overview of our ongoing work on P4-based in-band telemetry in an OSM-orchestrated 4G core, which is used for detecting performance problems and anomalies in the network based on machine learning. We would furthermore like to demonstrate the details of our setup to the audience in a live demo.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure
Publication Type	Talks, contributed
Year of Publication	2022
Location of Talk	Virtual
Publisher	ETSI
Place Published	Virtual
Type of Talk	Demo presentation
Keywords	Anomaly detection, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Open Source MANO (OSM), P4, Telemetry
URL	http://osm-download.etsi.org/ftp/osm-11.0-eleven/OSM13_Ecosystem_Day/OSM...

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

2021

Book

M. A. Abdulkadir, Ö. Alay, A. Alexiou, M. Anastasopoulos, K. Antevski, E. Aumayr, D. Ayed, J. Baranda, R. Behravesh, C. Benzaid et al.

AI and ML – Enablers for Beyond 5G Networks

Online: 5G PPP Technology Board, 2021.

Status: Published

Abstract

This white paper on AI and ML as enablers of beyond 5G (B5G) networks is based on contributions from almost 20 5G PPP projects, coordinated through the 5G PPP Technology Board, that research, implement and validate 5G and B5G network systems. The paper introduces the main relevant mechanisms in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), currently investigated and exploited for enhancing 5G and B5G networks.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Book
Year of Publication	2021
Date Published	05/2021
Publisher	5G PPP Technology Board
Place Published	Online
URL	https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AI-MLforNetworks-v1-0.pdf
DOI	10.5281/zenodo.429989

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Journal Article

M. Chen, M. W. Raza, T. Dreibholz, X. Zhou and Y. Tan

A Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm for MPTCP Networks

Electronics 10, no. 16 (2021).

Status: Published

Abstract

With the increasing deployment of the Multi-Path Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) in heterogeneous network setups, there is a need to understand how its performance is affected in practice both by traditional factors such as round-trip time measurements, buffer predictive modelling and by calculating the impact factors of network subflows. Studies have shown that path management and packet scheduling have a large effect on overall performance and required limited resources with different congestion control parameters. Unfortunately, most of the previous studies have focused almost exclusively on the improvement of a single parameter, without a holistic view. To deal with this issue effectively, this paper puts forward a Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm (MPCOA), which can find the smaller buffer size and select the appropriate congestion control and path management algorithm on the premise of ensuring larger throughput. Experiments of three scenarios show that MPCOA can save the buffer space and subflow resources, and achieve high throughput. Meanwhile, a set of quantitative improvement results given by MPCOA is convenient for us to evaluate the quality of MPTCP network, and provide reference for our ongoing future work, like for 4G/5G, Internet of Things and Star Link networks.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering
Publication Type	Journal Article
Year of Publication	2021
Journal	Electronics
Volume	10
Issue	16
Date Published	08/2021
Publisher	MDPI
Place Published	Basel/Switzerland
ISSN	2079-9292
Keywords	Buffer Size, congestion control, MPCOA, Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), Path Management
URL	https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/16/1942/pdf
DOI	10.3390/electronics10161942

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Proceedings, refereed

A Demo of Workload Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Using the Reliable Server Pooling Framework

In Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: IEEE Computer Society, 2021.

Status: Published

Abstract

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) places cloud resources nearby the user, to provide support for latency-sensitive applications. Offloading workload from resource-constrained mobile devices (such as smartphones) into the cloud ecosystem is becoming increasingly popular. In this demonstration, we show how to deploy a mobile network (with OpenAirInterface and Open Source MANO), as well as to adapt the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework to efficiently manage MEC as well as multi-cloud resources to run an interactive demo application.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2021
Conference Name	Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN)
Date Published	10/2021
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society
Place Published	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Keywords	Demonstration, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool)
URL	https://www.ieeelcn.org/lcn46demos/Demo_4_1570754367.pdf

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

M. Xie, F. I. Michelinakis, T. Dreibholz, J. Pujol-Roig, S. Malacarne, S. Majumdar, W. Y. Poe and A. Elmokashfi

An Exposed Closed-Loop Model for Customer-Driven Service Assurance Automation

In 2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit). Porto, Portugal: IEEE Computer Society, 2021.

Status: Published

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely applied in telecommunications to enable zero-touch automation in network operation and service management. Due to the high complexity, deploying advanced AI mechanisms is not always feasible inside the operator’s network domains. Instead, via service exposures, it becomes possible for vertical customers to integrate their external AI solutions with the network and service management system to form a closed loop (CL) and contribute to the automation process. In this paper, we propose an exposed CL model based on service exposure and apply it to automate service assurance tasks like autoscaling in a network function virtualization (NFV) system orchestrated by ETSI Open Source MANO (OSM). A testbed is built to validate the model. It collects monitoring data from the OSM monitoring module and external monitoring tools. Vertical customers drive and customize their AI solutions to aggregate these data sets and run analytics to detect and predict anomalies prepared for scaling. Preliminary analysis demonstrates the added values of customer-driven monitoring and analysis via the exposed CL.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2021
Conference Name	2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit)
Pagination	419–424
Date Published	06/2021
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society
Place Published	Porto, Portugal
ISBN Number	978-1-6654-1526-2
Keywords	Autonomous Management, Closed Loop, Machine learning, Monitoring, Service Exposure
DOI	10.1109/EuCNC/6GSummit51104.2021.9482533

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Foivos Ioannis Michelinakis

Research Scientist

foivos@simula.no

Reliable Server Pooling Based Workload Offloading with Mobile Edge Computing: A Proof-of-Concept

In Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2021). Springer, 2021.

Status: Published

Abstract

In recent times, mobile broadband devices have become almost ubiquitous. However, battery-powered devices (such as smartphones), have limitations on energy consumption, computation power and storage space. Cloud computing, and in particular with the upcoming 5G networks, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) can provide compute and storage services at the vicinity of the user (with a low communication latency). However, the complexity lies in how to simply and efficiently realise MEC services, with the auxiliary public (multi-)cloud resources? In this paper, we propose a proof-of-concept of using Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) as a light-weight layer of managing resource pools and handling application sessions with these pools. Our approach is simple, efficient, has low overhead and is available as open-source. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by measuring in a test setup, with a 4G testbed connected to MEC and public multi-cloud resources.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2021
Conference Name	Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2021)
Pagination	582-593
Publisher	Springer
Keywords	5G, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool)

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Talk, keynote

T. Dreibholz

NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation

In Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2021.

Status: Published

Abstract

A large fraction of the communication in the Internet is handled by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Since the first deployments of this protocol more than 30 years ago, the spectrum of applications as well as the structure of the network have developed at a fast pace. For example, today's network devices, like smartphones and laptops — i.e. particularly many devices in the area of mobile computing — frequently have an interesting property: the existence of multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and/or IPv6). The addresses may even change due to mobility. This property, denoted as multi-homing, can be utilised for multi-path transport, i.e. the simultaneous usage of multiple paths in the network to improve performance. Multi-path transport is a hot topic in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the standardisation organisation for the Internet. This talk provides an overview of the work in the areas of multi-homing and multi-path transport, with focus on the area of the protocols TCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) with their experimental extensions Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) and Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP). It particularly shows the sequence of research and selected results, beginning from a simple simulation model, via lab setups and small Internet scenarios, up to the large-scale, international testbed project NorNet. NorNet, and particularly its landline network part NorNet Core, is furthermore described in some detail. Based on NorNet, it is finally possible to validate simulation results in real-world, multi-homed networks, in order to provide valuable input to the ongoing IETF standardisation processes of MPTCP and CMT-SCTP. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at Hainan University in 2021.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab
Publication Type	Talk, keynote
Year of Publication	2021
Location of Talk	Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China
Date Published	01/2021
Place Published	Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China
Keywords	Introduction, Multi-Homing, NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Status, Testbed

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Talks, invited

T. Dreibholz

NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: Getting Started with NorNet Core — A Remote Tutorial

In Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2021.

Status: Published

Abstract

This tutorial — presented for students at the College of Information Science and Technology (CIST) at Hainan University — provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed in 2021.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab
Publication Type	Talks, invited
Year of Publication	2021
Location of Talk	Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China
Place Published	Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China
Keywords	Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Tutorial

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

2020

Proceedings, refereed

A. F. Ocampo, T. Dreibholz, M. Fida, A. Elmokashfi and H. Bryhni

Integrating Cloud-RAN with Packet Core as VNF Using Open Source MANO and OpenAirInterface

In Proceedings of the 45th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN). Sydney, New South Wales/Australia: IEEE Computer Society, 2020.

Status: Published

Abstract

The Cloud-based Radio Access Network (Cloud-RAN) architecture and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are key enablers to building future mobile networks in a flexible and cost-efficient way. With early deployments of the fifth generation of mobile technologies - 5G - around the world, setting up 4G/5G experimental infrastructures is necessary to optimally design 5G networks. In this demo, we present a custom small-scale 4G/5G testbed based on OpenAirInterface and Open Source MANO. The testbed integrates a Cloud-RAN based on switched Ethernet Xhaul and functional splitting, with an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) deployed as a Virtual Network Function (VNF) in a cloud infrastructure. Using Open Source MANO, this demo shows the administration and monitoring of the EPC VNF components. Moreover, as proof of concept, collection and visualization of telemetry will be shown for two smart-phones connected to the network through the Cloud-RAN.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2020
Conference Name	Proceedings of the 45th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN)
Date Published	11/2020
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society
Place Published	Sydney, New South Wales/Australia
Keywords	Cloud Radio Access Network (Cloud-RAN), Ethernet Xhaul, Fronthaul, Functional Splits, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Open Source MANO (OSM)

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Andres Felipe Ocampo Palacio

PhD Student

andres@simula.no

Haakon Bryhni

Head of Department

Research Professor

The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications

Contact person(s):

Haakon Bryhni

Head of Department

Research Professor

The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA) was established in 2014 as a response to modern society’s massive and increasing dependability on applications running on top of the Internet. CRNA focuses on the robustness and security of ICT infrastructures, by which we mean that applications should continue to function at the best possible level of quality and security, even in the presence of technical failures, unplanned excessive load, design and implementation flaws in specific components, human error and malicious intent.

The Center receives base funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications. The Ministry has given the Center specific responsibilities through a mandate that includes operating an infrastructure for monitoring the state of the Norwegian telecommunications infrastructure, in particular the mobile broadband networks, and publishing an annual report on that. There is a tight integration between CRNA and Simula@UiB. Whereas CRNA concentrates on safety aspects of digital infrastructures, Simula@UiB has deep expertise in security. CRNA has also established partnerships with mobile operators and relevant stakeholders.

During the past few years, CRNA has made a number of key scientific and societal contributions. These include contributions to education and science through the education of master and PhD students and the publication of numerous articles in high impact and respected venues. CRNA has also contributed to informing policy makers and network operators on issues related to digital vulnerability and network performance.

Mandate for CRNA

The Center will undertake long-term research and innovation at a high international level, on robustness and reliability of communications networks and applications. The Center will educate experts on the doctoral and magisterial levels in cooperation with universities and university colleges.

Furthermore, the Center will have responsibility for maintaining and running a research infrastructure for measuring the Norwegian telecommunications network. This research infrastructure will be made available for research groups at universities and university colleges. The Center wishes to provide measurement and monitoring services for regions, municipalities, industry and public enterprises in Norway. The Center will produce an annual report on the state of the Norwegian communications infrastructure to the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority.

The Center's ambition is to be the nationally leading research institution within research on reliable ICT infrastructures, and collaborate with other research institutions that have expertise that will not be naturally covered by the Center. It will be expected that the Center collects additional funding from sources such as the Norwegian Research Council. EU research programmes, industry and relevant parts of the public administration.

The Center is part of Simula Metropolitan CDE organisational structure. CRNA will perform annual management and dialogue meetings with the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communication and the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority. The work performed at the Center will be evaluated by the Research Council every five years. The criteria for evaluation will be related to scientific quality and relevance to society. The annual budgets for the Center are dependent on grants from the state budget and will be considered on the background of the evaluation results

Publications for The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications

2022

Book Chapter

K. Friis and O. Lysne

5G-sikkerhet: Norge mellom stormaktene

In Digitalisering og internasjonal politikk. Universitetsforlaget, 2022.

Status: Published

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Book Chapter
Year of Publication	2022
Book Title	Digitalisering og internasjonal politikk
Chapter	7
Date Published	01/2022
Publisher	Universitetsforlaget
ISBN Number	9788215052557

Contact person(s) for publication:

Olav Lysne

Professor

Director at Simula Metropolitan

Proceedings, refereed

J. M. Evang, A. H. M. Ahmed, A. Elmokashfi and H. Bryhni

Crosslayer Network Outage Classification Using Machine Learning

In Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW), 2022.

Status: Accepted

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2022
Conference Name	Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW)

A. H. M. Ahmed, M. Riegler, S. Hicks and A. Elmokashfi

RCAD:Real-time Collaborative Anomaly Detection System for Mobile Broadband Networks

In ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 2022.

Status: Accepted

Abstract

The rapid increase in mobile data traffic and the number of connected devices and applications in networks is putting a significant pressure on the current network management approaches that heavily rely on human operators. Consequently, an automated network management system that can efficiently predict and detect anomalies is needed. In this paper, we propose, RCAD, a novel distributed architecture for detecting anomalies in network data forwarding latency in an unsupervised fashion. RCAD employs the hierarchical temporal memory (HTM) algorithm for the online detection of anomalies. It also involves a collaborative distributed learning module that facilitates knowledge sharing across the system. We implement and evaluate RCAD on real world measurements from a commercial mobile network. RCAD achieves over 0.7 F-1 score significantly outperforming the state-of-the-art methods.

Afilliation	Communication Systems, Machine Learning
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Department of Holistic Systems
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2022
Conference Name	ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining

Contact person(s) for publication:

Azza Hassan Mohamed Ahmed

PhD Student

azza@simula.no

Load Distribution for Mobile Edge Computing with Reliable Server Pooling

Status: Accepted

Abstract

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2022
Conference Name	Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Recent Advances for Multi-Clouds and Mobile Edge Computing (M2EC) in conjunction with the 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA)
Publisher	Springer
Place Published	Sydney, New South Wales/Australia
Keywords	Cloud computing, Load Distribution, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Serverless Computing

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Public outreach

K. Friis and O. Lysne

Hvorfor er vi redde for Huawei?

NUPI, 2022.

Status: Published

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Public outreach
Year of Publication	2022
Publisher	NUPI
Type of Work	Podcast
URL	https://shows.acast.com/utenrikshospitalet/episodes/hvorfor-er-vi-redde-...

Contact person(s) for publication:

Olav Lysne

Professor

Director at Simula Metropolitan

O. Lysne

Cybersikkerhet med Olav Lysne

lorn.tech: Lørntech, 2022.

Status: Published

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Public outreach
Year of Publication	2022
Publisher	Lørntech
Place Published	lorn.tech
Type of Work	Masterclass
URL	https://www.lorn.tech/cybersikkerhet-med-olav-lysne/1126-leksjon-2-i-cyb...

Contact person(s) for publication:

Olav Lysne

Professor

Director at Simula Metropolitan

O. Lysne

Chinese Cyberwarfare - interview in French TV-program

arte.tv, 2022.

Status: Published

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Public outreach
Year of Publication	2022
Publisher	arte.tv
URL	https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/092189-000-A/chinese-cyberwarfare/

Contact person(s) for publication:

Olav Lysne

Professor

Director at Simula Metropolitan

Talks, contributed

T. Dreibholz, A. H. M. Ahmed, M. Fida, A. F. Ocampo and F. I. Michelinakis

Detecting Issues with In-Band Telemetry in OSM-Orchestrated Core Networks

In Virtual. Virtual: ETSI, 2022.

Status: Published

Abstract

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure
Publication Type	Talks, contributed
Year of Publication	2022
Location of Talk	Virtual
Publisher	ETSI
Place Published	Virtual
Type of Talk	Demo presentation
Keywords	Anomaly detection, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Open Source MANO (OSM), P4, Telemetry
URL	http://osm-download.etsi.org/ftp/osm-11.0-eleven/OSM13_Ecosystem_Day/OSM...

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

T. Dreibholz

NorNet – A Linux- and Open-Source-Software-based International Platform for Networking Research

In Virtual. Melbourne, Australia: Linux Conference Australia, 2022.

Status: Published

Abstract

The NorNet testbed (https://www.nntb.no) is an Internet testbed platform for research on multi-homed systems. The particular property of multi-homed systems is to be connected to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP) simultaneously. Its initial purpose is of course to still provide connectivity in case of ISP/network failures. But does it really work that well, also with current protocols and applications? And redundancy does not come for free. A user connected to multiple ISPs will also receive multiple Internet bills each month. So, is there a possibility to make further use of multi-homing in the usual case where nothing goes wrong? Obviously, there are a lot of interesting research questions, which need to be examined in realistic Internet setups! Therefore, we are building up the NorNet open Internet testbed platform as a Linux- and Open-Source-software-based infrastructure, which currently spreads over multiple sites in different countries.

NorNet makes extensive use of advanced Linux features like Kernel-based Virtualisation (KVM), Linux Containers (LXC), BTRFS file system features, IP routing rules, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), and many more. The goal of this talk is therefore to present an overview of the testbed, its underlying Linux features, and how they are combined to provide the multi-homing features to the various testbed users. This particularly includes an overview of how to make use of multi-path transport with MPTCP – based on the Linux MPTCP implementation – in multi-homed environments. The idea is to provide guidelines for also utilising multi-homing features in own projects.

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure
Publication Type	Talks, contributed
Year of Publication	2022
Location of Talk	Virtual
Publisher	Linux Conference Australia
Place Published	Melbourne, Australia
Keywords	Linux, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, NorNet, Open Source, Testbed
URL	https://lca2022.linux.org.au/schedule/presentation/52/

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Talks, invited

O. Lysne

Kommentarer til "Målbilder for Robuste ekomnett mot 2030"

In Nasjonal Kommunikasjonsmyndighet sin offentliggjøring av målbilder mot 2030. NKOM, 2022.

Status: Published

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Talks, invited
Year of Publication	2022
Location of Talk	Nasjonal Kommunikasjonsmyndighet sin offentliggjøring av målbilder mot 2030
Publisher	NKOM

Contact person(s) for publication:

Olav Lysne

Professor

Director at Simula Metropolitan

Publications

2022

Proceedings, refereed

J. M. Evang, A. H. M. Ahmed, A. Elmokashfi and H. Bryhni

Crosslayer Network Outage Classification Using Machine Learning

In Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW), 2022.

Status: Accepted

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2022
Conference Name	Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW)

2020

Proceedings, refereed

A. F. Ocampo, M. Fida, A. Elmokashfi and H. Bryhni

Evaluating the Cloud-RAN architecture: functional splitting and switched Ethernet Xhaul

In 16th International Conference on Network and Service Management, CNSM 2020. Izmir Turkey and Virtual Conference: IEEE/IFIP, 2020.

Status: Published

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2020
Conference Name	16th International Conference on Network and Service Management, CNSM 2020
Date Published	11/2020
Publisher	IEEE/IFIP
Place Published	Izmir Turkey and Virtual Conference
URL	http://dl.ifip.org/db/conf/cnsm/cnsm2020/1570663439.pdf
Reprint Edition	http://dl.ifip.org/db/conf/cnsm/cnsm2020/1570663439.pdf

A. F. Ocampo, T. Dreibholz, M. Fida, A. Elmokashfi and H. Bryhni

Integrating Cloud-RAN with Packet Core as VNF Using Open Source MANO and OpenAirInterface

In Proceedings of the 45th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN). Sydney, New South Wales/Australia: IEEE Computer Society, 2020.

Status: Published

Abstract

Afilliation	Communication Systems
Project(s)	The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab
Publication Type	Proceedings, refereed
Year of Publication	2020
Conference Name	Proceedings of the 45th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN)
Date Published	11/2020
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society
Place Published	Sydney, New South Wales/Australia
Keywords	Cloud Radio Access Network (Cloud-RAN), Ethernet Xhaul, Fronthaul, Functional Splits, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Open Source MANO (OSM)

Contact person(s) for publication:

Thomas Dreibholz

Chief Research Engineer

Andres Felipe Ocampo Palacio

PhD Student

andres@simula.no

Haakon Bryhni

Head of Department

Research Professor