Book or Conference Proceedings
Chapter (part of a book)
Article in journal, newspaper, or magazine
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Burger, V., Zinner, T., Dinh-Xuan, L., Wamser, F., Tran-Gia, P.: A Generic Approach to Video Buffer Modeling using Discrete-Time Analysis. ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications (TOMM). (2018).
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Lorenz, C., Hock, D., Scherer, J., Durner, R., Kellerer, W., Gebert, S., Gray, N., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: An SDN/NFV-enabled Enterprise Network Architecture Offering Fine-Grained Security Policy Enforcement. IEEE Communications Magazine. 55, 217 - 223 (2017).
In recent years, the number of attacks and threat vectors against enterprise networks have been constantly increasing in numbers and variety. In addition, new challenges arise not only to the level of provided security, but also to the scalability and manageability of the deployed countermeasures such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems. Despite these attacks, the main security systems, e.g., network firewalls, have remained rather unchanged. Due to the tight integration into the physical network’s infrastructure, a dynamic resource allocation to adapt the security measures to the current network conditions is a difficult undertaking. Therefore, in this work, we analyze and compare different architectural design patterns for the integration of SDN/NFV-based security solutions into enterprise networks.
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Hoffmann, M., Jarschel, M., Pries, R., Schneider, P., Jukan, A., Bziuk, W., Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: SDN and NFV as Enabler for the Distributed Network Cloud. Mobile Networks and Applications. (2017).
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Metter, C., Seufert, M., Wamser, F., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Analytical Model for SDN Signaling Traffic and Flow Table Occupancy and its Application for Various Types of Traffic. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management. 14, 603-615 (2017).
Software Defined Networking (SDN) has emerged as a promising networking paradigm overcoming various drawbacks of current communication networks. The control and data plane of switching devices is decoupled and control functions are centralized at the network controller. In SDN, each new flow introduces additional signaling traffic between the switch and the controller. Based on this traffic, rules are created in the flow table of the switch, which specify the forwarding behavior. To avoid table overflows, unused entries are removed after a predefined time-out period. Given a specific traffic mix, the choice of this time-out period affects the trade-off between signaling rate and table occupancy. As a result, network operators have to adjust this parameter to enable a smooth and efficient network operation. Due to the complexity of this problem caused by the various traffic flows in a network, a suitable abstraction is necessary in order to derive valid parameter values in time. The contribution of this work is threefold. Firstly, we formulate a simple analytical model that allows optimizing the network performance with respect to the table occupancy and the signaling rate. Secondly, we validate the model by means of simulation. Thirdly, we illustrate the impact of the time-out period on the signaling traffic and the flow table occupancy for different data-plane traffic mixes and characteristics. This includes scenarios with single application instances, as well as multiple application instances of different application types in an SDN-enabled network.
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Zinner, T., Geissler, S., Lange, S., Gebert, S., Seufert, M., Tran-Gia, P.: A Discrete-Time Model for Optimizing the Processing Time of Virtualized Network Functions. Computer Networks. 125, 4-14 (2017).
The softwarization of networks promises cost savings and better scalability of network functions by moving functionality from specialized devices into commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Generalized computing hardware offers many degrees of adjustment and tuning, which can affect performance and resource utilization. One of these adjustments are interrupt moderation techniques implemented by modern network interface cards and operating systems. Using these, an administrator can optimize either for low latencies or low CPU overhead for processing of network traffic. In this work, an analytical model that allows the computation of relevant performance metrics like packet processing time and packet loss for generic virtualized network functions running on commodity hardware is presented. Based on this model, impact factors like average packet interarrival time, interarrival time distribution, and duration of the interrupt aggregation interval are studied. Furthermore, we significantly improve the computational tractability of this discrete-time model by proving and leveraging a property regarding its limit behavior. We also demonstrate that using this property does not affect the accuracy of the model in the context of realistic parameter combinations. Finally, the improved runtime for numerical evaluations allows administrators to dynamically adapt their interrupt mitigation settings to changing network conditions by recalculating optimal parameters.
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Cofano, G., De Cicco, L., Zinner, T., Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Tran-Gia, P., Mascolo, S.: Design and Performance Evaluation of Network-assisted Control Strategies for HTTP Adaptive Streaming. ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications. (2017).
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Wamser, F., Casas, P., Seufert, M., Moldovan, C., Tran-Gia, P., Hoßfeld, T.: Modeling the YouTube Stack: from Packets to Quality of Experience. Computer Networks. 109, 211-224 (2016).
YouTube is one of the most popular and volume-dominant services in today’s Internet, and has changed the Web for ever. Consequently, network operators are forced to consider it in the design, deployment, and optimization of their networks. Taming YouTube requires a good understanding of the complete YouTube stack, from the network streaming service to the application itself. Understanding the interplays between individual YouTube functionalities and their implications for traffic and user Quality of Experience (QoE) becomes paramount nowadays. In this paper we characterize and model the YouTube stack at different layers, going from the generated network traffic to the QoE perceived by the users watching YouTube videos. Firstly, we present a network traffic model for the YouTube flow control mechanism, which permits to understand how YouTube provisions video traffic flows to users. Secondly, we investigate how traffic is consumed at the client side, deriving a simple model for the YouTube application. Thirdly, we analyze the implications for the end user, and present a model for the quality as perceived by them. This model is finally integrated into a system for real time QoE-based YouTube monitoring, highly useful to operators to assess the performance of their networks for provisioning YouTube videos. The central parameter for all the presented models is the buffer level at the YouTube application layer. This paper provides an extensive compendium of objective tools and models for network operators to better understand the YouTube traffic in their networks, to predict the playback behavior of the video player, and to assess how well they do it in the practice with the satisfaction of their customers watching YouTube.
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Burger, V., Seufert, M., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance Evaluation of Backhaul Bandwidth Aggregation Using a Partial Sharing Scheme. Physical Communication. 19, 135-144 (2016).
To cope with the increasing demand of mobile devices and the limited capacity of cellular networks mobile connections are offloaded to WiFi. The access capacity is further increased, by aggregating bandwidth of WiFi access links. To analyse the performance of aggregated access links we model the most simple case of two cooperating systems interchanging capacities using an offloading scheme. The resulting analytic model is computed by means of a two-dimensional birth and death process. It can be used to seamlessly evaluate the performance of systems between partitioning and complete sharing. This allows to optimize the setting of thresholds dependent on the load of the cooperating system. Furthermore the benefit of aggregating bandwidth in different scenarios with homogeneous and heterogeneous workloads is quantified and the performance of more than two cooperating systems is evaluated by simulation.
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Seufert, M., Burger, V., Lorey, K., Seith, A., Loh, F., Tran-Gia, P.: Assessment of Subjective Influence and Trust with an Online Social Network Game. Computers in Human Behavior. 64, 233-246 (2016).
The deduction of influence and trust between two individuals only from objective data in online social networks (OSNs) is a rather vague approach. Subjective assessments via surveys produce better results, but are harder to conduct considering the vast amount of friendships of OSN users. This work presents a framework for personalized surveys on relationships in OSNs, which follows a gamification approach. A Facebook game was developed, which was used to subjectively assess social influence and interpersonal trust based on models from psychology. The results show that it is possible to obtain subjective opinions and (limited) objective data about relationships with an OSN game. Also an implicit assessment of influence and trust with subcategory questions is feasible in this case.
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Hoßfeld, T., Seufert, M., Sieber, C., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Identifying QoE Optimal Adaptation of HTTP Adaptive Streaming Based on Subjective Studies. Computer Networks. 81, 320-332 (2015).
HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) technologies, e.g., Apple HLS or MPEG-DASH, automatically adapt the delivered video quality to the available network. This reduces stalling of the video but additionally introduces quality switches, which also influence the user-perceived Quality of Experience (QoE). In this work, we conduct a subjective study to identify the impact of adaptation parameters on QoE. The results indicate that the video quality has to be maximized first, and that the number of quality switches is less important. Based on these results, a method to compute the optimal QoE-optimal adaptation strategy for HAS on a per user basis with mixed-integer linear programming is presented. This QoE-optimal adaptation enables the benchmarking of existing adaptation algorithms for any given network condition. Moreover, the investigated concept is extended to a multi-user IPTV scenario. The question is answered whether video quality, and thereby, the QoE can be shared in a fair manner among the involved users.
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Wamser, F., Blenk, A., Seufert, M., Zinner, T., Kellerer, W., Tran-Gia, P.: Modeling and Performance Analysis of Application-Aware Resource Management. International Journal of Network Management. 25, 223-241 (2015).
Application-aware resource management is the approach to tailor access networks to have characteristics beneficial for the running applications and services. This is achieved through the monitoring and integration of key performance indicators from the application layer within the network resource management. The aim is to increase user-perceived quality and network resource efficiency by traffic engineering with the help of these indicators. Using analytic and simulative approaches, this paper provides analysis methods for network operators to quantify the performance gains of alternative resource allocation algorithms that implement the application-aware concept. Network operators can use the proposed methods to evaluate possible performance gain trade-offs between investing in a pure capacity increase (over-provisioning) and the realization of an application-aware resource allocation. For this purpose, we model and analyze the application quality trade-offs of four algorithms for application-aware resource management at a single link in varying traffic situations. The algorithms are chosen with respect to different complexity and implementation level in order to cover the design space in a systematic way. The study of the algorithms focuses on the application-layer performance for the most used applications today, namely web browsing and video streaming with constant bit-rate as well as HTTP progressive streaming with variable bit-rate. Application quality trade-offs are analyzed in particular for a high resource utilization at a bottleneck link. The results confirm that application-aware resource management outperforms best-effort resource management in terms of QoE. Moreover, our study provides guidelines for the selection and configuration of the evaluated algorithms.
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Blenk, A., Basta, A., Kellerer, W., Zinner, T., Wamser, F., Tran-Gia, P.: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) und Software Defined Networking (SDN): Forschungsfragen und Anwendungsfälle. ITG Mitgliederbeiträge / VDE dialog (invited article). 10-13 (2015).
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Lange, S., Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P., Hock, D., Jarschel, M., Hoffmann, M.: Heuristic Approaches to the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management - Special Issue on Efficient Management of SDN and NFV-based Systems. 12, 4 - 17 (2015).
Software Defined Networking (SDN) marks a paradigm shift towards an externalized and logically centralized network control plane. A particularly important task in SDN architectures is that of controller placement, i.e., the positioning of a limited number of resources within a network in order to meet various requirements. These requirements range from latency constraints to failure tolerance and load balancing. In most scenarios, at least some of these objectives are competing, thus no single best placement is available and decision makers need to find a balanced trade-off. This work presents POCO, a framework for Pareto-based Optimal COntroller placement that provides operators with Pareto optimal placements with respect to different performance metrics. In its default configuration, POCO performs an exhaustive evaluation of all possible placements. While this is practically feasible for small and medium sized networks, realistic time and resource constraints call for an alternative in the context of large scale networks or dynamic networks whose properties change over time. For these scenarios, the POCO toolset is extended by a heuristic approach that is less accurate, but yields faster computation times. An evaluation of this heuristic is performed on a collection of real world network topologies from the Internet Topology Zoo. Utilizing a measure for quantifying the error introduced by the heuristic approach allows an analysis of the resulting trade-off between time and accuracy. Additionally, the proposed methods can be extended to solve similar virtual functions placement problems which appear in the context of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
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Seufert, M., Egger, S., Slanina, M., Zinner, T., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: A Survey on Quality of Experience of HTTP Adaptive Streaming. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. 17, 469-492 (2015).
Changing network conditions pose severe problems to video streaming in the Internet. HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) is a technology employed by numerous video services which relieves these issues by adapting the video to the current network conditions. It enables service providers to improve resource utilization and Quality of Experience (QoE) by incorporating information from different layers in order to deliver and adapt a video in its best possible quality. Thereby, it allows to take into account end user device capabilities, available video quality levels, current network conditions, and current server load. For end users, the major benefits of HAS compared to classical HTTP video streaming are reduced interruptions of the video playback and higher bandwidth utilization, which both generally result in a higher QoE. Adaptation is possible by changing the frame rate, resolution, or quantization of the video, which can be done with various adaptation strategies and related client- and server-side actions. The technical development of HAS, existing open standardized solutions, but also proprietary solutions are reviewed in this article as fundament to derive the QoE influence factors which emerge as a result of adaptation. The main contribution is a comprehensive survey of QoE related works from human computer interaction and networking domains which are structured according to the QoE impact of video adaptation. To be more precise, subjective studies which cover QoE aspects of adaptation dimensions and strategies are revisited. As a result, QoE influence factors of HAS and corresponding QoE models are identified, but also open issues and conflicting results are discussed. Furthermore, technical influence factors, which are often ignored in the context of HAS, affect perceptual QoE influence factors and are consequently analyzed. This survey gives the reader an overview of the current state of the art and recent developments. At the same time it targets networking researchers who develop new solutions for HTTP video streaming or assess video streaming from a user centric point of view. Therefore, the article is a major step towards truly improving HAS.
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Jarschel, M., Zinner, T., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P., Kellerer, W.: Interfaces, Attributes, and Use Cases: A Compass for SDN. IEEE Communications Magazine. 52, 210-217 (2014).
The term Software Defined Networking (SDN) is prevalent in today’s discussion about future communication networks. As with any new term or paradigm, however, no consistent definition regarding this technology has formed. The fragmented view on SDN results in legacy products being passed off by equipment vendors as SDN, academics mixing up the attributes of SDN with those of network virtualization, and users not fully understanding the benefits. Therefore, establishing SDN as a widely adopted technology beyond laboratories and insular deployments requires a compass to navigate the multitude of ideas and concepts that make up SDN today. The contribution of this article represents an important step toward such an instrument. It gives a thorough definition of SDN and its interfaces as well as a list of its key attributes. Furthermore, a mapping of interfaces and attributes to SDN use cases is provided, highlighting the relevance of the interfaces and attributes for each scenario. This compass gives guidance to a potential adopter of SDN on whether SDN is in fact the right technology for a specific use case.
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Schwerdel, D., Reuther, B., Zinner, T., Müller, P., Tran-Gia, P.: Future Internet Research and Experimentation: The G-Lab Approach. Computer Networks. (2014).
The German Lab (G-Lab) project aims to investigate architectural concepts and technologies for a new inter-networking architecture as an integrated approach between theoretic and experimental studies. Thus G-Lab consists of two major fields of activities: research studies of future network components and the design and setup of experimental facilities. Both are controlled by the same community to ensure that the experimental facility meets the demands of the researchers. Researchers gain access to virtualized resources or may gain exclusive access to resources if necessary. We present the current setup of the experimental facility, describing the available hardware, management of the platform, the utilization of the PlanetLab software and the user management. Moreover, a new approach to setup and deploy virtual network topologies will be described.
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Pham Ngoc, N., Nguyen Huu, T., Vu Quang, T., Tran Hoang, V., Truong Thu, H., Tran-Gia, P., Schwartz, C.: A new power profiling method and power scaling mechanism for energy-aware NetFPGA gigabit router. Computer Networks. (2014).
Today the ICT industry accounts for 2–4% of the worldwide carbon emissions that are estimated to double in a business-as-usual scenario by 2020. A remarkable part of the large energy volume consumed in the Internet today is due to the over-provisioning of network resources such as routers, switches and links to meet the stringent requirements on reliability. Therefore, performance and energy issues are important factors in designing gigabit routers for future networks. However, the design and prototyping of energy-efficient routers is challenging because of multiple reasons, such as the lack of power measurements from live networks and a good understanding of how the energy consumption varies under different traffic loads and switch/router configuration settings. Moreover, the exact energy saving level gained by adopting different energy-efficient techniques in different hardware prototypes is often poorly known. In this article, we first propose a measurement framework that is able to quantify and profile the detailed energy consumption of sub-components in the NetFPGA OpenFlow switch. We then propose a new power-scaling algorithm that can adapt the operational clock frequencies as well as the corresponding energy consumption of the FPGA core and the Ethernet ports to the actual traffic load. We propose a new energy profiling method, which allows studying the detailed power performance of network devices. Results show that our energy efficient solution obtains higher level of energy efficiency compared to some existing approaches as the upper and lower bounds of power consumption of the NetFPGA Openflow switch are proved to be 30% lower than ones of the commercial HP Enterprise switch. Moreover, the new switch architecture can save up to 97% of dynamic power consumption of the FPGA chip at lowest frequency mode.
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Hoßfeld, T., Keimel, C., Hirth, M., Gardlo, B., Habigt, J., Diepold, K., Tran-Gia, P.: Best Practices for QoE Crowdtesting: QoE Assessment with Crowdsourcing. Transactions on Multimedia. 16, (2014).
Quality of Experience (QoE) in multimedia applications is closely linked to the end users’ perception and therefore its assessment requires subjective user studies in order to evaluate the degree of delight or annoyance as experienced by the users. QoE crowdtesting refers to QoE assessment using crowdsourcing, where anonymous test subjects conduct subjective tests remotely in their preferred environment. The advantages of QoE crowdtesting lie not only in the reduced time and costs for the tests, but also in a large and diverse panel of international, geographically distributed users in realistic user settings. However, conceptual and technical challenges emerge due to the remote test settings. Key issues arising from QoE crowdtesting include the reliability of user ratings, the influence of incentives, payment schemes and the unknown environmental context of the tests on the results. In order to counter these issues, strategies and methods need to be developed, included in the test design, and also implemented in the actual test campaign, while statistical methods are required to identify reliable user ratings and to ensure high data quality. This contribution therefore provides a collection of best practices addressing these issues based on our experience gained in a large set of conducted QoE crowdtesting studies. The focus of this article is in particular on the issue of reliability and we use video quality assessment as an example for the proposed best practices, showing that our recommended two-stage QoE crowdtesting design leads to more reliable results.
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Hoßfeld, T., Burger, V., Hinrichsen, H., Hirth, M., Tran-Gia, P.: On the computation of entropy production in stationary social networks. Social Network Analysis and Mining. 4, (2014).
Completing their initial phase of rapid growth, social networks are expected to reach a plateau from where on they are in a statistically stationary state. Such stationary conditions may have different dynamical properties. For example, if each message in a network is followed by a reply in opposite direction, the dynamics is locally balanced. Otherwise, if messages are ignored or forwarded to a different user, one may reach a stationary state with a directed flow of information. To distinguish between the two situations, we propose a quantity called entropy production that was introduced in statistical physics as a measure for non-vanishing probability currents in nonequilibrium stationary states. The proposed quantity closes a gap for characterizing online social networks. As major contribution, we show the relation and difference between entropy production and existing metrics. The comparison shows that computational intensive metrics like centrality can be approximated by entropy production for typical online social networks. To compute the entropy production from real-world measurements, the need for Bayesian inference and the limits of naïve estimates for those probability currents are shown. As further contribution, a general scheme is presented to measure the entropy production in small-world networks using Bayesian inference. The scheme is then applied for a specific example of the R mailing list.
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Hoßfeld, T., Seufert, M., Sieber, C., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Close to Optimum? User-centric Evaluation of Adaptation Logics for HTTP Adaptive Streaming. PIK - Praxis der Informationsverarbeitung und Kommunikation. 37, 275-285 (2014).
HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) is the de-facto standard for over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services. It allows to react to fluctuating network conditions on short time scales by adapting the video bit rate in order to avoid stalling of the video playback. With HAS the video content is split into small segments of a few seconds playtime each, which are available in different bit rates, i.e., quality level representations. Depending on the current conditions, the adaptation algorithm on the client side chooses the appropriate quality level and downloads the respective segment. This allows to avoid stalling, which is seen as the worst possible disturbance of HTTP video streaming, to the most possible extend. Nevertheless, the user perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) may be affected, namely by playing back lower qualities and by switching between different qualities. Therefore, adaptation algorithms are desired which maximize the user’sQoEfor the currently available network resources. Many downloading strategies have been proposed in literature, but a solid user-centric comparison of these mechanisms among each other and with the global optimum is missing. The major contributions of this work are as follows. A proper analysis of the influence of quality switches and played out representations on QoE is conducted by means of subjective user studies. The results suggest that, in order to optimize QoE, first, the quality level of the video stream has to be maximized and second, the number of quality switches should be minimized. Based on our findings, a QoEoptimization problem is formulated and the performance of our proposed algorithm is compared to other algorithms and to the QoE-optimal adaptation.
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Zinner, T., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P., Kellerer, W.: Software defined Networks - Das Internet flexibler gestalten und dynamischer steuern. ITG Mitgliederbeilage / VDE dialog (invited article). 6-9 (2013).
Vor allem aufgrund seiner starren Architektur und mangelnden Ressourcennutzung ist die Flexibilität der aktuellen Internettechnologie eingeschränkt. Dies könnte sich durch Anwendung von Software Defined Networks (SDN) ändern. Hierbei wird die Steuerung der Netze und Datenflüsse von den bisherigen Netzkomponenten auf eine zentrale logische Einheit übertragen.
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Hoßfeld, T., Hirth, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Crowdsourcing - Modell einer neuen Arbeitswelt im Internet. Informatik Spektrum, Wirtschaftsinformatik & Management. 5, (2013).
Das Internet hat bereits viele höchst erfolgreiche Geschäftsmodelle hervorgebracht. Jedoch basierten bisher die meisten neuen Anwendungen oder Dienstleistungen auf technischen Neuerungen, beispielsweise schnelleren Rechner, kürzeren Verbindungsdauern oder auf neuartigen algorithmischen Ansätzen, etwa der Page-Rank-Algorithmus von Google. Erst mit den Sozialen Medien wie Youtube oder Facebook wurden die Nutzer ein integraler Bestandteil der Wertschöpfungskette, ohne die das „Produkt“ nicht funktioniert. Einen ähnlich starken Einfluss auf den Erfolg eines Unternehmens haben Nutzer in Geschäftsmodellen, die auf dem Crowdsourcing-Paradigma beruhen, welches im Folgenden genauer beleuchtet werden soll.
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Tran-Gia, P., Hoßfeld, T., Hartmann, M., Hirth, M.: Crowdsourcing and its Impact on Future Internet Usage. it - Information Technology. 55, 139-145 (2013).
Crowdsourcing is an emerging service platform and business model in the Internet. In contrast to outsourcing where a job is performed by a designated contractor, with Crowdsourcing, jobs are outsourced to a large, anonymous crowd of workers, the so-called human cloud. The rise of Crowdsourcing and its seamless integration in current workflows may have a huge impact on the Internet and on society, and will be a guiding paradigm that can form the evolution of work in the years to come. In this article, we discuss applications and use cases of Crowdsourcing to demonstrate the impact on Internet usage. Novel measurement approaches are presented and the impact of Crowdsourcing on Internet traffic is evaluated by measuring the activity of a particular Crowdsourcing platform. New technical solutions are necessary for the operation of efficient, distributed Crowdsourcing platforms. Special attention is drawn to the integration of machine clouds and human crowds, and appropriate inter-cloud solutions. Finally, we discuss current research challenges from a scientific and from the platform provider’s point of view.
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Klein, D., Tran-Gia, P., Hartmann, M.: Aktuelles Schlagwort: Big Data. Informatik-Spektrum. 36, 319-323 (2013).
Big Data ist neben Cloud Computing und Crowdsourcing eine der wichtigsten neuen Technologie-Treiber und wird daher im Aktuellen Schlagwort näher beleuchtet. Zu Beginn gehen wir auf die Definition von Big Data ein und erläutern die Unterschiede zu traditionellen Verfahren. Im Anschluss daran stellen wir zugrundeliegende Technologien vor und geben einen kurzen Überblick über wissenschaftliche Herausforderungen in diesem Bereich.
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Schwartz, C., Hoßfeld, T., Lehrieder, F., Tran-Gia, P.: Angry Apps: The Impact of Network Timer Selection on Power Consumption, Signalling Load, and Web QoE. Journal of Computer Networks and Communications. 1 - 22 (2013).
The popularity of smartphones and mobile applications has experienced a considerable growth during recent years and this growth is expected to continue in the future. Since smartphones have only very limited energy resources, battery efficiency is one of the deter- mining factors for a good user experience. Therefore, some smartphones tear down connec- tions to the mobile network soon after a completed data transmission to reduce the power consumption of their transmission unit. However, frequent connection re-establishments caused by apps which send or receive small amounts of data often lead to a heavy signalling load within the mobile network. One of the major contributions of this article is the investigation of the resulting trade-off between energy consumption at the smartphone and the generated signalling traffic in the mobile network. We explain that this trade-off can be controlled by the connection release timeout and study the impact of this parameter for a number of popular apps that cover a wide range of traffic characteristics in terms of bandwidth requirements and resulting signalling traffic. Finally, we study the impact of the timer settings on QoE for web traffic. This is an important aspect since connection establishments do not only lead to signalling traffic, but they also increase the load time of web pages.
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Wamser, F., Hock, D., Seufert, M., Staehle, B., Pries, R., Tran-Gia, P.: Using Buffered Playtime for QoE-Oriented Resource Management of YouTube Video Streaming. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies. 24, 288–302 (2013).
YouTube is the most important online platform for streaming video clips. The popularity and the continuously increasing number of users pose new challenges for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In particular, in access networks where the transmission resources are limited and the providers are interested in reducing their operational expenditure, it is worth to efficiently optimize the network for popular services such as YouTube. In this paper, we propose different resource management mechanisms to improve the Quality of Experience (QoE) of YouTube users. In particular, we investigate the benefit of cross-layer resource management actions at the client and in the access network for YouTube video streaming. The proposed algorithms are evaluated in a wireless mesh testbed. The results show how to improve the YouTube QoE for the users with the help of client-based or network-based control actions.
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Hock, D., Wamser, F., Seufert, M., Pries, R., Tran-Gia, P.: OC²E²AN: Optimized Control Center for Experience Enhancements in Access Networks. PIK - Praxis der Informationsverarbeitung und Kommunikation. 36, 40 (2013).
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Hirth, M., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Analyzing Costs and Accuracy of Validation Mechanisms for Crowdsourcing Platforms. Mathematical and Computer Modelling. (2012).
Crowdsourcing is becoming more and more important for commercial purposes. With the growth of crowdsourcing platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk or Microworkers, a huge work force and a large knowledge base can be easily accessed and utilized. But due to the anonymity of the workers, they are encouraged to cheat the employers in order to maximize their income. Thus, this paper we analyze two widely used crowd-based approaches to validate the submitted work. Both approaches are evaluated with regard to their detection quality, their costs and their applicability to different types of typical crowdsourcing tasks
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Hoßfeld, T., Hirth, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Aktuelles Schlagwort: Crowdsourcing. Informatik Spektrum. 35, (2012).
Seit der Öffnung des Internets für die Allgemeinheit Anfang der 90er Jahre hat eine rasante Entwicklung stattgefunden. Neue Paradigmen wie Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Web 2.0 oder Cloud Computing führen zu neuartigen Diensten und Anwendungen, welche bei den Anwendern längst etabliert sind und einen Großteil des Datenverkehrs im Internet ausmachen. Beispiele hierfür sind unter anderem P2P-Anwendungen wie BitTorrent zum Austausch riesiger Datenmengen, Skype für Sprach- und Videokonferenzen, Soziale Medien wie Facebook oder Twitter, Cloud Anwendungen wie DropBox als synchronisiertes Netzwerk-Dateisystem für verteilte Rechner oder Cloud Gaming. Aktuell taucht ein neues Schlagwort im Internet auf: „Crowdsourcing“. Einige Aufgaben und Probleme, die für Menschen relativ einfach zu lösen sind, können derzeit selbst von modernen Machine Clouds noch nicht algorithmisch bewältigt werden. Hierzu zählen etwa Text- und Bilderkennung, das Verifizieren, Analysieren und Kategorisieren von Videoinhalten, das Schaffen von Wissen, das Verbessern und Kreieren von Produkten oder wissenschaftliche Forschung. Diese stellen Anwendungsgebiete von Crowdsourcing dar. Statt (oder zusätzlich zu) Machine Clouds wird die Masse der Internetnutzer in die Wertschöpfungskette eingebunden. Man spricht hier auch von Human Clouds. Neben Sozialen Medien ist Crowdsourcing eine der wichtigsten aktuell aufstrebenden Technologien und Geschäftsmodelle im Internet, die die Zukunft des Arbeitens und der Arbeitsorganisation von Grund auf verändern wird. Die wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftliche Bedeutung von Crowdsourcing-Plattformen wächst ständig und fördert die Entstehung neuer Formen der Arbeitsorganisation. Jobs in Crowdsourcing-Plattformen besitzen eine viel kleinere Granularität im Vergleich zu denen im traditionellen Outsourcing bzw. Outtasking Bereich. Das Aktuelle Schlagwort beleuchtet den Begriff „Crowdsourcing“ näher und wird zunächst wichtige Begriffe einführen, bevor die Anwendungsgebiete von Crowdsourcing sowie dessen Bedeutung in der Praxis und zukünftige Weiterentwicklung betrachtet werden.
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Zinner, T., Tutschku, K., Nakao, A., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance Evaluation of Packet Re-ordering on Concurrent Multipath Transmissions for Transport Virtualization. JCNDS Special Issue on: Network Virtualization - Concepts and Performance Aspects. Vol. 6, 322-340 (2011).
From the viewpoint of communication networks Network Virtualization (NV) extends beyond pure operational issues and addresses many impasses of the current Internet. The idea of Transport Virtualization (TV) progresses the capabilities of NV and enables the independence from a specific network transport resource. The independence is achieved by pooling multiple transport resources and selecting the best resources for exclusive or concurrent use. However, the application and selection of concurrent paths is rather complex and introduces inevitable packet re-ordering due to different stochastic delay characteristics on the used paths. Packets arriving at the destination out-of-order have to be stored in a re-sequencing buffer before reassembled packets are forwarded to the application. We provide a simulation framework based on discrete event simulation which allows an evaluation of the re-sequencing buffer occupancy. Further, we perform an analysis of the fundamental behaviors and factors for packet re-ordering in concurrent multipath transmissions.
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Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: EuroView 2010: Visions of Future Generation Networks. Computer Communications Review CCR. Volume 41, Number 2, (2011).
On August 2nd – 3rd, 2010, the EuroView 2010 workshop on 'Visions of Future Generation Networks' was held at the University of Würzburg. The event was sponsored by the European Network of Excellence Euro-NF, the German Information Technology Society ITG, and the International Teletraffic Congress ITC. EuroView 2010 brought together Internet and network technology researchers, network providers, as well as equipment and device manufacturers. In 2010, the focus was on 'Future Internet Design and Experimental Facilities' and on current efforts towards a Future Internet. Special sessions were organized reflecting the latest results of selected testbed expert groups as well as current and future national and international collaborative projects: (1) the German G-Lab project offering a national platform for Future Internet studies, (2) the Future Internet Activities in the European Framework FP7 organized by Max Lemke, and (3) the GENI project in US organized by Aaron Falk. A keynote talk was given by Lawrence Landweber on the challenges and paradigms emerging in the Future (Inter)Network.
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Wamser, F., Mittelstädt, D., Staehle, D., Tran-Gia, P.: Impact of Electrical and Mechanical Antenna Downtilt on a WiMAX System with Fractional Frequency Reuse. FREQUENZ - Journal of RF-Engineering and Telecommunications. September/October, (2010).
In an interference-limited mobile WiMAX network, efficient cell planning and tuning is an essential task to ensure a functioning network. This includes the selection of the optimal settings for the antenna to, on the one hand provide a good coverage and on the other hand achieve cell isolation. Two different antenna tilting methods are examined in this article, namely the mechanical and the electrical vertical downtilt. The evaluation is done with an advanced WiMAX IEEE 802.16e simulator. In particular, the impact of the antenna configuration on WiMAX fractional frequency reuse (FFR) is studied. The results show a high dependency of FFR to the downtilt configuration, since the inter-cell interference level changes significantly with different settings.
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Pries, R., Staehle, D., Staehle, B., Tran-Gia, P.: On Optimization of Wireless Mesh Networks using Genetic Algorithms. International Journal On Advances in Internet Technology. 1&2, (2010).
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Fiedler, M., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: A Generic Quantitative Relationship between Quality of Experience and Quality of Service. IEEE Network Special Issue on Improving QoE for Network Services. (2010).
Quality of Experience (QoE) ties together user perception, experience and expectations to application and network performance, typically expressed by Quality of Service (QoS) parameters. Quantitative relationships between QoE and QoS are required in order to be able to build effective QoE control mechanisms onto measurable QoS parameters. On this background, this paper proposes a generic formula in which QoE and QoS parameters are connected through an exponential relationship, called IQX hypothesis. The formula relates changes of QoE with respect to QoS to the current level of QoE, is simple to match, and its limit behaviours are straighforward to interpret. It validates the IQX hypothesis for streaming services, where QoE in terms of Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) is expressed as functions of loss and reordering ratio, the latter of which is caused by jitter. For web surfing as the second application area, matchings provided by the IQX hypothesis are shown to outperform previously published logarithmic functions. We conclude that the IQX hypothesis is a strong candidate to be taken into account when deriving relationships between QoE and QoS parameters.
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Wamser, F., Pries, R., Staehle, D., Heck, K., Tran-Gia, P.: Traffic characterization of a residential wireless Internet access. Special Issue of the Telecommunication Systems (TS) Journal. 48: 1-2, (2010).
Traffic characterization is an important means for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to adapt and to optimize their networks to the requirements of the customers. Most network measurements are performed in the backbone of these ISPs, showing both, residential and business Internet traffic. However, the traffic characteristics of business and home users differ significantly. Therefore, we have performed measurements of home users at a broadband wireless access service provider in order to reflect only home user traffic characteristics. In this paper, we present the results of these measurements, showing daily traffic fluctuations, flow statistics as well as application distributions. The results show a difference to backbone traffic characteristics. Furthermore, we observed a shift from web and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing traffic to streaming applications.
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Tran-Gia, P., Hoßfeld, T., Menth, M., Pries, R.: Emerging Issues in Current Future Internet Design. e&i Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Special Issue 'Future Internet', ISSN: 0932-383X (print), ISSN: 1613-7620 (online). 07/08, (2009).
From its inception, the Internet was not intended as the worldwide universal communication platform. It developed over almost four decades to its current state. As a result of this unplanned evolution, we currently witness scalability problems, increased complexity, missing modularity as well as missing flexibility for emerging services. In this report we focus on two selected issues: i) the changing routing paradigm and ii) edge‐based intelligence. We will then present a variety of projects on future Internet and finally assess recently established experimental facilities and their role in the Future Internet design.
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Tran-Gia, P., Andersen, F.-U., Tutschku, K.: Trends in Network and Service Operation for the Emerging Future Internet. International Journal of Electronics and Communication. (2008).
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Menth, M., Hartmann, M., Tran-Gia, P., Klein, D.: Future Internet Routing: Motivation and Design Issues. it - Information Technology. 50(6), (2008).
Pre-congestion notification (PCN) in IP networks uses packet metering and marking within a PCN domain to notify its egress nodes whether link-specific admissible or supportable rate thresholds have been exceeded by high priority traffic. Based on this information simple admission control and flow termination is implemented. The latter is a new flow control function and useful in case of overload through high priority traffic which can occur in spite of admission control, e.g., when traffic is rerouted in failure cases. Resilient admission control admits only so much traffic that admitted traffic can be rerouted without causing congestion on backup paths in case of a likely failures, e.g., single link failures. We propose algorithms to configure the link-specific PCN rate thresholds such that resources are utilized efficiently and fairly by competing traffic aggregates while meeting resilience constraints. This is done for the single and dual marking PCN architecture whereby the single marking case is more demanding since it requires that the supportable rate is a fixed multiple of the admissible rate on all links within a single PCN domain. Furthermore, we derive objective functions to optimize the underlying routing system for both cases. Our performance results for various network types show that the dual marking PCN architecture leads to significantly better resource efficiency than the single marking PCN architecture.
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Binzenhöfer, A., Schnabel, H., Tran-Gia, P.: Methods for Performance Improvement of Kademlia-based Overlay Networks. it - Information Technology (Methods and Applications of Informatics and Information Technology). 46, (2007).
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Tran-Gia, P., Jans, H., Manfield, D.: Modelling and Performance of Inter-Processor Messaging in Distributed Systems. Performance Evaluation. 7, (2007).
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Tran-Gia, P., Kniffki, K.-D., Braun, C., Klusch, A.: Fluctuations in Bipolar Affective Illnes. Fractal Reviews in the Natural and Applied Sciences. (2007).
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Tran-Gia, P., Fritsch, T., Gihr, O.: Linear algorithm solving the travelling salesman optimization problem. IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin. 37(06B):265, (2007).
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Leibnitz, K., Tran-Gia, P., Tutschku, K.: Teletraffic Issues in Mobile Communication Network Planning. Telecommunication Systems. 15, (2007).
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Tran-Gia, P., Mandjes, M.: Modeling of customer retrial phenomenon in cellular mobile networks. IEEE JSAC special issue on Personal Communication - Services, architecture and performance issues. 1406--1414 (2007).
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Tran-Gia, P., Ritter, M.: Mechanismen zur Steuerung und Verwaltung von ATM-Netzen (Mechanisms for ATM network control and managment). Informatik Spektrum. 20, 216--224 (2007).
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Tran-Gia, P., Tutschku, K.: Spatial traffic estimation and characterization for mobile communication network design. IEEE JSAC. 16, (2007).
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Tran-Gia, P., Staehle, D., Leibnitz, K.: Source Traffic Modeling of Wireless Applications. International Journal of Electronics and Communications. 55, (2007).
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de Meer, H., Tran-Gia, P., Tutschku, K.: Dynamic Operation in Peer-to-Peer Overlay Networks. Praxis der Informationsverarbeitung und Kommunikation - Special Issues on Peer-to-Peer Systems. (2007).
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Mandel, W., Kniffki, K.-D., Tran-Gia, P.: Temporal fluctuations in biorhythms: expression of self-organized criticality? Fractals. 1, 380--387 (1997).
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Tran-Gia, P.: Discrete-time analysis of usage parameter control functions in ATM systems. Architecture and protocols for high-speed networks, O. Spaniol, A.Danthine, and W.Effelsberg, editor. chapter 7, pp. 111-1, (1994).
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Tran-Gia, P., Ritter, M.: Multi-rate models for dimensioning and performance evaluation of ATM networks. Interim report, Cooperation in the Field of Science and Technical Research COST 242. (1994).
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Gropp, O., Tran-Gia, P.: Structure and performance of neural nets in broadband system admission control. Neural networks in Telecommunications, B. Yuhas and N. Ansari, editors, Kluwer, Boston. chapter 7, pp. 127-1, (1994).
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Tran-Gia, P., Hübner, F.: Discrete-time analysis of cell spacing in ATM systems. Telecommunications Systems. 3, 379--395 (1994).
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Stock, T., Tran-Gia, P., Dittmann, R.: Das DQDB-Zugriffsprotokoll in Hochgeschwindigkeitsnetzen und der IEEE-Standard 802.6. Informatik-Spektrum. 16, 143--158 (1993).
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Tran-Gia, P., Hübner, F.: Performance of a finite-capacity asynchronous multiplexer with modulated input. Telecommunication systems: Modeling, Analysis, Design and Management. 1, 263--278 (1993).
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Gold, H., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance analysis of a batch service queue arising out of manufacturing system modelling. Queueing Systems. 14, 413--426 (1993).
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Gold, H., Tran-Gia, P., Grob, H.: A batch service system operating in a pull production line. Archiv für Elektronik und Übertragungstechnik. 47, 379--385 (1993).
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Tran-Gia, P., Fritsch, T., Mittler, M.: Artificial neural net applications in telecommunication systems. Neural Computing & Applications. 1, 124--146 (1993).
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Tran-Gia, P.: Analysis of polling systems with general input process and finite capacity. IEEE Transactions on Communications. Vol. 40, No. 2, pp., (1992).
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Dittmann, R., Tran-Gia, P.: A discrete-time analysis of the cyclic reservation multiple access protocol. Performance Evaluation. 16, 263--278 (1992).
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Gihr, O., Gold, H., Tran-Gia, P.: Analytische Modellbildung von Fertigungssystemen - Eine Fallstudie. Informatik als Produktionsfaktor. (1992).
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Tran-Gia, P., Stock, T.: Approximate performance analysis of the DQDB access protocol. Computer Network and ISDN Systems. 20, 231--240 (1990).
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Tran-Gia, P., Raith, T.: Performance Analysis of Finite Capacity Polling Systems with Nonexhaustive Service. Perfomance Evaluation. vol. 9, (1988).
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Tran-Gia, P.: A Class of Renewal Interrupted Poisson Processes and Applications to Queueing Systems. Zeitschrift für Operations Research. vol. 32, (1988).
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Tran-Gia, P., Van Hoorn, M.H.: Dependency of Service Time on Waiting Time in Switching Systems - A Queueing Analysis with Aspects of Overload Control. IEEE Transactions on Communications. 34, (1986).
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Tran-Gia, P., Jans, H.: Delay Analysis of Clock-Driven Message Transfer in Distributed Processing Systems. Archiv für Elektronik und Übertragungstechnik. 39, 285-292 (1985).
In modern computer and communication systems the system of control is distributed among a number of individual devices or processors operating in modes of function or load sharing. Communication between distributed control units via an interconnection network is often organized in the form of message interchanging according to message transfer mechanism. In this paper, a performance analysis is given for the commonly used clock-driven messaging protocol, for which a two-level queueing system is developed and investigated. The analysis is done using a two-dimensional imbedded Markov chain, for which the calculation is done in conjunction with a dimension reducing choice of regression points. Numerical results for dimensioning purposes are given for message delay characteristics under different traffic conditions, clock intervals, and buffer sizes. The results can be used to optimize the messaging delay for the class of clock-driven message transfer mechanisms. Finally, the distribution function of the queueing delay is derived for the first-in first-out message transfer discipline.
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Tran-Gia, P., Manfield, D.: Analysis of a Storage System with Batch Input Arising out of Message Packetisation. IEEE Transactions on Communications. 30, (1982).
Article in Conference Proceedings
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Grigorjew, A., Lange, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance Benchmarking of Network Function Chain Placement Algorithms. 19th International GI/ITG Conference on Measurement, Modelling and Evaluation of Computing Systems (MMB) (2018).
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Dinh-Xuan, L., Seufert, M., Wamser, F., Vassilakis, C., Zafeiropoulos, A., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance Evaluation of Service Functions Chain Placement Algorithms in Edge Cloud. 30th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC30). , Vienna, Austria (2018).
The emergence of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) paradigm has become a potential solution dealing with the rapid growth of the global Internet traffic in the last decades. There, network appliances are transformed into Virtual Network Functions (VNF) running on a standard server. This promises to significantly reduce overall cost and energy consumption. Additionally, hardware-based network function chain is replaced by a chain of the VNFs, called Service Function Chain (SFC). The expected benefit of SFC is the reduction in the complexity when deploying heterogeneous network services. However, the considerable drawback of SFC is the distribution of the VNFs over different hosts. An inefficient placement of VNFs can induce a high latency within the chain and wasted server resources. In this work, we propose four placement algorithms that aim to efficiently place the SFC in servers with regard to minimizing service response time and resource utilization. Herein, heuristic approaches are evaluated against optimal solutions for the placement problems, which are formulated by using Integer Linear Programming. We evaluate and compare these placement strategies in a simulator. Our result shows that the optimized solutions produce lowest service response time and least server utilization in all types of simulated SFCs. On the other hand, the heuristic algorithms are also able to come close to the optimum by simple placing rules.
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Schwind, A., Wamser, F., Gensler, T., Seufert, M., Casas, P., Tran-Gia, P.: Streaming Characteristics of Spotify Sessions. The 2nd International Workshop on Quality of Experience Management. , Sardinia, Italy (2018).
Internet Service Providers need a thorough understanding of a service to maximize the Quality of Experience (QoE) of their customers by network management. Instead of quantifying the user satisfaction with long and cost-intensive subjective user studies, the QoE can often be estimated with the help of dedicated measurements of application and network parameters. We designed a QoE measurement tool for the popular audio streaming service Spotify that runs inside a Docker software container. The container is able to run headlessly as active measurement probe and emulates a user who is streaming audio files via Spotify. While streaming, network and application parameters are collected that have a high correlation to the user's QoE. The results of the measurements are used to characterize audio streaming in Spotify on application and network layer, and to evaluate important QoE factors.
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Seufert, M., Zeidler, B., Wamser, F., Karagkioules, T., Tsilimantos, D., Loh, F., Tran-Gia, P., Valentin, S.: A Wrapper for Automatic Measurements with YouTube's Native Android App. Network Traffic Measurement and Analysis Conference (TMA). , Wien (2018).
YouTube is one of the most popular and demanding services in the Internet today. Thereby, a large portion of this traffic is generated by YouTube's mobile app. While past studies have shown how to monitor browser-based streaming on desktop PCs (e.g., YoMo) or mobile devices (e.g., YoMoApp), streaming in the native app has not been monitored yet. This paper presents an automated framework for monitoring the streaming in YouTube's native app for Android. The concept is based on a wrapper application and the Android Debug Bridge (adb), and can be also extended to automatic measurements with other apps. For YouTube, it allows to collect application-layer streaming data, such as current playtime, buffered playtime, video encoding, and quality switches. These data can be complemented with network measurements on the mobile access link to obtain a holistic view on mobile YouTube streaming on Android devices. In addition to describing the software design and testbed setup, this paper discusses an experimental measurement. This study analyzes the streaming in the native YouTube app and compares it to the streaming from the mobile YouTube website via YoMoApp.
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Lange, S., Reinhart, L., Zinner, T., Hock, D., Gray, N., Tran-Gia, P.: Integrating Network Management Information into the SDN Control Plane. IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS) (2018).
With software defined networking (SDN), operators benefit from a higher flexibility, cost efficiency, as well as programmability of their networks. Since modern networks are comprised of a multitude of heterogeneous devices and also include non-SDN legacy devices, network management systems (NMSs) are often used in order to monitor and configure the network. Although both, the SDN controller and the NMS, have a centralized view of the network, they operate at different time scales and deal with information at different levels of granularity. In this work, we investigate the impact on the network performance when an NMS regularly provides information to an SDN controller. To this end, we design, implement, and compare three interaction mechanisms based on the ONOS controller. These represent different trade-offs regarding the complexity of the resulting system and its performance. In addition to the default ONOS controller, we develop two extended versions. One performs hash-based load balancing on equal cost paths while the other utilizes external NMS information via ONOS's intent and annotation framework to optimize control plane decisions. In addition to evaluations that show a significant performance improvement when using the optimized controllers, we present a parameter study that highlights the performance impact of network characteristics like the flow interarrival time, the flow duration, and the number of active flows.
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Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Lange, S., Geissler, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Estimating the Flow Rule Installation Time of SDN Switches when Facing Control Plane Delay. 19th International GI/ITG Conference on “Measurement, Modelling and Evaluation of Computing Systems”. , Erlangen (2018).
The software defined networking (SDN) paradigm has numerous benefits for network operators, including cost aspects, flexibility, and programmability. In the centralized SDN architecture, the controller can order the installation of flow rules in the switches it manages via FlowMod messages. Since the processing time of these messages has a direct impact on the reaction time of the network, it is a key performance indicator for switches and quantifying it in a reliable manner is required for ensuring state consistency between the control and the data plane. Furthermore, real world deployments not only consist of different data plane hardware, but may feature varying control plane delays. Hence, in this work, we investigate the impact of such a delay on the FlowMod processing time of OpenFlow switches. Firstly, we identify a significant heterogeneity between data plane hardware in terms of processing times as well as the underlying TCP-level behavior. Secondly, we show that despite this heterogeneity, combining switch specific information with delay measurements at the controller can be used to reliably infer FlowMod processing times. We confirm our results with measurements in a dedicated testbed that is comprised of three different hardware switches, three different SDN controllers, and several high precision measurement devices.
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Wamser, F., Lombardo, C., Vassilakis, C., Dinh-Xuan, L., Lago, P., Bruschi, R., Tran-Gia, P.: Orchestration and Monitoring in Fog Computing for Personal Edge Cloud Service Support. 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN) (2018).
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Loh, F., Wamser, F., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Quality of Service Assessment of Live Video Streaming with a Remote-Controlled Drone. IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization. , Montreal, Canada (2018).
Today's networks require a deep understanding of applications to optimize networks, efficiently design networks, and meet traffic demands, application heterogeneity, and application requirements. Current application areas include live video streaming and real-time applications, such as those that are named in 5G use cases with automation, disaster recovery, gaming, and Industry 4.0. In this work, we examine an application scenario with live video streaming and parallel real-time requirements in the uplink for disaster recovery. We study the quality of service (QoS) features of a remote-controlled drone. The drone is controlled via a tablet or smartphone while the video from the camera is transmitted from the drone to the user. There are high demands in both the uplink and downlink direction. The contribution of the work is the measurement of the QoS and application parameters for this scenario and the definition of influencing parameters for the application-layer.
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Hirth, M., Lange, S., Seufert, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance Evaluation of Mobile Crowdsensing for Event Detection. Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Crowd Assisted Sensing, Pervasive Systems and Communications. , Athens, Greece (2018).
Crowdsensing offers a cost effective way to collect large amounts of sensor data. However, in contrast to fixed sensor deployments, the spatial distribution of the sensors can hardly be influence, as the sensors are carried by participants of the crowdsensing system. This in turn raises the question about the performance of such systems with respect to the detection probability and detection time of spatial events. In order to address this question, we analyze the performance of such a crowdsensing system by means of simulation. We use the traffic infrastructure of a small size city in Germany and simulate the inhabitants’ movement patterns with the well established SUMO mobility generator. Our results show that even if only a small share of inhabitants participates in crowdsensing, events, which have locations that are correlated with the population density, can be easily and quickly detected using such a system. On the contrary, events whose locations are uniformly randomly distributed are much harder to detect using a crowdsensing approach.
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Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Raffeck, S., Lange, S., Geissler, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Benchmarking the ONOS Controller with OFCProbe. 7th International Conference on Communications and Electronics (ICCE). , Hue, Vietnam (2018).
The increased popularity of Software Defined Networking (SDN) drives the development and research of all involved components. In particular, state-of-the-art SDN controllers are a central part of the resulting network architecture and have a large impact on the performance of the entire network. Hence, it is necessary to quantify various performance indicators of the SDN controller in order to assess its feasibility in the context of different network characteristics such as topology and network size w.r.t. the number of nodes and links. To this end, we extend the open-source controller benchmarking tool OFCProbe with several novel modules that are capable of recording relevant performance metrics and demonstrate their use in the context of benchmarking the ONOS controller. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of different types of topology characteristics on the performance of the controller. In this work, we focus on several performance indicators for SDN controllers. First, the time that the ONOS controller needs to discover the network topology and update its internal representation of the topology. Second, we investigate the duration of the installation of flow rules that are used for reactive path provisioning. Finally, we measure the response time of the controller when dealing with asynchronous messages.
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Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Lange, S., Zinner, T., Seufert, M., Tran-Gia, P., Aerts, N., Hock, D.: Performance Evaluation of Selective Flow Monitoring in the ONOS Controller. 4th International Workshop on Management of SDN and NFV Systems (ManSDN/NFV). , Tokio, Japan (2017).
One of the benefits when network operators adopt the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm is the ability to monitor the traffic in the network without an additional network management system. Usually, SDN controllers utilize OpenFlow statistics messages in order to regularly gather information about all flows in the network. However, using the same polling interval for all flows does not take into account the heterogeneity of real world traffic and thus results in an imbalance between monitoring accuracy and control plane overhead. In particular, frequent querying results in a high resource consumption at the controller. This work proposes a Selective Flow Monitoring (SFM) mechanism that allows administrators to classify flows according to their individual requirements in terms of monitoring frequency, e.g., less frequent polling of elephant flows and frequent polling of QoS sensitive VoIP connections. We compare the performance of the SFM mechanism with the default monitoring scheme in a testbed featuring the Open Network Operating System (ONOS) controller. In this context, the CPU utilization of the controller is used as performance indicator. After identifying relevant influence factors like the number of flows and switches in the network, we investigate the viability of the approaches in different scenarios. Finally, we provide guidelines regarding their choice.
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Burger, V., Seufert, M., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: An Approximation of the Backhaul Bandwidth Aggregation Potential Using a Partial Sharing Scheme. 15th IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM). , Lisbon, Portugal (2017).
To cope with the increasing demands of mobile devices and the limited capacity of cellular networks, mobile connections are offloaded to WiFi. The access capacity is further increased by aggregating backhaul bandwidth of WiFi access links. To analyze the performance of aggregated access links we develop a model for two and more cooperating systems sharing capacities using an offloading scheme. The state probabilities of the different cooperating systems in the analytic model are determined by a fixed point iterative procedure. By investigating an inner and outer composite system we are able to analyze the system in imbalanced load conditions where the system reaches its full potential utilizing spare bandwidth. To evaluate the robustness of the system against users that try to exploit the system, the bandwidth received by prioritized users is quantified.
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Dinh-Xuan, L., Seufert, M., Wamser, F., Tran-Gia, P.: Study on the Accuracy of QoE Monitoring for HTTP Adaptive Video Streaming Using VNF. 1st IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Quality of Experience Management (QoE-Management). , Lisbon, Portugal (2017).
The fast growth of HTTP video streaming is responsible for a huge amount of traffic over the past few years. Due to the variety and popularity of video content, more and more people are watching videos on the smart TV or on mobile devices. As a result, a potential market is emerging for video providers, which can significantly increase their revenues. In order to offer users a good experience, adaptive video streaming has been introduced to adapt the video quality to the network conditions. Nevertheless, it is still difficult for the network operators to assess the actual video quality on the device of the users and therefore they can not react to improve the service on the network. In this work, we propose a Virtual Network Function (VNF) to monitor the Quality of Experience (QoE) for online video service in the network. To conduct the study, on the one hand, we design a VNF monitoring to measure the video quality and estimate the QoE at the client machine. Our function is placed in two locations nearby and far away from the user to analyze the impact of geographical placement of the VNF on its performance. On the other hand, we set up a local testbed to examine the functional operation and measure the actual video buffer from a client web browser directly to validate the accuracy of the function. Our findings show that with respect to function placement, the VNF has high accuracy in estimating the QoE if it is deployed at the edge network close to the user. However, the VNF does not perform well when it operates far away from the users, e.g., at data centers. These insights help network vendors to more closely monitor the quality of the videos streamed to their customers.
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Gray, N., Lorenz, C., Müssig, A., Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: A Priori State Synchronization for Fast Failover of Stateful Firewall VNFs. Workshop on Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization for Flexible Network Management (SDNFlex 2017). , Göttingen, Germany (2017).
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) replaces physical middleboxes with software instances running network functions in cloud environments. To support this new paradigm, it is necessary to port the code basis from highly specialized hardware devices to virtual machines running on COTS hard- ware. In order to fully exploit the inherent capabilities of cloud environments it is further necessary to redesign the software to support a large amount of distributed, cooperating function instances instead of single, isolated and monolithic instances. This development can be observed for network functions like stateful firewalling. Until now, available software firewalls lack support for active/active operation in clustered environments, which hinders horizontal scalability. This is due to the fact that the required synchronization of connection states among the cluster’s instances is an impediment that still has to be resolved. Therefore, this work investigates different synchronization strategies and mechanisms, which allow to share connection states among the cluster to maintain scalability and high-availability
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Seufert, M., Kamneng Kwam, B., Wamser, F., Tran-Gia, P.: EdgeNetworkCloudSim: Placement of Service Chains in Edge Clouds Using NetworkCloudSim. 1st IEEE International Workshop on Network Programmability - From the Data Center to the Ground (NetFoG). , Bologna, Italy (2017).
Edge cloud computing is a trending paradigm, which extends cloud computing by additionally utilizing computing resources at the network edge, e.g., at mobile base stations. Especially personalized services can be instantiated or migrated close to end users, which improves the latency and supports user mobility. However, the placement of the service chains is crucial for the performance of the services and the energy consumption of the edge cloud platform, and appropriate algorithms have to be designed. To support the simulative performance evaluation of such algorithms, EdgeNetworkCloudSim was developed. It is an extension of NetworkCloudSim, and allows to simulate and evaluate the orchestration and consolidation of service chains in an edge network cloud.
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Seufert, M., Zach, O., Slanina, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Unperturbed Video Streaming QoE Under Web Page Related Context Factors. 9th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX). , Erfurt, Germany (2017).
Quality of Experience (QoE) of Internet services is affected by human, system, and context influence factors. While most QoE studies so far are focused on system factors only, this work will assess the impact of context factors of video streaming on QoE. As video streaming is mostly consumed from web pages, such as video portals, the investigated test conditions are applied to the web page, which embeds the video player. Therefore, the study of context factors is implicitly conducted within a crowdsourced QoE study. The test conditions considered different page load times, poster image qualities, and displayed advertisements on the web page, which are typical context factors when consuming a video streaming service. The results of the study show that the modification of the context factors on the streaming web page leaves the users' QoE rating unperturbed, which suggests that the investigated context factors have a negligible impact on video streaming QoE, or that the rating task of the subjective QoE study superimposed the context factors.
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Casas, P., D'Alconzo, A., Wamser, F., Seufert, M., Gardlo, B., Schwind, A., Tran-Gia, P., Schatz, R.: Predicting QoE in Cellular Networks using Machine Learning and in-Smartphone Measurements. 9th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX). , Erfurt, Germany (2017).
Monitoring the Quality of Experience (QoE) undergone by cellular network customers has become paramount for cellular ISPs, who need to ensure high quality levels to limit customer churn due to quality dissatisfaction. This paper tackles the problem of QoE monitoring, assessment and prediction in cellular networks, relying on end-user device (i.e., smartphone) QoS passive traffic measurements and QoE crowdsourced feedback. We conceive different QoE assessment models based on supervised machine learning techniques, which are capable to predict the QoE experienced by the end user of popular smartphone apps (e.g., YouTube and Facebook), using as input the passive in-device measurements. Using a rich QoE dataset derived from field trials in operational cellular networks, we benchmark the performance of multiple machine learning based predictors, and construct a decision-tree based model which is capable to predict the per-user overall experience and service acceptability with a success rate of 91% and 98% respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper using end-user, in-device passive measurements and machine learning models to predict the QoE of smartphone users in operational cellular networks.
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Seufert, M., Wehner, N., Wamser, F., Casas, P., D'Alconzo, A., Tran-Gia, P.: Unsupervised QoE Field Study for Mobile YouTube Video Streaming with YoMoApp. 9th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX). , Erfurt, Germany (2017).
YoMoApp (YouTube Monitoring App) is an Android app to monitor mobile YouTube video streaming on both application- and network-layer. Additionally, it allows to collect subjective Quality of Experience (QoE) feedback of end users. During the development of the app, the stable versions of YoMoApp were already available in the Google Play Store, and the app was downloaded, installed, and used on many devices to monitor streaming sessions. As the app was not advertised in special campaigns or used for dedicated QoE studies, the monitored streaming sessions of this period compose the data set of a large unsupervised field study. The collected data set is evaluated to characterize current mobile YouTube streaming on both application and network layers. Furthermore, the problems and methodology to obtain QoE results from such unsupervised field study are discussed together with the actual QoE results. Correlations between QoE factors are investigated, and the QoE of clusters of similar streaming sessions is analyzed.
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Wamser, F., Höfner, S., Seufert, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Server and Content Selection for MPEG DASH Video Streaming with Client Information. ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on QoE-based Analysis and Management of Data Communication Networks (Internet-QoE). , Los Angeles, CA, USA (2017).
In HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS), such as MPEG DASH, the video is split into chunks and is available in different quality levels. If the video chunks are stored or cached on different servers to deal with the high load in the network and the Quality of Experience (QoE) requirements of the users, the problem of content selection arises. In this paper, we evaluate client-side algorithms for dynamically selecting an appropriate content server during DASH video streaming. We present three algorithms with which the DASH client itself can determine the most appropriate server based on client-specific metrics, like actual latency or bandwidth to the content servers. We evaluate and discuss the proposed algorithms with respect to the resulting DASH streaming behavior in terms of buffer levels and quality level selection.
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Iffländer, L., Wamser, F., Metter, C., Tran-Gia, P., Kounev, S.: Performance Assessment of Cloud Migrations from Network and Application Point of View. Proceedings of 9th EAI International Conference on Mobile Networks and Management (MONAMI 2017). , Melbourne, Australia (2017).
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Schwind, A., Seufert, M., Alay, Ö., Casas, P., Tran-Gia, P., Wamser, F.: Concept and Implementation of Video QoE Measurements in a Mobile Broadband Testbed. IEEE/IFIP Workshop on Mobile Network Measurement (MNM’17). , Dublin, Ireland (2017).
The MONROE testbed enables the objective performance assessment of MBB networks from the end-user perspective, using highly distributed measurements from fixed and mobile nodes. To quantify the performance of MBB networks for popular Internet services from a user-centric perspective, dedicated tools are needed. In this paper we extend the MONROE testbed to the Quality of Experience (QoE) domain, presenting the design and implementation of a QoE-capable measurement tool for YouTube video streaming. The measurement concept is based on emulating a virtual end-user device requesting video streams, which are then monitored at the network and application layers, on the basis of QoE-relevant features. The initial measurements conducted in the MONROE testbed and reported in this paper demonstrate the applicability of the implemented measurement concept.
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Zach, O., Seufert, M., Hirth, M., Slanina, M., Tran-Gia, P.: On Use of Crowdsourcing for H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC Video Quality Evaluation. Radioelektronika. , Brno, Czech Republic (2017).
Crowdsourcing has become a popular method in the field of video quality evaluation. Gathering the opinion of the users using crowdsourcing is quick and relatively cheap but such a study has to be designed very carefully in order to give relevant results. So far, the majority of the QoE studies using crowdsourcing has been focusing on the performance of H.264/AVC algorithm in different situations (such as encoder settings, stalling effects, etc). Modern video coding methods, however, are only rarely tested using the crowdsourcing approach. We designed a study comparing the performance of both H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC standards in the crowdsourcing environment. We deal with the possibilities of delivering and presenting the HEVC encoded content to the participants of the crowdsourcing study and potential challenges. Finally, the study was performed using Microworkers platform and gathered results are then compared with three different objective video quality metrics.
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Loh, F., Burger, V., Wamser, F., Tran-Gia, P., Schembra, G., Rametta, C.: Performance Evaluation of Video Streaming Service Chains in Softwarized 5G Networks with Task Graph Reduction. 29th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC) (2017).
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Lange, S., Grigorjew, A., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P., Jarschel, M.: A Multi-Objective Heuristic for the Optimization of Virtual Network Function Chain Placement. 29th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC) (2017).
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Burger, V., Hirth, M., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Principles of Information Neutrality and Counter Measures Against Biased Information. Lecture Notes in Informatics: Value-Sensitive Design of Internet-Based Services. , Klagenfurt, Austria (2016).
The Internet serves as ubiquitous, prompt source of information in our society. Due to the giant amount of information, the access to the information relies on information processing mechanisms as implemented in search engines, product recommendation systems, or online social networks. As a result of the engineered preprocessing mechanism, the retrieved information is biased and does not represent a neutral view on the available information, while end-users often are not aware of this bias. In this article, we define the term “Information Neutrality”, review current principles of information processing in the Internet and discuss influence factors hindering Information Neutrality as well as appropriate countermeasures. The main contribution of this article is to raise the awareness of Information Neutrality as an emerging key challenge in the Internet and to potentially consider Information Neutrality as a factor in the value-sensitive design of Internet-based services.
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Seufert, M., Casas, P., Wamser, F., Wehner, N., Schatz, R., Tran-Gia, P.: Application-Layer Monitoring of QoE Parameters for Mobile YouTube Video Streaming in the Field. IEEE 6th International Conference on Communications and Electronics (ICCE). , Ha Long, Vietnam (2016).
YouTube video streaming is one of the most popular and most demanding services in cellular networks. Thus, operators are concerned about the quality of the streaming delivered by their networks and would like to monitor the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end users. In this work, we conduct a field study of mobile YouTube video streaming, in which both network flow parameters and application-layer streaming parameters were monitored, and present the characteristics of current mobile YouTube streaming. The impact of both approaches is investigated showing that monitoring network parameters is not sufficient to directly infer the resulting QoE. In contrast, the streaming parameters, which can be obtained from application-layer monitoring, show high correlations to the subjectively experienced quality, and thus, are better suited for QoE monitoring.
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Gebert, S., Geissler, S., Zinner, T., Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Lange, S., Tran-Gia, P.: ZOOM: Lightweight SDN-based Elephant Detection. First International Workshop on Programmability for Cloud Networks and Applications (PROCON). , Würzburg, Germany (2016).
Software Defined Networking (SDN) offers a holistic view of the network through a centralized control plane. Consequently, routing decisions can be made based on global knowledge about the network topology as well as its current state. As long living flows are suitable candidates for rerouting, their detection is crucial for efficient flow based traffic management. This work proposes the ZOOM algorithm for elephant detection in SDN networks. To this end, ZOOM follows a very lightweight approach that only uses packet counters implemented by OpenFlow switches and thus does not require any additional hardware. By exploiting this feature of OpenFlow switches, ZOOM allows lightweight and cost-effective elephant detection.
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Gray, N., Zinner, T., Gebert, S., Tran-Gia, P.: Simulation Framework for Distributed SDN-Controller Architectures in OMNeT++. 8th EAI International Conference on Mobile Networks and Management (MONAMI 2016). , Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2016).
SDN introduces the seperation of network control and network data plane. The control plane is removed from distributed network entities and logically centralized as the SDN controller. To provide resilience and performance such a logically centralized controller may again be physically distributed. Scenarios featuring distributed controller architectures include data center deployments, where controller instances synchronize states on small distances and delays, or continental WAN deployments with long distances and delays between controllers. The contribution of this paper is an OMNET++ based simulation framework for assessing the performance of distributed SDN controller architectures. Relevant protocols and controller applications are modelled with a high level of detail. Further, an exemplary implementation of two different controller architectures, namely Hyperflow and Kandoo, is included. Initial results based on the provided implementations are presented.
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Gebert, S., Müssig, A., Lange, S., Zinner, T., Gray, N., Tran-Gia, P.: Processing Time Comparison of a Hardware-Based Firewall and its Virtualized Counterpart. 8th EAI International Conference on Mobile Networks and Management (MONAMI 2016). , Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2016).
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Metter, C., Seufert, M., Wamser, F., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Analytic Model for SDN Controller Traffic and Switch Table Occupancy. 12th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM). , Best Paper Award, Montreal, Canada (2016).
Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a major paradigm in the field of current communication networks. SDN is used as the basis of many new networks although few performance models are available in the literature, and the majority of performance evaluations are based primarily on practical measurements. To fill this gap, we develop an analytical model to assess SDN control plane traffic as well as the occupancy of the flow table of an SDN switch. The contribution of this work is the formulation of the model for the performance-decisive parameters control-plane traffic and flow table occupancy and the application of the model for different data plane traffic characteristics. In the end, there is a discussion about the setting of time-out values for storing flow entries in the switch flow table depending on the traffic characteristics in the data plane. The trade-off between the signaling traffic in the control plane and the occupancy of the flow table is discussed in order to minimize both.
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Dinh-Xuan, L., Seufert, M., Wamser, F., Tran-Gia, P.: QoE Aware Placement of Content in Edge Networks on the Example of a Photo Album Cloud Service. IEEE 6th International Conference on Communications and Electronics (ICCE). , Ha Long, Vietnam (2016).
The paradigm of Software as a Service has gained great achievements in the last decade. By transferring computation and storage to the cloud and migrating services to the edge network, users benefit from using demanding services on lightweight devices. However, the user perceived quality of experience (QoE) for these services is facing the challenges of network impairments and the accessibility of users. Unlike a typical PC-based software, the cloud provides users a location-aware, flexible placement of resource for a cost effective service. The geographical placement of content is therefore one of the key factors that affects the user's satisfaction. The closer the content to the user geographically is, the faster it will be delivered to the user that will also increase the user perceived QoE. In this work, we estimate more precisely the QoE for photo loading time in a particular usage of a photo album cloud service with regard to the influence of various parameters. Firstly, we validate a TCP throughput model and use it to calculate the photo loading time from a given photo size and network QoS. Thereafter, we formulate a mapping function to calculate the MOS value from a QoE model adding the output of the TCP model. From this mapping function, we can estimate QoE for photo loading time from a given photo size, its placement and network QoS. Our main contribution is to determine the trade-off between the size of photo and its placement to acquire a high QoE for photo loading time, which is important for the development of a photo album cloud service.
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Wamser, F., Seufert, M., Höfner, S., Tran-Gia, P.: Concept for Client-initiated Selection of Cloud Instances for Improving QoE of Distributed Cloud Services. ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on QoE-based Analysis and Management of Data Communication Networks (Internet-QoE). , Florianópolis, Brazil (2016).
We introduce a concept for client-initiated selection of service location and service quality for improving the Quality of Experience (QoE) of general cloud services. It is loosely based on the HTTP adaptive streaming approach (e.g., MPEG DASH). A manifest file compiled by the cloud service provider specifies the available service locations and qualities, from which the user selects the optimal service instance based on contextual information obtained from client measurements and user preferences. The proposed concept is defined and is implemented in two client-based decision algorithms for improving the QoE of a simple picture gallery cloud service. These decision algorithms are evaluated and their impact on the service delivery is discussed. The evaluation shows that it is possible to improve the service location and quality selection by light-weight client-based algorithms.
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Seufert, M., Zach, O., Hoßfeld, T., Slanina, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Impact of Test Condition Selection in Adaptive Crowdsourcing Studies on Subjective Quality. 8th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX). , Lisbon, Portugal (2016).
Adaptive crowdsourcing is a new approach to crowdsourced Quality of Experience (QoE) studies, which aims to improve the certainty of resulting QoE models by adaptively distributing a fixed budget of user ratings to the test conditions. The main idea of the adaptation is to dynamically allocate the next rating to a condition, for which the submitted ratings so far show a low certainty. This paper investigates the effects of statistical adaptation on the distribution of ratings and the goodness of the resulting QoE models. Thereby, it gives methodological advice how to select test conditions for future crowdsourced QoE studies.
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Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Lange, S., Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P., Jarschel, M.: Performance Evaluation Mechanisms for FlowMod Message Processing in OpenFlow Switches. IEEE Sixth International Conference on Communications and Electronics. , Ha Long City, Vietnam (2016).
Network operators can benefit in terms of flexibility, cost, and vendor-independence when adopting the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm. In many scenarios, the SDN controller orders the installation of new flow table entries in the switches it manages. Since such operations are handled in the slow path of the switches, the corresponding processing times constitute an important performance indicator for switches. This work focuses on a comparison of two mechanisms for evaluating the performance of OpenFlow switches with respect to the processing time of FlowMod messages. These mechanisms are characterized by different degrees of accuracy, cost, complexity, and the capability of performing measurements at run time. The first mechanism is based on the Spirent C1 dedicated testing platform, while the other uses a software module for the OpenDaylight controller. We assess their capabilities with respect to the abovementioned characteristics and quantify their accuracy by means of wiretaps that provide a ground truth regarding the measured processing times. By using three different switches in the experiments, it is possible to distinguish between hardware specific side-effects and general phenomena.
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Seufert, M., Hoßfeld, T., Schwind, A., Burger, V., Tran-Gia, P.: Group-based Communication in WhatsApp. 1st IFIP Internet of People Workshop (IoP). , Vienna, Austria (2016).
WhatsApp is a very popular mobile messaging application, which dominates today’s mobile communication. Especially the feature of group chats contributes to its success and changes the way people communicate. The group-based communication paradigm is investigated in this work, particularly focusing on the usage of WhatsApp, communication in group chats, and implications on mobile network traffic.
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Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Lange, S., Schwartz, C., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance Modeling of Softwarized Network Functions Using Discrete-Time Analysis. 28th International Teletraffic Congress (ITC). , Würzburg, Germany (2016).
The softwarization of networks promises cost savings and better scalability of network functions by moving functionality from specialized devices into commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Generalized computing hardware offers many degrees for adjustment and tuning, which can affect performance and resource utilization. One of these adjustments are the interrupt mitigation techniques implemented by modern network interface cards and operating systems. Using these, an administrator can optimize either lower latencies or lower CPU overhead for processing of network traffic. In this work, an analytical model that allows computing relevant performance metrics like the packet processing time and the packet loss for generic virtualized network functions running on commodity hardware is developed. The applicability of the model is shown by comparing its outcome with measurements conducted in a local testbed. Based on this model, impact factors like the average packet interarrival time, the interarrival time distribution, and the duration of the interrupt aggregation interval are studied.
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Cofano, G., De Cicco, L., Zinner, T., Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Tran-Gia, P., Mascolo, S.: Design and Experimental Evaluation of Network-assisted Strategies for HTTP Adaptive Video Streaming. Best Student Paper Award, ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys). , Klagenfurt, Austria (2016).
In this paper we investigate several network-assisted streaming approaches which rely on active cooperation between video streaming applications and the network. We build a Video Control Plane which enforces Video Quality Fairness among concurrent video flows generated by heterogeneous client devices. To the purpose, a max-min fairness optimization problem is solved at run-time. We compare two approaches to actuate the optimal solution in an SDN network: the first one allocating network bandwidth slices to video flows, the second one guiding video players in the video bitrate selection. Performance is assessed through several QoE-related metrics, such as Video Quality Fairness, video quality, and switching frequency. The impact of client-side adaptation algorithms is also investigated.
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Burger, V., Frances Pajo, J., Sanchez, O.R., Seufert, M., Schwartz, C., Wamser, F., Davoli, F., Tran-Gia, P.: Load Dynamics of a Multiplayer Online Battle Area and Simulative Assessment of Edge Server Placements. ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys). , Klagenfurt, Austria (2016).
Free-to-play models, streaming of games and eSports are reasons for online gaming to grow in popularity recently. On the forefront are multiplayer online battle arenas, which gain high popularity by introducing a competitive format that is easy to access and requires cooperation and team play. These games highly rely on fast reaction of the players, which makes latency the key performance indicator of such applications. To obtain low latency, this paper proposes moving game servers close to players towards the edge of the network. The performance of such mechanism highly depends on the geographic distribution of players. By analyzing match histories and statistics, we develop models for the arrival process and location of game requests. This allows us to evaluate the performance of edge server resource migration policies in an event based simulation. Our results show that a high number of edge servers is preferable compared to few larger edge servers to reduce the latency of players. This supports approaches that allow deploying virtual server instances in the back-haul.
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Seufert, M., Wamser, F., Casas, P., Irmer, R., Tran-Gia, P., Schatz, R.: YouTube QoE on Mobile Devices: Subjective Analysis of Classical vs. Adaptive Video Streaming. 6th International Workshop on Traffic Analysis and Characterization (TRAC). , Dubrovnik, Croatia (2015).
YouTube is the most popular service in the Internet and is increasingly consumed on mobile devices. With emerging adaptive video streaming technology, the question arises whether it should be also employed in the mobile context, which shows different characteristics in terms of display sizes and reliability of Internet connection. This paper compares YouTube QoE on mobile devices for both classical and adaptive video streaming based on a subjective lab experiment, in which different network conditions were emulated. Our results show that adaptive video streaming provides almost excellent results for the poorest network conditions. Thereby, it clearly outperforms classical video streaming, and thus, should be considered to achieve higher QoE in future mobile streaming applications.
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Zinner, T., Cofano, G., Wamser, F., De Cicco, L., Mascolo, S., Tran-Gia, P.: Interaction of Control Loops on Application, Transport, and Network Layer. EUCNC - Special Session 3 QoS/QoE Monitoring and Management with SDN. , Paris (2015).
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Gebert, S., Schwartz, C., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Continuously Delivering Your Network (Short Paper). IEEE/IFIP International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM). , Ottawa, Canada (2015).
Softwarization and cloudification of networks through software defined networking and network functions virtualisation promise a new degree of flexibility and agility. By moving logic from device firmware into software applications and applying software development mechanisms, innovation can be introduced with less effort. Concrete ways how to operate and orchestrate such systems are not yet defined. The process of making changes to a controller software or a virtualized network function in a production network without the risk of network disruption is not covered by literature. Complexity of systems brings the risk of unexpected side-effects and has so long been a show-stopper for administrators applying changes to networking devices. This paper suggests the adaption of the successful concept of continuous delivery into the software defined networking world. Test-driven development and automatic acceptance tests demonstrate that the software engineering community already found ways to ensure that changes do not break. Applied to network engineering, the adaption of continuous delivery can be seen as an enabler for risk-free and frequent changes in production infrastructure through push button deployments.
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Metter, C., Gebert, S., Lange, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P., Jarschel, M.: Investigating the Impact of Network Topology on the Processing Times of SDN Controllers. Seventh IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Management of the Future Internet. , Ottawa, Canada (2015).
Software Defined Networking (SDN) introduces the concept of logically-centralized controllers in charge of managing the forwarding behavior of network elements. The new possibilities enabled through the centralization of control logic come with a certain risk: The controller might become a performance bottleneck. Therefore, ensuring sufficient controller performance is one of the crucial tasks prior to a successful SDN deployment. Furthermore, fine-grained traffic engineering, e.g., to achieve higher link utilization, results in a higher frequency of requests that are sent to the controller, which leads to an increased controller load. It is therefore important to analyze the capabilities of SDN controllers prior to deployment. This paper investigates two software implementations, the OpenDaylight and Ryu controllers. The control message throughput of different controllers has been studied several times already; however, it is not yet known what influence the number and topology of connected switches have. This paper investigates this influence in detail for a fat-tree data center topology and a WAN topology as well as 261 topologies with varying characteristics from the Internet Topology Zoo.
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Schwartz, C., Borchert, K., Hirth, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Modeling Crowdsourcing Platforms to Enable Workforce Dimensioning. International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference. , Sydney, Australia (2015).
Crowdsourcing platforms provide an easy and scalable access to human workforce that can, e.g., provide subjective judgements, tagging information, or even generate knowledge. In conjunction with machine clouds offering scalable access to computing resources, these human cloud provider offer numerous possibilities for creating new applications which would not have been possible a few years ago. However, in order to build sustainable services on top of this inter-cloud environment, scalability considerations have to be made. While cloud computing systems are already well studied in terms of dimensioning of the hardware resources, there still exists little work on the appropriate scaling of crowdsourcing platforms. This is especially challenging, as the complex interaction between all involved stakeholders, platform providers, workers and employers have to be considered. The contribution of this work is threefold. First we develop a model for common crowdsourcing platforms and implement the model using a simulative approach, which is validated with a comparison to an analytic M[X]/M/c − ∞ system. In a second step we evaluate inter-arrival times as well as campaign size distributions based on a dataset of a large commercial crowdsourcing platform to derive realistic model parameters and illustrate the differences to the analytic approximation. Finally, we perform a parameter study using the simulation model to derive guidelines for dimensioning crowdsourcing platforms, while considering relevant parameters for the involved stakeholders, i.e., the delay before work on a task begins and the work load of the workers.
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Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Lange, S., Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P., Jarschel, M.: Investigating Isolation between Virtual Networks in Case of Congestion for a Pronto 3290 Switch. Workshop on Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization for Flexible Network Management (SDNFlex 2015). , Cottbus, Germany (2015).
Resource isolation between virtual networks is one of the key features of network virtualization. It is typically realized by configuring queues with specific rate guarantees on the egress ports of the network devices. The drawback of this architectural choice, however, is that traffic from several ingress ports may result in congestion on an egress port. Hence, the question arises to which extent isolation between virtual networks is realized in state-of-the-art hardware. This work aims at investigating whether congestion within one virtual network may affect the throughput performance of another virtual network. For that, measurements in a local testbed using a Pronto 3290 switch running an OpenFlow-enabling Pica8 firmware are performed.
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Schnitzer, S., Rensing, C., Schmidt, S., Borchert, K., Hirth, M., Tran-Gia, P.: Demands on Task Recommendation in Crowdsourcing Platforms - The Worker’s Perspective. CrowdRec Workshop. , Vienna, Austria (2015).
Crowdsourcing platforms support the assignment of jobs to help requesters in their project completion and allow workers to earn money. Most crowdsourcing platforms apply simple schemes in order to filter the tasks a worker can choose from or rely on the workers’ search capabilities. Using genuine task recommendation within such crowdsourcing plat- forms opens promising opportunities. Such recommendation schemes will only be effective if the workers are confident that they are used towards their own good. In order to gain insights on what kind of recommendations the workers would expect and accept, this work provides an empirical study about the demands of the workers.
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Burger, V., Kaup, F., Seufert, M., Wichtlhuber, M., Hausheer, D., Tran-Gia, P.: Energy Considerations for WiFi Offloading of Video Streaming. 7th EAI International Conference on Mobile Networks and Management (MONAMI). , Santander, Spain (2015).
The load on cellular networks is constantly increasing. Especially video streaming applications, whose demands and requirements keep growing, put high loads on cellular networks. A solution to mitigate the cellular load in urban environments is offloading mobile connections to WiFi access points, which is followed by many providers recently. Because of the large number of mobile users and devices there is also a high potential to save energy by WiFi offloading. In this work, we develop a model to assess the energy consumption of mobile devices during video sessions. We evaluate the potential of WiFi offloading in an urban environment and the implications of offloading connections on energy consumption of mobile devices. Our results show that, although WiFi is more energy efficient than 3G and 4G for equal data rates, the energy consumption increases with the amount of connections offloaded to WiFi, due to poor data rates obtained for WiFi in the streets. This suggests further deployment of WiFi access points or WiFi sharing incentives to increase data rates for WiFi and energy efficiency of mobile access.
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Lange, S., Nguyen-Ngoc, A., Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Jarschel, M., Koepsel, A., Sune, M., Raumer, D., Gallenmüller, S., Carle, G., Tran-Gia, P.: Performance Benchmarking of a Software-Based LTE SGW. 2nd International Workshop on Management of SDN and NFV Systems. , Barcelona, Spain (2015).
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a concept that aims at providing network operators with benefits in terms of cost, flexibility, and vendor independence by utilizing virtualization techniques to run network functions as software on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. In contrast, prior solutions rely on specialized hardware for each function. Performance evaluation of such systems usually requires a dedicated testbed for each individual component. Rather than analyzing these proprietary black-box components, Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) are pieces of software that run on COTS hardware and whose properties can be investigated in a generic testbed. However, depending on the underlying hardware, operating system, and implementation, VNFs might behave differently. Therefore, mechanisms for the performance evaluation of VNFs should be similar to benchmarking of software, where different implementations are compared by applying them to predefined test cases and scenarios. This work presents a first step towards a benchmarking framework for VNFs. Given two different implementations of a VNF that acts as LTE Serving Gateway (SGW), influence factors and key performance indicators are identified and a comparison between the two mechanisms is drawn.
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Seufert, M., Burger, V., Wamser, F., Tran-Gia, P., Moldovan, C., Hoßfeld, T.: Utilizing Home Router Caches to Augment CDNs towards Information-Centric Networking. European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC). , Paris, France (2015).
To implement improved Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) management for content-heavy services like video streaming, content has to be moved closer to the edge. The concept of information-centric networking (ICN) would be a prospective enabler but is currently not practically feasible yet. We propose a hierarchical caching architecture utilizing caches on home routers to augment existing content delivery network (CDN) infrastructure. This approach can be implemented via Software-defined Networking (SDN) and brings current CDNs closer towards ICN. Based on a simulation study, we confirm that our approach is able to serve content more locally, which results in QoS and QoE benefits for end users as well as inter-domain traffic savings for network operators.
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Becker, M., Borchert, K., Hirth, M., Mewes, H., Hotho, A., Tran-Gia, P.: MicroTrails: Comparing Hypotheses about Task Selection on a Crowd Sourcing Platform. International Conference on Knowledge Technologies and Data-driven Business (I-KNOW). , Graz, Austria (2015).
To optimize the workflow on commercial crowdsourcing platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk or Microworkers, it is important to understand how users choose their tasks. Current work usually explores the underlying processes by employing user studies based on surveys with a limited set of participants. In contrast, we formulate hypotheses based on the different findings in these studies and, in- stead of verifying them based on user feedback, we compare them directly on data from a commercial crowdsourcing platform. For evaluation, we use a Bayesian approach called HypTrails which allows us to give a relative ranking of the corresponding hypotheses. The hypotheses considered, are for example based on task categories, monetary incentives or semantic similarity of task descriptions. We find that, in our scenario, hypotheses based on employers as well the the task descriptions work best. Overall, we objectively compare different factors influencing users when choosing their tasks. Our approach enables crowdsourcing companies to better understand their users in order to optimize their platforms, e.g., by incorporating the gained knowledge about these factors into task recommendation systems.
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Seufert, M., Schwind, A., Hoßfeld, T., Tran-Gia, P.: Analysis of Group-based Communication in WhatsApp. 7th EAI International Conference on Mobile Networks and Management (MONAMI). , Santander, Spain (2015).
This work investigates group-based communication in WhatsApp based on a survey and the analysis of messaging logs. The characteristics of WhatsApp group chats in terms of usage and topics are outlined. We present a classification based on the topic of the group and classify anonymized messaging logs based on message statistics. Finally, we model WhatsApp group communication with a semi-Markov process, which can be used to generate network traffic similar to real messaging logs.
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Lange, S., Gebert, S., Spoerhase, J., Rygielski, P., Zinner, T., Kounev, S., Tran-Gia, P.: Specialized Heuristics for the Controller Placement Problem in Large Scale SDN Networks. International Teletraffic Congress (ITC 27). , Ghent, Belgium (2015).
The Software Defined Networking~(SDN) concept introduces a paradigm shift in the networking world towards an externalized control plane which is logically centralized. When designing an SDN-based WAN architecture, it is of vital importance to find a feasible solution to the controller placement problem, i.e., to decide where to position a limited amount of resources within the network. In addition to time-independent constraints regarding aspects like scalability, resilience, and control plane communication delays, dynamically changing network conditions like traffic patterns or bandwidth demands need to be considered as well. Consequently, such dynamic environments call for a regular and fast recalculation of placements in order to adapt to the current situation in a timely manner. While an exhaustive evaluation of all possible solutions can be performed within a practically feasible time frame for small and medium-sized networks, such an approach is out of scope for large problem instances which have significantly higher time and memory requirements. Therefore, this work investigates a specialized heuristic, which takes into account a particular set of optimization objectives and returns solutions representing the possible trade-offs between them. Due to its low computation time and acceptable margin of error, this heuristic can be employed by automatic decision systems operating in dynamic environments.
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Burger, V., Seufert, M., Kaup, F., Wichtlhuber, M., Hausheer, D., Tran-Gia, P.: Impact of WiFi Offloading on Video Streaming QoE in Urban Environments. IEEE Workshop on Quality of Experience-based Management for Future Internet Applications and Services (QoE-FI). , London, UK (2015).
Video streaming is the most popular application in today's mobile Internet and its growing demands and popularity put more and more load on cellular networks. In a recent trend to mitigate the cellular load, followed by many providers, users are offered to offload mobile connections to WiFi hotspots, which are predominately deployed in urban environments. In this work, we conduct a simulative performance evaluation of the impact of WiFi offloading on the Quality of Experience (QoE) of video streaming. The evaluation is based on connectivity measurements from a German city and uses a simple QoE model for estimating the perceived quality of video streaming. Our findings show that, despite its benefits for operators, offloading to WiFi has a negative impact on video streaming QoE for some users when 3G/4G coverage is available. Only in the case of 2G coverage, WiFi offloading can significantly improve the perceived quality for users.
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Gebert, S., Jarschel, M., Herrnleben, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P.: TableVisor: An Emulation Layer for Multi-Table OpenFlow Switches. 4th European Workshop on Software Defined Networks (EWSDN). , Bilbao, Spain (2015).
This demonstration introduces TableVisor, which acts as a proxy layer between an OpenFlow controller and switches. Multiple hardware switches connect to TableVisor before it establishes a connection with the OpenFlow controller instance. During connection establishment, TableVisor advertises in the answer to the controller's features-request that this switch comprises a certain number of tables, which actually reflects the number of connected switches. All communication between controller and switch is passed through the proxy layer. Depending on the type of message, it will be answered directly by TableVisor (hello, features-reply), modified in such a way that particular fields are rewritten (packet-in, flow-mod), or a response merging data from multiple switches will be returned (flow-stats). The demonstration shows TableVisor in a MPLS use case using multiple switches, which is motivated by a mobile network scenario.
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Wamser, F., Seufert, M., Casas, P., Irmer, R., Tran-Gia, P., Schatz, R.: YoMoApp: a Tool for Analyzing QoE of YouTube HTTP Adaptive Streaming in Mobile Networks. European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC). , Paris, France (2015).
The performance of YouTube in mobile networks is crucial to network operators, who try to find a trade-off between cost-efficient handling of the huge traffic amounts and high perceived end-user Quality of Experience (QoE). This paper introduces YoMoApp (YouTube Performance Monitoring Application), an Android application, which passively monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) of YouTube adaptive video streaming on end-user smartphones. The monitored KPIs (i.e., player state/events, buffer, and video quality level) can be used to analyze the QoE of mobile YouTube video sessions. YoMoApp is a valuable tool to assess the performance of mobile networks with respect to YouTube traffic, as well as to develop optimizations and QoE models for mobile HTTP adaptive streaming. We test YoMoApp through real subjective QoE tests showing that the tool is accurate to capture the experience of end-users watching YouTube on smartphones.
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