Virtualized mobility management for future slicing-based networks

• Autor(a) principal: Meneses, Flávio Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/29178
• topic: Software-defined networking; Network function virtualization; Orchestration; Network slicing; Mobility management

The increasing number of mobile devices and their usage for Internet access has been at the origin of new networking challenges. In fact, mobile devices have evolved and are now able to both consume and produce live stream videos, while moving and taking advantage of multiple wireless access technologies. In parallel, network operators have been relying on Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) mechanisms for enabling the network to dynamically and flexibly adapt to the different traffic requirements and use cases. Furthermore, 3GPP envisions the upcoming fifth generation (5G) of networks, as a holistic architecture able to aggregate different access technologies, and serve multiple vertical use cases (e.g., automotive and eHealth) with different traffic requirements (e.g., low latency and high peak data rates). Here, network slicing appears as the game changer, by allowing the network infrastructure to be divided into logically-isolated networks for supporting certain service types. Nevertheless, this rises new challenges related to the mobility management on such a highly dynamic and flexible holistic architecture. Aligned with this vision, this thesis proposes a virtualized mobility management mechanism for future slice-based networks, capable of providing the means to flexibly adapt the network (through slicing mechanisms) to the user’s communication requirements, while enabling seamless handovers between different access technologies. This mechanism was supported by the design of an SDN/NFV-based architecture, that was further evolved to accommodate slice and orchestration mechanisms for the dynamic instantiation and orchestration of network slices. The thesis provides proof-of-concept implementation and evaluation of the different network components, with results showing its feasibility and providing indicators for further enhancement and commercial deployment.