SDN-enabled distributed open exchange: dynamic QoS-path optimization in multi-operator services

Abstract

We propose an SDN-enabled distributed open exchange framework for dynamic optimization of end-to-end (E2E) quality of service (QoS) paths over multi-operator networks, which enables individual network service providers (NSP) to offer inter-operator services with E2E QoS guarantees while allowing each NSP to manage their own network resources. Different from the state of the art, there are no physical Internet exchange points in the proposed framework and NSPs are assumed to have direct inter-connections. In the proposed SDN-enabled "virtual" open exchange, the SON controllers of all NSPs directly communicate with each other to advertise a set of QoS-enabled paths across their own network with ask prices, and each NSPs dynamically selects the best E2E price-performance path for its customers by bidding on a subset of these advertised paths, and form E2E paths by concatenating them. The main contributions of this paper are a distributed open exchange framework and a distributed procedure for E2E path computation by collaboration between SDN controllers of multiple NSPs, which is coordinated by the SDN controller of the NSP in which the managed service request originates. The proposed procedure has been verified over a multi-operator SDN environment, emulated by using the Mininet, which includes a controller-to-controller messaging protocol for provisioning multi-operator video services with E2E QoS. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.