With emerging large volume and diverse heterogeneity of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the one-size-fits-all design of the current 4G networks is no longer adequate to serve various types of IoT applications. Consequently, the concepts of network slicing enabled by Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been proposed in the upcoming 5G networks. 5G network slicing allows IoT applications of different QoS requirements to be served by different virtual networks. Moreover, these network slices are equipped with scalability that allows them to grow or shrink their instances of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) when needed. However, all current research only focuses on scalability on a single network slice, which is the scalability at the VNF level only. Such a design will eventually reach the capacity limit of a single slice under stressful incoming traffic, and cause the breakdown of an IoT system. Therefore, we propose a new IoT scalability architecture in this research to provide scalability at the NS level and design a testbed to implement the proposed architecture in order to verify its effectiveness. For evaluation, three systems are compared for their throughput, response time, and CPU utilization under three different types of IoT traffic, including the single slice scaling system, the multiple slices scaling system and the hybrid scaling system where both single slicing and multiple slicing can be simultaneously applied. Due to the balanced tradeoff between slice scalability and resource availability, the hybrid scaling system turns out to perform the best in terms of throughput and response time with medium CPU utilization.
References
[1]
Čolaković, A. and Hadžialić, M. (2018) Internet of Things (IoT): A Review of Enabling Technologies, Challenges, and Open Research Issues. Computer Networks, 144, 17-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2018.07.017
[2]
Shen, Y., Zhang, T., Wang, Y., Wang, H. and Jiang, X. (2017) MicroThings: A Generic IoT Architecture for Flexible Data Aggregation and Scalable Service Cooperation. IEEE Communications Magazine, 55, 86-93. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2017.1700104
[3]
Gupta, A., Christie, R. and Manjula, R. (2017) Scalability in Internet of Things: Features, Techniques and Research Challenges. International Journal of Computational Intelligence Research, 13, 1617-1627.
[4]
Wang, D., Chen, D., Song, B., Guizani, N., Yu, X. and Du, X. (2018) From IoT to 5G I-IoT: The Next Generation IoT-Based Intelligent Algorithms and 5G Technologies. IEEE Communications Magazine, 56, 114-120. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2018.1701310
[5]
Li, S., Xu, L.D. and Zhao, S. (2018) 5G Internet of Things: A Survey. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 10, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2018.01.005
[6]
ETSI (2014) Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Architectural Framework. ETSI GS NFV 002, V1.2.1.
[7]
ETSI (2020) 5G; Management and Orchestration; Concepts, Use Cases and Requirements. ETSI TS 128 530, V16.2.0.
[8]
ETSI (2016) Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) Release 3; Management and Orchestration; Network Service Templates Specification. ETSI GS NFV-IFA 014, V3.2.1.
[9]
Zhang, S. (2019) An Overview of Network Slicing for 5G. IEEE Wireless Communications, 26, 111-117. https://doi.org/10.1109/MWC.2019.1800234
[10]
oneM2M. https://www.onem2m.org/
[11]
OM2M. https://www.eclipse.org/om2m/
[12]
Alawe, I., Hadjadj-Aoul, Y., Ksentini, A., Bertin, P., Viho, C. and Darche, D. (2018) Smart Scaling of the 5G Core Network: An RNN-Based Approach. 2008 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Abu Dhabi, 9-13 December 2018, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/GLOCOM.2018.8647590
[13]
Ren, Y., Phung-Duc, T., Chen, J. and Yu, Z. (2016) Dynamic Auto Scaling Algorithm (DASA) for 5G Mobile Networks. 2016 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Washington DC, 4-8 December 2016, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/GLOCOM.2016.7841759
[14]
Fossati, F., Moretti, S., Rovedakis, S. and Secci, S. (2020) Decentralization of 5G Slice Resource Allocation. 2020 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium, Budapest, 20-24 April 2020, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1109/NOMS47738.2020.9110391
[15]
Su, R., Zhang, D., Venkatesan, R., Gong, Z., Li, C., Ding, F, et al. (2019) Resource Allocation for Network Slicing in 5G Telecommunication Networks: A Survey of Principles and Models. IEEE Network, 33, 172-179. https://doi.org/10.1109/MNET.2019.1900024
[16]
Kim, D. and Kim, S. (2019) Network Slicing as Enablers for 5G Services: State of the Art and Challenges for Mobile Industry. Telecommunication Systems, 71, 517-527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-018-0525-2
[17]
Samdanis, K., Costa-Perez, X. and Sciancalepore, V. (2016) From Network Sharing to Multi-Tenancy: The 5G Network Slice Broker. IEEE Communications Magazine, 54, 32-39. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2016.7514161
[18]
Santos, J.F., Liu, W., Jiao, X., Neto, N.V., Pollin, S., Marquez-Barja, J.M., et al. (2020) Breaking down Network Slicing: Hierarchical Orchestration of End-to-End Networks. IEEE Communications Magazine, 58, 16-22. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.001.2000406
[19]
Taleb, T., Mada, B., Corici, M., Nakao, A. and Flinck, H. (2017) PERMIT: Network Slicing for Personalized 5G Mobile Telecommunications. IEEE Communications Magazine, 55, 88-93. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2017.1600947
[20]
Cerritos, E., Lin, F.J. and De La Bastida, D. (2016) High Scalability for Cloud-Based IoT/M2M Systems. IEEE International Conference on Communications, Kuala Lumpur, 22-27 May 2016, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICC.2016.7511050
[21]
De La Bastida, D. and Lin, F.J. (2017) OpenStack-Based Highly Scalable IoT/M2M Platforms. IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things, Exeter, 21-23 June 2017, 711-718. https://doi.org/10.1109/iThings-GreenCom-CPSCom-SmartData.2017.110
[22]
Chen, H. and Lin, F.J. (2019) Scalable IoT/M2M Platforms Based on Kubernetes-Enabled NFV MANO Architecture. IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things, Atlanta, 14-17 July 2019, 1106-1111. https://doi.org/10.1109/iThings/GreenCom/CPSCom/SmartData.2019.00188
[23]
Tsai, T. and Lin, F. (2020) Enabling IoT Network Slicing with Network Function Virtualization. Scientific Research Journal of Advances in Internet of Things, 10, 17-35. https://doi.org/10.4236/ait.2020.103003
