The Madrid-based research institute IMDEA Networks and TELCARIA, an SME in the ICT innovation sector, are launching an innovative project that seeks to combine the enormous transformative potential of the current network architecture offered by Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN), both technologies that emerged in the last decade and will play a leading role in future 5G networks.
“5G networks represent a complete redesign of current communications technology, offering a fusion of the network with computing systems,” states Arturo Azcorra, director of the Madrid-based research institute IMDEA Networks. If they are to be able to support the demands of 5G, the networks of the future face major challenges such as the exponential growth in data throughput and the number of connected devices and terminals, as well as the need to drastically reduce latency and operating costs, and offer high reliability and security.
“The goal of this research is to decouple processing within the network from factors such as location, time, scalability, and the hardware itself,” explains José Félix Kukielka, one of the researchers at IMDEA Networks. “The development of new dynamic mechanisms will allow processing to be implemented wherever and whenever needed, in a scalable way and independently of the different types of underlying hardware, which will almost always be heterogeneous, since it may consist of commercial or proprietary products. This new way of understanding network architecture will add great flexibility to the design, operation, and management of the new 5G telecommunications networks.”
SDN networks and virtualization techniques facilitate strategic and centralized network management, protecting the network and maintaining a stable flow of information, as they allow for the instant resolution of traffic incidents. According to José María Roldán, a doctoral candidate at IMDEA Networks and Telcaria who leads this research, “the key to achieving network dynamism is to allow the basic software building blocks to run and migrate seamlessly across a multitude of locations on the network, with minimal traffic disruption and without end users noticing.”.
There is currently high business demand for cloud-based services, but a revamped network architecture is needed to streamline access to heterogeneous applications and ensure the security, scalability, and storage of the services provided. One example of what virtualized SDN networks in the cloud can achieve is the creation of a virtual channel within an existing network, allowing an internet provider to offer a guaranteed high-speed connection without needing to enable or create a new physical connection.
“We are anticipating the launch of 5G and simultaneously making it possible, as we are currently developing the communications technology of the future that will enable the deployment of 5G networks and services,” explains Roldán. Telcaria’s motto is geared toward that immediate future: “We transform hardware-based companies into software-based companies.”.
This research project has been selected in the latest call for proposals from the Madrid Regional Ministry of Education and Innovation, which supports the hiring of young researchers to carry out industrial PhD projects. These projects are developed simultaneously at the company and the assigned research center. This regional initiative achieves the goal of combining the efforts of scientific research and the ICT industry in a project that aims to lead the innovation and evolution of current networks to adapt to the demands of 5G and that will enable new business models in the region.
The funded thesis is entitled "Software and Virtualization Techniques for Performance and Scalability Improvement in the Integration of SDN and Cloud-based Network Services in 5G Technologies" and will be completed in 2021.
Source(s): IMDEA Networks Institute; Telcaria
