Role of a Measurement Plane to Monitor and Manage QOS in Optical Access Networks

ABSTRACT

In this work, we propose a measurement plane for Software Defined Networking (SDN) architectures for monitoring the network performance and supporting the orchestrator in managing the optical link resources. Concerning the measurement plane, we consider two models that we adopted in other contests: Misurainternet and mPlane. However, due to better scalability, the tests reported in this paper refer to mPlane that has been used in a SDN environment based on Fiber to the X (FTTX) accesses, with procedures of the central unit (orchestrator) that automatically manages GbE links in a regional network. The choices of the orchestrator are based on information received by a reasoner that analyzes the network performance elaborating data detected by active and passive probes. The mPlane-SDN architecture is tested in field measurements concerning FTTX accesses and in Lab to verify the resource allocations in case of traffic congestion. Furthermore, we also show the potentiality of our architecture to evolve toward a distributed controller approach with important advantages for telecom operator strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• 5G
• FTTX
• GPON
• latency
• QoS
• SDN
• throughput

Acknowledgments

Work carried out in the framework of the project TERT2 supported by Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edion Tego

Vincenzo Attanasio (M.En 2014) was born in 1982. He graduated in Rome on March 2014 in Telecom Engineering and now he is a research fellow at Istituto Superiore delle Comunicazioni e delle Tecnologie dell’Informazione. His research activities are focused on Next Generation Optical Networks, Fiber to the Home and Fiber to the X Networks, Triple Pay Services on Passive Optical Networks, networking in access and transport networks and Free Space Optical Communication.

Francesco Matera

Francesco Matera was born in Rome, Italy, in 1961. He received the Laurea degree in Electronics Engineering from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome, Italy, in 1985. In 1986, he was granted a fellowship at Fondazione Ugo Bordoni on optical fibers.

Between 1986 and 1987, he was Second Lieutenant in the Italian “Corpo Tecnico dell’Esercito.” Since 1988, he has been Researcher at Fondazione Ugo Bordoni where he works on nonlinear effects on optical fibers, on optical systems and optical networks. He was a member of the European COST266 and was the scientific coordinator of European IST ATLAS “All optical Terabit per second Lambda Shifted transmission” project. Participation to FP6 ePhotonOne/ePhotonOne+ “Optical Networks: towards bandwidth manageability and cost efficiency,” FP7 BONE “Building the Optical Network in Europe.” Currently, his main works are in the field of the optical transmission systems and optical networks. He is Author of about 100 publications and 100 Conference papers and of a book: “Nonlinear Optical Communication Networks” Wiley 1996. He is the responsible of the Area “Technologies for Next Generation Networks” of Fondazione Ugo Bordoni.

Luca Rea

Emanuele Nastri was born in 1969; he received the Laurea degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Naples “Federico II.” He was a technical manager in several companies (Autovaz Italia, Enviroil Italia, Guascor Group Italia). He became Engineering executive director among Premiership-Ministry of Communication, where he is Italian delegate for energy saving and telecommunications for different standardization bodies (ITU, ECS, OCSE).

Emanuele Nastri

Luca Rea received his master degree in Telecommunications Engineering in 2005 from the University of Roma “La Sapienza.” He soon joined Fondazione Ugo Bordoni to work in Research activities related to FTTx, serving as Network Planning Manager, Strategy Analyst and Telecommunications Architect. He has developed deep knowledge of network planning, design, and creation processes in TELCO organizations. He has also gained experience in business planning and management of complex projects (IP ADSL2+ metro-access network, backhauling, metro-regional packet based network—GbE/MPLS). Most of these activities have been carried out in the context of several national and international projects (among these, a multi-stakeholder Project BONE—Building the Future Optical Network, sponsored by the European Union), where he has also acted with coordinating roles. He participates, as an appointed expert of the Italian Administration, to national and international standard committees and working groups in the field of telecommunication networks, particularly to ITU SG13. Since 2008, he is a member of the national Next Generation Network board to deploy FTTx in Italy. Since 2009, he is P.M. of a major nation-scoped project on “Internet access Quality of Service of fixed-line broadband connections.” The Project has been commissioned to Fondazione Ugo Bordoni by AGCOM, the Italian regulatory body for electronic communications, in virtue of its official Resolution (“Delibera”) 244 08 CSP

Vincenzo Attanasio

Edion Tego was born in Fier, Albania, in 1985. He received his bachelor degree from Polytechnic University of Tirana in 2008 and his master degree from “Sapienza” University of Rome on January 2012. He obtained his PhD at “La Sapienza” University of Rome on May 2016. His research interests are in SLA verification, traffic monitoring for anomaly detection, and intrusion preventions.