Architectures and resource management for WAN cloud networking

2012-2016年间，云计算服务预计将以每年25%的速度增长(IDC预测)。事实上，这一增长是IT行业整体增长的五倍，这表明了一种重大的技术转变。此外，公共云服务构成了企业支出的重要组成部分，预计到2016年，这一支出将达到2070亿美元(Gartners的IT支出报告)。公共云计算越来越依赖于广域网络，因为云资源可以位于离用户很远的地方。传统互联网有很多局限性，为了支持云计算，云支持网络应该更加灵活和经济高效。网络即服务(NAAS)是一种重要的新网络模式，可以帮助实现这些云网络目标。虽然NAAS有许多定义，但在本项目中，我们将NAAS视为由虚拟网络运营商(位于云中)向用户(主要是企业用户)提供的服务，以管理和优化用户应用程序所感知的广域网性能。尤其是对延迟、可靠性和安全性的关注。一般来说，NAAS可以与其他云服务组合提供，也可以作为单独的服务提供。思科最近斥资12亿美元收购了面向中小型公司的NAAS领先者Meraki，这一事实印证了NAAS概念的重要性。请注意，虽然NAAS提供了一个可促进广域网云联网的框架，但它本身并没有解决传统Internet的局限性，而是允许创建更好的架构和机制，这些架构和机制构建在Internet之上，可以解决几个问题。因此，除了对现有互联网的NAAS进行优化外，研究哪些未来的互联网架构最适合云组网也是非常重要的。 在这个项目中，我们建议开发基于不同NAAS体系结构的广域网云网络资源管理机制，包括构建在未来互联网之上的体系结构，并涉及SDN(软件定义网络)的概念。这些算法将建立在一个经济框架的基础上，该框架可以整合云网络的许多目标。除了为特定的NAAS架构提供解决方案外，目标是比较性能，以确定哪些NAAS架构和哪些未来的互联网选项最有希望用于云网络。我们相信，该项目的成果将在两个方面发挥作用。首先，推导出的NAAS模型和算法可以帮助虚拟网络运营商提高云组网的性能。其次，在云网络的背景下研究未来的互联网选择对于对未来互联网发展有发言权的决策者来说是有用的。

Cloud computing services are expected to grow annually 25% in the period 2012-2016 (IDC forecast). In fact this growth is five times bigger than the overall growth of IT industry, which indicates a major technological shift. Also, public cloud services constitute a significant part of enterprise spending and it is expected that this spending will reach $207 billion by 2016 (Gartners’s IT spending report). Public cloud computing is increasingly relying on WAN networking since the cloud resources can be located quite far from the users. Traditional internet has many limitations and in order to support cloud computing, a cloud support network should be significantly more agile and cost effective. Network as a Service (NaaS) is an important new networking paradigm that can help in achieving these cloud networking objectives. While NaaS has many definitions, in this project we consider NaaS as a service that is offered to users (mostly enterprise users) by a virtual network operator (located in a cloud) in order to manage and optimize WAN performance perceived by the user’s applications. In particular the focus is on latency, reliability and security. In general NaaS can be offered in combination with other cloud services or as a separate service. The importance of NaaS concept is validated by the fact that Cisco recently spent $1.2 billion to acquire Meraki - a leader in NaaS for small and medium companies. Note that while NaaS provides a framework that can facilitate WAN cloud networking it does not solve by itself the limitations of traditional Internet but rather allows creating better architectures and mechanisms build on top of the Internet that can address several issues. Therefore, apart optimization of NaaS for current Internet, it is also important to study which future Internet architectures are fitted best for cloud networking. In this project we propose to develop resource management mechanisms for WAN cloud networking that are based on different NaaS architectures including architectures build on top of future Internet and involving the SDN (Software Defined Networking) concept. These algorithms will be build based on an economic framework that can integrate many objectives of cloud networking. Apart giving solutions for particular NaaS architectures, the objective is to compare the performance to see which NaaS architectures and which future Internet options are most promising for cloud networking. We believe that the project results will be useful in two dimensions. First, the derived models and algorithms for NaaS can help virtual network operators to improve performance of cloud networking. Second, the study of the future Internet options in the context of cloud networking can be useful to decision makers that have a say in the future Internet developments.