5G Network Slicing Using Mininet

Mohammed Abuibaid
Fall 2019
Email:
m.a.abuibaid@gmail.com
 Outline

Background

Generic 5G Network Slicing Framework

FlowVisor

Demo – Network Slicing

 Background - One Size Does Not Fit All

4G Radio Acess Network 4G Evolved Packet Core Network

Multiple Applications  Same authentication, mobility, reliability, delay, and QOS

Different QOS requirements   COMPROMISES 
 Generic Mobile Network Slicing Framework

 MVNOs: e.g. Fido, Chatr Mobile, and SimplyConnect.

 All shares the underlying physical network and it
provides a unified vision of the service requirements.

 Creation of each network slice according to service

instance requests coming from the upper layer.

 Enabling Technologies: SDN and NFV

 NFs: Firewall, MMEs, S-GWs, Load balancer

 Heterogeneous set of infrastructure components

like data centers, routers and base stations.
E.g. Rogers Communications

Foukas, X.; Patounas, G.; Elmokashfi, A.; Marina, M. K. (2017). 

"Network Slicing in 5G: Survey and Challenges" (PDF). IEEE Communications Magazine. 55 (5): 94–100. 
 FlowVisor

What is FlowVisor?
 Special Purpose OpenFlow Controller

 Enables Network Virtualization

 Transparent proxy between OpenFlow switches

and multiple controllers

 Creates rich slice of network resources

 Delegates control of each slice to a different

controller

 It intercepts the messages

FlowVisor Implemented on OpenFlow

 Demo – Network Slicing

Physical Network Topology Isolated Network

Slices
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 In the main VM terminal, running the custom topology except operating the POX controller
which will be started after slice configurations.
sudo python Network_Topology.py
 In a new VM terminal (via Putty), making sure that the flowvisor is stopped.
sudo /etc/init.d/flowvisor stop
 Generating the flowvisor Config.json file.
fvconfig generate /etc/flowvisor/config.json
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Starting flowvisor
sudo /etc/init.d/flowvisor start

 By using fvctl command, enabling the Flowvisor topology controller

fvctl -f /dev/null set-config --enable-topo-ctrl
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Displaying the content of flowvisor Config file to make sure all switches dpid’s are listed in
the fvadmin field
fvctl get-config
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 In case the switches are not linked to the Flow visor, restarting the flowvisor to ensure all
topology switches get connected to it
sudo /etc/init.d/flowvisor restart

 Listing the existing slices to make sure nothing has been created previously.
fvctl list-slices
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Listing the existing flow spaces to make sure nothing has been created previously
fvctl -f /dev/null list-flowspace

 Listing the existing data paths to the connected switches

fvctl -f /dev/null list-datapaths
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Listing the existing links between all

switches
fvctl -f /dev/null list-links
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Upper and Lower Slices creation:

 Using the fvctl command, creating a slice called upper which will be managed by a separate
controller that control all the traffic in this slice. The “controller-url” is set
“tcp:localhost:7777” and the admin email is “adam@upperslice”
fvctl -f /dev/null add-slice upper tcp:localhost:7777 adam@upperslice

 Similarly, creating the lower slice:

fvctl -f /dev/null add-slice lower tcp:localhost:3333 aleen@lowerslice
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Listing the existing slices to make sure that the upper and lower slices are correctly created.
fvctl list-slices

 Upper Slice Configurations:

 On switch s1:
Creating a flow space named dpid1-port1 (with priority value 1) that maps all the traffic on
port 1 of switch s1 to the upper slice, giving it all permissions (upper=7): DELEGATE, READ,
and WRITE.
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid1-port1 1 1 in_port=1 upper=7
 Creating a flow space named dpid1-port3 (with priority value 1) that maps all the traffic on
port 3 of switch s1 to the upper slice, giving it all permissions (upper=7): DELEGATE, READ,
and WRITE
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid1-port3 1 1 in_port=3 upper=7
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 On switch s2:
creating a flow space named dpid2 (with priority value 1) that maps all the traffic at switch
s2 (match value of any) to the upper slice, giving it all permissions (upper=7): DELEGATE,
READ, and WRITE.
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid2 2 1 any upper=7
 On switch s4:
Similar to S1 configurations, creating a flow space named dpid4-port1 (with priority value 1)
that maps all the traffic on port 1 of switch s4 to the upper slice, giving it all permissions
(upper=7): DELEGATE, READ, and WRITE.
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid4-port1 4 1 in_port=1 upper=7
 Creating a flow space named dpid4-port3 (with priority value 1) that maps all the traffic on
port 3 of switch s4 to the upper slice, giving it all permissions (upper=7): DELEGATE, READ,
and WRITE
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid4-port3 4 1 in_port=3 upper=7
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Lower Slice Configurations:

 Similar to the upper flow spaces configurations, creating the following flow spaces on
switches s1, s3, and s4.
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid1-port2 1 1 in_port=2 lower=7
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid1-port4 1 1 in_port=4 lower=7
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid3 3 1 any lower=7
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid4-port2 4 1 in_port=2 lower=7
fvctl -f /dev/null add-flowspace dpid4-port4 4 1 in_port=4 lower=7
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 Ensuring that all upper and lower flow spaces are correctly configured.
fvctl -f /dev/null list-flowspace
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 In a new terminal (via Putty), running a POX controller for the upper slice listing on port
7777.
cd pox
./pox.py openflow.of_01 --port=7777 forwarding.l2_pairs

 Performing connectivity test (pingall) in the main VM terminal. As shown below, only hosts
h1 and h3 reaches each other, isolating them from the other hosts h2 and h4.
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 In a new terminal (via Putty), running POX controller for the lower slice (listing to port 3333).
cd pox
./pox.py openflow.of_01 --port=3333 forwarding.l2_pairs

 Performing connectivity test (pingall) in the main VM terminal. As shown below, hosts h2
and h4 reaches each other, isolating them from the other hosts h2 and h4.
 Network Slicing: Step by Step

 One can notice that the hosts can reaches only the other hosts in their slice and there is no
connections to the hosts in other slice.
 Testing the maximum achievable bandwidth between hosts h1 and h3 for the upper slice
and between h2 and h4 for the lower slice using the command iperf.
iperf h1 h3
iperf h2 h4