Under scope of the EXIGENCE SNS JU project, this paper presents the design and tests on two carbon-aware orchestration mechanisms — service throttling and spatial (workload) shifting — built directly into ETSI's Open Source MANO (OSM) platform. They validate it on a real-world edge/cloud video pipeline (Automatic License Plate Recognition for maritime port monitoring), and show up to 47.3% reduction in daily operational carbon emissions without breaking service requirements.

Designing high-performance and memory-efficient data structures for the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) in Named-Data Networking (NDN) is a challenging task. Since the FIB size is orders of magnitude larger than IP routing tables, scaling it to store millions of prefixes in SRAM/TCAM memory in programmable switches is an open problem. To address this issue, we propose a Compressed FIB data structure called CoFIB, designed to run on edge programmable switches in an SDNbased environment. The CoFIB is a collection of exact-match tables placed in an optimized manner in both ingress and egress pipelines. We propose a LNPM algorithm that carefully recirculates packets in the pipeline. We also introduce the concept of canonical name prefixes to reduce memory footprint and propose an algorithm to extract canonical prefixes from the Routing Information Base (RIB). Experimental results show that CoFIB can compress memory up to 16.58× compared to the state-of-the-art, with no significant impact on throughput compared to hardware-based solutions. Additionally, our proposed table placement optimization for LNPM increases the number of packets processed at a line rate by 23.17% compared to the linear table placement approach using a large NDN name dataset.

Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) is a promising paradigm that brings computational capabilities closer to end-users, enabling low-latency and high-bandwidth applications. The federation of multiple MEC platforms has the potential to create a collaborative ecosystem, facilitating resource sharing and scalability. This paper addresses the benefits of exploring the synergies between Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and MEC federation deployments, aiming to enhance the network infrastructure’s overall performance, flexibility, and responsiveness. More concretely, this work explores the integration of MEC and SDN to address performance and resource utilization challenges in congested federated MEC environments, enabling seamless service migration between MEC nodes when resource constraints arise with results showing its ability to maintain service quality under congestion.

This paper investigates the development of a solution for Edge Internet Traffic Steering (EITS), focusing on optimizing the performance of services at the network edge using Computing-Aware Traffic Steering (CATS) principles. Motivated by the increasing demand for low-latency connectivity, high bandwidth, resource availability, link redundancy, and efficient memory and CPU usage optimization, this research addresses the limitations of existing traffic steering approaches in meeting the static or dynamic requirements of edge services. The proposed solution leverages network and compute metrics to direct traffic to the most suitable service instance, enhancing overall performance through the use of OpenAirInterface 5G Core Network. The practical implementation of a video streaming use case demonstrated the efficacy of the solution.

Under the fact that carbon footprint is broadly overlooked in information and communication technologies, multi-domain network orchestration, with even higher carbon footprint for inter-domain management than single-domain scenarios, is urged to be transited to be carbon-aware, towards Green 6G. To begin with, stakeholders are required to reach consensus on metrics for carbon measurement. However, there are limited efforts that discuss the impact of metrics, lack of which directly causes biased and chaotic network orchestration. This paper fills this research gap to provide a comprehensive analytics of metrics and their impacts towards carbon-aware multi-domain network orchestration. To do so, a generic architecture is developed correspondingly, based on which commonly used energy/carbon-aware metrics are summarized and analyzed. Representative scenarios are designed for simulation analysis to comprehensively reflect multi-domain network orchestration. Results reveal that improper metric selection could lead to up to 99.92% biased decision of network orchestration, regarding carbon footprint. In conclusion, this paper provides analytical guidance to the future carbon-aware multi-domain network orchestration, with the impact of metrics.

The edge computing market has been proliferating, which is foreseen to embrace more solution providers joining under the framework of 6G. Many research efforts exist, focusing on edge computing peer offloading among a single provider. However, there are limited discussions on multi-provider scenarios, which raises new challenge associated with providers' synchronization and property protection. Moreover, carbon footprint for multi-provider edge computing peer offloading will be even higher, which is also overlooked. Therefore, this paper provides a generic architecture and system model of full-decentralized on-demand edge computing peer offloading, specifically targeting multi-provider scenarios with providers' protection and carbon reduction. The carbon-aware peer offloading algorithm is formulated as an optimization process with Lagrangian modeling, which is physically embedded in edge computing servers, thus reaching consensus without data aggregation or property-sensitive data sharing. Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm achieves reduced carbon footprint, while maintaining a high quality of service.

While the concept of AI4Net has been widely discussed in the past decade and adopted in 5G, its counterpart, Net4AI, has not gained that much attention so far. This is mostly due to the absence of solutions for the network to support AI applications beyond providing the communication infrastructure. In-Network Computing (INC) is a promising paradigm, potentially being integrated into 6G, which opens new solutions for realizing Net4AI. This paper focuses on the specific case of INC-assisted Split-AI. A Neural Network (NN) is split vertically and the executions of some layers of the split NN are offloaded to the entities of an Intelligent 6G User Plane. With the example of INC-assisted Split-AI, we elaborate on the challenges of Net4AI and discuss key requirements for the 6G architecture in terms of novel capabilities and information exchange.

Edge computing brings added benefits for different elements in the overall system (e.g., users, operators and service providers). However, currently there are no proper interfaces and mechanisms to instantiate third-party services within the operators' infrastructure (e.g., as a MEC application), thus hindering edge computing to reach its full potential. To fill this gap, this paper presents architectural enhancements, interfaces and mechanisms to enable dynamic and efficient third-party service deployment within the operators' domain. A simulation-based analysis is presented to showcase the relevance of the proposed solution. Results highlighted the benefits of optimal migration of third-party services into a distributed setting, compared to the unveiled drawbacks of a centralized approach. In addition, the key components of the solution are implemented and experimentally validated through a proof-of-concept prototype showcasing the performance impact of the proposed approach as well as the suitability of its implementation.

Driven by the development of programmable networking hardware, In-network Computing (INC) has gained a considerable amount of attention in recent years. However, INC has so far barely been studied in the context of mobile networks, despite the vast advantages shown for fixed networks, such as latency or traffic reduction. Motivated by an Augmented Reality (AR) use-case, our work envisions an INC-enabled Intelligent User Plane (IUP) for 6G networks, which allows offloading computational tasks to UP entities having enhanced computational capabilities. The 6G IUP thus helps to keep mobile end-devices lighter and supports meeting the stringent delay requirements of novel applications, such as AR. Besides elaborating on the involved prospects and challenges, we identify key enablers for realizing the INC-enabled IUP. We show that embedding INC into the 6G system entails major changes in the architecture, as compared to the current 5G design.

Multiaccess edge computing (MEC) service migration is a technology whose key objective is to support ultralow-latency access to services. However, the complex ultralarge-scale edge service migration problem requires extensive research efforts, regarding the foreseen ultradensified edge nodes in 5G and beyond. In this article, we propose a novel dynamic service migration optimization architecture for ultralarge-scale MEC networks. We develop a new multicriteria decision-making algorithm: Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution with attribute-based Niche count, named TOPANSIS, which showcases its strength to provide an optimal solution for service migration in large-scale deployments towards optimal data rate, latency, and load balancing. We further decentralize the operation of TOPANSIS to release the traffic burden from central datacenters by leveraging local decision making by edge nodes, while relying on central cloud coordination to account for the overall network information. Simulation results showcase that the proposed architecture outperforms the selected benchmarks with an average improvement of 39.41% for latency, 2.92% for data rate, as well as 10.53% and 6.26% for RAM and CPU load balancing, respectively. Moreover, the feasibility of the proposed solution is validated by means of a proof-of-concept implementation and experimental assessments.

In this paper, we modeled the emerging edge-computing-enabled live service migration as a multi-criteria problem optimization, tackling migration costs and benefits, as well as discussion of service providers' data privacy, simultaneously. Based on the optimization formulation, we conducted a small-scale analytical feasibility test, considering widely-utilized multi-criteria decision making algorithms, based on which we proposed a new TOPSIS based service migration algorithm. The algorithm was evaluated using simulations, whose results show that the proposed algorithm is sufficient to support live service migration for heterogeneous edge computing, while outperforming benchmarks in with respect to reducing migration costs and increasing achieved benefits, by 34.52% and 60.21%, respectively.

This paper presents an implementation of the Zenoh pub-sub stack using P4. Traditional pub-sub protocols generally rely on a centralized broker to forward messages. Using P4, one could make every network equipment able to assume such role, with the whole system behaving as a distributed broker. By deploying network tasks at the edge, this approach can reduce end-to-end latency and the overhead caused by packet retransmission due to packet loss. The proposed implementation accounts for the offloading of some control tasks into the data plane. The prototype is validated and the impact of the task offloading features is assessed. Results show that offloading can be beneficial and improve network performance. Still, our system is outperformed by traditional Zenoh Routers, which is explained by the lack of performance of the used BMv2 software switch. To account for these limitations, future developments from this work will target hardware-based validation.

Cloud-based architectures are advantageous in aspects such as scalability, reliability and resource utilization efficiency, to name just a few, thus being considered one of the pillars of Industry 4.0. However, in this domain, cloud computing platforms are subject to specific requirements, namely in what concerns real-time performance, determinism and fault-tolerance. This paper focuses on cloud native computing, which is an emerging and promising cloud-computing paradigm, specifically addressing its applicability to real-time systems. Firstly, it introduces the architecture of cloud native applications, discussing their principles, potential advantages and challenges. Then it addresses the opportunities and constraints of such technologies when applied to industrial real-time systems.

The fact that most IoT solutions are provided by third parties, along with the pervasiveness of the collected data, raises privacy and security concerns. There is a need to verify which data is being sent to the third party, as well as preventing those channels from becoming an exploitation avenue. We propose to use existing API definition languages to create contracts which define the data that can be transmitted, their format and constraints. To verify the compliance with these contracts, we propose a Network Service architecture which validates REST-like API requests/responses against a Swagger schema. We deal with encrypted traffic using an Service Function Chaining (SFC)-enabled Man-in-the-Middle (MITM), allowing verifications in “real-time.” We devised a Proof of Concept and showed that we were able to detect (and stop) contract violations.

Research on Future Internet has gained traction in recent years, with a variety of clean-slate network architectures being proposed. The realization of such proposals may lead to a period of coexistence with the current Internet, creating a heterogeneous Future Internet. In such a vision, mobile nodes (MNs) can move across access networks supporting different network architectures, while being able to maintain the access to content during this movement. In order to support such scenarios, this paper proposes an inter-network architecture mobility framework that allows MNs to move across different network architectures without losing access to the contents being accessed. The usage of the proposed framework is exemplified and evaluated in a mobility scenario targeting IP and NDN network architectures in a content retrieval use case. The obtained results validate the proposed framework while highlighting the impact on the overall communication between the MN and content source.

This paper presents a framework for improved mobile video delivery in high speed vehicles, integrating Network Function Virtualization, Software Defined Networking and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), with user mobility and service consumption context for enabling the dynamic instantiation of video services in edge-positioned virtualized Content Delivery Network (vCDN) nodes. Based on the estimated vehicle (current and future) position, the solution determines: where the video should be dynamically cached and at what time; and which chunks of the video need to be cached at the target location. This "location-aware predictive caching" mechanism is able to operate in a transparent way to both the user and the video service, by handling the necessary flow-based mobility procedures. A proof of concept was implemented and compared with a static caching service and a regular MEC-based vCDN, enabling the assessment of the contributions and impacts of the mechanism. Results show that our solution minimized the number of cache misses in mobility scenarios while reducing backhaul and core network traffic.

Ultradense Networks (UDNs) seek to scale the 5th-Generation mobile network systems at unforeseen amounts of networks, users, and mobile traffic. We believe that the Wi-Fi sharing service is an asset in expanding 5G UDN capacity requirements for higher coverage and ubiquitous wireless broadband connectivity. However, the limitations of the Wi-Fi sharing pioneer deployment, along with other related works, has led our team to carry out further research. As a result, it was found that FOg CloUd Slicing for Wi-Fi sharing (FOCUS) is a suitable means of expanding 5G UDN capacities. FOCUS applies end-to-end Network-Cloud slice definitions on top of the Wi-Fi sharing technology, with the aim of offering multitenancy and multiservice support for a wide range of services, while meeting carrier-grade requirements and resource control at runtime and making full use of a “softwarized” approach. The feasibility of the FOCUS system is assessed in a real testbed deployment prototype, which allows an accurate view to be obtained of the basic functional principles and system-level proof-of-concept alongside the FON de facto Wi-Fi sharing service. The results suggest that FOCUS offers much greater benefits than FON, owing to its capacity to provide end-to-end Network-Cloud Slices while ensuring independent/isolated service delivery with resource adaptation at runtime.

The rise of 5th Generation (5G) based network systems provide the prospect for an unprecedented technological revolution in different aspects of current network infrastructures to fully satisfy the high demands of smart space. This work addresses the challenges that raise in exploiting the potential of WiFi WLAN-sharing technology in 5G Ultra-Dense Networking (UDN) use cases. We investigate new complementary aspects of emerging 5G technologies such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Fog computing to design a unique WiFi WLAN-sharing ecosystem to allow complying with 5G UDN critical requirements. In the resulting approach, we empower WiFi WLAN-sharing infrastructures with Fog computing capabilities and follow a slice-defined approach, aiming to provide differentiated services at unprecedented levels, on top of the same infrastructure through customized, isolated and independent building blocks. The solution also enables slices to accommodate applications besides networking functions, seeking to provide ultra-low latency rates by leveraging direct linkage to data producer entities. A proof of concept was conducted by carrying out experiments in a real laboratory testbed, allowing insights into the feasibility and suitability of slicing WiFi WLAN-sharing systems.

In this paper, we propose an architecture based on NFV and SDN which allows to balance traffic analysis techniques using a Classifier. It steers flows to the appropriate Service Function Chaining (to open traffic or not) according to network requirements (such as, effectiveness, flexibility, scalability, performance, and privacy). The SSL/TLS traffic processing is carried-out by the centerpiece of this work, the SFC-enabled MITM. A Proof-of-Concept was conducted (focusing on our SFC-enabled MITM) which showed that functionalities lost due to encryption (Content Optimization, Caching, Network Anti-virus, and Content Filter) were recovered when processing opened traffic within its Service Function Chains. We also evaluated its impact on performance. The results show that cipher suite overhead plays a role but can be mitigated, the Classifier can alleviate the performance overhead of different traffic analysis techniques, network functions have lower impact to performance, and Service Function Chaining length influences page load time.

This paper presents a framework that integrates Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) to migrate operational aspects of both the network's Points of Attachment (PoA) and Mobile Nodes (MN) into the cloud. The SDN Controller is used as an enhanced mobility management entity by integrating the capability to instantiate in the cloud a virtual representation of the MNs (vMN). These vMNs not only act as anchors for the handover process of the physical MNs, but also act as proxies for the delivery of context information about the physical MNs wireless surroundings. Such information can be further used by the Controller for optimised handover decisions, resulting in a technology-agnostic flow mobility management mechanism for heterogeneous networks. A video delivery scenario was selected for evaluation in an experimental testbed, where the video is offloaded between wireless networks towards a dual-interfaced MN, considering different handover initiation procedures. With a handover delay of about 60ms, the results shown that virtualising the end-points reduces 67% of the OpenFlow signalling in the physical network, while as a trade-off, the Open Flow control communication packet size and delay of the MN are incremented.

The foreseen exploding number of devices connected to the mobile network has been pushing operators to look for mechanisms to transparently offload their data. However, such procedures need to consider the different demands from users' traffic and involved access networks. Towards that end, Network Slicing has been proposing a logical partition of the network to better serve different verticals requirements, while providing isolation, achieved by using Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) mechanisms. In this paper, we explore the realization of a mobile traffic offloading framework that is able to dynamically instantiate a non-3GPP slice and use SDN mechanisms to seamlessly handover existing flows into the new connection point. For this, we virtualized both the mobile Core Network components as well as the User Equipment, allowing the mobility procedure to be handled in the cloud and become transparent to the physical endpoints. A prototype of our proposal was deployed in a physical testbed, and evaluated in a mobile video offloading scenario where the operator strategically deploys Wi-Fi access points around the city, with results showing that the user is able to continuously visualize the video while switching access technology.

In this paper, we present a modern platform for running Virtualized Network Functions based on the Click Modular Router. The proposed platform leverages of current technologies - such as DPDK, OSv, and REST Web Services - to fulfill the ETSI requirements for Network Functions Virtualization. The obtained results show the feasibility of the platform to consolidate disparate network functions, while demonstrating flexibility from a management point-of-view.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are catching the attention of telecom operators. Telecom environments establish a set of Carrier Grade requirements such as high availability, high throughput and low latency. To address these challenges SDN deploys logically-centralized controllers, such as ONOS and OpenDayLight. Based on the JAIN SLEE component model, which is a Carrier Grade component already deployed at telecom operators, and the Libfluid OpenFlow driver, this work presents the CREDENCE, a carrier grade SDN controller, which in our evaluation shows that it offers a higher throughput and a lower latency when compared to ONOS, OpenDayLight, Ryu and POX.

The advent of future 5th Generation (5G) use cases, such as ultra-dense networking and ultra-low latency propelled by Smart Cities and IoT projects will demand revolutionary network infrastructures. The need for low latency, high bandwidth, scalability, ubiquitous access and support for IoT resource-constrained devices are some of the prominent issues that networks have to face to support future 5G use cases, which arise since current wireless and mobile infrastructures are not able to fulfill. In particular, the pervasiveness and high-density of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) at urban centers, together with their growing capacity and evolving standards, can be leveraged to support such demand. We argue that the integration of key 5G cornerstone technologies, such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and softwarization, fill some of the abovementioned gaps in regards to proper WLAN management and service orchestration. In this paper, we present a solution for slicing WLAN infrastructures, aiming to provide differentiated services on top of the same substrate through customized, isolated and independent digital building blocks. Through this proposal, we aim at efficiently handling ultra-dense networking 5G use cases to achieve benefits at unprecedented levels. Towards this goal, we present proof of concept realised over a real testbed and assess its feasibility.

The increasing number of mobile devices exploring wireless data through different technologies has been developing the potential for interoperability scenarios in mobile operators. However, each technology operates distinctively, creating a complex integration challenge. As such, 5G research has been exploring different concepts for bringing more dynamic and flexible network operation. Mechanisms such as Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and the integration of network procedures in the cloud allow operators to efficiently address new operational scenarios. In our proposal, we define a framework where mobility management procedures are abstractedly handled, by virtualizing network entities such as access points and mobile devices. These virtual representations enhance the capabilities of their physical counterparts, and couple the necessary logic allowing them to interoperate or be controlled by network control processes, independently of the access technologies. We have implemented a proof-of-concept where such principles are deployed in a multi-interface wireless environment, exploring both make-before-break and break-before-make mobility scenarios.

IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) cloud applications require reliable, fault-tolerant networks, supporting real-time guarantees and allowing interaction with other applications already existing in the datacenter. The Software Defined Networks (SDN) paradigm is especially suited for the management of the network cloud because of its fine grained admission control and the management flexibility provided by the centralized resource management. This paper presents a SDN management approach for IIoT datacenters, which provides an efficient fault-tolerant network, enabled with deterministic QoS guarantees. By taking advantage of a centralized resource management mechanism, the proposed solution integrates topology definition with resource allocation, allowing to efficiently distribute available network resources for admitted packet flows.

In this paper, we first further investigate the use of random decision policies for caching schemes, or probabilistic caching, in Content-Centric Networking (CCN). Our main objective is to provide a mathematical model for the combination of random cache decision and least recently used (LRU) replacement policy in the content store of CCN, called LRU-PC (LRU with probabilistic caching). This analytical model contributes to the improvement on proper caching selection probability per content router, in order to achieve a good performance considering different parameters, such as the popularity of the files, cache size and others. Based on these results, the paper further contributes by extending the LRU-PC with a secondary list holding a wider view of the names of content packets that transverse a CCN node. In this case, a segment is stored in the cache with a given probability when its name is stored in this secondary list, dubbing this mechanism LRU-PCSL (LRU with probabilistic caching and a secondary list). As LRU-PC, LRU-PCSL has a constant time complexity, is scan-resistant, presents low memory requirements and is possible to implement in hardware. Evaluation results show that LRU-PCSL increases overall cache performance compared with LRU and LRU-PC.

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has recently emerged as a promising Future Internet architecture that aims to cope with the increasing demand for highly scalable and efficient distribution of content. Moving away from the Internet communication model based in addressable hosts, ICN leverages in-network storage for caching, multi-party communication through replication, and interaction models that decouple senders and receivers. This novel networking approach has the potential to outperform IP in several dimensions, besides just content dissemination. Concretely, the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), with its rich set of challenges and requirements placed over the current Internet, provide an interesting ground for showcasing the contribution and performance of ICN mechanisms. This work analyses how the in-network caching mechanisms associated to ICN, particularly those implemented in the Content-Centric Networking (CCN) architecture, contribute in IoT environments, particularly in terms of energy consumption and bandwidth usage. A simulation comparing IP and the CCN architecture (an instantiation of ICN) in IoT environments demonstrated that CCN leads to a considerable reduction of the energy consumed by the information producers and to a reduction of bandwidth requirements, as well as highlighted the flexibility for adapting current ICN caching mechanisms to target specific requirements of IoT.

The evergrowing availability of access technologies, on-line services and connected devices has been motivating the development of novel networking solutions, fostering new deployments of cloud computing, Network Function Virtualization and even mobile accesses. One of the core aspects supporting these innovative solutions is the Software Defined Networking (SDN) concept, which brings added configuration and management capabilities to the network fabric, aiding the support and introduction of new technologies and protocols. However, the base operations of SDN do not consider link conditions when employing their controlling mechanisms and mostly target fixed core links. These link conditions are important to optimizations involving wireless access links, which are paramount in today's plethora of wireless and mobile accesses. This paper enhances SDN mechanisms with Media Independent Management capabilities, deployable in both wired and wireless environments, optimizing link connectivity establishment and offering new perspectives to network developers for building new capabilities in the networks. The resulting framework was implemented over open-source software in a physical testbed, with results showing the benefits that this solution brings in terms of path optimization, featuring different monitoring schemes and allowing energy efficient scenarios.

The emergence of new technologies, in addition with the popularization of mobile devices and wireless communication systems, demands a variety of requirements that current Internet is not able to comply adequately. In this scenario, the innovative information-centric Entity Title Architecture (ETArch), a Future Internet (FI) clean slate approach, was design to efficiently cope with the increasing demand of beyond-IP networking services. Nevertheless, despite all ETArch capabilities, it was not projected with reliable networking functions, which limits its operability in mobile multimedia networking, and will seriously restrict its scope in Future Internet scenarios. Therefore, our work extends ETArch mobility control with advanced quality-oriented mobility functions, to deploy mobility prediction, Point of Attachment (PoA) decision and handover setup meeting both session quality requirements of active session flows and current wireless quality conditions of neighbouring PoA candidates. The effectiveness of the proposed additions were confirmed through a preliminary evaluation carried out by MATLAB, in which we have considered distinct applications scenario, and showed that they were able to outperform the most relevant alternative solutions in terms of performance and quality of service.

The explosion of demanding on-line services, such as video, is increasingly stressing the Internet architecture, requiring new solutions to support future usage scenarios. New Future Internet approaches targeting Information Centric Networking, such as the Entity Title Architecture (ETArch), provide new optimizations for these scenarios, using novel mechanisms such as Software Defined Networking (SDN). However, these are not targeted to address another growing Internet challenge reflecting the increase in multi-technology wireless mobile access. In this work, we empowered ETArch with Media-Independent mechanisms from the IEEE 802.21 standard, optimizing content delivery in wireless mobile scenarios. The resulting framework was implemented in a physical testbed of the OFELIA project, with results showing that the defined mechanisms supported seamless handover avoiding packet loss at a reduced overhead cost, when compared with the base ETArch. Moreover, the media-independent nature of these enhancements allows the framework to be deployed in different access technologies, in a flexible way.

Internet access and service utilization has been exploding in mobile devices, through the leverage of WLAN, 3G and now LTE connections. It is this explosion as well that is stressing the underlying fabric of the Internet, and motivating new solutions, such as Software Defined Networking (SDN), to build the controlling support and extension capabilities of the Future Internet. However, SDN has yet to reach the necessary traction to be deployed, and has been more relayed towards experimentation supporting frameworks and away from wireless environments. This paper explores SDN mechanisms and increments them with Media Independent Handover services from the IEEE 802.21 standard, coupling them in a single framework for the dynamic optimized support of OpenFlow path establishment and wireless connectivity establishment. The framework was implemented over open-source software in a physical testbed, with results showing the benefits that this solution brings in terms of performance and signaling overhead, when compared with more basic approaches.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) represents the cutting-edge broadband wireless access technology in providing ubiquitous and simultaneous connectivity to many users. This paper evaluates the impact that packets breaking the 1500 bytes legacy value, called Jumboframes, have in LTE networks, by exploiting and extending the network stack in the ns-3 simulator. We first provide an overview about the key features of LTE starting from a physical layer perspective, to logical functions like the adaptive modulation and coding scheme, together with a detailed description of the Radio Link Control (RLC) segmentation capabilities. A comparative evaluation is performed based on diverse network configuration criteria, such as user position, density and mobility. We aim at assessing the benefits and caveats that derive from Jumboframes usage in LTE networks. Moreover, a novel cross-layer approach is proposed to mitigate the effect of rapid buffer saturation, due to the transmission of oversized packets with scarce radio resources. To conclude, we test our framework through the analysis of realistic video traces.

The proliferation of mobile terminals coupled with multiple wireless interfaces has created complex scenarios where network operators need to provide connectivity in heterogeneous environments. To facilitate handover procedures in these scenarios, the 802.21 standard has been specified, providing Media Independent Handover (MIH) services allowing control and information gathering from different access interfaces. However, accessing these procedures requires the discovery of supporting nodes and their capabilities. This paper provides a description and performance comparison of different available MIH discovery schemes and proposes a novel local discovery procedure for automatically detecting link interfaces in MIH-enabled entities, showing by evaluation that its deployment increases performance and requires less information exchange.

The utilization of Media Independent Handover (MIH) mechanisms, such as the ones provided by the IEEE802.21 standard, allow the abstraction of control and information querying primitives of different wireless access technologies, using a common interface. This not only simplifies the design of high-level entities interfacing with said technologies, but by providing a transport protocol for that interface, such primitives can be used to extend controlling mechanisms towards remote entities. However, the standard only employs such flexible and abstraction capabilities towards handover optimization and facilitation scenarios. In this paper, we take advantage of the flexible design of the MIH mechanisms, and propose evolutions over their base design, allowing their integration into the areas of Internet Multimedia Optimization and the Internet of Things.

Wireless network access and the exchange of multimedia flows over the Internet are becoming more and more pervasive in the everyday life. However, simple technological advances in terms of improved network capacity cannot satisfy the increasing demand of such services, since a paradigm shift from the current Internet architecture is required. The EU FP7 MEDIEVAL project tackles this issue by addressing novel architectural frameworks and viable strategies to efficiently deliver video services in a wireless Internet context. This paper reviews the currently ongoing activities of the project for what concerns wireless access, in particular the identification of useful techniques for the considered access technologies (WLAN and LTE-A) and the general definition of architectural schemes to efficiently support video flows.

The wide deployment of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) we are witnessing today increases connectivity opportunities for mobile terminal devices, such as smartphones. However, continuous scanning for WLAN points of attachment can be a power exhausting mechanism for such battery-powered devices. These mobile devices, besides being equipped with different wireless access interfaces, are also coupled with sensors such as accelerometer, GPS, luminance and magnetic compass. In fact, sensors are increasingly being coupled into different devices and environments and are able to convey sensing information through networks into decision entities able to optimize different processes. In this paper we propose a framework where media independent sensing information is used to enhance wireless link management towards energy-efficiency. This framework enables the dissemination of sensing information towards local and remote decision entities, enhancing other processes (e.g. mobility) with sensing information in order to provide true Ambient Intelligence scenarios. We introduce this framework into a wireless management scenario able to provide energy-efficient optimal network connectivity.

In the future mobile Internet, a key challenge is how the content is delivered to the mobile user, especially when there are multiple networks belonging to distinct operators. Knowing the network services and conditions available at each one becomes crucial. In order to store information from several networks and operators, the new IEEE 802.21 standard specifies a Media Independent Information Service (MIIS) supporting various information elements (IEs) that provide network information within a geographical area, with the aim of optimising the handover process. Since next-generation wireless devices are expected to support multiple radio access networks, users will be able to maintain connections when switching from one network to another. This article addresses a general approach towards the deployment of a Hierarchical 802.21 Information Service management infrastructure in a heterogeneous mobile environment. Through an NS-2-based simulation, it is shown that the proposed scheme improves the user experience in terms of MIIS server access time and number of optimal handovers in a random mobility scenario.

In the future, mobile terminals will be equipped with several interfaces to different technologies -such as UMTS, IEEE 802.11, DVB and WiMAX -and will be able to connect simultaneously to the most appropriate access networks. This paper presents a mobility and QoS architecture aiming at supporting intelligent handovers. We introduce the concept of Network-Assisted Mobile terminal Initiated HandOver (NAMIHO), where the handover decision is negotiated between the network and the user, taking into account inputs and decision algorithms running both on the terminal and network. We also present an instantiation of the architecture using IEEE 802.21 and concepts of local/global mobility. We further propose extensions to IEEE 802.21 standard.

The availability of multiple technologies, with micro and macro wireless cells, for network access combined with terminals capable of exploiting such diversity in wireless access requires the development of new mechanisms for optimized handover procedures. Appealing solutions should support network controlled handovers through heterogeneous technologies, preferably combined with a cross-layers two/three design. The IEEE 802.21 working group is currently standardizing the methods and the protocol potentially able to provide such a solution. In this paper we analyze the impact of signaling timing on network controlled handovers execution and performance in this environment. Through an extensive simulation study, we obtain results, that can be exploited in both terminal and handover procedure designs.