1. RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Network Economics of SDN-Based Infrastructures: Can We Unlock Value Through ICN Multicast?
Vaggelis G. Douros, Janne Riihijärvi, Petri Mähönen Institute for Networked Systems,
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
PIMRC, October 12, Montreal

2. Motivation (1) Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Specialized Packet Forwarding Hardware
Operating
System
App
Operating System
App
Specialized Packet Forwarding Hardware
Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Separate control plane and data plane
SDN is a key asset for the design of future network architectures
We focus on Information-Centric Networks (ICN)
Key Idea: information is named, addressed, and matched independently of its location

3. Motivation (2) POINT: IP-over-ICN: the better IP
Premise: many existing applications can run “better” on an ICN core network

4. Key Question Is IP-over-ICN better than IP? Key contribution
… in terms of network economics?
Show me the money!
A positive answer seems a necessary (though not a sufficient) condition for a large-scale IP-over-ICN deployment
Key contribution
the first network economics analysis of IP-over-ICN and its quantitative comparison with IP

5. A Simple Market
N Users, 1 Internet Service Provider (ISP), 1 Content Provider (CP), P Routers
Each user wants some of the files of the CP
The ISP should decide
Whether or not a particular file should be placed in the cache
How to transfer each file to the users
Multicast or Unicast?
Which protocol to use
IP or IP-over-ICN?
Which should be the decisions of the ISP?
The ISP wants to maximize his profit

6. Methodology (1)
Is the transition from IP to IP-over-ICN economically viable?
We compute the strategy that maximizes the profit of the ISP for a traditional IP network and then for the IP-over-ICN network
We compare them
Multicast or unicast?
LM: number of multicast links
LU: number of unicast links
Chalmers-Almeroth metric:
q=1-LM/LU=1-(1+P+N)/3N
q  1, multicast 
q  0, unicast 

7. Methodology (2) B: bandwidth needed b: bandwidth cost
Unless a file is requested by just one user, LM < LU and the ISP should choose multicast instead of unicast

8. Methodology (3) Should we transfer the file from the cache?
R: cache redirection cost
Consequently, the strategy of the ISP is summarized as:
When at least two users ask for a file, the ISP uses multicast
When a file exists in the cache, the ISP transfers it from there

9. Methodology (4) We also need to take into account
The migration cost from IP to IP-over-ICN
The initial cache cost C (independent of the protocol)
The initial unicast/multicast cost

10. Performance Evaluation

11. IP-over-ICN vs. IP with Multicast (1)
When IP multicast can be supported, the performance of the two protocols is practically the same
Significant difference is noticed only for 10 users

12. IP-over-ICN vs. IP with Multicast (2)
The 2nd most important factor is the IP multicast cost
Small value there is potentiaI for IP
Large value there is potential for IP-over-ICN

13. IP-over-ICN vs. IP without Multicast (1)
IP-over-ICN significantly outperforms IP without multicast

14. IP-over-ICN vs. IP without Multicast (2)
The difference in the performance increases with the number of users
For 100+ users, IP-over-ICN significantly outperforms IP

15. Take-Home Messages
In cases where IP multicast can be supported, IP-over-ICN does not provide significant gains
In cases where IP multicast cannot be supported, we can unlock value by using ICN multicast
Roadmap
Cache placement in more general topologies
Game-theoretic analysis of the competition in markets with 2+ ISPs

16.  Thanks!  Dr. Vaggelis G. Douros Institute for Networked Systems,
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
site: