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SDN and NFV Integration in Generalized Mobile Network Architecture

Conference Paper · June 2015

DOI: 10.1109/EuCNC.2015.7194059

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 SDN and NFV Integration in Generalized
Mobile Network Architecture
Jose Costa-Requena*, Jesús Llorente Santos,
Vicent Ferrer Guasch, Kimmo Ahokas,
Gopika Premsankar, Sakari Luukkainen
Aalto University
Espoo, Finland
Oscar López Pérez, Mikel Uriarte Itzazelaia
Nextel S.A.
Zamudio, Spain
Abstract—The main drivers for the mobile core network
evolution is to serve the future challenges and set the way to 5G
networks with need for high capacity and low latency. Different
technologies such as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)
and Software Defined Networking (SDN) are being considered to
address the future needs of 5G networks. However, future
applications such as Internet of Things (IoT), video services and
others still unveiled will have different requirements, which
emphasize the need for the dynamic scalability of the network
functionality. The means for efficient network resource
operability seems to be even more important than the future
network element costs. This paper provides the analysis of
different technologies such as SDN and NFV that offer different
architectural options to address the needs of 5G networks. The
options under consideration in this paper may differ mainly in
the extent of what SDN principles are applied to mobile specific
functions or to transport network functions only.
Keywords— SDN; NFV; 5G, Virtualization
I. INTRODUCTION
The main driver for the evolution of the mobile Evolved
Packet Core (EPC) networks is to pave the way to 5G networks
that will require substantially higher capacity, lower latency
and massive network access. Furthermore, there will be
multiple types of applications with very different requirements,
which emphasize the need for dynamic scalability of the
network functionalities. The means for the efficient network
resource operability seems to be even more important than the
future network element costs.
Mobile network operators are facing a growing challenge
thanks to the explosive increase in data traffic due to the
prevalence of smartphones and streamed audio and video
services. In this new paradigm, the operators need to manage
the traffic load, and meet rising consumer and enterprise
expectations for excellent performance while providing
ubiquitous broadband connectivity. Operators must also roll
out new services and applications rapidly to maintain a
competitive edge. Slow service rollouts are no longer
*Corresponding author. Email: jose.costa@aalto.fi
Ijaz Ahmad, Madhusanka Liyanage,
Mika Ylianttila
CWC, University of Oulu
Oulu, Finland
Edgardo Montes de Oca
Montimage
Paris, France
acceptable. Finally, in every competitive market there is
constant pressure to become more efficient; in other words, to
maintain or improve performance at a lower operational cost.
Existing mobile networks struggle with limitations such as
stationary and expensive equipment, complex control
protocols, and heterogeneous configuration interfaces. The
main goal of this work is to study and apply SDN principles
within the mobile networking environments namely SDMN
(Software Define Mobile Networks) to be able to address these
current limitations.
Cloud computing and Network Function Virtualization
(NFV) are evolving from the typical IT data center applications
to the new areas. Cloud computing is a model for enabling
ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared
pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks,
servers, storage, applications, and services). Network
virtualization general goals are the aggregation of distributed
resources for the common goal and utilizing a shared pool of
configurable computing hardware resources for on-demand
network access. Cloud computing enables the ability to host
network functions such as resource, policy, mobility, security
and traffic management, and monitoring within the cloud.
In computation and storage environments there are several
emerging technologies and enablers that could bring feasible
processing potential to be utilized for the mobile network
networks applications. The potential use cases for mobile
networks include virtual operators, network sharing (overlays)
principles and core network element user plane functionality
cloudification for the network control overlay functions.
SDN decouples control and data planes leveraging standard
protocols enabling remote management and operation of data
planes to third-party elements. A synchronization protocol is
required for communicating both planes; one such protocol is
OpenFlow [1]. The benefits of SDN seem quite obvious in the
area of cloud computing networking; however the application
to the mobile paradigm requires further study.
 This paper describes the proposed architecture based on
SDN and NFV and its deployment in a testbed to verify that the
basic assumptions for 5G networks are fulfilled.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section II
defines the requirements that have to be addressed when
integrating SDN and NFV in mobile networks. Section III
describes the NFV and its benefits in addition to the current
work done in mobile industry towards its adoption. Section IV
describes the current work on SDN integration in mobile
networks. Section V presents the proposed architecture that
including SDN and NFV. Section VI presents the testbed
where the proposed architecture is deployed and used as ETSI
Proof of Concept (POC) [2]. In section VII the conclusions are
presented.
II. REQUIREMENTS FOR NFV AND SDN INTEGRATION IN
MOBILE NETWORKS
Any new technology has to fulfil a set of basic assumptions
that facilitate the deployment and adoption. Following are
listed some basic assumptions and how they might be
applicable to SDN and virtualization technologies proposed for
5G networks. These basic assumptions consist of enhanced
resiliency, improved performance, lower latency, seamless
migration and inbuilt monitoring. Besides these technical
assumptions, the proposed technology should ensure proper
service provisioning with a relevant cost reduction to operators.
However, there are technical challenges; current mobile
networks have around 99.999% availability rate, which needs
to be maintained or yet improved to motivate the change [3].
A technology to be part of 5G should provide a clear
migration path with proper compatibility with the legacy
systems. The integration of SDN and network function
virtualization as proposed technologies for 5G should minimize
the changes in network elements, thus providing a seamless
migration based on operator needs. This allows the incremental
updates of network elements in certain parts of the network
while keeping legacy elements in other parts of the network.
Security is of utmost importance for 5G networks, as it
should be considered for all layers, in network functions as
well as physical and virtual elements. Starting with the SDN
controller that has access to the whole network architecture, to
the actual nodes that perform network functions, the system
must guarantee a critical level of security and high availability.
Another important assumption for an effective deployment
is having proper network monitoring. Besides assessing
security, network monitoring facilitates verification and
validation of Service Level Agreements (SLA), managing
performance (Quality of Service QoS) and user experience
(Quality of Experience QoE), troubleshooting, and the
assessment of optimizations and use of resources. On the one
hand, network virtualization sets new requirements for mobile
network monitoring but on the other and it also provides means
for implementing advanced network monitoring solutions.
NFV/SDN enables the integration of cloud infrastructure that
provides higher degrees of freedom regarding the placement of
measurement points and flexible control of traffic flows. An
advanced and effective QoS monitoring solution should
comprise both a distributed (SDN / NFV-based) QoS
measurement system and a centralized evaluation system.
Service provisioning and optimization is another
assumption required to ensure resource availability. This can be
done by a single orchestrator entity. This assumption can be
deployed in SDN networks by using control applications that
have full view of network configuration. This together with
status information provided by network monitoring and data
collection systems enable mobile network orchestrator
application to optimize service (e.g. latency) and/or resource
usage easier than traditional networks that need to rely on
signaling. The orchestrator can control multiple network
elements via the control applications, potentially from multiple
vendors. This enables to introduce new services by writing or
modifying the orchestrator whereas in traditional networks all
the equipment need to be upgraded to support the new service
type. It is assumed that 5G networks will not be implemented
following a clean-slate approach; instead, legacy and new SDN
based 5G solutions will need to coexist over time. However, in
order to exploit the potential of SDN, cooperation between
both of these solutions is required, e.g. by introducing
abstraction and automation layer for the legacy network part.
Above all, cost reduction is a major requirement.
Virtualization of the LTE network is expected to contribute in
this regard, benefiting from standardized network elements and
better resource utilization with SDN. However, virtualized
network elements may increase the need for more computing
power, more complex network management, and create more
complex value networks. The net benefit of SDN in LTE
networks should be examined.
III. VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUDIFICATION IN MOBILE
NETWORKS
Virtualization of network elements is one of the major
technologies proposed for adoption in 5G networks.
Virtualization decouples a system’s service model from its
physical realization in order to increase the computation
performance of a system (e.g., to serve an increased amount of
users). The main advantage of virtualization is seen in cloud
computing in which technologically distinct systems are
brought together onto a single virtualized domain (a collection
of physical servers). Different services could be deployed on
top of the virtualized system to achieve higher degree of
service availability and flexibility.
However, distribution of computation over multiple servers
reveals the question of load balancing at two levels: VM
scheduling and load distribution. The VM scheduler of the
cloud platform should, ideally, distribute the computation
evenly between the physical servers, simultaneously keeping
the number of required servers as low as possible to serve all
clients. This allocation can be later modified by migration of
VMs to other servers. The only restricting requirements emerge
from fault tolerance: the VMs should be allocated to mitigate
the effects of failing hardware. On the other hand, service load
balancing shares the work between similar service elements. If
the workers reside in the same cloud, the load should be
distributed evenly to all of them. However, if they are deployed
in different locations (e.g., multiple geographically distributed
data centers), additional requirements, such as perceived
service latencies, modify the desired allocation.
Cloud computing can be described as distributed computing
environment over a network which has the capability to run a
program or application on many connected computers at the
same time [4].The National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) [5] defines cloud computing as: “Cloud
computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-
demand network access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage,
applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or service provider
interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential
characteristics, three service models, and four deployment
models”. The service models are Software as a Service (SaaS),
Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS).
The cloudification of mobile networks has both drivers and
constraints. A driver for this is the constant struggle of network
operators to maintain their business profitable. One significant
source of expense is the use of dedicated network hardware to
provide the required services. To avoid this, service providers
reach for virtualization of network services. The virtualized
functions in turn would be provided on top of a cloud
infrastructure. However, a considerable amount of work
remains to be done before the cloud-based approach allows
reaching a similar quality of service, such as availability and
latencies, that dedicated components can provide today.
An important part of the cloudification effort is the
selection of underlying technologies that control the computing
infrastructure of the cloud. There are a number of factors that
affect the decision of selecting the appropriate cloud
infrastructure. Firstly, the large amount of computation,
together with security concerns, lead to the selection of the
private cloud approach. The private approach allows the
placement of computing resources inside the network
architecture, instead of the public Internet, which leads to
reduced latencies and improve the control of the overall
infrastructure. Secondly, the most rational option is to provide
an infrastructure cloud. Cloud services are categorized into
three levels of abstraction: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. These levels
require different levels of competence from the cloud user. For
example, a PaaS user must implement the software but the
cloud platform manages the service scaling. On the other hand,
an IaaS user is required to handle scaling features and
distributed system communication. However, an IaaS cloud
allows flexibility in selecting the technologies that are used
create the network functions. Furthermore, the PaaS cloud is
usually created on top of IaaS, making it necessary to select an
IaaS platform first.
It is a common practice to rely on open-source platforms to
avoid vendor lock-ins or build custom features that expand the
platform capabilities. We argue that OpenStack is a viable
solution [6] to provide the cloud for mobile networks. The
large and diverse community reduces the risk of the project
being directed in the wrong direction. Also, the amount of
supported hypervisors and networking technologies are
positive signs. Moreover, OpenStack is becoming widely used,
from small private clouds to commercial solutions, e.g.
Rackspace. In this paper, we review the recent development
around OpenStack and provide questions that still need to be
answered in the future.
NFV is highly complementary to SDN. These topics are
mutually beneficial but are not dependent on each other.
Network functions can be virtualized and deployed without an
SDN being required and vice-versa.
Telecom or telco cloud is the cloud adapted for telecoms.
The principal idea is to exploit cloud computing as
infrastructure for the future mobile network deployment and
operation. The target is to extend the cloud technologies and its
benefits to the network, which is also the goal of the ETSI
NFV Initiative. The telecom cloud is not the same as the IT
cloud; the telecom industry’s demanding requirements for five
nines availability, scalability, reliability and complex
networking must be met, and a supplementary approach is
required.
IV. INTEGRATION OF SDN IN MOBILE NETWORKS
There are several papers describing the integration of SDN
in mobile networks [7-11]. They propose adding SDN agents in
the mobile network elements. SoftRAN [7] proposes a
centralized architecture as an alternative to the distributed
control plane currently implemented in LTE networks. It
abstracts out all the base stations deployed in a geographical
area as a virtual big-base station while considering all the
physical base stations as just radio elements with minimal
control logic. These radio elements are then managed by a
logically centralized entity which makes control plane
decisions for all the radio elements in the geographical area.
We call this logically centralized entity, the controller of the
big base station. The controller maintains a global view of the
radio access network and provides a framework on which
control algorithms can be implemented. CellSDN [8] pushes
fine-grained packet classification to the access switches, which
can be implemented easily in software (e.g., using Open
vSwitch). These access switches apply fine-grained rules,
specified by the controller, to map UE (User Equipment) trace
to the policy tags and hierarchical addresses.
To ensure control-plane scalability, a local agent at the base
station caches the service policy for each attached UE. Other
work [9-11] defines that each base station has an access switch
that performs fine-grained packet classification on trace from
UEs. Access switches can be software switches (such as Open
vSwitch) that run on commodity server hardware. The server
can also run a local agent that caches service policies for
attached UEs, to minimize interaction with the central
controller.
The rest of the cellular core consists of core switches,
including a few gateway switches connected to the Internet.
These core switches perform multi-dimensional packet
classification at high speed, but only for a few thousands or
tens of thousands of rules. We assume that the packet-
processing hardware can perform arbitrary wildcard matching
at different protocol layers e.g. IP or TCP/IP.
 V. SDN BASED MOBILE ARCHITECTURE
Currently there are only a few in-depth scientific
contributions dealing with mobile network architectures that
combine the concepts of cloud computing, SDN and NFV.
First architecture proposals - especially in the context of
Cloud-RAN - include the mapping of the network functions
that are required for the integration of mobile networks with
SDN technology. These functions are only the mobile network
control functions, i.e., MME, HSS, PCRF and the control
planes of S/P-GW. Additional functions include transport, load
balancing, security, policy, charging, monitoring, QoE or
resource optimization. These functions run on the Mobile
Network Cloud as SDN applications and enforce the desired
function by means of SDN technology. With this approach, the
user plane is only composed by strategically located SDN
capable switches and regular switches. SDN switches could
either replace partly or entirely the current mobile transport
network [12-13]. This consolidated architecture is shown in
Fig. 1.
The required EPC network elements run on the cloud to
benefit from virtualization. Latency constrains could affect the
deployment location of some compute nodes running virtual.
Some strategic functions could be placed close to the eNBs or
even on some switches, creating a decentralized cloud.
In the proposed architecture, the EPC network elements
maintain current 3GPP interfaces to favor migration from
legacy mobile networks. That will allow a seamless migration
Fig. 1. SDN based consolidated architecture towards 5G
Fig. 2. Seamless 3-Step Migration Towards SDN Enabled EPS
as previously stated in section I. Fig. 2 represents a 3-step
migration scenario using OpenFlow as SDN communication
protocol. The first use case (i.e. UC1) follows a traditional
routed LTE architecture, with legacy nodes. The second use
case (i.e. UC2) introduces the SDN technology for managing
layer-2 switched paths on the mobile core network, while still
maintaining the legacy nodes. This scenario constitutes a
hybrid approach allowing isolation of tenant networks using
standard encapsulation technologies, i.e. VLAN or MPLS.
Finally, the third use case (i.e. UC3) depicts a fully compliant
SDN network. This is because the 3GPP tunneling specifics are
not supported by current OpenFlow specifications and
therefore have been replaced by compliant and more effective
encapsulations. These use cases can coexist allowing hybrid
deployments to take advantage of existing network appliances.
VI. TESTBED AND RESULTS
The proposed architecture is deployed in a testbed where
the usage of the proposed technologies such as NFV and SDN
are analyzed against the basic requirements. The testbed
consists of two eNodeB provided by Nokia, OpenFlow enabled
MPLS switch provided by Coriant Oy, traffic monitoring probe
provided by EXFO, S/P-GW is open source nwEPC (SAE
Gateway), Ryu SDN controller and the rest of the components
(MME, NAT and CES) have been implemented by the research
group at Aalto. The SW components are running on Aalto data
center using Openstack Icehouse release. The HW components
are blade servers that run the cloud as a separate FlexNIC with
Intel Xeon E5-2665 (2.4-3.1 GHz, 64-bit, 8 cores, Hyper-
Threading), 128 GB DDR3-1600 RAM, 150 GB hard disk
storage and 10 Gbps HP Flex-10 networking drivers.
In the testbed we have implemented the three scenarios
described in section V (i.e. UC1, UC2 and UC3) to verify the
basic requirement of migration. We demonstrate how to
deploy vEPC based on current standard network elements
where each of them are running on different NVFs. Each of the
different network (NW) functions (i.e. MME, S/P-GW and
FW) will be running on their own virtual machines in the
cloud. A set of probes are included to support the monitoring
requirement and provide continuous information on the
network status. The eNodeBs provided by Nokia are installed
in Aalto premises with own network connection between the
eNodeB and the data center where the rest of the NW functions
are running. There is GTP tunneling between the eNB and the
S/P-GW in the first scenario (UC1) but TAG component
removes the GTP in the mobile backhaul for UC2 and UC3.
The TAG maintains QoS using MPLS tagging for identifying
the flows in the OpenFlow switches (OFS). As a result, in
UC1, the UE data packets are routed between the eNB and the
S/P-GW following current 3GPP specifications based on GTP
tunnels.
In both UC2 and UC3 we use SDN to add layer 2 MPLS
tagging to the GTP packets so we can perform traffic
engineering in the backbone, in order to address the
requirement on service provisioning and optimization. UE
data packets are switched from the eNB to the S/P-GW across
the core network using several paths. Load balancing between
OFS#1 and OFS#2 links is possible based on the MPLS
identifiers. In UC3 we demonstrate the cost reduction
requirement where the usage of SDN replaces completely the requirements identified as mandatory for the adoption of any
data plane part of standard NW elements such as S/P-GW. new technology in mobile networks. A testbed based on this
Most of the NW elements are running on the cloud using architecture is submitted as ETSI PoC. This testbed has been
commodity servers. Besides cost reduction, this scenario shows implemented using off the shelf eNodeBs and SDN capable
effective service provisioning and optimization where MPLS switches. The outcome shows that integration of SDN
additional virtualized middle boxes could be added to provide and NFV addresses some of the needs of 5G mobile networks.
NFV functions for managing specific flows and deploy new The results also demonstrate the benefits of SDN that when
services. These middle boxes could deflect HTTP packets to used in the backhaul improve the efficient and optimal usage
proxy servers for optimal caching [14] or the middle boxes
of resources with reduced overhead. However, we have
could identify suspicious flows and redirect them to firewalls
identified certain limitations in the proposed technologies.
or honeypots to fulfil the security requirement. The cost saving
are obtained not only from the virtualization but also from the NFV where all NW elements run on the cloud and rely on
simplification of the transport network by removing the GTP virtualization, do not provide the necessary reliability and
tunneling encapsulation and using the eNB for sending the data robustness. The testbed results shows high latency when
packets in a specific formatting, which in this case is supported moving VM with NW elements (e.g., MME or S/P-GW)
by OpenFlow. The backbone network switches packets based because of HW failure or when there is need for additional
on MPLS/VLAN identifiers leading to better utilization and processing resources. Thus, reliability and robustness need to
traffic engineering. be addressed in the proposed virtualization platform.
We tested the delay of migrating VMs running network ACKNOWLEDGMENT
elements handling the signaling, i.e. MME and the user data,
This work has been performed in the framework of the
i.e. S/P-GW. For the performance measure, we captured the
CELTIC-Plus project C2012/2-5 SIGMONA. The
packets using Wireshark and transmitted echo requests at
organizations on the authors list would like to acknowledge the
0.01 sec. intervals, then manually instruct the Nova service to
contributions of their colleagues to the project.
live migrate the VM instances. Fig. 3 reveals that a live
migration of an MME may introduces delays of up to 2 sec.,
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