An extensible and customizable framework for the management and orchestration of emerging software-based networks

The 5th Generation Mobile Telecommunications (5G) is supposed to drastically change network operators’ infrastructures. The evolution of telecommunication networks has always been influenced by the parallel evolution within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) domain. What started with intelligent networks in the 90’s, namely the centralization of service programs and data in central computers controlling remote switching layers in order to simplify the service creation, deployment and management, led, at the beginning of the millennium, to Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based distributed Session Description Protocol (SDP) on top of converging networks. Due to the current approach of “everything is fully connected”, a more efficient way to manage network operators’ resources and infrastructures is required in order to provide always much greater throughput and much lower latency with high availability and higher connectivity density. The transition towards “everything as a software” is the enabler for this transformation where software-based virtualized network functions can be customized for the particular needs of a particular vertical domain. Therefore, almost ten years later, cloud principles and technologies have again changed the way services are developed and provisioned. The novel concept of “network slicing” allows Telecommunication Service Providers (TSPs) to optimize the usage of their infrastructure resources, providing on demand to end-customers different network segments with different capabilities. This dissertation work will present the extensive research conducted by the author over the last 5 years in which Network Function Virtualization (NFV) concepts and standards emerged and drastically transformed the telecommunication networks. The design evolution presented started when requirements for virtualizing network functions were first described by the research and industrial communities. Based on the author’s past experiences gained in realizing cloud-based Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs), the thesis will elaborate the design and development of an extensible NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) framework suitable for managing and orchestrating any kind of software-based networks. This work was developed in parallel to the international Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) NFV standardization activities, and the implemented open source Open Baton project is the result of an agile design and development process, initiated and managed by the author. Today Open Baton represents one out of four globally recognized ETSI NFV MANO frameworks, enabling early 5G prototyping and standardization. The author, a senior scientist at the Technical University of Berlin, conducted this work in the context of several European research projects, including the supervision of several bachelor and master theses and integrated into various industry SDN/NFV testbeds in ongoing research projects as well as several industry solutions.

Author dc:creator

• Carella, Giuseppe Antonio

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Magedanz, Thomas

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Identifier URI

http://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-6767

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:depositonce.tu-berlin.de:11303/7553