A Comparative Study of Virtual Infrastructure Management Solutions for UAV Networks

Abstract

The promising combination of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with network virtualisation technologies has positively shown many advantages enabling the deployment of communication services over aerial networks, that is, networks conformed by a set of interconnected UAVs. However, this synergy may certainly involve diverse challenges that must be carefully considered. In this respect, this paper compares some of the most common virtual infrastructure management solutions that could potentially be used to deal with virtualised payloads over aerial networks, identifying their main strength and limitations. The paper also presents a preliminary exploration on the utilisation of the Kubernetes virtual infrastructure management platform to support value-added services over UAV networks, showing off its potential as a suitable platform to this purpose. CCS CONCEPTS• Networks → Ad hoc networks; Network management.

A Link-Layer Virtual Networking Solution for Cloud-Native Network Function Virtualisation Ecosystems: L2S-M

“…Despite its advantages, this model might not be suitable for all the services that could be provided through cloud-native platforms. In a previous work, we realised the potential of microservice platforms [34] as enablers for the deployment network and vertical services in the context of the 5th and 6th generations of mobile networks (5G/6G) in cloud-native environments (particularly, microservice platforms, which are a subset of functions in the cloud-native model). Microservice platforms, like Kubernetes (K8s), usually employ container technology to build applications in their managed infrastructures.…”

“…In our previous work [35], L2S-M was first introduced as a complementary networking service to enable the deployment of NSes in NFV infrastructures (NFVIs) composed of resource-constrained environments (particularly, aerial microservice platforms based on K8s, as it is the de facto microservice platform and the one that could provide significant advantages in comparison with other VIMs [34] in UAV networks). In this regard, L2S-M was created to address the limitations that NFV Orchestration could have in such scenarios as seen in our previous works [36,37].…”

Link Layer Connectivity as a Service for Ad-Hoc Microservice Platforms

“…To establish the viability of the solution, we performed several measurements to detect noticeable variations in terms of bandwidth consumption between one standard Kubernetes networking solution (Flannel) and our proposed design. In a previous work [15] we addressed the potential limitations that Flannel could have to provide direct connectivity between microservices. In this previous work, we created VXLAN interfaces in the pods establishing direct link layer connectivity on top of Flannel's IP connectivity.…”