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.
CRNA's blog.
CRNA's LinkedIn page.
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
Raksha: 5G Security for Critical Communications
The 5G networks can act as a vehicle to drive the digitalization phase for realizing a gigabit networked society. They use Service-Based Architecture to enable different use-case scenarios for example future critical communications services, such as Next Generation Nodnett (NGN) in Norway will be moving towards 5G networks. The complex 5G networks are vulnerable to cyber-attacks due to the increasing level of network softwarization approach, a requirement to support less secure legacy networks, and the adoption of web-centric protocols for the core network signaling. In addition, the security requirements of NGN are different than of 5G networks, hence it is crucial to understand their threat landscape from the attacker's perspective.
There is also a need for threat modeling methods and tools to effectively identify and address emerging risks in multi-generational 5G networks. Existing threat modeling approaches have limited scope to accommodate new security paradigms and varying degrees of trust assumptions of 5G networks. Moreover, it is almost impossible to validate threat modeling approaches by performing cyber security exercises and assess vulnerabilities on operational 5G as this could lead to unacceptable risk. Therefore, one of the best approaches to address the above issues is to combine threat modeling science together with a cyber range concept to enhance the cyber-resiliency of 5G-enabled critical communications and eventually other use-cases as well.
The project delivers a 5G cyber range platform empowered with tools for risk and threat assessment, cyber-attack simulation, evaluation and demonstration of defensive solutions for NGN. The project includes a Norwegian mobile operator, authorities responsible for cellular networks and security, research institutes, and universities. The proposed approach could be a future best practice for the Norwegian telecom industry to address cyber security challenges.
Coordinator:
Partners:
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
Journal Article
A Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm for MPTCP Networks
Electronics 10, no. 16 (2021).Status: Published
A Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm for MPTCP Networks
With the increasing deployment of the Multi-Path Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) in heterogeneous network setups, there is a need to understand how its performance is affected in practice both by traditional factors such as round-trip time measurements, buffer predictive modelling and by calculating the impact factors of network subflows. Studies have shown that path management and packet scheduling have a large effect on overall performance and required limited resources with different congestion control parameters. Unfortunately, most of the previous studies have focused almost exclusively on the improvement of a single parameter, without a holistic view. To deal with this issue effectively, this paper puts forward a Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm (MPCOA), which can find the smaller buffer size and select the appropriate congestion control and path management algorithm on the premise of ensuring larger throughput. Experiments of three scenarios show that MPCOA can save the buffer space and subflow resources, and achieve high throughput. Meanwhile, a set of quantitative improvement results given by MPCOA is convenient for us to evaluate the quality of MPTCP network, and provide reference for our ongoing future work, like for 4G/5G, Internet of Things and Star Link networks.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Journal | Electronics |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 16 |
| Date Published | 08/2021 |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Place Published | Basel/Switzerland |
| ISSN | 2079-9292 |
| Keywords | Buffer Size, congestion control, MPCOA, Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), Path Management |
| URL | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/16/1942/pdf |
| DOI | 10.3390/electronics10161942 |
Proceedings, refereed
A Demo of Workload Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Using the Reliable Server Pooling Framework
In Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: IEEE Computer Society, 2021.Status: Published
A Demo of Workload Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Using the Reliable Server Pooling Framework
Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) places cloud resources nearby the user, to provide support for latency-sensitive applications. Offloading workload from resource-constrained mobile devices (such as smartphones) into the cloud ecosystem is becoming increasingly popular. In this demonstration, we show how to deploy a mobile network (with OpenAirInterface and Open Source MANO), as well as to adapt the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework to efficiently manage MEC as well as multi-cloud resources to run an interactive demo application.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN) |
| Date Published | 10/2021 |
| Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
| Place Published | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
| Keywords | Demonstration, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) |
| URL | https://www.ieeelcn.org/lcn46demos/Demo_4_1570754367.pdf |
An Exposed Closed-Loop Model for Customer-Driven Service Assurance Automation
In 2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit). Porto, Portugal: IEEE Computer Society, 2021.Status: Published
An Exposed Closed-Loop Model for Customer-Driven Service Assurance Automation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely applied in telecommunications to enable zero-touch automation in network operation and service management. Due to the high complexity, deploying advanced AI mechanisms is not always feasible inside the operator’s network domains. Instead, via service exposures, it becomes possible for vertical customers to integrate their external AI solutions with the network and service management system to form a closed loop (CL) and contribute to the automation process. In this paper, we propose an exposed CL model based on service exposure and apply it to automate service assurance tasks like autoscaling in a network function virtualization (NFV) system orchestrated by ETSI Open Source MANO (OSM). A testbed is built to validate the model. It collects monitoring data from the OSM monitoring module and external monitoring tools. Vertical customers drive and customize their AI solutions to aggregate these data sets and run analytics to detect and predict anomalies prepared for scaling. Preliminary analysis demonstrates the added values of customer-driven monitoring and analysis via the exposed CL.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Conference Name | 2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit) |
| Pagination | 419–424 |
| Date Published | 06/2021 |
| Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
| Place Published | Porto, Portugal |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-6654-1526-2 |
| Keywords | Autonomous Management, Closed Loop, Machine learning, Monitoring, Service Exposure |
| DOI | 10.1109/EuCNC/6GSummit51104.2021.9482533 |
Reliable Server Pooling Based Workload Offloading with Mobile Edge Computing: A Proof-of-Concept
In Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2021). Springer, 2021.Status: Published
Reliable Server Pooling Based Workload Offloading with Mobile Edge Computing: A Proof-of-Concept
In recent times, mobile broadband devices have become almost ubiquitous. However, battery-powered devices (such as smartphones), have limitations on energy consumption, computation power and storage space. Cloud computing, and in particular with the upcoming 5G networks, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) can provide compute and storage services at the vicinity of the user (with a low communication latency). However, the complexity lies in how to simply and efficiently realise MEC services, with the auxiliary public (multi-)cloud resources? In this paper, we propose a proof-of-concept of using Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) as a light-weight layer of managing resource pools and handling application sessions with these pools. Our approach is simple, efficient, has low overhead and is available as open-source. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by measuring in a test setup, with a 4G testbed connected to MEC and public multi-cloud resources.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, MELODIC: Multi-cloud Execution-ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Conference Name | Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2021) |
| Pagination | 582-593 |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Keywords | 5G, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) |
Talk, keynote
NorNet at Hainan University in 2021: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research — A Remote Presentation
In Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China. Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, 2021.Status: Published
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 | Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China |
| Date Published | 01/2021 |
| Place Published | Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China |
| Keywords | Introduction, Multi-Homing, NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Status, Testbed |
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 M5G-2020-Workshop (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 | M5G-2020-Workshop (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 OSM Hackfest (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 | OSM Hackfest (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
Public outreach
What happened to the cyberwar
In Hvor ble det av cyberkrigen? https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/i/nWKolo/hvor-ble-det-av-cyberkrigen: Aftenposten, 2022.Status: Published
What happened to the cyberwar
Professor Olav Lysne, Director of SimulaMet and Haakon Bryhni, head of CRNA at SimulaMet recently published an op-ed in Aftenposten discussing cyber warfare in Ukraine.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Public outreach |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Secondary Title | Hvor ble det av cyberkrigen? |
| Date Published | 03/2022 |
| Publisher | Aftenposten |
| Place Published | https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/i/nWKolo/hvor-ble-det-av-cyberkrigen |
| Type of Work | Popular science article |
| Keywords | Applications, cyberwar, Internet, reliable, Security |
| URL | https://www.simulamet.no/content/what-happened-cyberwar |
Hvor ble det av cyberkrigen?
Aftenposten, 2022.Status: Published
Hvor ble det av cyberkrigen?
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Public outreach |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Publisher | Aftenposten |
Talk, keynote
Robust ICT infrastructure during Hybrid Warfare
In Teknologirådet, Stortinget, Oslo, Norway. Teknologirådet, Stortinget: Simula Metropolitan Centre for Digital Engineering, 2022.Status: Published
Robust ICT infrastructure during Hybrid Warfare
The talk "Robust ICT infrastructure during Hybrid Warfare" discussed how to achieve more robust network connectivity in the light of hybrid warfare.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Talk, keynote |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Location of Talk | Teknologirådet, Stortinget, Oslo, Norway |
| Date Published | 11/2022 |
| Publisher | Simula Metropolitan Centre for Digital Engineering |
| Place Published | Teknologirådet, Stortinget |
| Type of Talk | Keynote |
| Keywords | 5G, Cloud services, Robustness, Seacables |
Talks, contributed
NorNet – A Linux- and Open-Source-Software-based International Platform for Networking Research
In Linux Conference Australia, Virtual. Melbourne, Australia: Linux Conference Australia, 2022.Status: Published
NorNet – A Linux- and Open-Source-Software-based International Platform for Networking Research
The NorNet testbed (https://www.nntb.no) is an Internet testbed platform for research on multi-homed systems. The particular property of multi-homed systems is to be connected to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP) simultaneously. Its initial purpose is of course to still provide connectivity in case of ISP/network failures. But does it really work that well, also with current protocols and applications? And redundancy does not come for free. A user connected to multiple ISPs will also receive multiple Internet bills each month. So, is there a possibility to make further use of multi-homing in the usual case where nothing goes wrong? Obviously, there are a lot of interesting research questions, which need to be examined in realistic Internet setups! Therefore, we are building up the NorNet open Internet testbed platform as a Linux- and Open-Source-software-based infrastructure, which currently spreads over multiple sites in different countries.
NorNet makes extensive use of advanced Linux features like Kernel-based Virtualisation (KVM), Linux Containers (LXC), BTRFS file system features, IP routing rules, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), and many more. The goal of this talk is therefore to present an overview of the testbed, its underlying Linux features, and how they are combined to provide the multi-homing features to the various testbed users. This particularly includes an overview of how to make use of multi-path transport with MPTCP – based on the Linux MPTCP implementation – in multi-homed environments. The idea is to provide guidelines for also utilising multi-homing features in own projects.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , GAIA |
| Publication Type | Talks, contributed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Location of Talk | Linux Conference Australia, Virtual |
| Publisher | Linux Conference Australia |
| Place Published | Melbourne, Australia |
| Keywords | Linux, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, NorNet, Open Source, Testbed |
| URL | https://lca2022.linux.org.au/schedule/presentation/52/ |
Talks, invited
Using the Fiber Cables as Sensors, Detecting Security Threats and Earthquakes
In Netnod Technical Meeting, Sweden, 2022.Status: Published
Using the Fiber Cables as Sensors, Detecting Security Threats and Earthquakes
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Location of Talk | Netnod Technical Meeting, Sweden |
| URL | https://www.netnod.se/netnod-tech-meeting-2022 |
Reliability and security in future telecommunication networks
In Inside Telecom conference, Scandic hotel, Fornebu, Norway. Inside Telecom conference: Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA), 2022.Status: Published
Reliability and security in future telecommunication networks
The talk address Reliability and security in future telecommunication networks reporting work from SimulaMet SMIL laboratory and the GAIA-project, explaining dependencies and vulnerabilities of current telecommunication networks and applications and how to address these to form robust and reliable networks and services.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
| Publication Type | Talks, invited |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Location of Talk | Inside Telecom conference, Scandic hotel, Fornebu, Norway |
| Publisher | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Centre for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA) |
| Place Published | Inside Telecom conference |
| Type of Talk | Invited talk |
| Keywords | 5G, Applications, Cloud services, geographical dependencies, network measurements, Resilience, Robustness |
Journal Article
A Multi-Perspective Study of Internet Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak
Arxiv (2021).Status: Published
A Multi-Perspective Study of Internet Performance during the COVID-19 Outbreak
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Journal | Arxiv |
| Publisher | Arxiv |
| Place Published | Arrxiv.org |
| Keywords | COVID, Internet, network |
| DOI | 10.48550/arXiv.2101.05030 |
Huawei, 5G and Security: Technological Limitations and Political Responses
Development and Change 52, no. 5 (2021).Status: Published
Huawei, 5G and Security: Technological Limitations and Political Responses
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Journal | Development and Change |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Publisher | Wiley |
A Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm for MPTCP Networks
Electronics 10, no. 16 (2021).Status: Published
A Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm for MPTCP Networks
With the increasing deployment of the Multi-Path Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) in heterogeneous network setups, there is a need to understand how its performance is affected in practice both by traditional factors such as round-trip time measurements, buffer predictive modelling and by calculating the impact factors of network subflows. Studies have shown that path management and packet scheduling have a large effect on overall performance and required limited resources with different congestion control parameters. Unfortunately, most of the previous studies have focused almost exclusively on the improvement of a single parameter, without a holistic view. To deal with this issue effectively, this paper puts forward a Multi-Parameter Comprehensive Optimized Algorithm (MPCOA), which can find the smaller buffer size and select the appropriate congestion control and path management algorithm on the premise of ensuring larger throughput. Experiments of three scenarios show that MPCOA can save the buffer space and subflow resources, and achieve high throughput. Meanwhile, a set of quantitative improvement results given by MPCOA is convenient for us to evaluate the quality of MPTCP network, and provide reference for our ongoing future work, like for 4G/5G, Internet of Things and Star Link networks.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Journal | Electronics |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 16 |
| Date Published | 08/2021 |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Place Published | Basel/Switzerland |
| ISSN | 2079-9292 |
| Keywords | Buffer Size, congestion control, MPCOA, Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), Path Management |
| URL | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/16/1942/pdf |
| DOI | 10.3390/electronics10161942 |
Poster
A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure
In Poster: A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure. IMC 21: IMC , 2021.Status: Published
A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure
Characterizing countries’ standing in terms of the maturity of their telecommunications infrastructure is paramount to inform policy and investments. Here, we use a broad set of features to group countries according to the state of their infrastructures and track how this has changed between 2010 and 2020. While a few nations continue to dominate, the membership of this club has changed with several European countries leaving
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Poster |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Secondary Title | Poster: A decade of evolution in telecommunications infrastructure |
| Date Published | 10/2021 |
| Publisher | IMC |
| Place Published | IMC 21 |
| Type of Work | Internet measurements |
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
Talks, contributed
Demonstration of P4-Based In-Band Telemetry for OSM-Orchestrated 4G/5G Testbeds
In OSM #12 Ecosystem Day (virtual), 2021.Status: Published
Demonstration of P4-Based In-Band Telemetry for OSM-Orchestrated 4G/5G Testbeds
The SimulaMet OpenAirInterface VNF provides an OpenAirInterface-based Enhanced Packet Core (EPC), with separate VDUs for HSS, MME, SPGW-C and SPGW-U. To allow for advanced in-band telemetry, we have extended this VNF to add switches with Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors (P4) to all relevant virtual links inside the EPC. P4 allows full programability of the packet forwarding behaviour, and especially allows to extend packets with additional information for in-band telemetry. This information can be read by other P4 instances to allow for fine-granular performance data collection. In this presentation and live demonstration, we would like show the solutions chosen to efficiently use OSM for handling our extended EPC, and in particular we would like to highlight the possibilities to perform P4-based in-band telemetry to evaluate the performance of the mobile network. Finally, we would also like to show the audience a live demo of our testbed setup with telemetry collection.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , NorNet, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
| Publication Type | Talks, contributed |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Location of Talk | OSM #12 Ecosystem Day (virtual) |
| Type of Talk | Demo presentation |
| Keywords | 5G, In-Band Telemetry, Network Function Virtualisation, Open Source MANO, OpenAirInterface, P4 |
Journal Article
Dissecting Energy Consumption of NB-IoT Devices Empirically
IEEE Internet of Things Journal 8, no. 2 (2020): 1224-1242.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 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pagination | 1224 - 1242 |
| Date Published | 08/2020 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| 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) |
| Pagination | 265-270 |
| 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 OSM Hackfest, 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 | OSM Hackfest, 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 M5G-2020-Workshop (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 | M5G-2020-Workshop (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 OSM Hackfest (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 | OSM Hackfest (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 world energy market is changing, with many developed countries investing into green energy as well as distributed energy production. This transformation has led to the possibility of prosumers- the producer of relatively small and sporadic amounts of energy, to significantly influence the market and the power quality in the grid. Nonetheless, a wider proliferation of privately owned solar collectors, windmills, and other kinds of green generators make it challenging to manage the flow of energy that is no longer uni-directional.
LUCS is bringing together research groups and educational institutions that are committed to educating the next generation of researchers and engineers by joining forces 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 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 4 summer schools
- Develop a common smart grid curriculum at University of Oslo and Technical University of Berlin
- Organize 3 research workshops
- Sponsor the mobility of researchers to strengthen the group collaboration
Summer schools
3 summer schools have been held since 2018, and the final summer school, led by University of Oslo (UiO), will be in the summer of 2022 at Sundvollen.
-
Future Energy Information Networks, was held in Oslo from September 3rd to 7th, 2018.
- Smart Cities for Sustainable Energy Future - from design to practice, was held in Berlin from August 19th to 30th, 2019.
- Green Computing meets Green Energy, was held in Lille from September 5th to 10th, 2021. The Lille summer school was the first in-person event since the pandemic. More information on this summer school is found in this article.
-
From Energy Systems to Energy Justice, hosted by University of Oslo. Will be held at Sundvollen, from August 29—September 2, 2022. Call for participation.
Workshops
3 collaborative LUCS-PACE research workshops have been held.
-
The first workshop was a combined kick-off held in Oslo.
- The second LUCS-PACE workshop was held virtually due to Covid-19, from 25th to 26th of April, 2021. A summary of the workshop is available through this article.
- The final workshop was led by the Technical University of Munich (TuM), and took place at their premises in Munich, from 2nd to 4th of March, 2022. Read more about this workshop.
Funding source
INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research
All partners
- 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
David Hayes, Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, SimulaMet, 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
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 |
Proceedings, refereed
Experience: Implications of Roaming in Europe
In Proceedings of the 24th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking. New Delhi, India: ACM, 2018.Status: Published
Experience: Implications of Roaming in Europe
| 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 | 2018 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 24th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking |
| Pagination | 179-189 |
| Publisher | ACM |
| Place Published | New Delhi, India |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-4503-5903-0 |
| DOI | 10.1145/3241539.3241577 |
End to end 5G Measurements with MONROE: Challenges and Opportunities
In 2018 IEEE 4th International Forum on Research and Technology for Society and Industry (RTSI). IEEE, 2018.Status: Published
End to end 5G Measurements with MONROE: Challenges and Opportunities
| 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 | 2018 |
| Conference Name | 2018 IEEE 4th International Forum on Research and Technology for Society and Industry (RTSI) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| DOI | 10.1109/RTSI.2018.8548510 |
Visualizing Mobile Coverage from Repetitive Measurements on Defined Trajectories
In TMA Workshop on Mobile Network Measurements. IEEE/IFIP, 2018.Status: Published
Visualizing Mobile Coverage from Repetitive Measurements on Defined Trajectories
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Conference Name | TMA Workshop on Mobile Network Measurements |
| Publisher | IEEE/IFIP |
HINDSIGHT: An R-Based Framework Towards Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Optimization
In Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys). ACM, 2018.Status: Published
HINDSIGHT: An R-Based Framework Towards Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Optimization
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Conference Name | Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys) |
| Publisher | ACM |
Open Video Datasets over Operational Mobile Networks with MONROE
In Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys). ACM, 2018.Status: Published
Open Video Datasets over Operational Mobile Networks with MONROE
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Conference Name | Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys) |
| Publisher | ACM |
MONROE-Nettest: A Configurable Tool for Dissecting Speed Measurements in Mobile Broadband”
In IEEE INFOCOM Computer and Networking Experimental Research using Testbeds (CNERT) Workshop. IEEE, 2018.Status: Published
MONROE-Nettest: A Configurable Tool for Dissecting Speed Measurements in Mobile Broadband”
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Conference Name | IEEE INFOCOM Computer and Networking Experimental Research using Testbeds (CNERT) Workshop |
| Publisher | IEEE |
The Cloud that Runs the Mobile Internet: A Measurement Study of Mobile Cloud Services
In IEEE INFOCOM 2018 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications. IEEE, 2018.Status: Published
The Cloud that Runs the Mobile Internet: A Measurement Study of Mobile Cloud Services
Mobile applications outsource their cloud infrastructure deployment and content delivery to cloud computing services and content delivery networks. Studying how these services, which we collectively denote Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), perform over Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) is crucial to understanding some of the performance limitations of today's mobile apps. To that end, we perform the first empirical study of the complex dynamics between applications, MNOs and CSPs. First, we use real mobile app traffic traces that we gathered through a global crowdsourcing campaign to identify the most prevalent CSPs supporting today's mobile Internet. Then, we investigate how well these services interconnect with major European MNOs at a topological level, and measure their performance over European MNO networks through a month-long measurement campaign on the MONROE mobile broadband testbed. We discover that the top 6 most prevalent CSPs are used by 85% of apps, and observe significant differences in their performance across different MNOs due to the nature of their services, peering relationships with MNOs, and deployment strategies. We also find that CSP performance in MNOs is affected by inflated path length, roaming, and presence of middleboxes, but not influenced by the choice of DNS resolver.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | MONROE: Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2018 |
| Conference Name | IEEE INFOCOM 2018 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications |
| Pagination | 1619-1627 |
| Date Published | 05/2018 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Keywords | cellular networks, cloud service providers, content distribution networks, network measurement |
| DOI | 10.1109/INFOCOM.2018.8485872 |
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
De-ossifying the Internet transport layer: A survey and future perspectives
IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (2016).Status: Published
De-ossifying the Internet transport layer: A survey and future perspectives
It is widely recognized that the Internet transport layer has become ossified, where further evolution has become hard or even impossible. This is a direct consequence of the ubiquitous deployment of middleboxes that hamper the deployment of new transports, aggravated further by the limited flexibility of the Application Programming Interface (API) typically presented to applications. To tackle this problem, a wide range of solutions have been proposed in the literature, each aiming to address a particular aspect. Yet, no single proposal has emerged that is able to enable evolution of the transport layer. In this work, after an overview of the main issues and reasons for transport-layer ossification, we survey proposed solutions and discuss their potential and limitations. The survey is divided into five parts, each covering a set of point solutions for a different facet of the problem space: 1) designing middleboxproof transports, 2) signaling for facilitating middlebox traversal, 3) enhancing the API between the applications and the transport layer, 4) discovering and exploiting end-to-end capabilities, and 5) enabling user-space protocol stacks. Based on this analysis, we then identify further development needs towards an overall solution. We argue that the development of a comprehensive transport layer framework, able to facilitate the integration and cooperation of specialized solutions in an application-independent and flexible way, is a necessary step toward making the Internet transport architecture truly evolvable. To this end, we identify the requirements for such a framework and provide insights for its development.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2016 |
| Journal | IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials |
| Date Published | 11/2016 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 1553-877X |
| Keywords | API, middleboxes, protocol-stack ossification, transport protocols, user-space networking stacks |
| DOI | 10.1109/COMST.2016.2626780 |
Poster
NEAT – A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet
12th Swedish National Computer Networking Workshop (SNCNW 2016), Sundsvall, Sweden, June 1-2, 2016, 2016.Status: Published
NEAT – A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Poster |
| Year of Publication | 2016 |
| Date Published | 06/2016 |
| Place Published | 12th Swedish National Computer Networking Workshop (SNCNW 2016), Sundsvall, Sweden, June 1-2, 2016 |
| Keywords | application-aware networking, Internet architecture, ossification, transport API, transport layer |
| DOI | 10.5281/zenodo.55588 |
Proceedings, refereed
On the Cost of Using Happy Eyeballs for Transport Protocol Selection
In Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW). ACM, 2016.Status: Published
On the Cost of Using Happy Eyeballs for Transport Protocol Selection
Concerns have been raised in the past several years that introducing new transport protocols on the Internet has become increasingly difficult, not least because there is no agreed-upon way for a source end host to find out if a transport protocol is supported all the way to a destination peer. A solution to a similar problem—finding out support for IPv6—has been proposed and is currently being deployed: the Happy Eyeballs (HE) mechanism. HE has also been proposed as an efficient way for an application to select an appropriate transport protocol. Still, there are few, if any, performance evaluations of transport HE. This paper demonstrates that transport HE could indeed be a feasible solution to the transport support problem. The paper evaluates HE between TCP and SCTP using TLS encrypted and unencrypted traffic, and shows that although there is indeed a cost in terms of CPU load to introduce HE, the cost is relatively small, especially in comparison with the cost of using TLS encryption. Moreover, our results suggest that HE has a marginal impact on memory usage. Finally, by introducing caching of previous connection attempts, the additional cost of transport HE could be significantly reduced.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems, Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2016 |
| Conference Name | Applied Networking Research Workshop (ANRW) |
| Pagination | 45-51 |
| Date Published | 07/2016 |
| Publisher | ACM |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-4503-4443-2 |
| Keywords | CPU load, Happy Eyeballs, memory usage, SCTP, tcp, TLS, Transport-protocol selection |
| URL | https://irtf.org/anrw/2016/anrw16-final27.pdf |
| DOI | 10.1145/2959424.2959437 |
Towards a Flexible Internet Transport Layer Architecture
In IEEE LANMAN. IEEE, 2016.Status: Published
Towards a Flexible Internet Transport Layer Architecture
There is a growing concern that the Internet transport layer has become less adaptive to the requirements of new applications, and that further evolution has become very difficult. This is because a fundamental assumption no longer holds: it can no longer be assumed that the transport layer is only in the scope of end-hosts. The success of TCP and UDP and the ubiquity of middleboxes have led to ossification of both the network infrastructure and the API presented to applications. This has led to the development of workarounds and point solutions that fail to cover many facets of the problem. To address this issue, this paper identifies requirements for a new transport layer and then proposes a conceptual architecture that we argue is both flexible and evolvable. This new architecture requires that applications interface to the transport at a higher abstraction level, where an application can express communication preferences via a new richer API. Protocol machinery can use this information to decide which of the available transport protocols is used. By placing the protocol machinery in the transport layer, the new architecture can allow for new protocols to be deployed and enable evolution of the transport layer.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems, Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NEAT: A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2016 |
| Conference Name | IEEE LANMAN |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISBN Number | 978-1-4673-9882-4 |
| ISSN Number | 1944-0375 |
| Keywords | application-aware networking, Internet architecture, ossification, transport API, transport layer |
| DOI | 10.1109/LANMAN.2016.7548846 |
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
Journal Article
Measuring and localising congestion in mobile broadband networks
IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management 19, no. 1 (2022): 366-380.Status: Published
Measuring and localising congestion in mobile broadband networks
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pagination | 366 - 380 |
| Date Published | 03/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 1932-4537 |
| DOI | 10.1109/TNSM.2021.3115722 |
OpenIaC: open infrastructure as code - the network is my computer
Journal of Cloud Computing 11 (2022).Status: Published
OpenIaC: open infrastructure as code - the network is my computer
Modern information systems are built fron a complex composition of networks, infrastructure, devices, services, and applications, interconnected by data flows that are often private and financially sensitive. The 5G networks, which can create hyperlocalized services, have highlighted many of the deficiencies of current practices in use today to create and operate information systems. Emerging cloud computing techniques, such as Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and elastic computing, offer a path for a future re-imagining of how we create, deploy, secure, operate, and retire information systems. In this paper, we articulate the position that a comprehensive new approach is needed for all OSI layers from layer 2 up to applications that are built on underlying principles that include reproducibility, continuous integration/continuous delivery, auditability, and versioning. There are obvious needs to redesign and optimize the protocols from the network layer to the application layer. Our vision seeks to augment existing Cloud Computing and Networking solutions with support for multiple cloud infrastructures and seamless integration of cloud-based microservices. To address these issues, we propose an approach named Open Infrastructure as Code (OpenIaC), which is an attempt to provide a common open forum to integrate and build on advances in cloud computing and blockchain to address the needs of modern information architectures. The main mission of our OpenIaC approach is to provide services based on the principles of Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) among the federation of connected resources based on Decentralized Identity (DID). Our objectives include the creation of an open-source hub with fine-grained access control for an open and connected infrastructure of shared resources (sensing, storage, computing, 3D printing, etc.) managed by blockchains and federations. Our proposed approach has the potential to provide a path for developing new platforms, business models, and a modernized information ecosystem necessary for 5G networks.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | Journal of Cloud Computing |
| Volume | 11 |
| Number | 12 |
| Date Published | 05/2022 |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Place Published | Journal of Cloud Computing |
| Keywords | 5G networks, Cloud, edge, infrastructure-as-Code, OPenIaC |
Sectors, Beams and Environmental Impact on the Performance of Commercial 5G mmWave Cells: An Empirical Study
IEEE Access 10 (2022): 133309-133323.Status: Published
Sectors, Beams and Environmental Impact on the Performance of Commercial 5G mmWave Cells: An Empirical Study
millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is one of the cornerstones of future generations of mobile networks. While the performance of mmWave links has been thoroughly investigated by simulations and testbeds, the behavior of this technology in real-world commercial setups has not yet been thoroughly documented. In this paper, we address this gap and present the results of an empirical study to determine the actual performance of a commercial 5G mmWave cell through on-field measurements. We evaluate the signal and beam coverage map of an operational network as well as the end-to-end communication performance of a 5G mmWave connection, considering various scenarios, including human body blockage effects, foliage-caused and rain-induced attenuation, and water surface effects. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to report on a commercial deployment while not treating the radio as a black box. Measurement results are compared with 3GPP’s statistical channel models for mmWave to check the possible gaps between simulated and actual performance. This measurement analysis provides valuable information for researchers and 5G verticals to fully understand how a 5G mmWave commercial access network operates in the real-world.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | IEEE Access |
| Volume | 10 |
| Pagination | 133309-133323 |
| Date Published | 12/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 2169-3536 |
| Keywords | 5G, commercial 5G networks, coverage analysis, millimeter-wave, mmWave |
| URL | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9987496 |
| DOI | 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3229588 |
Secure Embedded Living: Towards a Self-contained User Data Preserving Framework
IEEE Communications Magazine 60, no. 11 (2022): 74-80.Status: Published
Secure Embedded Living: Towards a Self-contained User Data Preserving Framework
Smart living represents the hardware-software co-inhabiting with humans for better living standards and improved well-being. Here, hardware monitors human activities (by collecting data) specific to a context. Such data can be processed to offer context-specific valuable insights. Such insights can be used for optimising the well-being, living experience and energy cost of smart homes. This paper proposes a Secure Embedded Living Framework (SELF) that enforces a privacy-preserving data control mechanism by integrating multiple technologies, such as Internet-of-thing, cloud/fog platform, machine learning and blockchain. The primary aim of the SELF is to allow the user to retain more control of its data.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab, GAIA, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | IEEE Communications Magazine |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pagination | 74–80 |
| Date Published | 11/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| ISSN | 0163-6804 |
| Keywords | blockchain, Cloud, Data, IoTs, Security, User |
| DOI | 10.1109/MCOM.001.2200165 |
AI Anomaly Detection for Cloudified Mobile Core Architectures
Transactions on Network and Service Management (2022).Status: Published
AI Anomaly Detection for Cloudified Mobile Core Architectures
IT systems monitoring is a crucial process for managing and orchestrating network resources, allowing network providers to rapidly detect and react to most impediment causing network degradation. However, the high growth in size and complexity of current operational networks (2022) demands new solutions to process huge amounts of data (including alarms) reliably and swiftly. Further, as the network becomes progressively more virtualized, the hosting of nfv on cloud environments adds a magnitude of possible bottlenecks outside the control of the service owners. In this paper, we propose two deep learning anomaly detection solutions that leverage service exposure and apply it to automate the detection of service degradation and root cause discovery in a cloudified mobile network that is orchestrated by ETSI OSM. A testbed is built to validate these AI models. The testbed collects monitoring data from the OSM monitoring module, which is then exposed to the external AI anomaly detection modules, tuned to identify the anomalies and the network services causing them. The deep learning solutions are tested using various artificially induced bottlenecks. The AI solutions are shown to correctly detect anomalies and identify the network components involved in the bottlenecks, with certain limitations in a particular type of bottlenecks. A discussion of the right monitoring tools to identify concrete bottlenecks is provided.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | 5G-VINNI: 5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure , The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, NorNet, SMIL: SimulaMet Interoperability Lab |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | Transactions on Network and Service Management |
| Date Published | 08/2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Los Alamitos, California/U.S.A. |
| ISSN | 1932-4537 |
| Keywords | 5G, AI, Anomaly detection, Autoencoders, deep learning, Mobile networks, Smart Networks |
| DOI | 10.1109/TNSM.2022.3203246 |
ICRAN: Intelligent Control for Self-driving RAN based on Deep Reinforcement Learning
IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management 19, no. 3 (2022): 2751-2766.Status: Published
ICRAN: Intelligent Control for Self-driving RAN based on Deep Reinforcement Learning
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pagination | 2751 - 2766 |
| Date Published | Jan-01-2022 |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| URL | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9831432/http://xplorestaging.ieee.o... |
| DOI | 10.1109/TNSM.2022.3191746 |
Investigating Predictive Model-Based Control to Achieve Reliable Consistent Multipath mmWave Communication
Computer Communications 194 (2022): 29-43.Status: Published
Investigating Predictive Model-Based Control to Achieve Reliable Consistent Multipath mmWave Communication
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio is a key building block in 5G and beyond cellular networks. However, mmWave channels are very sensitive to environmental conditions and depend on Line-of-Sight connections to provide very high data rates. Achieving reliable, consistent communication — i.e., a steady link rate together with low delay — over mmWave links is therefore a challenging problem. The goal of this work is to explore the use of predictive control to manage and simultaneously use multiple available mmWave paths to achieve reliable consistent communication by means of a multipath proxy. We investigate transient solutions of Markov Modulated Fluid Queues (MMFQ) to model the short-term evolution of the proxy’s packet queue, consistent with the use of Markovian models to capture the behavior of mmWave channel blocking. We propose a combination of models that can be solved using newly proposed matrix-analytic techniques in a timely enough manner for use in real-time control. This gives us a prediction, over a short time horizon, of either proxy queue distributions or probabilities of reaching particular proxy buffer levels. Thus, it enables the proxy to make preemptive path decisions in order to maintain a desired Quality of Service. A proof-of-concept simulation study demonstrates the efficacy of our proposed MMFQ-based predictive approach over both static and purely reactive control approaches. Further, we explore the potential benefits of a hybrid approach to path management, combining both predictive and reactive control. This can allow the controller to cater for unforeseen events that cannot be forecast by the predictive controller, mitigating the resulting extra queuing and corresponding delay spikes.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, Department of Mobile Systems and Analytics |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Journal | Computer Communications |
| Volume | 194 |
| Pagination | 29-43 |
| Date Published | 10/2022 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Keywords | 5G/6G/+, mmWave, Mobile networks, Multipath, Proxy |
| URL | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140366422002596 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.comcom.2022.07.011 |
Miscellaneous
Africa and the Internet
Oslo: CRNA blog, 2022.Status: Published
Africa and the Internet
PhD student Jan Marius Evang discuss the current controversies happening with the African Regional Internet Registry (AFRINIC) and how this might affect the stability and resilience of the Internet.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Miscellaneous |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Publisher | CRNA blog |
| Place Published | Oslo |
| Keywords | Africa, Afrinic, Governance |
| URL | https://crna.substack.com/p/africa-and-the-internet |
What is happening to the Internet in Ukraine and Russia?
Oslo: CRNA blog, 2022.Status: Published
What is happening to the Internet in Ukraine and Russia?
The current events happening in Ukraine have caused interruptions to the internet connectivity. In this blog post we take a look at some things we can learn about the events from looking at internet monitoring, and what the consequences of political actions may be.
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications |
| Publication Type | Miscellaneous |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Publisher | CRNA blog |
| Place Published | Oslo |
| Keywords | Governance, Ukraine |
| URL | https://crna.substack.com/p/what-is-happening-to-the-internet |
Proceedings, refereed
Towards a Privacy Preserving Data Flow Control via Packet Header Marking
In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on High Performance Computing, Data, and Analytics (HPCC). Chengdu, Sichuan/People's Republic of China: IEEE, 2022.Status: Published
Towards a Privacy Preserving Data Flow Control via Packet Header Marking
{Computing infrastructure is becoming ubiquitous thanks to the advancement in computing and the network domain. Reliable network communication is essential to offer good quality services, but it is not trivial. There are privacy concerns. Metadata may leak user information even if traffic is encrypted. Some countries have data privacy preserving-related regulations, but end-users cannot control through which path, networks, and hardware their data packets should travel. Even worse, the user cannot declare their privacy preferences. This paper presents an approach to tackle such privacy issues through data privacy-aware routing. The user can specify their preferences for packet routing using marking and filtering. Routing can work according to such specifications. It is implemented by P4, allowing a vendor-independent realisation with standard off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software components. We presented the initial experimental results of a proof-of-concept run on a unified cloud/fog research testbed.}
| Afilliation | Communication Systems |
| Project(s) | NorNet, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering, The Center for Resilient Networks and Applications, GAIA |
| Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Conference Name | Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on High Performance Computing, Data, and Analytics (HPCC) |
| Publisher | IEEE |
| Place Published | Chengdu, Sichuan/People's Republic of China |
| Keywords | Cloud, Data, Fog, P4, Packets, Privacy, Routing |