Flexnets: Evaluating Flexibility in Softwarized Communication Networks
Wolfgang Kellerer
Head of the Institute of Communication Networks, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Technical University of Munich, Germany
Abstract
All areas of our information society depend on communication networks as a basic infrastructure. Emerging applications raise the need for dynamic changes of the required networking resources, for example, to react to social events or to shifts of demands over time. Providing the required flexibility to react to those changes and being cost efficient at the same time has recently become a huge challenge in research. With Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Virtualization and Network Function Virtualization, three concepts for network softwareization have emerged in the networking research, which claim to increase flexibility in networking. However, a deeper understanding of the flexibility vs. cost trade-off is missing so far in networking research. This talk focuses on the challenges of flexible networking, proposes a definition for a flexibility measure, which allows to quantitatively compare different network designs, and will highlight selected solution concepts. Presented research topics include the placement of network functions and the dynamic placement of controllers as well as SDN network virtualization based on a new network hypervisor concept.
About the speaker
Wolfgang Kellerer is a full professor and head of the Institute of Communication Networks in the Department of Electrical and ComputerEngineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. His research area covers methods and systems for wireless as well as fixed communication networks as an infrastructure for future Internet communication. Focus of his work is on network dynamics and flexibility based on Software Defined Networking and network (function) virtualization for various emerging systems including 5G infrastructure, industrial communication and energy networks. For emerging machine-to-machine communication, his research is targeting mechanisms for low-delay, high reliability wireless network resource management.
Before he joined TUM, Wolfgang Kellerer pursued an industrial career being more than ten years with DOCOMO Communications Laboratories Europe GmbH, NTT DOCOMO’s European research institute in Munich, Germany. His last position was head of the research department for wireless communication and networking, contributing to research and standardization of LTE-A and 5G technologies. In 2001 he was a visiting researcher at the Information Systems Laboratory of Stanford University, California, US.
He has published more than 200 papers in respective journals, conferences and workshops and is inventor of more than 40 patents and patent applications in this area. Recently, he has been awarded with an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Commission for his research project FlexNets “Quantifying Flexibility in Communication Networks”.
For more information, please visit his webpage.