organized in cooperation with
The Seventh International Symposium on Communications and Information Technologies (ISCIT 2007)
17-18 October 2007
Sydney, Australia
Mutliaccess and resource management, mobility, and network management (M2NM) have emerged as core topics in the design, deployment and operation of current and future networks. Yet, they are still treated as separate, isolated issues with very little interaction between the experts in these fields and lack of cross-pollination. The first Ambient Networks workshop on M2NM offers the opportunity to leading researchers, industry professionals and academics around the world to meet and discuss the latest advances in these areas and present results related to technologies for true plug-and-play networking, efficient use of all infrastructure investments and access competition. The aim of the forum is to disseminate the latest innovative mobile network solutions for increased competition and cooperation in an environment with a multitude of access technologies, network operators and business actors.
Submission of full papers due: August 1, 2007
Notification of paper acceptance: August 20, 2007
Submission of camera-ready papers due: August 27, 2007
Workshop dates: October 17-18, 2007
It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to the First Ambient Networks Workshop on Mobility, Multiaccess, and Network Management (M2NM 2007) being held in Sydney, Australia. The Workshop is organized this year in cooperation with ISCIT 2007, a premier IEEE conference in the ICT domain.
Multiaccess, resource management, mobility and network management have emerged as core topics in the design, deployment and operation of current and future networks. Yet, they are still treated as separate, isolated issues with very little interaction between the experts in these fields and lack of cross-pollination. In the first instance of what we hope to be a long-running series of events, leading researchers, industry professionals and academics from Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the rest of the world will meet at M2NM in Sydney to present and discuss the latest results in these areas.
Our call for papers attracted 36 submissions from 20 countries. After a peer-review process, 17 papers were selected based on their relevance to the scope of the workshop and their technical merit and are included in the M2NM 2007 proceedings,. We acknowledge the vital role that the Technical Program Committee members and referees played during the review process. Their efforts ensured that all submitted papers received a proper evaluation. In addition to the oral presentations of the selected papers, the workshop program includes an invited talk on business models derived from solutions proposed by the EU-funded Ambient Networks project by Ove Strandberg from Nokia Siemens Networks and a demonstration of the Ambient Networks prototype including an example implementation of core capabilities for the key areas this conference is covering. We expect all these to trigger fruitful discussions making the workshop a very active forum, which will foster future cooperation between the participants.
Finally, we would like to thank the organizers of ISCIT 2007 for their generosity in sharing the venue with the workshop. In particular, we would like to thank Eryk Dutkiewicz for his kind cooperation in all matters and his forthcoming support while organizing M2NM.
We look forward to seeing you in Sydney!
Technical Program Co-Chairs
Roksana Boreli, Alex Galis, and Kostas Pentikousis
Session Chair: Jochen Eisl (Nokia Siemens Networks, DE)
Kostas Pentikousis, "Opening address and introduction to Ambient Networks"
Patrik Salmela and Kristian Slavov, "Host Identity Protocol Tutorial".
Abstract—In the current Internet, hosts are identified using IP addresses that also describe the topological location of the hosts. In other words, the IP addresses are semantically overloaded since they both identify hosts and represent their topological locations. The Host Identity Protocol (HIP) introduces a way of separating the location and host identity information. It introduces a new namespace, cryptographic in nature, for host identities. Hosts are assigned an identity from this new namespace while the IP addresses continue to be used for packet routing. The cryptographic host identities can be used for host authentication and for establishing security associations between hosts for information security. The identifier/locator split introduced by HIP facilitates for an intuitive mobility solution; connections are bound to the static identifiers and thus connections don't break when the IP addresses are changed.
The Host Identity Protocol is being standardized at the IETF, and the architecture draft has reached experimental RFC status (RFC 4423). Furthermore, many research topics on future internetworking architectures are considering techniques and ideas brought up by the Host Identity Protocol. In the Ambient Networks project HIP has played a major role in the prototyping work in security and mobility contexts.
This tutorial will cover the basic functionality of HIP, including the reasoning for it. It will present the basic concepts of the protocol, such as the base exchange and the update exchange, and also the extensions such as HIP rendezvous and moving networks. The current implementation and standardization status will also be presented.
Session Chair: Roksana Boreli (National ICT Australia, AU)
Jouni Korhonen, Antti Makela, Teemu Rinta-aho, "HIP Based Network Access Protocol in Operator Network Deployments"
Abstract—Wireless mobile operators are expanding their IP networking services outside cellular networks and are increasingly becoming multi-access operators. Increased security requirements, dynamically bootstrapping various IP services and the need for seamless handovers for realtime IP services have become an important problem area to solve in a feasible way. Recent developments on IEEE 802 wireless technologies have addressed most security and management concerns of mobile operators. However, this has been done at a cost of more complex base stations and link layers, and increased control plane signaling between networking nodes. Typically the design is based on the traditional layered networking model, which has caused each networking layer to perform overlapping authentication, authorization and configuration procedures on their own. Clearly, this is inefficient. In this paper we propose a Host Identity Protocol based Network Attachment Protocol, which moves all security features to IP layer, supports bootstrapping of IP configuration as part of the access authentication and supports creation of security associations for authenticating to third party services. Furthermore, the proposed solution has an access technology independent centralized deployment model with minimal requirements on the access network and thus allows deployment of simple lightweight base station. We describe a prototype implementation of the proposed solution using IEEE 802.11 WLAN as the wireless technology. We also show the initial results of our implementation and its performance characteristics.
Kristian Slavov, Patrik Salmela and Tony Jokikyyny, "Secure Identification and Authentication of Legacy Hosts in Ambient Networks"
Abstract—In host identity based networks, e.g. Ambient Networks, each host has one or more identities. These identities are used for delivering user traffic to its destination regardless of the destination's location in the network topology. The security principles designed in the Ambient Networks project mandate that these identities are cryptographic. Like with most new architectures, a migration path is required for a global deployment. For legacy hosts to be able to participate in Ambient Networks, an ordinary proxy between different technologies is not enough from the security point-of-view. We present a mechanism that allows unmodified legacy hosts to communicate in host identity based networks.
Nghia T. Dao and Robert A. Malaney, "The Multimedia Capacity of 802.11 Networks"
Abstract—The use of 802.11 WLANs as a means to deliver multimedia traffic, such a voice and video, is likely to grow over the next few years. In this work, we propose a modified analytical model to predict the multimedia capacity of 802.11 networks. By capacity we will the upper bound on the number of voice or video calls that an 802.11 network can support. Specifically, we predict the voice capacity using the G.711 codec, and the video capacity using the H.264 codec. Our analysis is carried out for three types of 802.11 networks, namely 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g. The analytical results are validated by detailed network simulations. The results reported here provide new insights into the multimedia capacity of 802.11 WLANs. Our results are important not only for network planning, but also for QoS guarantees and admission control.
Toshiro Nunome and Shuji Tasaka, "User.Level QoS Assessment of Audio.Video IP Transmission over Link Quality.Based Ad Hoc Networks"
Abstract—This paper assesses user.level QoS (perceptual QoS) of audio.video streaming over wireless ad hoc networks. We employ the method of successive categories, which is a psychometric method, for the user-level QoS assessment. In order to achieve high user.level QoS, we employ link quality.based routing, which takes account of link quality such as signal strength and link utilization level for route selection. We adopt three link quality.based routing protocols: OLSR-SS (Signal Strength), AODV- SS, and LQHR (Link Quality-Based Hybrid Routing). OLSR-SS is a proactive routing protocol, while AODV-SS is a reactive one. LQHR is a hybrid protocol, which is a combination of proactive and reactive routing protocols. We also employ media synchronization control in the application layer. We performed computer simulation with ns-2 by assuming an IEEE 802.11b mesh topology network with 24 nodes. We then assessed user.level QoS by a subjective experiment with 30 assessors. From the assessment results, we found that AODV-SS achieves the best user.level QoS and that LQHR is effective in networks with short inter-node distances.
Michal Jakobczyk and Krzysztof Zielinski, "TreeCache Based Context Coordinator for Ambient Networks"
Abstract—This paper presents the Context Coordinator (ConCoord) system for Ambient Networks (ANs). ConCoord is serving as a gateway responsible for indexing, registering and resolving context names into location addresses. Out goal is to design and implement the ConCoord service with Distributed Objects Caching technology. The implementation provided by JBoss is used for this purpose. Core functionality of the ConCoord system includes data management - registration, retrieval and eviction. Three different data consistency protocols haven been proposed: Synchronous Replication, Asynchronous Replication, and Lazy-update. Their features have been evaluated by experimental study performed with a prototype implementation.
Session Chair: Roksana Boreli (National ICT Australia, AU)
Oliver Blume, Abigail Surtees, Ramon Aguero, Eranga Perera and Kostas Pentikousis, "A Generic Signaling Framework for Seamless Mobility in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks"
Abstract—In recent years several wireless communication standards have been developed and more are expected, each with different scope in terms of spatial coverage, radio access capabilities, and mobility support. Heterogeneous networks combine multiple of these radio interfaces both in network infrastructure and in user equipment which requires a new multi-radio framework, enabling mobility and handover management for multiple RATs. The use of heterogeneous networks can capitalize on the overlapping coverage and allow user devices to take advantage of the fact that there are multiple radio interfaces. This paper presents the functional architecture for such a framework and proposes a generic signaling exchange applicable to a range of different handover management protocols that enables seamless mobility. The interworking of radio resource management, access selection and mobility management is defined in a generic and modular way, which is extensible for future protocols and standards.
J. Perez-Romero, O. Sallent, A. Umbert, A. Barbaresi, R. Ljung and R. Azevedo, "RAT Selection in Wireless Multi-Access Systems"
Abstract—This paper discusses the problem of selecting the Radio Access Technology (RAT) to attach to a given connection request. To this end, the need and relevance of this functionality in the context of heterogeneous wireless access networks is firstly described. Secondly, and given the complexity of the problem to be tackled, three different and complementary methodological approaches are presented together with some specific examples. Finally, the need to devise a generic RAT selection framework is identified and a solution, based on a novel metric named fittingness factor, is developed and assessed. The fittingness factor reflects the suitability of allocating a given RAT and cell to a user depending on the specific context in terms of requested service and on the terminal and network capabilities at each instant. Results obtained indicate that this solution achieves better performance than other approaches.
Teemu Rinta-aho, Nadeem Akthar, Olav Queseth and Joachim Sachs, "Ambient Network Advertisements"
Abstract—One of the main goals of the Ambient Networks project is to develop mechanisms to enhance the probability of a user to have connectivity, independently of the network access technology. As networks and terminals are supporting multiple access technologies, it becomes increasingly important to quickly select the most optimal access depending on the status of the networks, users and applications, without adding extra burden of manual network configuration on the client or the network side. In this paper the advertising and attachment procedure of Ambient Networks is outlined, focusing on the exchange of Ambient Information Elements. In addition, an example of the whole process is described using WLAN as the underlying access technology. It is shown that the framework provides a multitude of options and that it can be used in networks utilizing a multitude of legacy technologies.
Kostas Pentikousis, Ramon Aguero, Jens Gebert, Jose Antonio Galache, Oliver Blume and Pekka Paakkonen, "The Ambient Networks Heterogeneous Access Selection Architecture"
Abstract—Forthcoming wireless communications will be characterized by the ubiquity of multiaccess. Despite the inherently increased complexity, end-users should be able to take advantage of the most suitable access network. Thus, access selection in an environment with different overlapping radio technologies is of central interest and an architecture is needed that performs equally well on single- and multi-operator scenarios, considers several parameters, and respects the principle of layering. In this paper, we introduce the Ambient Networks heterogeneous access selection architecture explaining how it meets such requirements. We present the essential architectural components and explain their interactions. We illustrate how the proposed architecture works in practice and discuss recent results form our prototype-based validation.
Session Chair: Tony Jokikyyny (Ericsson, FI)
R. Ferrus, J. Olmos, O. Sallent, J. Perez-Romero and F. Casadevall, "A Resource Management Framework for IP-based Radio Access Networks"
Abstract—As 3G traffic grows and radio technologies enhancements like HSPA come online, more effective traffic handling mechanisms along with new resource management approaches are becoming imperative in the transmission networks used for mobile backhauling. In this regard, there is a clear migration towards the usage of IP/MPLS packet-based technologies in the mobile transport networks and, as a result, new challenges are faced in the field of efficient resource management and QoS provisioning. In this context, this paper focuses on the development of a resource management framework targeted to exploit the coordination of radio and transport resource usage. To this end, a set of functions traditionally driven by an efficient usage of the air interface are enhanced so that transport resource information is also taken into account.
Francesco Meago, J. Gebert, J. Sachs, J. Choque, R. Aguero and O. Blume, "On Capacity/Load-Based and Availability-Based Resource Abstractions for Multi-Access Networks"
Abstract—The Ambient Networks project designs a future networking environment where today's and tomorrow's networks (cellular, wireless and fixed) seamlessly integrate offering a richer and smarter networking experience to applications and users. The future networking vision of Ambient Networks encompasses dynamic composition and establishment of inter-network agreements, multi-access, multi-operator and multi-hop operations, mobility and security support. In particular, multi-access resource management methods need to deal with heterogeneous access technologies, requiring a suitable abstraction of the diverse access resources to be devised carefully. This implies comparison of different resource abstractions, together with the definition of related algorithms for the respective abstraction layers and access selection modules. This paper presents and compares three different options for the multi-access resource abstraction, including emulation results and performance figures for GSM.
Matthias Lott, Jochen Eisl and Jin Liu, "Handover Decision for Heterogeneous Access Networks"
Abstract—In future mobile networks a common challenge will be the enabling of mobility management, respectively handover. To perform a handover several measurements including the link characteristics are preceded. In heterogeneous networks, e.g., those comprising legacy 3G systems, LTE/SAE, and WLAN, the measurement reports (MRs) of the serving network and the target network(s) could be quite different. An interpretation of the MRs would be quite difficult since the MRs of a different network need to be differently interpreted, not to mention the different types of measurement values that are available. In this paper a solution for the optimized handover decision based on different MRs in a heterogeneous mobile network environment is introduced. The radio conditions in the serving and the potential target system(s) are taken into account though they might be based on different air-interface technologies. Besides the description of the concept for distributed collection and analysis of the necessary MRs, a concrete example for the vertical handover between UMTS and SAE/LTE is presented taking into account the cooperation entities as proposed within the Ambient Networks project. Last but not least the benefits of the new approach are presented.
Jochen Eisl, Michael Georgiades, Tony Jokikyyny, Roksana Boreli, Eranga Perera and Kostas Pentikousis, "Management of Multiple Mobility Protocols and Tools in Dynamically Configurable Networks"
Abstract—Solutions for mobility management in wireless networks have been investigated and proposed in various research projects and standardization bodies. With the continuing deployment of different access networks, the wider range of applications tailored for a mobile environment, and a larger diversity of wireless end systems, it emerged that a single mobility protocol (such as Mobile IP) is not sufficient to handle the different requirements adequately. Thus a solution is needed to manage multiple mobility protocols in end systems and network nodes, to detect and select the required protocols, versions and optional features, and enable control on running daemons. For this purpose a mobility toolbox has been developed as part of the EU funded Ambient Networks project. This paper describes this modular management approach and illustrates the additional benefits a mobility protocol can gain by using state transfer as an example.
Abed Samhat, Di Zhou and Francesco Meago, "Specification Framework for Ambient Network Interface"
Abstract—The Ambient Network Interface (ANI) is defined in the Ambient Networks project to facilitate communications between the control space of different networks, enabling advanced internetworking capabilities. To ensure flexible messaging across network boundaries, a specification framework satisfying existing and eventually future requirements over ANI is proposed. In this paper, we present the ANI specification framework developed for the main functional entities including negotiation for composition agreement, triggering for mobility management, transfer of context information during handover and management of internetworking flows.
Session Chair: Kostas Pentikousis (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, FI)
Ove Strandberg, "Business Models and Feasibility with Ambient Access, Mobility and Composition Functionality" [Invited Talk]
Abstract—One of the key views of Ambient Networks project is to provide architecture and functionality for heterogeneous networks to co-operate and co-ordinate network utilization. Both the operator and end user are challenged to control connectivity and service access in multiple network types. Ambient Networks extend traditional functionality for interaction over network boundaries, and propose the Network Composition function to support co-operations with dynamic agreements between heterogeneous networks. These functional developments enable new alternatives to the vertically tight bundling of traditional mobile operators; there is room for specialization and combination of roles to more efficiently provide the network service. The unbundling of the business model introduces new potential actors like access providers, service providers, different brokers (access, aggregate and service), and identity control providers. The technical design principles are available and the feasibility has been shown, the uncertainty is can a sustainable business model be proved for co-operating networks? Will there be a compelling business trend or is it the regulator that will open up the possibilities for new business actors in an unbundled network?
Bertrand Mathieu, Martin Stiemerling, Mirko Cano Soveri, Teemu Rinta-aho, Alex Galis, Kerry Jean, Roel Ocampo, Zaohang Lai, Markus Kampmann, Muhammad Adnan Tariq, Kazimierz Balos, Kamal Ahmed, Bryan Busropan and Mark Prins, "Dynamic Adaptable Overlay Networks for Personalised Service Delivery"
Abstract—Overlay Networks have been designed as a promising solution to deliver new services via the use of intermediate nodes, acting as proxies or relays. This concept enables to hide the heterogeneity and variability of the underlying networks. In the Ambient Networks (ANs) project, the objectives are to study the composition and decomposition of services, the multi-radio interfaces, the user and network mobility and all the features that should address the networks dynamic, variability, change and so on. In this project, the concept of overlay networks has been selected as the means to deliver services, that should be adapted to end-users' context, regarding the access network, the location, the used device and the user's preferences. Obviously, since ANs are very dynamic, variable, the overlay network should be adaptable to fit the new environment. In this paper we present the architecture of this overlay network as well as the dynamic and secure deployment mechanisms which aim at improving the delivery of adapted services. The overlay network being created upon service providers request, an interface allowing this creation request and further configuration requests has been defined and is presented in this paper, the so-called Ambient Service Interface (ASI). Finally to prove the interest of our solution, an implementation of an IPTV services use-case is described.
Tomasz Szydlo, Robert Szymacha, Kazimierz Balos and Krzysztof Zielinski, "Context Dissemination for Ambient Networks Composition and Decomposition"
Abstract—Composition of networks is an essential capability of Ambient Networks (ANs). The paper refers to a well-established ContextWare architecture]3], which is a framework that manages context in AN. It elaborates a concept of context acquisition in case of Ambient Networks composition and decomposition. A design and implementation of the infrastructure supporting the composition process regarding the context-related Functional Entities (FEs) is presented. Access to AN context using Ambient Service Interface (ASI) and its role during the process of composition and decomposition of ANs is also described. Overhead of the proposed solution is practically evaluated in a simple scenario. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution are briefly summarized.
Nabil Charkani, Eleanor Hepworth, Martin Johnsson, Mirko Cano and Jochen Eisl, "Unbiased Approach to Ambient Control Space Migration"
Abstract—The Ambient Networks project introduces the concept of a converged network control layer to support novel advanced communication services. To enable successful deployment of provided solutions, it is essential that any functionality developed within the project is compatible with current network implementations and supports scalable deployment and interworking. This paper presents the migration approach developed within Ambient Networks to support the above goals. This approach, the "unbiased approach", subdivides Ambient Network functionality into a number of packages that can be deployed incrementally within a network to provide new capabilities. The packages are defined in a way that is independent of (unbiased by) constraints imposed by current network value chains. The paper begins by introducing the unbiased approach to migration concept, argues on its adaptation to the project objectives and illustrates how it could apply to control layer architecture developed in the project.
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Last updated by Kostas Pentikousis on 10.12.2008