The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
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 was established as a response to modern society’s massive and increasing dependability on applications running on top of the Internet.
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.
You can find CRNA's LinkedIn page here.
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
People at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Who we are?
Simula Metropolitan employees are researchers, postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, engineers and administrative people. We are from all over the world, ranging from newly educated to experienced researchers, all working on making research in digital engineering at the highest international level possible.
Projects at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab
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.
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.
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.
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.
Publications at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Talk, keynote
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation
In Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2021.Status: Published
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation
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 | 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 |
Talks, invited
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
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: Getting Started with NorNet Core — A Remote Tutorial
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 |
Proceedings, refereed
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
Integrating Cloud-RAN with Packet Core as VNF Using Open Source MANO and OpenAirInterface
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) |
Talks, invited
Custom-Made Enhanced Packet Cores as Network Services for 4G/5G Testbeds managed with Open Source MANO
In Online, 2020.Status: Published
Custom-Made Enhanced Packet Cores as Network Services for 4G/5G Testbeds managed with Open Source MANO
Setting up Enhanced Packet Cores (EPC) – like the Mosaic5G OpenAirInterface-based EPC – for 4G/5G Testbeds is a complicated and error-prone task. Therefore, we developed the SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF, a complex 4-VDU VNF, which upon instantiation builds the components of the EPC from scratch from given source Git repositories. That is, based on the parametrisation, users can easily create tailor-made EPCs for their projects, particularly EPCs based on the Mosaic5G FlexRAN sources. In this presentation, we would like to shortly highlight the solutions chosen to efficiently use OSM for handling the instantiation process, performing telemetry, and debugging issues. That is, we particularly would like to present to the Mosaic5G audience some lessons learned during the ongoing development.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Location of Talk | Online |
| Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface |
Managing Tailor-Made Enhanced Packet Cores for 4G/5G Testbeds in OSM with the SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF
In Online, 2020.Status: Published
Managing Tailor-Made Enhanced Packet Cores for 4G/5G Testbeds in OSM with the SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF
The SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF is a complex 4-VDU VNF, allowing its users to instantiate and maintain a tailor-made Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) for 4G/5G mobile broadband testbeds. The EPC components are directly built from their sources during instantiation, allowing to use customised versions according to the users' needs. A general overview has already been presented during the OSM Hackfest in March 2020. In this presentation and live demonstration, we would like to highlight the solutions chosen to efficiently use OSM for handling the instantiation process, provide telemetry, and to debug issues. That is, we particularly would like to present to the audience the lessons learned during the ongoing development. Finally, we would also like to show the audience a live demo of an OSM-managed 4G testbed setup with telemetry collection.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Location of Talk | Online |
| Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface |
| URL | http://osm-download.etsi.org/ftp/osm-8.0-eight/OSM10-hackfest/EcosystemD... |
GAIA
Background
Recent advances in cloud computing and higher network capacities have led to online services being hosted at diverse geographic locations. Outsourcing of services for commercial reasons have become common. The growth of the internet infrastructure has happened dynamically and has been based on trust. Therefore, many countries now rely on services that are not contained within their respective national borders. These may be general services, such as Google, WhatsApp and Facebook as well as the DNS infrastructure and microservices critical to national services like health and online banking.
This development has led to our society becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks and major disruptions. Recent increases in cyber attacks and their potential harmful ramifications have made combating cyber vulnerabilities a national security priority. Consequently, an increasing number of states are calling for tighter controls on service placement and Internet connectivity in order to maintain national autonomy. While these fears could be warranted, a premature push in this direction may undermine the very fabric of openness and trust that binds the Internet together.
In this respect, GAIA aims to fill an important gap in our current knowledge, which is the lack of maps that describe the geographic distribution of online services. Such maps will provide an understanding of how Internet traffic travels between different countries and allow us to explore how internet connectivity interplays with geopolitics. GAIA will achieve that through an interdisciplinary effort that combines technological and political aspects of the problem. To this end, the project consortium comprises a unique set of stakeholders, including computer scientists, social and political scientists, regulatory bodies and network operators.
See GAIA's webpages here.
Partner
SimulaMet is partnering with The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) to deliver this project.
Outcomes
The insights gained by the GAIA project will help reducing the vulnerability of our society to potential harmful attacks on communication infrastructures which in worse case could harm our economy, endager our democracy and even result in loss of
The envisioned results of GAIA will thus contribute to improve our understanding of the complex interplay between digital vulnerabilities and national autonomy, which will be of relevance to policy makers, technologists and end users.
And just as important, GAIA's findings will provide regulators and policy makers with expert opinions that will help navigating the intricate conflict of interest between national autonomy and the trust-based openness on which the current Internet is based.
Consortium and methods
The project consortium comprises a unique set of stakeholders, including computer scientists, social and political scientists, regulatory bodies and network operators. GAIA will be using a combination of methods; measurement and data analytics, testbed experimentations as well as interviews and case studies.
Publications at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Proceedings, refereed
On the Accuracy of Country-Level IP Geolocation
In Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW). Madrid/Spain: ACM, 2020.Status: Published
On the Accuracy of Country-Level IP Geolocation
The proliferation of online services comprised of globally spread microservices has security and performance implications. Understanding the underlying physical paths connecting end points has become important. This paper investigates the accuracy of commonly used IP geolocation approaches in geolocating end-to-end IP paths. To this end, we perform a controlled measurement study to collect IP level paths. We find that existing databases tend to geolocate IPs that belong to networks with global presence and those move between networks erroneously. A small percentage of IP geolocation disagreement between databases results in a significant disagreement when geolocating end-to-end paths. Geolocating one week of RIPE traceroute data validates our observations.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | GAIA, NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Conference Name | Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW) |
| Date Published | 07/2020 |
| Publisher | ACM |
| Place Published | Madrid/Spain |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-4503-8039-3 |
| Keywords | Geolocation Approaches, Geolocation Databases, IP Geolocation |
| DOI | 10.1145/3404868.3406664 |
Optical Fibre as a Sensor for Network Anomaly Detection
In ACM SIGCOMM 2020 Workshop on Optical Systems Design, 2020.Status: Accepted
Optical Fibre as a Sensor for Network Anomaly Detection
Optical fibres are the backbone of modern Information Technology infrastructure connecting billions of users through high-speed networks. With a drastic increase in the number of internet users, vulnerability and security issues in the optical fibre network become increasingly important. In this paper, we propose a detection method for early warning of anomalies in optical networks. The method is based on monitoring and analyzing changes in the state of polarization of the optical signal targeting differentiating between different physical impacts and movements of the fibre caused by e.g. eavesdropping, cut by digging and thunderstorms.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | GAIA |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Conference Name | ACM SIGCOMM 2020 Workshop on Optical Systems Design |
HiPerConTracer - A Versatile Tool for IP Connectivity Tracing in Multi-Path Setups
In Proceedings of the 28th IEEE International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM). Hvar, Dalmacija/Croatia: IEEE, 2020.Status: Published
HiPerConTracer - A Versatile Tool for IP Connectivity Tracing in Multi-Path Setups
Nowadays, we see a steadily increasing number of Internet devices with connections to multiple networks. For example, every smartphone provides mobile broadband and Wi-Fi connectivity. Multi-path transport protocols, like MPTCP, CMT-SCTP or Multipath-QUIC, allow for utilising all connected networks simultaneously. However, while there is a lot of research on the Transport Layer aspects of multi-path transport, there is not much work on the Network Layer perspective, yet.
In this paper, we introduce our Open Source tool HiPerConTracer (High-Performance Connectivity Tracer) for efficient, parallelised, long-term measurements of the path connectivity characteristics among multi-homed Internet systems. HiPerConTracer is now running as a permanent feature in the NorNet Core infrastructure, which is used for research on multi-homed systems, and in particular for research on multi-path transport. Based on the HiPerConTracer data collected in NorNet Core so far, we finally present some interesting results from the analysis of the inter-continental site connectivity between China and Norway in January 2020.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 28th IEEE International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Hvar, Dalmacija/Croatia |
| Keywords | HiPerConTracer, Multi-Path Transport, NorNet, NorNet Core, Ping, Traceroute |
5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure
5G-VINNI will accelerate the uptake of 5G in Europe by providing an end-to-end (E2E) facility that validates the performance of new 5G technologies by operating trials of advanced vertical sector services. The 5G-VINNI strategy to achieve this involves:
- Designing the most advanced 5G facility to demonstrate that technical and business 5G KPIs can be met,
- Building and operating 7 interworking instances of the E2E facility to prove the capabilities and openness of the system,
- Creating user friendly zero-touch orchestration, operations and management systems for the 5G-VINNI facilities to ensure operational efficiencies and optimal resource use,
- Proving the 5G-VINNI capabilities through extensive experiments and measurements of performance against the 5G KPIs,
- Developing a viable 5G ecosystem model to support the NaaS infrastructure provision as a sustainable business beyond the project, and
- Promoting the value of 5G-VINNI results to the relevant standards bodies and open source communities.
The 5G-VINNI E2E facility will demonstrate the achievement of 5G KPIs across a range of combinations and permutations of new 5G access technologies and end-user equipment types interconnected by the most advanced 5G core network technologies available. For this 5G-VINNI will leverage the latest 5G technologies, including results from previous 5G PPP projects. This approach employs Network Function Virtualization, Network Slicing and a rigorous automated testing campaign to validate the 5G KPIs under various combinations of technologies and network loads.
To ensure realistic load scenarios 5G-VINNI will create and make available an openness framework to give verticals and peer projects easy access to the 5G-VINNI facilities, both legally and technically, e.g. via open APIs. The 5G-VINNI facilities include 7 infrastructure instances in nationally supported 5G nodes across Europe; this number may be expanded as the ICT-19 projects come on-line in 2019.
Funding source
This project has received funding from the European Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n° 815279 - 5G VINNI
All partners
Simula Metropolitan Centre for Digital Engineering (Norway)
Telenor ASA (Norway)
British Telecommunications Public Limited Company (UK)
Telefonica Investigacion y Desarollo SA TID (Spain)
Samsung Electronics (UK)
Limited SAMS (UK)
Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GMBH (Germany)
Huawei Technologies Norway AS (Norway)
Ericsson AS (Norway)
Nokia Solutions and Networks (Finland)
Software Radio Systems Limited SRS 9Ireland)
Lime Microsystems LTD (UK)
EANTC Aktiengesellschaft (Germany)
Keysight Technologies (Denmark)
APS KEYS (Denmark)
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V. FHG (Germany)
EURESCOM-European Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in Telecommunications GMBH EUR (Germany)
Altice Labs SA (Portugal)
Panepistimio Patron UOP (Greece)
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain)
Athens University of Economics and Business – Research Center AUEB (Greece)
Intracom SA Telecom Solutions ICOM (Greece)
SES Techcom SA SES (Luxembourg)
Cisco Norway AS (Norway)
Engineering-Ingegneria Informatica SPA (Italy)
Social media presence
Publications at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Journal Article
Dissecting Energy Consumption of NB-IoT Devices Empirically
IEEE Internet of Things Journal (2020).Status: Published
Dissecting Energy Consumption of NB-IoT Devices Empirically
3GPP has recently introduced NB-IoT, a new mobile communication standard offering a robust and energy efficient connectivity option to the rapidly expanding market of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. To unleash its full potential, end-devices are expected to work in a plug and play fashion, with zero or minimal configuration of parameters, still exhibiting excellent energy efficiency. We performed the most comprehensive set of empirical measurements with commercial IoT devices and different operators to date, quantifying the impact of several parameters to energy consumption. Our findings prove that parameters’ settings does impact energy consumption, so proper configuration is necessary. We shed light on this aspect by first illustrating how the nominal standard operational modes map into real current consumption patterns of NB-IoT devices. Further, we investigated which device-reported metadata metrics better reflected performance and implemented an algorithm to automatically identify device state in current time series logs. We worked with two major western European operators to provide a measurement-driven analysis of the energy consumption and network performance of two popular NB-IoT boards under different parameter configurations. We observed that energy consumption is mostly affected by the paging interval in Connected state, set by the base station. However, not all operators correctly implement such settings. Furthermore, under the default configuration, energy consumption in not strongly affected by packet size nor by signal quality, unless it is extremely bad. Our observations indicate that simple modifications to the default parameters’ settings can yield great energy savings.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Internet of Things Journal |
| Date Published | 08/2020 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Internet of Things Journal |
| ISSN | 2327-4662 |
| Keywords | energy consumption, Internet of things, LTE, NB-IoT |
| DOI | 10.1109/JIOT.2020.3013949 |
Proceedings, refereed
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
Integrating Cloud-RAN with Packet Core as VNF Using Open Source MANO and OpenAirInterface
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) |
AI-Driven Closed-Loop Service Assurance with Service Exposures
In Proceedings of the 29th IEEE European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC). Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik-Neretva/Croatia: IEEE Computer Society, 2020.Status: Published
AI-Driven Closed-Loop Service Assurance with Service Exposures
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely applied in mobile and wireless networks to enhance network operation and service management. Advanced AI mechanisms often require high level of network service exposure in order to access data from as many network elements as possible and execute the AI recommended outcomes into the networks. However, in practice, it is not always feasible to expose the network services to 3rd parties or customers with AI ambitions. Considering that service assurance (SA) is a major area to which AI is applied, this paper describes how a closed-loop SA architecture is associated with the service exposure model in the 5G networks with network slicing. Then we investigate the impact and implication of service exposure on SA. Finally, a set of experiment results are provided to demonstrate the trade-off relationship between the AI ambition and the exposure level in SA.
| 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 |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 29th IEEE European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) |
| Date Published | 06/2020 |
| Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
| Place Published | Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik-Neretva/Croatia |
| Keywords | AI, Service Assurance, Service Exposure |
A 4G/5G Packet Core as VNF with Open Source MANO and OpenAirInterface
In Proceedings of the 28th IEEE International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM). Hvar, Dalmacija/Croatia: IEEE, 2020.Status: Published
A 4G/5G Packet Core as VNF with Open Source MANO and OpenAirInterface
5G, the fifth generation of mobile broadband networks, is going to make a large range of new applications possible. However, further research is necessary, and the basic step, i.e. setting up a 4G/5G testbed infrastructure, is a complicated and error-prone task. In this abstract and poster, we introduce our open source SimulaMet EPC Virtual Network Function (VNF), as an easy way to set up a 4G/5G testbed based on Open Source MANO and OpenAirInterface. We would like to showcase how a researcher can use our VNF as part of his own research testbed setup. Therefore, the focus is particularly on the user interface details and features of the SimulaMet EPC VNF.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 28th IEEE International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM) |
| Date Published | 09/2020 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Hvar, Dalmacija/Croatia |
| Keywords | Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Open Source MANO (OSM), OpenAirInterface, Testbed, Virtual Network Function (VNF) |
Flexible 4G/5G Testbed Setup for Mobile Edge Computing using OpenAirInterface and Open Source MANO
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Recent Advances for Multi-Clouds and Mobile Edge Computing (M2EC) in conjunction with the 34th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA). Caserta, Campania/Italy: Springer, 2020.Status: Published
Flexible 4G/5G Testbed Setup for Mobile Edge Computing using OpenAirInterface and Open Source MANO
Setting up a working 4G/5G mobile network development testbed can be a highly complicated and error-prone task. In this paper, we therefore introduce our open source Virtual Network Function (VNF) for an OpenAirInterface-based Evolved Packet Core (EPC) for deployment with the Open Source Management and Orchestration (Open Source MANO, OSM) framework. By using our VNF as basis, it will be easily possible to create own testbeds and extend them with further functionality, particularly – but not limited to – Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) setups. In a simple proof of concept, we demonstrate a basic transport protocol performance evaluation in a deployed test network.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Recent Advances for Multi-Clouds and Mobile Edge Computing (M2EC) in conjunction with the 34th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA) |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Place Published | Caserta, Campania/Italy |
| Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core, Mobile edge computing, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface |
Talks, contributed
Easily Setting up 4G/5G Testbeds with OpenAirInterface using OSM
In Madrid/Spain. Madrid/Spain: ETSI, 2020.Status: Published
Easily Setting up 4G/5G Testbeds with OpenAirInterface using OSM
Setting up 4G/5G testbeds can be a highly complicated and error-prone task. In this presentation, we introduce our Open Source VNF and tool-chain for an OpenAirInterface-based EPC to be deployed with the OSM framework. Using our VNF and tool-chain as basis, it will be easily possible to create own testbeds, customise them and extend them with further functionalities.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Talks, contributed |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Location of Talk | Madrid/Spain |
| Publisher | ETSI |
| Place Published | Madrid/Spain |
| Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface |
| URL | https://osm-download.etsi.org/ftp/osm-7.0-seven/MR8-hackfest/Ecosystem-D... |
Talks, invited
Custom-Made Enhanced Packet Cores as Network Services for 4G/5G Testbeds managed with Open Source MANO
In Online, 2020.Status: Published
Custom-Made Enhanced Packet Cores as Network Services for 4G/5G Testbeds managed with Open Source MANO
Setting up Enhanced Packet Cores (EPC) – like the Mosaic5G OpenAirInterface-based EPC – for 4G/5G Testbeds is a complicated and error-prone task. Therefore, we developed the SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF, a complex 4-VDU VNF, which upon instantiation builds the components of the EPC from scratch from given source Git repositories. That is, based on the parametrisation, users can easily create tailor-made EPCs for their projects, particularly EPCs based on the Mosaic5G FlexRAN sources. In this presentation, we would like to shortly highlight the solutions chosen to efficiently use OSM for handling the instantiation process, performing telemetry, and debugging issues. That is, we particularly would like to present to the Mosaic5G audience some lessons learned during the ongoing development.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Location of Talk | Online |
| Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface |
Managing Tailor-Made Enhanced Packet Cores for 4G/5G Testbeds in OSM with the SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF
In Online, 2020.Status: Published
Managing Tailor-Made Enhanced Packet Cores for 4G/5G Testbeds in OSM with the SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF
The SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF is a complex 4-VDU VNF, allowing its users to instantiate and maintain a tailor-made Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) for 4G/5G mobile broadband testbeds. The EPC components are directly built from their sources during instantiation, allowing to use customised versions according to the users' needs. A general overview has already been presented during the OSM Hackfest in March 2020. In this presentation and live demonstration, we would like to highlight the solutions chosen to efficiently use OSM for handling the instantiation process, provide telemetry, and to debug issues. That is, we particularly would like to present to the audience the lessons learned during the ongoing development. Finally, we would also like to show the audience a live demo of an OSM-managed 4G testbed setup with telemetry collection.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Location of Talk | Online |
| Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface |
| URL | http://osm-download.etsi.org/ftp/osm-8.0-eight/OSM10-hackfest/EcosystemD... |
Proceedings, refereed
Towards Closed Loop 5G Service Assurance Architecture for Network Slices as a Service
In European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC). IEEE, 2019.Status: Published
Towards Closed Loop 5G Service Assurance Architecture for Network Slices as a Service
5G intends to use network slicing to support multiple vertical industries. The dynamic resource sharing and diverse customer requirements bring new challenges towards service assurance (SA), such as automation and customer-centric. As a response to these challenges, this paper proposes a hierarchical, modular, distributed, and scalable SA architecture. This paper highlights an important key feature SA coordination, which is facilitated by three new SA functions, SA interpretation, SA policy management, anddata fabric. Three closed-loops are introduced to coordinate and realize automation of service management. Challenges associated with realizing SA are briefly discussed and will be addressed by leveraging the 5G infrastructure developed within the H2020-ICT-17 project 5G-VINNI.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Conference Name | European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) |
| Pagination | 139-143 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
LUCS: Learning to Understand and Control nation-wide Smart grids of energy prosumers
The educational objective of LUCS is to provide knowledge and experience that will assist Masters and early doctoral students with experiment design and performance analyses of smart grid systems. The research-related objectives of LUCS are to facilitate interaction of researchers for the purpose of:
- Integrating and developing a communication-smart grid testbed,
- Use this testbed to investigate the performance bounds of today's smart grid systems, and
- Developing and implementing novel approaches to improve the performance and robustness of the smart grid systems.
Final goal
LUCS will conduct four main activities:
- Organize 3 summer schools
- Develop a common smart grid curriculum at University of Oslo and Technical University of Berlin
- Organize yearly research workshops
- Sponsor the mobility of researchers to strengthen the group collaboration
All of these activities rely on the development of an integrated testbed based on the partners' existing testbeds.
Funding source
The Research Council of Norway
All partners
- Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Norway
- Simula Research Laboratory, Norway
- University of Oslo, Norway
- Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin), Germany
- German Turkish Advanced Research Center for ICT (GT-ARC) Germany
Project leader
Sabita Maharjan, Center for Digital Engineering, Simula@OsloMet, Norway
MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe
Given today's importance of mobile broadband (MBB) networks, there is a strong need for objective information about their performance, particularly, the quality experienced by the end user. MONROE proposes to design, build and operate the first European transnational open platform for independent, multi-homed, large-scale monitoring and performance assessment of MBB networks in heterogeneous environments. It also provides WiFi connectivity mimicking multi-homing in smartphones with both MBB and WiFi interfaces, to allow experimenting on different access technologies as well as to explore new ways of combining them to increase performance and robustness. Moreover, the platform's users are in the core of the MONROE project. Following the FIRE’s philosophy, MONROE offers a user-oriented closed-loop system design in which the experimental platform is open to external users, and where users are incorporated early on in the experimental design process. Second, MONROE will provide Experiments as a Service (EaaS), thus lowering the barrier for using the platform to external experimenters and users, by providing well-documented tools and adjustable, flexible, high-level scripts to execute experiments, collect results, and analyze data. Interoperability with existing FIRE and FP7 measurement platforms, jointly with the effort of MONROE to develop business and funding models, will guarantee sustainability and usefulness of the platform.
Funding source:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644399. (H2020-ICT-2014-1)
All partners:
- Simula (Norway)
- Imdea Networks (Spain)
- Karlstad University (Sweden)
- Politecnico Di Torino (Italy)
- Nextworks (Italy)
- Celerway Communications (Norway)
- Telenor (Norway)
Social media presence
Publications at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Journal Article
Low-Latency Scheduling in MPTCP
IEEE Transactions on Networking 27, no. 1 (2019).Status: Published
Low-Latency Scheduling in MPTCP
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe , Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Networking |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Date Published | 02/2019 |
| Publisher | ACM IEEE |
Dissecting the Performance of YouTube Video Streaming in Mobile Networks
International Journal on Network Management Early View (2019): e2058.Status: Published
Dissecting the Performance of YouTube Video Streaming in Mobile Networks
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe , Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Journal | International Journal on Network Management |
| Volume | Early View |
| Pagination | e2058 |
| Publisher | Wiley |
| DOI | 10.1002/nem.2058 |
Results from Running an Experiment as a Service Platform for Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe
Elsevier Computer Communications 133 (2019): 89-101.Status: Published
Results from Running an Experiment as a Service Platform for Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe , Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Journal | Elsevier Computer Communications |
| Volume | 133 |
| Pagination | 89-101 |
| Date Published | 01/2019 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
Proceedings, refereed
On the importance of TCP splitting proxies for future 5G mmWave communications
In IEEE Local Computer Networks (LCN) Symposium on Emerging Topics in Networking. IEEE, 2019.Status: Published
On the importance of TCP splitting proxies for future 5G mmWave communications
Abstract—5G mmWave technology promises capacities 10 to 100 times that of 4G. However, mmWave links are very sensitive to having direct line of sight between sender and receiver, with dramatically fluctuating capacities due to transient blocking and shadow fading, which can substantially degrade TCP performance. TCP-splitting proxies (SPEPs) are often used to improve TCP performance over wireless links. We investigate current operator SPEPs (used in 4G LTE networks) under mmWave-like dynamics using the MONROE testbed. We introduce a mmWave emulation model for an urban canyon scenario, and use it to evaluate how current operational SPEPs impact the performance. Our results from experiments including four operators and three countries, indicate that SPEPs will be even more important for 5G mmWave than they are in LTE. Current 4G SPEPs provide significant, though not optimal, benefits under mmWave-like conditions, allowing them to be utilized as the network transitions to 5G technology.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MAMI: Measurement and Architecture for a Middleboxed Internet, MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe , Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Conference Name | IEEE Local Computer Networks (LCN) Symposium on Emerging Topics in Networking |
| Pagination | 108--116 |
| Date Published | 10/2019 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-7281-2561-9 |
| URL | http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9000661&isnumber... |
| DOI | 10.1109/LCNSymposium47956.2019.9000661 |
Estimating Downlink Throughput from End-User Measurements in Mobile Broadband Networks
In IEEE World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM). IEEE, 2019.Status: Published
Estimating Downlink Throughput from End-User Measurements in Mobile Broadband Networks
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Conference Name | IEEE World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
Web Experience in Operational Mobile Networks: Lessons from Two Million Page Visits
In WWW '19: The World Wide Web Conference. ACM, 2019.Status: Published
Web Experience in Operational Mobile Networks: Lessons from Two Million Page Visits
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe , Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Conference Name | WWW '19: The World Wide Web Conference |
| Pagination | 1532-1543 |
| Publisher | ACM |
Measuring Web Quality of Experience in Cellular Networks
In International Conference on Passive and Active Network Measurement. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019.Status: Published
Measuring Web Quality of Experience in Cellular Networks
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe , Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Conference Name | International Conference on Passive and Active Network Measurement |
| Pagination | 18-33 |
| Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
| Place Published | Cham |
Journal Article
Fine-grained LTE radio link estimation for mobile phones
Pervasive and Mobile Computing 49 (2018): 76-91.Status: Published
Fine-grained LTE radio link estimation for mobile phones
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Journal | Pervasive and Mobile Computing |
| Volume | 49 |
| Pagination | 76–91 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
MPTCP meets FEC: Supporting Latency-Sensitive Applications over Heterogeneous Networks
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON) 26, no. 5 (2018): 2005-2018.Status: Published
MPTCP meets FEC: Supporting Latency-Sensitive Applications over Heterogeneous Networks
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Journal | IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON) |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pagination | 2005-2018 |
| Date Published | 10/2018 |
| Publisher | ACM IEEE |
Measuring ECN++: Good News for ++, Bad News for ECN over Mobile
IEEE Communications Magazine 56, no. 3 (2018): 180-186.Status: Published
Measuring ECN++: Good News for ++, Bad News for ECN over Mobile
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Journal | IEEE Communications Magazine |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pagination | 180 - 186 |
| Date Published | Jan-03-2018 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 0163-6804 |
| URL | http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8316790/http://xplorestaging.ieee.or... |
| DOI | 10.1109/MCOM.2018.1700739 |
NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet
The NEAT project wants to achieve a complete redesign of the way in which Internet applications interact with the network. Our goal is to allow network "services" offered to applications – such as reliability, low-delay communication or security – to be dynamically tailored based on application demands, current network conditions, hardware capabilities or local policies, and also to support the integration of new network functionality in an evolutionary fashion, without applications having to be rewritten. This architectural change will make the Internet truly “enhanceable”, by allowing applications to seamlessly and more easily take advantage of new network features as they evolve.
Funding source
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 644334. (ICT-05-2014: Smart Networks and novel Internet Architectures)
All partners:
- Simula Research Laboratory (Norway)
- Celerway (Norway)
- Cisco Europe (France)
- EMC (Ireland)
- Mozilla Denmark (Denmark)
- Fachhochschule Münster (Germany)
- Karlstad University (Sweden)
- University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom)
- University of Oslo (Norway)
Project leader
David Ros, Simula Research Laboratory (Norway)
Online presence
Publications at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Journal Article
On the Usability of Transport Protocols other than TCP: A Home Gateway and Internet Path Traversal Study
Computer Networks 173 (2020).Status: Published
On the Usability of Transport Protocols other than TCP: A Home Gateway and Internet Path Traversal Study
Network APIs are moving towards protocol agility, where applications express their needs but not a static protocol binding, and it is up to the layer below the API to choose a suitable protocol. The IETF Transport Services (TAPS) Working Group is standardizing a protocol-independent transport API and offering guidance to implementers. Apple’s recent “Network.framework” is specifically designed to allow such late and dynamic binding of protocols. When the network stack autonomously chooses and configures a protocol, it must first test which protocols are locally available and which work end-to-end (“protocol racing”). For this, it is important to know the set of available options, and which protocols should be tried first: Does it make sense to offer unchecked payload delivery, as with UDP-Lite? Is a UDP-based protocol like QUIC always a better choice, or should native SCTP be tried? This paper develops answers to such questions via (i) a NAT study in a local testbed, (ii) bidirectional Internet tests, (iii) a large scale Internet measurement campaign. The examined protocols are: SCTP, DCCP, UDP-Lite, UDP with a zero checksum and three different UDP encapsulations.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | Computer Networks |
| Volume | 173 |
| Date Published | 05/2020 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| ISSN | 1389-1286 |
| Keywords | DCCP, Internet, NAT, Protocol Testing, SCTP, UDP-Lite |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107211 |
Journal Article
On the Utility of Unregulated IP DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) Usage by End Systems
Performance Evaluation 135 (2019): 102036.Status: Published
On the Utility of Unregulated IP DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) Usage by End Systems
DiffServ was designed to implement service provider quality of service (QoS) policies, where routers change and react upon the DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) in the IP header. However, nowadays, applications are beginning to directly set the DSCP themselves, in the hope that this will yield a more appropriate service for their respective video, audio and data streams. WebRTC is a prime example of such an application. We present measurements, for both IPv4 and IPv6, of what happens to DSCP values along Internet paths after an end system has set them without any prior agreement between a customer and a service provider. We find that the DSCP is often changed or zeroed along the path, but detrimental effects from using the DSCP are extremely rare; moreover, DSCP values sometimes remain intact (potentially having an effect on traffic) for several AS hops. This positive result motivates an analysis of the potential latency impact from such DSCP usage, for which we present the first measurement results. We find that routers at approximately 3% of more than 100,000 links differentiate between the WebRTC DSCP values (EF, AF42 and CS1) and consistently reduce delay in comparison with probes carrying a zero value (CS0) under congestion. In contrast, routers at around 2% of these links increase the delay by a comparable amount under congestion, uniformly for EF, AF42 and CS1.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Journal | Performance Evaluation |
| Volume | 135 |
| Pagination | 102036 |
| Date Published | 08/2019 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| ISSN | 0166-5316 |
| Keywords | DiffServ, DiffServ Code Point, latency, QoS, WebRTC |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peva.2019.102036 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.peva.2019.102036 |
Proceedings, refereed
ctrlTCP: Reducing Latency through Coupled, Heterogeneous Multi-Flow TCP Congestion Control
In 21st IEEE Global Internet Symposium (GI 2018). Honolulu, HI, USA: IEEE, 2018.Status: Published
ctrlTCP: Reducing Latency through Coupled, Heterogeneous Multi-Flow TCP Congestion Control
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Conference Name | 21st IEEE Global Internet Symposium (GI 2018) |
| Date Published | 04/2018 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Honolulu, HI, USA |
| Notes | In conjunction with IEEE INFOCOM, Honolulu, HI, USA |
| URL | https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/71297 |
| DOI | 10.1109/INFCOMW.2018.8406887 |
Journal Article
NEAT: A Platform- and Protocol-Independent Internet Transport API
IEEE Communications Magazine 55, no. 6 (2017): 46-54.Status: Published
NEAT: A Platform- and Protocol-Independent Internet Transport API
The sockets Applications Programming Interface (API) has become the standard way that applications access the transport services offered by the Internet Protocol stack. This paper presents NEAT, a user-space library that can provide an alternate transport API. NEAT allows applications to request the service they need using a new design that is agnostic to the specific choice of transport protocol underneath. This not only allows applications to take advantage of common protocol machinery, but also eases introduction of new network mechanisms and transport protocols. The paper describes the components of the NEAT library and illustrates the important benefits that can be gained from this new approach. NEAT is a software platform for developing advanced network applications that was designed in accordance with the standardization efforts on Transport Services (TAPS) in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), but its features exceed the envisioned functionality of a TAPS system.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2017 |
| Journal | IEEE Communications Magazine |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pagination | 46-54 |
| Date Published | 06/2017 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 0163-6804 |
| DOI | 10.1109/MCOM.2017.1601052 |
| Research Notes | https://www.neat-project.org/publications/#papers |
Proceedings, refereed
fling: A Flexible Ping for Middlebox Measurements
In 2017 29th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC 29). Vol. 1. IEEE, 2017.Status: Published
fling: A Flexible Ping for Middlebox Measurements
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2017 |
| Conference Name | 2017 29th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC 29) |
| Volume | 1 |
| Pagination | 134–142 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
A NEAT Way to Browse the Web
In Proceedings of the Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW). Praha/Czech Republic: IEEE, 2017.Status: Published
A NEAT Way to Browse the Web
There is a growing concern that the Internet transport layer has become ossified in the face of emerging novel applications, and that further evolution has become very difficult. The NEAT system is a novel and evolvable transport system that decouples applications from the underlying transport layer and network services. In so doing, it facilitates dynamic transport selection. This demo shows how the NEAT system is able to dynamically select the most appropriate transport solution for the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet, NorNet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2017 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW) |
| Date Published | 07/15/2017 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Praha/Czech Republic |
| Keywords | NEAT, ossification, SCTP, tcp, Transport Selection, Transport Service |
| Notes | Demo Presentation |
| URL | https://irtf.org/anrw/2017/anrw17-final13.pdf |
Evaluating CAIA Delay Gradient as a Candidate for Deadline-Aware Less-than-Best-Effort Transport
In Workshop on Future of Internet Transport (FIT 2017). IFIP, 2017.Status: Published
Evaluating CAIA Delay Gradient as a Candidate for Deadline-Aware Less-than-Best-Effort Transport
Less-than-best-effort (LBE) congestion control offers a low-priority service for applications tolerant to high latency and low throughput, like peer-to-peer file transfers or automatic software updates. There are, however, situations where it would be beneficial for the application to specify a soft deadline for task completion. Examples of such situations could be completion of backup tasks or synchronisation between CDN data centres. Since network conditions change over time, a deadline-aware LBE (DA-LBE) congestion control would need the ability to dynamically adapt how aggressively it competes for capacity to meet the soft deadline, trading low-priority behaviour for timeliness. One candidate that shows promise as a LBE congestion control is CAIA Delay Gradient (CDG). CDG uses changes in measured end-to-end delay to control the congestion window. CDG has several parameters that might help tune its “aggressiveness” in a way that might help achieve the goal of DA-LBE congestion control. We have evaluated CDG in order to establish how it can be tuned to exhibit different degrees of LBE behaviour under varying network conditions. Our results show that it is possible to control CDG to vary its aggressiveness in a consistent way, making it a prime candidate to implement a DA-LBE congestion control system.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2017 |
| Conference Name | Workshop on Future of Internet Transport (FIT 2017) |
| Publisher | IFIP |
| ISBN Number | 978-3-901882-94-4 |
| Keywords | congestion control, deadline-aware congestion control, Less-than-Best-Effort Service, scavenger service |
| URL | http://dl.ifip.org/db/conf/networking/networking2017/1570350870.pdf |
| DOI | 10.23919/IFIPNetworking.2017.8264882 |
A Framework for Less than Best Effort Congestion Control with Soft Deadlines
In 2017 IFIP Networking Conference (IFIP Networking) and Workshops. IEEE, 2017.Status: Published
A Framework for Less than Best Effort Congestion Control with Soft Deadlines
Applications like inter data-centre synchronisation or client-to-cloud backups require a reliable end-to-end data transfer, however, they typically do not have strong capacity or latency constraints, just a loose delivery deadline. Besides, their potential to disrupt more quality-constrained flows should be kept to a minimum. These applications could be well served by a transport protocol providing a less-than-best-effort (LBE) or scavenger service rather than TCP but, neither TCP nor standard LBE methods like LEDBAT consider any notion of deadline or completion time. TCP simply tries to maximise the use of available capacity, while LEDBAT tries to enforce an LBE behaviour regardless of any timeliness requirements.
This paper introduces a framework for adding both LBE behaviour and awareness of “soft” delivery deadlines to any congestion control (CC) algorithm, whether loss-based, delay-based or explicit signaling-based. This effectively allows it to turn an arbitrary CC protocol into a scavenger protocol that dynamically adapts its sending rate to network conditions and remaining time before the deadline, to balance timeliness and transmission aggressiveness. Network utility maximization (NUM) theory provides a solid foundation for the proposal. The effectiveness of the approach is validated by numerical and simulation experiments, with TCP Cubic and Vegas used as examples.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2017 |
| Conference Name | 2017 IFIP Networking Conference (IFIP Networking) and Workshops |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISBN Number | 978-3-901882-94-4 |
| URL | http://dl.ifip.org/db/conf/networking/networking2017/1570334752.pdf |
| DOI | 10.23919/IFIPNetworking.2017.8264853 |
Talks, invited
NEAT Tutorial at Hainan University: Getting Started with NEAT
In Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2017.Status: Published
NEAT Tutorial at Hainan University: Getting Started with NEAT
The goal of NEAT (A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet) is to allow network "services" offered to applications – such as reliability, low-delay communication or security – to be dynamically tailored based on application demands, current network conditions, hardware capabilities or local policies, and also to support the integration of new network functionality in an evolutionary fashion, without applications having to be rewritten. This talk gives a practical introduction to NEAT from a developer's perspective: after an introduction to NEAT, the APIs and in particular the NEAT Sockets API are explained. This is followed by pseudo-code examples and finally running-code examples. These running-code examples particularly also show how to use NEAT in NorNet Core.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet, NorNet |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2017 |
| Location of Talk | Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China |
| Place Published | Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China |
| Type of Talk | Tutorial |
| Keywords | Client, Examples, NEAT, NEAT Sockets API, NorNet Core, programming, Server |
A Practical Introduction to NEAT at Hainan University
In Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China, 2017.Status: Published
A Practical Introduction to NEAT at Hainan University
The goal of NEAT (A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet) is to allow network "services" offered to applications – such as reliability, low-delay communication or security – to be dynamically tailored based on application demands, current network conditions, hardware capabilities or local policies, and also to support the integration of new network functionality in an evolutionary fashion, without applications having to be rewritten. This talk gives a practical introduction to NEAT from a developer's perspective: after an introduction to NEAT, the APIs and in particular the NEAT Sockets API are explained. This is followed by pseudo-code examples and finally running-code examples. These running-code examples particularly also show how to use NEAT in NorNet Core
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet, NorNet |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2017 |
| Location of Talk | Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China |
| Place Published | Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China |
| Type of Talk | Invited Talk |
| Keywords | Client, Examples, NEAT, NEAT Sockets API, NorNet Core, programming, Server |
MobRob: Resilient Networks Mobile Broadband Measurements
The Centre for resilient networks and applications (CRNA) at Simula leads and operates an activity that continuously measures and evaluates the robustness of the service of all major mobile broadband providers in Norway. These measurements are financed by the Ministry of Transport and Communication. During the fall of 2011 all providers were invited to participate in this effort. Participation from providers is sought to scale up the scale the number of measurement points that Simula can operate and to give the participating providers access to unique measurement data that closely captures end users’ experience. Tele2 and Ice Norge expressed willingness and joined Simula in building the first large-scale mobile broadband measurements world-wide. MobRob was commissioned immediately thereafter to manage and steer this collaboration.
The ambition of MobRob is to build a unique large scale measurement infrastructure and to create a dynamic medium where researchers and network operators can work together. Since its start in 2012, MobRob along with Robuste nett 2 have managed to deploy several hundreds of measurement points all over Norway. Participating operators have been using the collected measurement data in conjunction with data analysis and visualization systems developed by Simula to monitor how end users perceive their services.
Final goal:
Funding source:
Partners and self-financing from CRNA
All partners:
- Tele2
- Ice Norge
Publications at The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications
Talk, keynote
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation
In Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2021.Status: Published
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation
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 | 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 |
Talks, invited
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
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: Getting Started with NorNet Core — A Remote Tutorial
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 |
Journal Article
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Economic Dispatch of Virtual Power Plant in Internet of Energy
IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Early Access) (2020).Status: Published
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Economic Dispatch of Virtual Power Plant in Internet of Energy
With high penetration of large scale distributed renewable energy generation, the power system is facing enormous challenges in terms of the inherent uncertainty of power generation of renewable energy resources. In this regard, virtual power plants (VPPs) can play a crucial role in integrating a large number of distributed generation units (DGs) more effectively to improve the stability of the power systems. Due to the uncertainty and nonlinear characteristics of DGs, reliable economic dispatch in VPPs requires timely and reliable communication between DGs, and between the generation side and the load side. The online economic dispatch optimizes the cost of VPPs. In this paper, we propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm for the optimal online economic dispatch strategy in VPPs. By utilizing DRL, our proposed algorithm reduced the computational complexity while also incorporating large and continuous state space due to the stochastic characteristics of distributed power generation. We further design an edge computing framework to handle the stochastic and large-state space characteristics of VPPs. The DRL based real time economic dispatch algorithm is executed online. We utilize real meteorological and load data to analyze and validate the performance of our proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that our proposed DRL based algorithm can successfully learn the characteristics of DGs and industrial user demands. It can learn to choose actions to minimize the cost of VPPs. Compared with DPG and DDPG, our proposed method has lower time complexity.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Early Access) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Partially Observable Data Poisoning Attack in Crowdsensing Systems
IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Early Access) (2020).Status: Published
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Partially Observable Data Poisoning Attack in Crowdsensing Systems
Crowdsensing systems collect various types of data from sensors embedded on mobile devices owned by individuals. These individuals are commonly referred to as workers that complete tasks published by crowdsensing systems. Because of the relative lack of control over worker identities, crowdsensing systems are susceptible to data poisoning attacks which interfering with data analysis results by injecting fake data conflicting with ground truth. Frameworks like TruthFinder can resolve data conflicts by evaluating the trustworthiness of the data providers. These frameworks somehow make crowdsensing systems more robust since they can limit the impact of dirty data by reducing the value of unreliable workers. However, previous work has shown that TruthFinder may also be affected by data poisoning attack when the malicious workers have access to global information. In this paper, we focus on partially observable data poisoning attacks in crowdsensing systems. We show that even if the malicious workers only have access to local information, they can find effective data poisoning attack strategies to interfere with crowd sensing systems with TruthFinder. First, we formally model the problem of partially observable data poisoning attack against crowdsensing systems. Then, we propose a data poisoning attack method based on deep reinforcement learning, which helps malicious workers jeopardize with TruthFinder while hiding themselves. Based on the method, the malicious workers can learn from their attack attempts and evolve the poisoning strategies continuously. Finally, we conduct experiments on real-life data sets to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Early Access) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
Blockchain Empowered Cooperative Authentication with Data Traceability in Vehicular Edge Computing
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 69, no. 4 (2020): 4221-4232.Status: Published
Blockchain Empowered Cooperative Authentication with Data Traceability in Vehicular Edge Computing
The dynamic environment due to traffic mobility and wireless communication from/to vehicles make identity authentication and trust management for privacy preservation based on vehicular edge computing (VEC) an increasingly important problem in vehicular networks. However, existing authentication schemes mainly focus on communication between a single trusted edge computing node and multiple vehicles. This framework may suffer the bottleneck problem due to the single edge computing node, and the performance depends heavily on its resources. In this paper, a blockchain empowered group-authentication scheme is proposed for vehicles with decentralized identification based on secret sharing and dynamic proxy mechanism. Sub-authentication results are aggregated for trust management based blockchain to implement collaborative authentication. The edge computing node with a higher-reputation stored in the tamper-proof blockchain can upload the final aggregated authentication result to the central server to achieve the decentralized authentication. This work analyzes typical attacks for this scheme and shows that the proposed scheme achieves cooperative privacy preservation for vehicles while also reducing communication overhead and computation cost.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pagination | 4221 - 4232 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
Blockchain Empowered Asynchronous Federated Learning for Secure Data Sharing in Internet of Vehicles
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 69, no. 4 (2020): 4298-4311.Status: Published
Blockchain Empowered Asynchronous Federated Learning for Secure Data Sharing in Internet of Vehicles
In Internet of Vehicles (IoV), data sharing among vehicles for collaborative analysis can improve the driving experience and service quality. However, the bandwidth, security and privacy issues hinder data providers from participating in the data sharing process. In addition, due to the intermittent and unreliable communications in IoV, the reliability and efficiency of data sharing need to be further enhanced. In this paper, we propose a new architecture based on federated learning to relieve transmission load and address privacy concerns of providers. To enhance the security and reliability of model parameters, we develop a hybrid blockchain architecture which consists of the permissioned blockchain and the local Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). Moreover, we propose an asynchronous federated learning scheme by adopting Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for node selection to improve the efficiency. The reliability of shared data is also guaranteed by integrating learned models into blockchain and executing a two-stage verification. Numerical results show that the proposed data sharing scheme provides both higher learning accuracy and faster convergence.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pagination | 4298 - 4311 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
Deep Reinforcement Learning and Permissioned Blockchain for Content Caching in Vehicular Edge Computing and Networks
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 69, no. 4 (2020): 4312-4324.Status: Published
Deep Reinforcement Learning and Permissioned Blockchain for Content Caching in Vehicular Edge Computing and Networks
Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) is a promising paradigm to enable huge amount of data and multimedia content to be cached in proximity to vehicles. However, high mobility of vehicles and dynamic wireless channel condition make it challenge to design an optimal content caching policy. Further, with much sensitive personal information, vehicles may be not willing to caching their contents to an untrusted caching provider. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is an emerging technique to solve the problem with high-dimensional and time-varying features. Permission blockchain is able to establish a secure and decentralized peer-to-peer transaction environment. In this paper, we integrate DRL and permissioned blockchain into vehicular networks for intelligent and secure content caching. We first propose a blockchain empowered distributed content caching framework where vehicles perform content caching and base stations maintain the permissioned blockchain. Then, we exploit the advanced DRL approach to design an optimal content caching scheme with taking mobility into account. Finally, we propose a new block verifier selection method, Proof-of-Utility (PoU), to accelerate block verification process. Security analysis shows that our proposed blockchain empowered content caching can achieve security and privacy protection. Numerical results based on a real dataset from Uber indicate that the DRL-inspired content caching scheme significantly outperforms two benchmark policies.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pagination | 4312 - 4324 |
| Date Published | 02/2020 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
PoBT: A Light Weight Consensus Algorithm for Scalable IoT Business Blockchain
IEEE Internet of Things Journal 7, no. 3 (2020): 2343-2355.Status: Published
PoBT: A Light Weight Consensus Algorithm for Scalable IoT Business Blockchain
Efficient and smart business processes are heavily dependent on the Internet of Things (IoT) networks, where end-to-end optimization is critical to the success of the whole ecosystem. These systems, including industrial, healthcare, and others, are large scale complex networks of heterogeneous devices. This introduces many security and access control challenges. Blockchain has emerged as an effective solution for addressing several such challenges. However, the basic algorithms used in the business blockchain are not feasible for large scale IoT systems. To make them scalable for IoT, the complex consensus-based security has to be downgraded. In this article, we propose a novel lightweight proof of block and trade (PoBT) consensus algorithm for IoT blockchain and its integration framework. This solution allows the validation of trades as well as blocks with reduced computation time. Also, we present a ledger distribution mechanism to decrease the memory requirements of IoT nodes. The analysis and evaluation of security aspects, computation time, memory, and bandwidth requirements show significant improvement in the performance of the overall system.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Internet of Things Journal |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pagination | 2343 - 2355 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
Energy Efficiency and Delay Tradeoff for Wireless Powered Mobile-Edge Computing Systems with Multi-Access Schemes
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications 9, no. 3 (2020): 1855-1867.Status: Published
Energy Efficiency and Delay Tradeoff for Wireless Powered Mobile-Edge Computing Systems with Multi-Access Schemes
The integration of Mobile-edge Computing (MEC) and Wireless Energy Transfer (WET) has been recognized as a promising technique to enhance computation capability and to prolong battery lifetime of resource-constrained wireless devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) era. However, it is challenging to jointly schedule energy, radio, and computational resources for coordinating heterogeneous performance requirements in wireless powered MEC systems. To fill this gap, this paper investigates the fundamental tradeoff between Energy Efficiency (EE) and delay in a multi-user wireless powered MEC system. Considering the random channel conditions and task arrivals, we formulate a stochastic optimization problem to study the EE-delay tradeoff, which optimizes network EE subject to network stability, maximum central processing unit frequency, peak transmission power, available communication resource, and energy causality constraints. Further, we propose the online computation offloading and resource allocation algorithm by transforming the original problem into a series of deterministic optimization problems in each time block based on Lyapunov optimization theory. In addition, theoretical analysis shows that the algorithm achieves the EE-delay tradeoff as [O(1/V), O(V)] and introduces a control parameter V to balance the EE-delay performance. Numerical results verify the theoretical analysis and reveal the impact of various parameters to the system performance.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pagination | 1855 - 1867 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
oint Transaction Relaying and Block Verification Optimization for Blockchain Empowered D2D Communication
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 69, no. 1 (2020): 828-841.Status: Published
oint Transaction Relaying and Block Verification Optimization for Blockchain Empowered D2D Communication
Device to device (D2D) communication is a promising paradigm to support data sharing in the fifth generation (5G) small cell networks. However, D2D communication is more vulnerable to security and privacy threats due to direct wireless connection between the proximity devices. In this paper, we exploit blockchain technology to propose a new distributed and secure data sharing framework named D2D blockchain, where we deploy a set of Access Points (APs) to verify end users' transactions. Besides, in order to enable the end users to receive the required data on time in the D2D blockchain, we propose two new schemes for the transaction confirmation procedure including a relay-assisted transaction relaying scheme and a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) based lightweight block verification scheme. Furthermore, to incentivize the relay devices to help in relaying transactions in congested areas, and to encourage the verifiers to contribute their resources in block verification, we design a two-stage contract theory based joint optimization scheme. To measure the quality of the relayed transaction and the verified block, we formulate two models: value of transaction relaying (VoTR) and value of block verification (VoBV), and then design the optimal contract for each relay device and each verifier. Security analysis and numerical results illustrate that the proposed D2D blockchain and the designed joint optimization scheme are secure and efficient for data sharing among end users.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pagination | 828 - 841 |
| Publisher | IEEE |