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Programmable network hardware is emerging as a viable option for offloading and thus accelerating network functions. However, the heterogeneous resources available in the network calls for a disaggregated deployment approach. Programmable switches, programmable Network Interface Cards (NICs), and in-network compute nodes exposes different peculiar resources and capabilities that can be maximally exploited only if the network functions are decomposed into multiple smaller network functions. This work presents a framework for the automatic deployment of disaggregated and decomposed network functions. The framework comprises an orchestrator capable of deploying the decomposed network functions on programmable network hardware and software switches running in containers. The orchestrator exploits an optimization model for choosing the best decomposition according to the traffic demands, the network topology, and other constraints. An improved seamless deployment model and heuristic also accounts for the necessity of rerouting traffic when hardware nodes need to be re-programmed. Furthermore, the framework provides a tool to combine multiple functions into a single P4 program via a template pipeline that can be deployed to a programmable switch. Numerical results highlight the advantages of offloading decomposed network functions to programmable network hardware. Furthermore, we show how the seamless deployment model and heuristic have negligible effects on the allocation time and accepted traffic requests while guaranteeing the rerouting of traffic when switches are put in maintenance mode.
Daniele Moro; Giacomo Verticale; Antonio Capone. Network Function Decomposition and Offloading on Heterogeneous Networks With Programmable Data Planes. IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society 2021, 2, 1874 -1885.
AMA StyleDaniele Moro, Giacomo Verticale, Antonio Capone. Network Function Decomposition and Offloading on Heterogeneous Networks With Programmable Data Planes. IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. 2021; 2 ():1874-1885.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniele Moro; Giacomo Verticale; Antonio Capone. 2021. "Network Function Decomposition and Offloading on Heterogeneous Networks With Programmable Data Planes." IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society 2, no. : 1874-1885.
Network slicing and mixed-numerology access schemes cover a central role to enable the flexible multi-service connectivity that characterizes 5G radio access networks (RAN). However, the interference generated by the simultaneous multiplexing of radio slices having heterogeneous subcarrier spacing can hinder the isolation of the different slices sharing the RAN and their effectiveness in meeting the application requirements. To overcome these issues, we design a radio resource allocation scheme that accounts for the inter-numerology interference and maximizes the aggregate network throughput. To overcome the computationally complexity of the optimal formulation, we leverage deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to design an agent capable of approximating the optimal solution exploiting a model-free environment formulation. We propose a multi-branch agent architecture, based on Branching Dueling Q-networks (BDQ), which ensures the agent scalability as the number of spectrum resources and network slices increases. In addition, we augment the agent learning performance by including an action mapping procedure designed to enforce the selection of feasible actions. We compare the agent performance to several benchmarks schemes. Results show that the proposed solution provides a good approximation of the optimal allocation in most scenarios.
Marco Zambianco; Giacomo Verticale. Intelligent multi-branch allocation of spectrum slices for inter-numerology interference minimization. Computer Networks 2021, 196, 108254 .
AMA StyleMarco Zambianco, Giacomo Verticale. Intelligent multi-branch allocation of spectrum slices for inter-numerology interference minimization. Computer Networks. 2021; 196 ():108254.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarco Zambianco; Giacomo Verticale. 2021. "Intelligent multi-branch allocation of spectrum slices for inter-numerology interference minimization." Computer Networks 196, no. : 108254.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is imposing a severe worldwide lock-down. Contact tracing based on smartphones’ applications (apps) has emerged as a possible solution to trace contagions and enforce a more sustainable selective quarantine. However, a massive adoption of these apps is required to reach the critical mass needed for effective contact tracing. As an alternative, geo-location technologies in next generation networks (e.g., 5G) can enable Mobile Operators (MOs) to perform passive tracing of users’ mobility and contacts with a promised accuracy of down to one meter. To effectively detect contagions, the identities of positive individuals, which are known only by a Governmental Authority (GA), are also required. Note that, besides being extremely sensitive, these data might also be critical from a business perspective. Hence, MOs and the GA need to exchange and process users’ geo-locations and infection status data in a privacy-preserving manner. In this work, we propose a privacy-preserving protocol that enables multiple MOs and the GA to share and process users’ data to make only the final users discover the number of their contacts with positive individuals. The protocol is based on existing privacy-enhancing strategies that guarantee that users’ mobility and infection status are only known to their MOs and to the GA, respectively. From extensive simulations, we observe that the cost to guarantee total privacy (evaluated in terms of data overhead introduced by the protocol) is acceptable, and can also be significantly reduced if we accept a negligible compromise in users’ privacy.
Davide Andreoletti; Omran Ayoub; Silvia Giordano; Massimo Tornatore; Giacomo Verticale. Privacy-Preserving Multi-Operator Contact Tracing for Early Detection of Covid19 Contagions. 2020 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps 2020, 1 -6.
AMA StyleDavide Andreoletti, Omran Ayoub, Silvia Giordano, Massimo Tornatore, Giacomo Verticale. Privacy-Preserving Multi-Operator Contact Tracing for Early Detection of Covid19 Contagions. 2020 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps. 2020; ():1-6.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Andreoletti; Omran Ayoub; Silvia Giordano; Massimo Tornatore; Giacomo Verticale. 2020. "Privacy-Preserving Multi-Operator Contact Tracing for Early Detection of Covid19 Contagions." 2020 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps , no. : 1-6.
The problem of optimally deploying a virtual network onto a substrate physical network is referred to as Virtual Network Embedding (VNE). In general, this embedding is requested by a customer to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), which performs the VNE over its physical telecom network. In several situations, the physical substrate infrastructure is composed of multiple independent ISPs. In this scenario, ISPs are concerned about exposing to a third-party entity (e.g., the customer) sensitive infrastructural details that are needed to perform an effective embedding. Following a common privacy-preserving approach, known as Limited Information Disclosure (LID), the embedding may be performed by the customer based on a limited and abstracted view of the multi-domain infrastructure that ISPs accept to expose. With this approach, embedding is sub-optimal (e.g., embedding cost is not minimized) in comparison with the case where all information is available, i.e., Full Information Disclosure (FID). In this work, we propose a Reinforcement-Learning-based algorithm able to process data that the customer and ISPs cipher under the Shamir Secret Sharing (SSS) scheme. This approach guarantees total privacy to both the customer and the ISPs (e.g., details about a virtual function are only revealed to the ISP in charge of hosting it) and achieves comparable embedding cost of an existing FID heuristic, as observed from extensive simulations. The main drawback of our algorithm is the high overhead of data that ISPs and the customer need to exchange with each other to execute it. Hence, we also explore the trade-off between embedding cost and data overhead resulting from the reduction of operations done by the RL. In general, intermediate embedding costs between the FID and LID heuristics can be obtained at a significant reduction of data overhead, while not sacrificing any privacy guarantees.
Davide Andreoletti; Tanya Velichkova; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore; Silvia Giordano. A Privacy-Preserving Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Multi-Domain Virtual Network Embedding. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management 2020, 17, 2291 -2304.
AMA StyleDavide Andreoletti, Tanya Velichkova, Giacomo Verticale, Massimo Tornatore, Silvia Giordano. A Privacy-Preserving Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Multi-Domain Virtual Network Embedding. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management. 2020; 17 (4):2291-2304.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Andreoletti; Tanya Velichkova; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore; Silvia Giordano. 2020. "A Privacy-Preserving Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Multi-Domain Virtual Network Embedding." IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management 17, no. 4: 2291-2304.
Network slicing and mixed-numerology schemes are essential technologies to efficiently accommodate different services in 5G radio access networks (RAN). To fully take advantage of these techniques, the design of spectrum slicing policies needs to account for the limited availability of the radio resources as well as the inter-numerology interference generated by slices employing different numerologies. In this context, we formulate a binary non-convex problem that maximizes the aggregate capacity of multiple network slices. The resulting spectrum allocation minimizes the inter-numerology interference under the frequent channel fluctuations characterizing the various users. To address the computational complexity of the designed objective function, we leverage deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to design a model-free solution computation. In detail, the trained centralized DRL agent exploits the channel fading statistic in order to provide a spectrum allocation that minimizes the inter-numerology interference. Results reveal that the proposed DRL scheme achieves performance that is comparable to the optimal one. It also outperforms a baseline scheme that statically allocate the radio resources.
Marco Zambianco; Giacomo Verticale. Spectrum Allocation for Network Slices with Inter-Numerology Interference using Deep Reinforcement Learning. 2020 IEEE 31st Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications 2020, 1 -7.
AMA StyleMarco Zambianco, Giacomo Verticale. Spectrum Allocation for Network Slices with Inter-Numerology Interference using Deep Reinforcement Learning. 2020 IEEE 31st Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications. 2020; ():1-7.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarco Zambianco; Giacomo Verticale. 2020. "Spectrum Allocation for Network Slices with Inter-Numerology Interference using Deep Reinforcement Learning." 2020 IEEE 31st Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications , no. : 1-7.
The interference resulting from densification of access points and the coexistence of different numerologies within the same spectrum severely hinders inter-slice isolation. We propose a slice allocation policy that enforces inter-slice isolation by minimizing the inter-slice interference suffered by each virtual operator. In detail, we design a binary quadratic non-convex optimization problem that minimizes i) the inter-slice interference generated by interfering base stations and ii) the inter-slice interference generated by the multiplexing of spectrum slices having different numerologies. We also provide a heuristic algorithm to render the solution scalable in practical scenarios. We assess the performance of both approaches by evaluating the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) associated to each slice through simulations. Results reveal that the heuristic algorithm provides a solution comparable with the optimal one on different minimization scenarios. Moreover, a considerable SINR improvement is observed with respect to a base-line scheme that does not account for inter-slice interference.
Marco Zambianco; Giacomo Verticale. Interference Minimization in 5G Physical-Layer Network Slicing. IEEE Transactions on Communications 2020, 68, 4554 -4564.
AMA StyleMarco Zambianco, Giacomo Verticale. Interference Minimization in 5G Physical-Layer Network Slicing. IEEE Transactions on Communications. 2020; 68 (7):4554-4564.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarco Zambianco; Giacomo Verticale. 2020. "Interference Minimization in 5G Physical-Layer Network Slicing." IEEE Transactions on Communications 68, no. 7: 4554-4564.
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a technology that has been increasingly adopted thanks to their ability to inexpensively and safely gather information in difficult-to-access environments. Because of this they are an invaluable tool to gather knowledge about health, usage, and performance parameters of products in any environment as well as identify the onset of, and avoid or mitigate, catastrophic failures. This chapter will introduce the benefits that WSNs can bring to the process of knowledge management for the development and maintenance of products as well as discuss emerging research trends regarding two prominent concerns inherent to WSNs: redundancy management and synchronisation. After reviewing these results, their impact and applicability to mission-critical applications will be discussed, as well as the interaction between the solutions.
Davide Scazzoli; Maurizio Magarini; Giacomo Verticale. Redundancy and Synchronisation Management in Mission- and Time-Critical Wireless Sensor Networks. Harnessing Knowledge, Innovation and Competence in Engineering of Mission Critical Systems 2020, 1 .
AMA StyleDavide Scazzoli, Maurizio Magarini, Giacomo Verticale. Redundancy and Synchronisation Management in Mission- and Time-Critical Wireless Sensor Networks. Harnessing Knowledge, Innovation and Competence in Engineering of Mission Critical Systems. 2020; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Scazzoli; Maurizio Magarini; Giacomo Verticale. 2020. "Redundancy and Synchronisation Management in Mission- and Time-Critical Wireless Sensor Networks." Harnessing Knowledge, Innovation and Competence in Engineering of Mission Critical Systems , no. : 1.
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) enables fast provisioning of packet processing logic on general purpose CPUs. This approach, however, does not scale well to very high speed traffic. Programmable hardware solutions, including those based on programmable switches, are emerging as an option for accelerating and scaling network functions. Unfortunately, every type of programmable hardware has specific characteristics that do not make it suitable for running all possible functions. We argue that an efficient strategy is decomposing network functions into components that can run on CPUs or that can be offloaded to specific programmable hardware depending on their characteristics.This paper presents a preliminary work on a framework for automating the decomposition and deployment of network functions. The framework includes an orchestrator that chooses the best decomposition according to the traffic demands, the network topology and other constraints. It also provides a tool to combine multiple functions into a single P4 program that can be deployed to a programmable switch. Finally, the framework comprises a set of tools to deploy the network functions either as containers running in a data center or as programs loaded in a programmable switch.We present numerical results to highlight the advantages of partially offloading decomposed VNFs to programmable hardware over a pure software solution. We also highlight the robustness of the approach showing how the model reacts in case of network failures.
Daniele Moro; Giacomo Verticale; Antonio Capone. A Framework for Network Function Decomposition and Deployment. 2020 16th International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communication Networks DRCN 2020 2020, 1 -6.
AMA StyleDaniele Moro, Giacomo Verticale, Antonio Capone. A Framework for Network Function Decomposition and Deployment. 2020 16th International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communication Networks DRCN 2020. 2020; ():1-6.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniele Moro; Giacomo Verticale; Antonio Capone. 2020. "A Framework for Network Function Decomposition and Deployment." 2020 16th International Conference on the Design of Reliable Communication Networks DRCN 2020 , no. : 1-6.
Davide Andreoletti; Omran Ayoub; Cristina Rottondi; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. A Privacy-Preserving Protocol for Network-Neutral Caching in ISP Networks. IEEE Access 2019, 7, 160227 -160240.
AMA StyleDavide Andreoletti, Omran Ayoub, Cristina Rottondi, Silvia Giordano, Giacomo Verticale, Massimo Tornatore. A Privacy-Preserving Protocol for Network-Neutral Caching in ISP Networks. IEEE Access. 2019; 7 ():160227-160240.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Andreoletti; Omran Ayoub; Cristina Rottondi; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. 2019. "A Privacy-Preserving Protocol for Network-Neutral Caching in ISP Networks." IEEE Access 7, no. : 160227-160240.
Non-Intrusive Appliance Load Monitoring (NIALM) is a process for deducting what appliances are being used in a household by observing the total energy consumption over time. Such process makes it possible to provide energy management services to a large number of users without installation of per-appliance meters. This paper analyzes the performance of NIALM when used to provide real-time services. In addition, the paper studies how the performance of NIALM could be improved by dynamically selecting the disaggregation model on the basis of user feedback about the correctness of the disaggregation.
Anosh Arshad Sundhu; Cristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale. Real-time Disaggregation of Residential Energy Consumption Enhanced with User Feedback. 2019 4th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Security (ICCCS) 2019, 1 -6.
AMA StyleAnosh Arshad Sundhu, Cristina Rottondi, Giacomo Verticale. Real-time Disaggregation of Residential Energy Consumption Enhanced with User Feedback. 2019 4th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Security (ICCCS). 2019; ():1-6.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAnosh Arshad Sundhu; Cristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale. 2019. "Real-time Disaggregation of Residential Energy Consumption Enhanced with User Feedback." 2019 4th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Security (ICCCS) , no. : 1-6.
Food waste is one of the key challenges of the agri-food sector: one third of the global food production is wasted yearly, while paradoxically 815 million people do not have access to sufficient and nutritious food. Food waste represents an economic loss for the agri-food supply chain and the whole society and significantly contributes to the GHG emissions. In Italy up to 5.1 million tons of food is wasted: nearly half of it is generated by agri-food supply chain actors. Retailers contribute to the 14% of the overall food waste produced and the main cause relies on products reaching the expiration date. Over the last years retailers have increasingly taken action in order to recover surplus food, encouraged by positive changes in the regulatory environment and the increasing relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility policies adopted by companies. Food donations have been increasing, but in many cases the surplus food redistribution process to food-aid organizations is still occasional and not formalized, leaving space for efficiency improvement. Surplus food close to expiration date, if not properly and timely handled, inevitably turns into waste. In this paper we introduce SIVEQ: a systematic solution which relies on novel technologies such as IoT and big data analytics to tackle this issue. Our system represents an added value to all actors involved, not only for NPOs who collect and redistribute surplus food.
Davide Scazzoli; Giulia Bartezzaghi; Annalaura Silvestro; Maurizio Magarini; Marco Melacini; Giacomo Verticale. SIVEQ: An Integrated System for the Valorization of Surplus Food. 2019 IEEE SmartWorld, Ubiquitous Intelligence & Computing, Advanced & Trusted Computing, Scalable Computing & Communications, Cloud & Big Data Computing, Internet of People and Smart City Innovation (SmartWorld/SCALCOM/UIC/ATC/CBDCom/IOP/SCI) 2019, 1901 -1907.
AMA StyleDavide Scazzoli, Giulia Bartezzaghi, Annalaura Silvestro, Maurizio Magarini, Marco Melacini, Giacomo Verticale. SIVEQ: An Integrated System for the Valorization of Surplus Food. 2019 IEEE SmartWorld, Ubiquitous Intelligence & Computing, Advanced & Trusted Computing, Scalable Computing & Communications, Cloud & Big Data Computing, Internet of People and Smart City Innovation (SmartWorld/SCALCOM/UIC/ATC/CBDCom/IOP/SCI). 2019; ():1901-1907.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Scazzoli; Giulia Bartezzaghi; Annalaura Silvestro; Maurizio Magarini; Marco Melacini; Giacomo Verticale. 2019. "SIVEQ: An Integrated System for the Valorization of Surplus Food." 2019 IEEE SmartWorld, Ubiquitous Intelligence & Computing, Advanced & Trusted Computing, Scalable Computing & Communications, Cloud & Big Data Computing, Internet of People and Smart City Innovation (SmartWorld/SCALCOM/UIC/ATC/CBDCom/IOP/SCI) , no. : 1901-1907.
The new paradigms brought to the networking area by softwarization, not only are revolutionizing research and industry, but start deeply impacting on teaching. While in the past most of education in basic networking relied upon studying theory and learning standard protocols, today the hands-on experience is gaining paramount importance. In this paper, after briefly explaining how SDN changed the learning experience, we present a portable, low-cost, self-contained hardware laboratory to experiment with real SDN networks based on OpenFlow switches, valuable for both teaching and research. We then show some use-case that can be investigated within possible projects developed using this testbed. Though devised mainly for SDN, we will show that this testbed can support experimentation also of traditional switching concepts, such as packet classification. Finally, we introduce a short demonstration that can be presented live at the conference.
Sebastian Troia; Ligia Maria Moreira Zorello; Guido Maier; Giacomo Verticale; Paolo Giaccone. Portable MiniLab for Hands-on Experimentation with Software Defined Networking. 2019 15th International Conference on Telecommunications (ConTEL) 2019, 1 -7.
AMA StyleSebastian Troia, Ligia Maria Moreira Zorello, Guido Maier, Giacomo Verticale, Paolo Giaccone. Portable MiniLab for Hands-on Experimentation with Software Defined Networking. 2019 15th International Conference on Telecommunications (ConTEL). 2019; ():1-7.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSebastian Troia; Ligia Maria Moreira Zorello; Guido Maier; Giacomo Verticale; Paolo Giaccone. 2019. "Portable MiniLab for Hands-on Experimentation with Software Defined Networking." 2019 15th International Conference on Telecommunications (ConTEL) , no. : 1-7.
Computer and social sciences offer a wide range of tools to help face the world’s challenges arising in smart city scenarios and involving environment, energy, food, water, transportation, infrastructures, society, healthcare, education, governance, and economy. Indeed, purely technical solutions might be of little effect without proper consideration of the social dimension of the Smart City. A user’s behavior depends on a variety of social and individual motivations, which require addressing both the technical and social sides of the problem to promote active engagement of individuals in increasing the social good. More specifically, social computing tools can be targeted on a wide range of Smart Cities applications, including urban transport and fleet logistics management (possibly leveraging electric vehicles or other intelligent transportation systems), traffic, public safety and air pollution monitoring via smart traffic lights, smart signals and lamp posts, automation of smart buildings and homes with the aim of improving energy efficiency, livability and age-friendliness, smart health, smart industries, electricity grids, water systems and solid waste management, and frameworks for educational, cultural, and entertainment initiatives.
Cristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale; Piero Fraternali; Jasminko Novak; Kostantinos Pelechrinis; Balazs Hidasi; Carmen Karina Vaca Ruiz. IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Social Computing Applications for Smart Cities. IEEE Access 2019, 7, 65219 -65222.
AMA StyleCristina Rottondi, Giacomo Verticale, Piero Fraternali, Jasminko Novak, Kostantinos Pelechrinis, Balazs Hidasi, Carmen Karina Vaca Ruiz. IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Social Computing Applications for Smart Cities. IEEE Access. 2019; 7 ():65219-65222.
Chicago/Turabian StyleCristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale; Piero Fraternali; Jasminko Novak; Kostantinos Pelechrinis; Balazs Hidasi; Carmen Karina Vaca Ruiz. 2019. "IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Social Computing Applications for Smart Cities." IEEE Access 7, no. : 65219-65222.
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) provides higher flexibility for network operators and reduces the complexity in network service deployment. Using NFV, Virtual Network Functions (VNF) can be located in various network nodes and chained together in a Service Function Chain (SFC) to provide a specific service. Consolidating multiple VNFs in a smaller number of locations would allow decreasing capital expenditures. However, excessive consolidation of VNFs might cause additional latency penalties due to processing-resource sharing, and this is undesirable, as SFCs are bounded by service-specific latency requirements. In this paper, we identify two different types of penalties (referred as "costs") related to the processingresource sharing among multiple VNFs: the context switching costs and the upscaling costs. Context switching costs arise when multiple CPU processes (e.g., supporting different VNFs) share the same CPU and thus repeated loading/saving of their context is required. Upscaling costs are incurred by VNFs requiring multi-core implementations, since they suffer a penalty due to the load-balancing needs among CPU cores. These costs affect how the chained VNFs are placed in the network to meet the performance requirement of the SFCs. We evaluate their impact while considering SFCs with different bandwidth and latency requirements in a scenario of VNF consolidation.
Marco Savi; Massimo Tornatore; Giacomo Verticale. Impact of Processing-Resource Sharing on the Placement of Chained Virtual Network Functions. IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing 2019, PP, 1 -1.
AMA StyleMarco Savi, Massimo Tornatore, Giacomo Verticale. Impact of Processing-Resource Sharing on the Placement of Chained Virtual Network Functions. IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing. 2019; PP (99):1-1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarco Savi; Massimo Tornatore; Giacomo Verticale. 2019. "Impact of Processing-Resource Sharing on the Placement of Chained Virtual Network Functions." IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing PP, no. 99: 1-1.
Content Providers (CPs) typically encrypt the content sent over the telecom network to improve security and privacy of their final users, as well as to protect business-critical information (e.g., contents' popularity). Due to this encryption, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can not easily apply caching strategies that require the inspection of traffic traversing their networks to select the most popular contents. The most common approach to solve the conflict between privacy and caching consists in allowing a CP to manage the caches (e.g., by storing and delivering the contents) directly from inside the area of the ISP. However, in this way ISPs lose the legitimate control on a portion of traffic traversing their networks. An alternative approach is enabled by recently-proposed architectural solutions that allow a CP to encrypt the contents and associate pseudonyms to them, and the ISP to count the occurrences of such identifiers to infer popularity-related information without inspecting the original contents. However, we observe that ISPs can still obtain valuable information about contents' popularity that may threaten CPs' privacy. In this paper, we formalize a strategy of association between pseudonyms and contents that effectively improves privacy but leads to a degradation of caching performance. We formally define privacy in this context and study the trade-off between caching and privacy considering differerent metrics, such as the hit-rate and the retrieval latency. The results, obtained by means of simulations over both real and synthetic data, show that privacy can be significantly improved while accepting a minor impact on the hit-rate of caching and suggest the applicability of the considered architecture in a real scenario of content delivery.
Davide Andreoletti; Omran Ayoub; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. Privacy-Preserving Caching in ISP Networks. 2019 IEEE 20th International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR) 2019, 1 -6.
AMA StyleDavide Andreoletti, Omran Ayoub, Silvia Giordano, Giacomo Verticale, Massimo Tornatore. Privacy-Preserving Caching in ISP Networks. 2019 IEEE 20th International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR). 2019; ():1-6.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Andreoletti; Omran Ayoub; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. 2019. "Privacy-Preserving Caching in ISP Networks." 2019 IEEE 20th International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR) , no. : 1-6.
The distribution of video contents generated by Content Providers (CPs) significantly contributes to increase the congestion within the networks of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). To alleviate this problem, CPs can serve a portion of their catalogues to the end users directly from servers (i.e., the caches) located inside the ISP network. Users served from caches perceive an increased QoS (e.g., average retrieval latency is reduced) and, for this reason, caching can be considered a form of traffic prioritization. Hence, since the storage of caches is limited, its subdivision among several CPs may lead to discrimination. A static subdivision that assignes to each CP the same portion of storage is a neutral but ineffective appraoch, because it does not consider the different popularities of the CPs' contents. A more effective strategy consists in dividing the cache among the CPs proportionally to the popularity of their contents. However, CPs consider this information sensitive and are reluctant to disclose it. In this work, we propose a protocol based on Shamir Secret Sharing (SSS) scheme that allows the ISP to calculate the portion of cache storage that a CP is entitled to receive while guaranteeing network neutrality and resource efficiency, but without violating its privacy. The protocol is executed by the ISP, the CPs and a Regulator Authority (RA) that guarantees the actual enforcement of a fair subdivision of the cache storage and the preservation of privacy. We perform extensive simulations and prove that our approach leads to higher hit-rates (i.e., percentage of requests served by the cache) with respect to the static one. The advantages are particularly significant when the cache storage is limited.
Davide Andreoletti; Cristina Rottondi; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. An Open Privacy-Preserving and Scalable Protocol for a Network-Neutrality Compliant Caching. ICC 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2019, 1 -6.
AMA StyleDavide Andreoletti, Cristina Rottondi, Silvia Giordano, Giacomo Verticale, Massimo Tornatore. An Open Privacy-Preserving and Scalable Protocol for a Network-Neutrality Compliant Caching. ICC 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC). 2019; ():1-6.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Andreoletti; Cristina Rottondi; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. 2019. "An Open Privacy-Preserving and Scalable Protocol for a Network-Neutrality Compliant Caching." ICC 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) , no. : 1-6.
Content delivery involves multiple entities, such as Content Providers (CPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). To better serve its users, the CP may deploy resources (e.g.,caches) as close as possible to them. In this work, we consider the deployment of Virtual Servers (VSs) to stream live videos owned by the CP in the network of the ISP. An efficient deployment requires the knowledge of both the users' position and requests. However, the CP knows what users request but not their exact position, while the ISP has knowledge of users' locations but not of their requests (due to content encryption). To guarantee users' privacy, the ISP and the CP cannot exchange these information with each other. In this paper, we make the two parties cooperate by employing a secure multiparty computation protocol which does not require the two parties to reveal the aforementioned information. This protocol allows the ISP to obtain the number of requests for a specific live-video content issued from a given area at the cost of a negligible overhead. Knowing this information, the ISP efficiently deploys the VSs with the aim of minimizing the number of hops crossed by the live videos to reach their viewers. We assess the average number of hops saved when the geographic distribution of requests is known and we conclude that it is relevant. Then, we investigate scenarios in which the privacy of both the CP and the ISP can be violated, and we propose several countermeasures. In particular, the parties can distort their data when executing the protocol, which results in a trade-off between performance and privacy. We conclude that the fulfillment of stringent privacy requirements comes at significant performance loss.
Davide Andreoletti; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. Discovering the Geographic Distribution of Live Videos' Users: A Privacy-Preserving Approach. 2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) 2018, 1 -6.
AMA StyleDavide Andreoletti, Silvia Giordano, Giacomo Verticale, Massimo Tornatore. Discovering the Geographic Distribution of Live Videos' Users: A Privacy-Preserving Approach. 2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM). 2018; ():1-6.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Andreoletti; Silvia Giordano; Giacomo Verticale; Massimo Tornatore. 2018. "Discovering the Geographic Distribution of Live Videos' Users: A Privacy-Preserving Approach." 2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) , no. : 1-6.
Caching strategies have been always regarded as an important tool to reduce network traffic and to guarantee an improved Quality of Service (QoS) to customers. However, being an inherently selective process, it results in service differentiation and, potentially, discriminatory treatment of user-requested content. Despite of this, in-network caching is not generally regarded as a traffic differentiation technique and, therefore, is not considered by Net-Neutrality (NN) regulations. In this paper, we look at this problem from a different perspective: the characteristics of today's Internet, such as the wide use of encryption, prevent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from applying in-network caching without cooperating with Content Providers (CPs). Hence, a rigorous definition of NN-compliant caching is needed to agree upon the effective neutrality of ISPs. We compare different caching frameworks under the lens of NN and conclude that caching may lead to discrimination. Finally, we suggest a few research directions towards non-discriminatory in-network caching.
Davide Andreoletti; Silvia Giordano; Cristina Rottondi; Massimo Tornatore; Giacomo Verticale. To be Neutral or Not Neutral? The In-Network Caching Dilemma. IEEE Internet Computing 2018, 22, 18 -26.
AMA StyleDavide Andreoletti, Silvia Giordano, Cristina Rottondi, Massimo Tornatore, Giacomo Verticale. To be Neutral or Not Neutral? The In-Network Caching Dilemma. IEEE Internet Computing. 2018; 22 (6):18-26.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavide Andreoletti; Silvia Giordano; Cristina Rottondi; Massimo Tornatore; Giacomo Verticale. 2018. "To be Neutral or Not Neutral? The In-Network Caching Dilemma." IEEE Internet Computing 22, no. 6: 18-26.
Evaluating Network Neutrality requires comparing the quality of service experienced by multiple users served by different Internet Service Providers. Consequently, the issue of guaranteeing privacy-friendly network measurements has recently gained increasing interest. In this paper we propose a system which gathers throughput measurements from users of various applications and Internet services and stores it in a crowdsourced database, which can be queried by the users themselves to verify if their submitted measurements are compliant with the hypothesis of a neutral network. Since the crowdsourced data may disclose sensitive information about users and their habits, thus leading to potential privacy leakages, we adopt a privacy-preserving method based on randomized sampling and suppression of small clusters. Numerical results show that the proposed solution ensures a good trade-off between usefulness of the system, in terms of precision and recall of discriminated users, and privacy, in terms of differential privacy.
Maria Silvia Abba Legnazzi; Cristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale. Secure and Differentially Private Detection of Net Neutrality Violations by Means of Crowdsourced Measurements. Wireless Personal Communications 2018, 107, 1443 -1464.
AMA StyleMaria Silvia Abba Legnazzi, Cristina Rottondi, Giacomo Verticale. Secure and Differentially Private Detection of Net Neutrality Violations by Means of Crowdsourced Measurements. Wireless Personal Communications. 2018; 107 (3):1443-1464.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaria Silvia Abba Legnazzi; Cristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale. 2018. "Secure and Differentially Private Detection of Net Neutrality Violations by Means of Crowdsourced Measurements." Wireless Personal Communications 107, no. 3: 1443-1464.
BlAsT is an efficient scheme for achieving certification of data continuity through a history attached to a public blockchain. The scheme guarantees the properties of linearity, non-equivocation, time-stamping and transparency. We discuss the implementation of BlAsT over the Bitcoin and the Ethereum blokchains, provide a techno-economic analysis to evaluate the costs related to blockchain adoption, and numerically assess the performance of the proposed architecture in terms of storage and bandwidth requirements. Results show that the above properties can be guaranteed with a small cryptocurrency payment. The proposed scheme can be used for IoT devices under the assumption that the device is able to either perform blockchain validation or delegate it to a trusted node.
Alessandro Gattolin; Cristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale. BlAsT: Blockchain-Assisted Key Transparency for Device Authentication. 2018 IEEE 4th International Forum on Research and Technology for Society and Industry (RTSI) 2018, 1 -6.
AMA StyleAlessandro Gattolin, Cristina Rottondi, Giacomo Verticale. BlAsT: Blockchain-Assisted Key Transparency for Device Authentication. 2018 IEEE 4th International Forum on Research and Technology for Society and Industry (RTSI). 2018; ():1-6.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Gattolin; Cristina Rottondi; Giacomo Verticale. 2018. "BlAsT: Blockchain-Assisted Key Transparency for Device Authentication." 2018 IEEE 4th International Forum on Research and Technology for Society and Industry (RTSI) , no. : 1-6.