An OpenNaaS based SDN Framework for Dynamic QoS control

Abstract :

Network Service Providers should offer provisioning services with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), specifically adapted to the characteristics of the applications running on their network. In this paper we propose the Network Control Layer (NCL), a software framework solution based on Software Defined Networks (SDN), OpenFlow and Network as a Service (NaaS) paradigms. It addresses a major innovation area in the field of network control and management providing on-demand end-to-end network provisioning services with guaranteed QoS, based on the specific requirements of on-top running interactive applications. The NCL implementation is based on the OpenNaaS framework, and it includes mechanisms for network status monitoring and SDN switches configuration based on the interactive applications´ QoS network requirements. We demonstrate NCL´s utility in the context of control plane models making use of a practical use case.

In this paper, we have presented a prototype implementation of an SDN based network controller that aims to solve QoS limitations while provisioning E2E services. The NCL architecture solution relies on SDN and OpenNaaS technologies and allows exploiting the current deployed network with a more efficient usage of the resources avoiding network over-provisioning. Moreover, through an SDN enabled network, network operators could offer to the network applications development and providers’ community a way to leverage the network intelligence and help deliver differentiated services. The programmability of the network increases its efficiency and makes it more effective for customer necessities.

Also, the NCL enables network elasticity functionalities allowing to perform the dynamic provisioning of the network on-demand, to quickly scale out and rapidly release to quickly scale in. SDN capabilities will allow an automatic provision process which dynamically adapts to application requirements on-demand during run-time. The work presented in this paper represents a milestone towards demonstrating the feasibility and viability of implementing SDN applications tailored to the network operator service portfolio.