Roberto Bruschi

Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni | CNIT · Research Unit of the University of Genoa

In his Perspective “Toward a green Internet” (29 March, p. [1533][1]), D. Reforgiato Recupero reflects (partially) some of the ideas and even the wording of the ECONET project's Description of Work (DoW) ([ 1 ][2]), first published on 6 September 2010. However, the general philosophy of the

With the aim of controlling power consumption in metro/transport and core networks, we consider energy-aware devices able to reduce their energy requirements by adapting their performance. In particular, we focus on state-of-the-art packet processing engines, which generally represent the most energy-consuming components of network devices, and whi...

The concept of energy-efficient networking has begun to spread in the past few years, gaining increasing popularity. Besides the widespread sensitivity to ecological issues, such interest also stems from economic needs, since both energy costs and electrical requirements of telcos’ and Internet Service Providers’ infrastructures around the world sh...

Future Internet devices and network infrastructures need to be significantly more energy-efficient, scalable, and flexible in order to realize the extremely virtualized and optimized ICT/network infrastructures. In this respect, this article presents a recent extension of an open source software framework, the Distributed Router Open Platform (DROP...

Recently, network operators around the world reported statistics of network energy requirements and the related carbon footprint, showing an alarming and growing trend. Such high energy consumption can be mainly ascribed to networking equipment designed to work at maximum capacity with high and almost constant dissipation, independent of the traffi...

5G delivers limitless mobile broadband capabilities, enabling extensive connectivity for various devices, including smartphones, sensors, and machines. Its most notable feature lies in its ability to facilitate instantaneous and highly reliable machine communications. Because of the rapid evolution of communication networks, innovative architecture...

6G of radio mobile networks should become an essential enabler for any vertical sector to meet sustainable growth targets of both the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda and the European Green Deal. 6G might lead to the dematerialization of (most of) any physical appliances, moving their smart parts to the network edge as virtual software instances. Su...

Factory automation in the context of Industry 4.0/5.0 requires safety levels to satisfy more stringent and tight limits than those available so far. This goal is further challenged by the extension to the wireless environment of industrial shop floor communications that were traditionally based on cabled networks. Starting with wireless LANs, the t...

In this paper, a vision for beyond-5G systems is proposed where automation and intelligence in cloud-native infrastructures are in focus. Exploiting the convergence of cloud technologies at the edge and mobile communication networks, a set of technological solutions is discussed that will play a fundamental role on the path from 5G towards future 6...

5G is expected to bring forth disruptive indus-trial-societal transformation by enabling a broad catalog of (radically new, highly heterogeneous) applications and services. This scenario has called for zero-touch network and service management (ZSM). With the recent advancements in artificial intelligence, key ZSM capabilities such as the runtime p...

The fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks is seen as a key enabler to support the introduction of digital technologies in multiple sectors, empowering different verticals and enabling new business models. Thanks to native capabilities of 5G networks, especially network slicing, edge computing and multi-tenancy, highly integrated telecom infrastr...

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) has recently gained much popularity in the research scene for the flexibility and programmability that it will bring with the software implementation of network functions on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. To substantiate its roll out, a number of issues (e.g., COTS’ inherent performance and energy e...

5G is designed to leverage on network softwarization technologies, like NFV and MEC, to expose customized network instances and resources at the edge of the infrastructure to vertical stakeholders. Most of the 5G success will depend on the ability to attract vertical stakeholders acting in the cloud, enabling them to smoothly port cloud application...

5G networks will constitute a complete transformation in the ICT domain by enabling the deployment of vertical services within the network infrastructures, based on extensive use of network softwarization and programmability. This shift will trigger and facilitate the transformation of existing stakeholders’ roles, as well as the interactions betwe...

Fifth generation (5G) mobile networks will lead to a deep integration between networks and applications. Through novel paradigms like Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Edge Computing, new classes of heterogeneous application services will be enabled to run close to mobile end-user devices with zero-perceived latency and fully-cognitive dyn...

We examine some aspects of modelling and control in modern telecommunication networks, in the light of their evolution toward a completely virtualised paradigm on top of a flexible physical infrastructure. The trade-off between performance indicators related to user satisfaction of services (e.g., in terms of perceived quality, delay and ease of th...

Within a 5G mobile network scenario, this paper adopts Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technological frameworks to evaluate the gain in terms of user Quality of Experience (QoE) that can be achieved when contents and server of a video delivery service move from the cloud at the edge of the Radio Access Ne...

Presents corrections to the paper, “Green networking with packet processing engines: Modeling and optimization,” (Bolla, R., et al), IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 110–123, Feb. 2014.

In the last few years, network “softwarization” is gaining increasing popularity to achieve dynamicity and flexibility. Cloud computing, as well as the new paradigms of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), are supporting this evolution. However, the need to move services closer to users to guarantee low late...

This paper presents an innovative prediction method for key performance indexes with multiple seasonal profiles. The proposed method, called Multiplicative Multi-Seasonal Model (MSMM) relies on a time series decomposition including multiple multiplicative seasonal profiles and a trend component. The method and its underlying model have been specifi...

The continuous growth of Internet content, applications and services has led to ever more demanding requirements in the networks. To meet this, there have been significant developments in the migration of applications and services towards the cloud. The cloud not only provides applications, but also offers dynamic adaptability, scalability, and opt...

Due to the emergence of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) paradigms, coupled with a hyper-connectivity communication paradigm, the "softwarization" of the Internet infrastructure and of its network management framework is gaining increasing popularity. This is the target of the INPUT platform, a novel infr...

In order to overcome the cloud service performance limits, the INPUT Project aims to go beyond the typical IaaS-based service models by moving computing and storage capabilities from the datacenters to the edge network, and consequently moving cloud services closer to the end users. This approach, which is compatible with the concept of fog computi...

Since energy efficiency has become a significant concern for network infrastructure, next-generation network devices are expected to have embedded advanced power management capabilities. However, how to effectively exploit the green capabilities is still a big challenge, especially given the high heterogeneity of devices and their internal architec...

Overcoming the typical ossification of the traditional TCP/IP-based Internet infrastructure will allow opening the way for more flexible and energy efficient paradigms, able to provide a sustainable support to the constantly increasing number of devices and services. To this goal, the INPUT Project will overcome current limitations by introducing c...

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture concept where network functionality is virtualized and separated into multiple building blocks that may connect or be chained together to implement the required services. The main advantages consist of an increase in network flexibility and scalability. Indeed, each part of the servic...

The Social Internet of Things (SIoT) is a paradigm which is rapidly gaining ground in the Internet of Things (IoT) domain. In the SIoT objects can establish social-like relationships between each others autonomously. In this paper a solution is presented that integrates the SIoT concept in the architecture proposed within the INPUT project. More sp...

The objective of this paper is to determine how the incoming and outgoing traffic patterns provided by the TCP impact the energy efficiency of a networked device under realistic scenarios. We set up a complex test-bed that allowed us to perform a large number of measurements of energy-And network-performance indexes on a general-purpose computing s...

The increasing energy demands of networks and networked devices represent a threat to the development of the Future Internet. In this respect, recent research projects were devoted to extending next generation networks, architectures and protocols in the green direction. This paper presents a complex demonstration network specifically designed to a...

In this paper the authors detail the TREND meter, a tool for monitoring the power and the utilization of networked devices. Their solution is based on standard measurements and data export methods. The TREND meter provides graphed energy consumption and load information of each measured device. After detailing the TREND meter architecture, the auth...

The continuing increase in demand for online and cloud services as well as the development of new more resource-intensive applications poses a significant challenge to the network infrastructure. The resulting rise in energy costs and ecological considerations have made it apparent that a future network infrastructure needs to be as energy efficien...

The constant evolution and expansion of the Internet and Internet-related technologies has exposed the limitations of the current networking infrastructures, which are represented by the unsustainable power consumption and low level of scalability. In fact, these infrastructures are still based on the typical, ossified architecture of the TCP/IP pa...

This paper presents an Adaptive Rate (AR) control policy for trading off power consumption and performance of packet forwarding engines. We assume a Forwarding Engine (FE) whose power can be scaled through Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) and Clock Gating (CG). In a typical architecture, data packets are always transferred at the maximu...

Today's network architectures are not able to cope with the Future Internet requirements, as they are too inefficient, power hungry, and ossified on the TCP/IP paradigm. In order to promote a viable evolution towards new protocols and paradigms, modern network routers should become programmable to allow a flexible management of both traffic flows a...

This paper focuses on the energy efficiency of network-attached home devices, like PCs, tablets, and set-top boxes. These devices already include sophisticated power management schemes, which usually provide a good proportionality level between energy consumption and workload. However, they may become very inefficient in the presence of network-int...

This paper focuses on the power management of state-of-the-art networked devices (like common PCs, servers, set-top boxes, etc.) to evaluate their behavior, model their internal dynamics and possible sources of inefficiency, and optimize their performance and energy efficiency. To this purpose, we started from an experimental characterization of th...

Multi-core processors optimized for networking applications typically combine general-purpose cores with offloading engines to relieve the processor cores of specialized packet processing tasks, such as parsing, classification, and security. Unfortunately, modern embedded operating systems still lack an effective and advanced hardware abstraction t...

This letter addresses the problem of energy saving in packet processing engines of network devices. The case of a single traffic queue is considered. The aim is to guarantee a delay constraint while adjusting the power consumption and the queue service rate. A feedback control is used, which is adaptive to the statistical behavior of traffic source...

We consider a new generation of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Software Routers (SRs), able to effectively exploit multi-core/CPU hardware platforms. This choice was mainly driven from the fact that SRs are one of the few platforms including power management features, and that can be easily customized. Our main objective is to evaluate and to mode...

The paper investigates the balance between Quality of Service (QoS) and power consumption for a traffic queue. Automatic adaptation to the power of the packet processing engine is sought through a heuristics and an optimal control strategy. The study allows to track the behavior of the system over time, thus avoiding the optimization of the steady...

Recently, a number of approaches based on dynamic power management techniques have been proposed to reduce the energy consumption of telecommunication networks and devices. They are able to optimize the trade-off between network performance and energy requirements. It is possible to execute and extend these techniques to the whole network, by using...

We propose an analytical model able to accurately estimate both power consumption and network performance indexes of Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) links working at the three available speeds under various traffic load patterns and packet size distributions. The model is sufficiently flexible and accurate to consider different traffic parameters;...

In this paper we detail the TRED meter, a tool for monitoring the power and the utilization of networked devices. Our solution is based on standard measurements and data export methods. The TRED meter provides graphed energy consumption and load information of each measured device. After detailing the TRED meter architecture, we report the main res...

Aimed at answering important questions about the energy demand of current telecom infrastructure and the design of sustainable and energy-efficient future networks, the research of a number of European partners is brought together in the TREND project. In this paper we present the achievements of the Work Package coordinating the experimental activ...

The aim of this paper is to experimentally evaluate how the enabling of the TCP segmentation offload impacts on the energy consumption of a networked device. To this purpose, we set up a complete testbed that allowed us to perform measurements on energy on a state-of-the-art PC with power management capabilities, and the Linux operating system. Fro...

In this paper, we consider the possibility of introducing power saving strategies in packet forwarding engines. Such strategies are generally founded on two main kinds of power management capabilities provided by the hardware level, namely, Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) and Clock Gating (CG). Our main objective is to trade off power...

The increasing energy demands of network and networked device architectures represent a threat to the development of the Future Internet. Aside from environmental concerns and increasing energy costs, multi-core processors will soon be constrained by power consumption, which will eventually slow down the development of new technologies. In order to...

Dynamic power management techniques have been proposed in a number of recent approaches to reduce the energy consumption of telecommunication networks and devices. These techniques aimed at finding an optimal trade off between network performance and energy requirements. Control policies using energy-aware routing and traffic engineering can be use...

Multi-core processors for networking applications typically combine general-purpose cores with off-loading engines, to relieve processor cores of specialized packet processing tasks, such as parsing, classification, and security. Unfortunately, modern embedded operating systems still lack of an effective support and hardware abstraction for optimal...

This paper deeply and experimentally analyzes the efficiency of low power idle techniques when applied to packet processing engines of network devices. To this purpose, we set up a complex testbed that allowed us to perform several measurements on energy- and network-performance indexes. The reference device platforms that we selected for this eval...

In the last few years, the ever increasing attention to the eco-sustainability of Internet has pointed out the need of providing advanced power management schemes in network devices, in order to be able to reduce energy consumption according to the traffic load. In this context, starting from the observation that most of the traffic of today's Inte...

In telecommunications networks, distributed power management across heterogeneous hardware requires a standardized representation of each system's capabilities to decouple distributed high-level algorithms from hardware specifics. The Green Abstraction Layer (GAL) provides this interface between high-level algorithms and a lower level representing...

In this paper, our main objective is to explore how Linux Software Routers (SRs) can deploy advanced and flexible paradigms for supporting novel control-plane functionalities and applications. To this end, we investigate and study a new open-source software (SW) framework: the Distributed SW ROuter Project (DROP), which aims to develop and enable a...