Policybased networking in a mobile, multiconnected environment

Abstract

In classic networking, sessions are ordered communication between two fixed end-points. In this thesis we introduce the concept of session migration where one of the end-points of the session can change without losing the integrity of the session. We examine if session migration can be used to increase the user perceived quality of service in heterogeneous, mobile networks.

We introduce the concept of session migration into the research field of service centric networking. In service centric networks, the services are located using a discovery and lookup system which allows the application layer to view the network as a collection of services rather than as a collection of hosts.

All these services will have attributes describing them, and different applications will have different opinions of which attributes a service should have to be well suited for the application. We propose to use a separate policy language to allow applications to easily define what it considers a well suited service.

In session migration enabled service centric networking systems, a service user can start a session using one service provider and continue it on another. In this manner, the service user can select the best suited service provider when the session is initiated. If a better suited service provider becomes available, the service user can migrate the session to the new service provider.

We propose an architecture called Embouchure which includes middleware that provides support for policy controlled session migration.

We use Embouchure to show that policy controlled service migration is one possible way to harness the heterogeneous mobile networks in the future.