Software⁃Defined Networkkiinngg

Software⁃Defined Networkkiinngg

▶Zhili Sun

Professor Zhili Sun is chair of communication networking at the Centre for Communication Systems Research,University of Sur⁃rey,UK.He received his BSc in mathematics from Nanjing Uni⁃versity,China,in 1982.He received his PhD in computer science from Lancaster University,UK,in 1991.From 1989 to 1993,he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Queen Mary Universi⁃ty,London.He has worked in the capacity of principle investiga⁃tor and technical co⁃coordinator on many projects within EU framework programs,within the EPSRC,and within industry.He has published more than 125 papers in international journals and conference proceedings and has also authored book chapters.He was the sole author of Satellite Networking:Principles and Protocols,1st and 2nd editions,published by Wiley in 2005 and 2014 respectively.He was a contributing editor of IP Networking Over Next⁃Generation Satellite Systems,published by Springer in 2008.He was also contributing editor of the textbook Satellite Communications Systems:Systems,Techniques and Technology,5th ed.,published by Wiley in 2009.His research interests include wire⁃less and sensor networks,satellite communications,mobile operating systems,Internet protocols and architecture,clod computing,SDN,multicast,and security.

▶Jiandong Li

Professor Jiandong Li received his BS,MS and PhD degrees from Xidian University,China,in 1982,1985 and 1991.From 1990 to 1994,he was an associate professor at Xidian University and be⁃came a full professor in 1994.In 1995,he undertook the role of PhD supervisor at Xidian University.From 2007 to 2012,he was executive vice dean of the Graduate School of Xidian University. From 1997 to 2006,he was dean of School of Telecommunica⁃tions Engineering,Xidian University.From 2001 to 2003,he was a visiting professor at Cornell University.Professor Li has previ⁃ously been awarded the National Science Fund Award for Distin⁃guished Young Scholars.He is a senior member of the IEEE,a senior member of the China Institute of Electronics(CIE),and a fellow of the China Institute of Communica⁃tions(CIC).From 1993 to 1994 and then from 1999 to 2000,he was a member of the Personal Communications Networks Specialist Group for China“863”Communication High Technology Program.He is also a member of the Broadband Wireless Mobile Com⁃munication Specialist Group,Ministry of Information Industry,China,and director of the Broadband Wireless IP Standard Work Group,Ministry of Information Industry,Chi⁃na.His main research interests include broadband wireless mobile communications, cognitive and software⁃defined radio,and wireless ad⁃hoc networks.

▶Kun Yang

Professor Kun Yang received his PhD degree from University Col⁃lege London.He received his MSc and BSc degrees from Jilin University,China.He is currently a chair professor in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering,University of Essex,and leads the Network Convergence Laboratory there.Be⁃fore joining the University of Essex in 2003,he worked for sever⁃al years at University College London on EU research projects. His main research interests include heterogeneous wireless net⁃works,fixed⁃mobile convergence,future Internet technology and network virtualization,and cloud computing and networking.He manages research projects funded by sources such as UK EPSRC,EU FP7,and indus⁃try.He has published more than 150 journal papers.He serves on the editorial boards of both IEEE and non⁃IEEE journals.He is a senior member of the IEEE and a fellow of IET.

S oftware⁃defined networking(SDN)is a promising technology for next⁃generation networking and has attracted much attention from academics,network equipment manufacturer,network operators,and service providers.It has found applications in mobile,data center,and enterprise networks.The SDN architecture has a centralized,programmable control plane that is separate from the data plane.SDN also provides the ability to control and manage virtualized resources and networks without requiring new hardware technologies.This is a major shift in networking technologies.

The ITU⁃T has been engaged in SDN standardization,and the European Telecommunications Standard Institute(ETSI) has been working on network function virtualization(NFV), which complements SDN.The Open Network Foundation (ONF)is a non⁃profit organization dedicated to promoting the adoption of open SDN.Recently,much work has been done on SDN to meet future network requirements.

Network virtualization creates multiple virtual infrastruc⁃tures within a deployed infrastructure.These virtualized infra⁃structures can be created over a single physical infrastructure. Each virtual network can be isolated from each other and pro⁃grammed to meet user requirements in terms of resource func⁃tionality and capacity.This ensures that appropriate network resources are provided to the user.

The SDN framework includes programmable control plane, data⁃forwarding plane abstraction,and methods to map the vir⁃tualized infrastructures onto the underlying physical network infrastructure.

Key issues to be addressed are network resource isolation, network abstraction,topology awareness,quick reconfigurabili⁃ty,performance,programmability,management,mobility,secu⁃rity,and wireless network access.

We received strong response to this call for papers on SDN from network operators,equipment manufacturers,universi⁃ties,and research institutes.Following a peer⁃review process, we selected nine papers for inclusion in this special issue.

The first paper,“Network Function Virtualization Technolo⁃gy:Progess and Standardization”discusses the main challeng⁃es in SDN faced by network carriers.This paper also discusses current standardization activities and research on NFV related to SDN.

The second paper,“Service Parameter Exposure and Dy⁃namic Service Negotiation in SDN Environments,”discusses the ability of SDN to facilitate dynamic provisioning of network services.The paper focuses on two main aspects of the SDN framework:network abstraction and dynamic parameter expo⁃sure and negotiation.

The third paper,“SDN⁃Based Broadband Network for Cloud Services,”discusses how SDN/NFV will be vital for construct⁃ing cloud⁃oriented broadband infrastructure,especially within data center networks and for interconnecting between data cen⁃

ter networks.The authors propose SDN/NFV in broadband ac⁃cess to realize a virtualized residential gateway.

The fourth paper,“D⁃ZENIC:A Scalable Distributed SDN Controller Architecture,”describes a solution to minimizing the cost of network state distribution.This solution is a net⁃work control platform called D⁃ZNEIC that supports distribut⁃ed deployment and linear scale⁃out by trading off complexity for scalability

The fifth paper,“Software⁃Defined Cellular Mobile Network Solutions,”describes current research on and solutions for soft⁃ware⁃defined cellular networks.It also discusses related speci⁃fications and possible research directions.

The sixth paper,“SDN⁃Based Data Offloading for 5G Mo⁃bile Networks,”describes an integrated 4G/Wi⁃Fi architecture evolved with SDN abstraction in the mobile backhaul and en⁃hanced components that facilitate the move towards 5G.

The seventh paper,“Integrating IPsec Within OpenFlow Ar⁃chitecture for Secure Group Communication,”discusses Inter⁃net Protocol security(IPsec)in the context of OpenFlow archi⁃tecture and SDN.

The eighth paper,“Virtualized Wireless SDNs:Modelling Delay Through the Use of Stochastic Network Calculus,”de⁃scribes a delay model for a software⁃defined wireless virtual network with some theoretical investigation into wireless SDN.

The final paper,“Load Balancing Fat⁃Tree on Long⁃Lived Flows:Avoiding Congestions in Data Center Network,”de⁃scribes a dynamic load⁃balancing algorithm for fat tree in the context of SDN architecture.

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