@techreport{BlenkKellererHossfeld2020, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Blenk, Andreas and Kellerer, Wolfgang and Hoßfeld, Tobias}, title = {Technical Report on DFG Project SDN-App: SDN-enabled Application-aware Network Control Architectures and their Performance Assessment}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20755}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-207558}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The DFG project "SDN-enabled Application-aware Network Control Architectures and their Performance Assessment" (DFG SDN-App) focused in phase 1 (Jan 2017 - Dec 2019) on software defined networking (SDN). Being a fundamental paradigm shift, SDN enables a remote control of networking devices made by different vendors from a logically centralized controller. In principle, this enables a more dynamic and flexible management of network resources compared to the traditional legacy networks. Phase 1 focused on multimedia applications and their users' Quality of Experience (QoE). This documents reports the achievements of the first phase (Jan 2017 - Dec 2019), which is jointly carried out by the Technical University of Munich, Technical University of Berlin, and University of W{\"u}rzburg. The project started at the institutions in Munich and W{\"u}rzburg in January 2017 and lasted until December 2019. In Phase 1, the project targeted the development of fundamental control mechanisms for network-aware application control and application-aware network control in Software Defined Networks (SDN) so to enhance the user perceived quality (QoE). The idea is to leverage the QoE from multiple applications as control input parameter for application-and network control mechanisms. These mechanisms are implemented by an Application Control Plane (ACP) and a Network Control Plane (NCP). In order to obtain a global view of the current system state, applications and network parameters are monitored and communicated to the respective control plane interface. Network and application information and their demands are exchanged between the control planes so to derive appropriate control actions. To this end, a methodology is developed to assess the application performance and in particular the QoE. This requires an appropriate QoE modeling of the applications considered in the project as well as metrics like QoE fairness to be utilized within QoE management. In summary, the application-network interaction can improve the QoE for multi-application scenarios. This is ensured by utilizing information from the application layer, which are mapped by appropriate QoS-QoE models to QoE within a network control plane. On the other hand, network information is monitored and communicated to the application control plane. Network and application information and their demands are exchanged between the control planes so to derive appropriate control actions.}, subject = {Software-defined networking}, language = {en} } @article{BorchertSeufertGamboaetal.2020, author = {Borchert, Kathrin and Seufert, Anika and Gamboa, Edwin and Hirth, Matthias and Hoßfeld, Tobias}, title = {In Vitro vs In Vivo: Does the Study's Interface Design Influence Crowdsourced Video QoE?}, series = {Quality and User Experience}, volume = {6}, journal = {Quality and User Experience}, issn = {2366-0139}, doi = {10.1007/s41233-020-00041-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235586}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Evaluating the Quality of Experience (QoE) of video streaming and its influence factors has become paramount for streaming providers, as they want to maintain high satisfaction for their customers. In this context, crowdsourced user studies became a valuable tool to evaluate different factors which can affect the perceived user experience on a large scale. In general, most of these crowdsourcing studies either use, what we refer to, as an in vivo or an in vitro interface design. In vivo design means that the study participant has to rate the QoE of a video that is embedded in an application similar to a real streaming service, e.g., YouTube or Netflix. In vitro design refers to a setting, in which the video stream is separated from a specific service and thus, the video plays on a plain background. Although these interface designs vary widely, the results are often compared and generalized. In this work, we use a crowdsourcing study to investigate the influence of three interface design alternatives, an in vitro and two in vivo designs with different levels of interactiveness, on the perceived video QoE. Contrary to our expectations, the results indicate that there is no significant influence of the study's interface design in general on the video experience. Furthermore, we found that the in vivo design does not reduce the test takers' attentiveness. However, we observed that participants who interacted with the test interface reported a higher video QoE than other groups.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GrigorjewDiederichHossfeldetal.2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Grigorjew, Alexej and Diederich, Philip and Hoßfeld, Tobias and Kellerer, Wolfgang}, title = {Affordable Measurement Setups for Networking Device Latency with Sub-Microsecond Accuracy}, series = {W{\"u}rzburg Workshop on Next-Generation Communication Networks (WueWoWas'22)}, journal = {W{\"u}rzburg Workshop on Next-Generation Communication Networks (WueWoWas'22)}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-28075}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-280751}, pages = {5}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This document presents a networking latency measurement setup that focuses on affordability and universal applicability, and can provide sub-microsecond accuracy. It explains the prerequisites, hardware choices, and considerations to respect during measurement. In addition, it discusses the necessity for exhaustive latency measurements when dealing with high availability and low latency requirements. Preliminary results show that the accuracy is within ±0.02 μs when used with the Intel I350-T2 network adapter.}, subject = {Datennetz}, language = {en} } @techreport{GrigorjewMetzgerHossfeldetal.2020, author = {Grigorjew, Alexej and Metzger, Florian and Hoßfeld, Tobias and Specht, Johannes and G{\"o}tz, Franz-Josef and Chen, Feng and Schmitt, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Asynchronous Traffic Shaping with Jitter Control}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20582}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-205824}, pages = {8}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Asynchronous Traffic Shaping enabled bounded latency with low complexity for time sensitive networking without the need for time synchronization. However, its main focus is the guaranteed maximum delay. Jitter-sensitive applications may still be forced towards synchronization. This work proposes traffic damping to reduce end-to-end delay jitter. It discusses its application and shows that both the prerequisites and the guaranteed delay of traffic damping and ATS are very similar. Finally, it presents a brief evaluation of delay jitter in an example topology by means of a simulation and worst case estimation.}, subject = {Echtzeit}, language = {en} } @techreport{GrigorjewMetzgerHossfeldetal.2020, author = {Grigorjew, Alexej and Metzger, Florian and Hoßfeld, Tobias and Specht, Johannes and G{\"o}tz, Franz-Josef and Schmitt, J{\"u}rgen and Chen, Feng}, title = {Technical Report on Bridge-Local Guaranteed Latency with Strict Priority Scheduling}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-198310}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Bridge-local latency computation is often regarded with caution, as historic efforts with the Credit-Based Shaper (CBS) showed that CBS requires network wide information for tight bounds. Recently, new shaping mechanisms and timed gates were applied to achieve such guarantees nonetheless, but they require support for these new mechanisms in the forwarding devices. This document presents a per-hop latency bound for individual streams in a class-based network that applies the IEEE 802.1Q strict priority transmission selection algorithm. It is based on self-pacing talkers and uses the accumulated latency fields during the reservation process to provide upper bounds with bridge-local information. The presented delay bound is proven mathematically and then evaluated with respect to its accuracy. It indicates the required information that must be provided for admission control, e.g., implemented by a resource reservation protocol such as IEEE 802.1Qdd. Further, it hints at potential improvements regarding new mechanisms and higher accuracy given more information.}, subject = {Echtzeit}, language = {en} } @techreport{GrigorjewSchumannDiederichetal.2023, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Grigorjew, Alexej and Schumann, Lukas Kilian and Diederich, Philip and Hoßfeld, Tobias and Kellerer, Wolfgang}, title = {Understanding the Performance of Different Packet Reception and Timestamping Methods in Linux}, series = {KuVS Fachgespr{\"a}ch - W{\"u}rzburg Workshop on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Next-Generation Communication Networks 2023 (WueWoWAS'23)}, journal = {KuVS Fachgespr{\"a}ch - W{\"u}rzburg Workshop on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Next-Generation Communication Networks 2023 (WueWoWAS'23)}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-32206}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-322064}, pages = {5}, year = {2023}, abstract = {This document briefly presents some renowned packet reception techniques for network packets in Linux systems. Further, it compares their performance when measuring packet timestamps with respect to throughput and accuracy. Both software and hardware timestamps are compared, and various parameters are examined, including frame size, link speed, network interface card, and CPU load. The results indicate that hardware timestamping offers significantly better accuracy with no downsides, and that packet reception techniques that avoid system calls offer superior measurement throughput.}, language = {en} } @article{HossfeldHeegaardKellerer2023, author = {Hossfeld, Tobias and Heegaard, Poul E. and Kellerer, Wolfgang}, title = {Comparing the scalability of communication networks and systems}, series = {IEEE Access}, volume = {11}, journal = {IEEE Access}, doi = {10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3314201}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-349403}, pages = {101474-101497}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Scalability is often mentioned in literature, but a stringent definition is missing. In particular, there is no general scalability assessment which clearly indicates whether a system scales or not or whether a system scales better than another. The key contribution of this article is the definition of a scalability index (SI) which quantifies if a system scales in comparison to another system, a hypothetical system, e.g., linear system, or the theoretically optimal system. The suggested SI generalizes different metrics from literature, which are specialized cases of our SI. The primary target of our scalability framework is, however, benchmarking of two systems, which does not require any reference system. The SI is demonstrated and evaluated for different use cases, that are (1) the performance of an IoT load balancer depending on the system load, (2) the availability of a communication system depending on the size and structure of the network, (3) scalability comparison of different location selection mechanisms in fog computing with respect to delays and energy consumption; (4) comparison of time-sensitive networking (TSN) mechanisms in terms of efficiency and utilization. Finally, we discuss how to use and how not to use the SI and give recommendations and guidelines in practice. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work which provides a general SI for the comparison and benchmarking of systems, which is the primary target of our scalability analysis.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hossfeld2009, author = {Hoßfeld, Tobias}, title = {Performance Evaluation of Future Internet Applications and Emerging User Behavior}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-3067}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-37570}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2009}, abstract = {In future telecommunication systems, we observe an increasing diversity of access networks. The separation of transport services and applications or services leads to multi-network services, i.e., a future service has to work transparently to the underlying network infrastructure. Multi-network services with edge-based intelligence, like P2P file sharing or the Skype VoIP service, impose new traffic control paradigms on the future Internet. Such services adapt the amount of consumed bandwidth to reach different goals. A selfish behavior tries to keep the QoE of a single user above a certain level. Skype, for instance, repeats voice samples depending on the perceived end-to-end loss. From the viewpoint of a single user, the replication of voice data overcomes the degradation caused by packet loss and enables to maintain a certain QoE. The cost for this achievement is a higher amount of consumed bandwidth. However, if the packet loss is caused by congestion in the network, this additionally required bandwidth even worsens the network situation. Altruistic behavior, on the other side, would reduce the bandwidth consumption in such a way that the pressure on the network is released and thus the overall network performance is improved. In this monograph, we analyzed the impact of the overlay, P2P, and QoE paradigms in future Internet applications and the interactions from the observing user behavior. The shift of intelligence toward the edge is accompanied by a change in the emerging user behavior and traffic profile, as well as a change from multi-service networks to multi-networks services. In addition, edge-based intelligence may lead to a higher dynamics in the network topology, since the applications are often controlled by an overlay network, which can rapidly change in size and structure as new nodes can leave or join the overlay network in an entirely distributed manner. As a result, we found that the performance evaluation of such services provides new challenges, since novel key performance factors have to be first identified, like pollution of P2P systems, and appropriate models of the emerging user behavior are required, e.g. taking into account user impatience. As common denominator of the presented studies in this work, we focus on a user-centric view when evaluating the performance of future Internet applications. For a subscriber of a certain application or service, the perceived quality expressed as QoE will be the major criterion of the user's satisfaction with the network and service providers. We selected three different case studies and characterized the application's performance from the end user's point of view. Those are (1) cooperation in mobile P2P file sharing networks, (2) modeling of online TV recording services, and (3) QoE of edge-based VoIP applications. The user-centric approach facilitates the development of new mechanisms to overcome problems arising from the changing user behavior. An example is the proposed CycPriM cooperation strategy, which copes with selfish user behavior in mobile P2P file sharing system. An adequate mechanism has also been shown to be efficient in a heterogeneous B3G network with mobile users conducting vertical handovers between different wireless access technologies. The consideration of the user behavior and the user perceived quality guides to an appropriate modeling of future Internet applications. In the case of the online TV recording service, this enables the comparison between different technical realizations of the system, e.g. using server clusters or P2P technology, to properly dimension the installed network elements and to assess the costs for service providers. Technologies like P2P help to overcome phenomena like flash crowds and improve scalability compared to server clusters, which may get overloaded in such situations. Nevertheless, P2P technology invokes additional challenges and different user behavior to that seen in traditional client/server systems. Beside the willingness to share files and the churn of users, peers may be malicious and offer fake contents to disturb the data dissemination. Finally, the understanding and the quantification of QoE with respect to QoS degradations permits designing sophisticated edge-based applications. To this end, we identified and formulated the IQX hypothesis as an exponential interdependency between QoE and QoS parameters, which we validated for different examples. The appropriate modeling of the emerging user behavior taking into account the user's perceived quality and its interactions with the overlay and P2P paradigm will finally help to design future Internet applications.}, subject = {Leistungsbewertung}, language = {en} } @article{HossfeldHeegaardSkrorinKapovetal.2020, author = {Hoßfeld, Tobias and Heegaard, Poul E. and Skrorin-Kapov, Lea and Varela, Mart{\´i}n}, title = {Deriving QoE in systems: from fundamental relationships to a QoE-based Service-level Quality Index}, series = {Quality and User Experience}, volume = {5}, journal = {Quality and User Experience}, issn = {2366-0139}, doi = {10.1007/s41233-020-00035-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235597}, year = {2020}, abstract = {With Quality of Experience (QoE) research having made significant advances over the years, service and network providers aim at user-centric evaluation of the services provided in their system. The question arises how to derive QoE in systems. In the context of subjective user studies conducted to derive relationships between influence factors and QoE, user diversity leads to varying distributions of user rating scores for different test conditions. Such models are commonly exploited by providers to derive various QoE metrics in their system, such as expected QoE, or the percentage of users rating above a certain threshold. The question then becomes how to combine (a) user rating distributions obtained from subjective studies, and (b) system parameter distributions, so as to obtain the actual observed QoE distribution in the system? Moreover, how can various QoE metrics of interest in the system be derived? We prove fundamental relationships for the derivation of QoE in systems, thus providing an important link between the QoE community and the systems community. In our numerical examples, we focus mainly on QoE metrics. We furthermore provide a more generalized view on quantifying the quality of systems by defining a QoE-based Service-level Quality Index. This index exploits the fact that quality can be seen as a proxy measure for utility. Following the assumption that not all user sessions should be weighted equally, we aim to provide a generic framework that can be utilized to quantify the overall utility of a service delivered by a system.}, language = {en} } @techreport{LohGeisslerHossfeld2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Loh, Frank and Geißler, Stefan and Hoßfeld, Tobias}, title = {LoRaWAN Network Planning in Smart Environments: Towards Reliability, Scalability, and Cost Reduction}, series = {W{\"u}rzburg Workshop on Next-Generation Communication Networks (WueWoWas'22)}, journal = {W{\"u}rzburg Workshop on Next-Generation Communication Networks (WueWoWas'22)}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-28082}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-280829}, pages = {4}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The goal in this work is to present a guidance for LoRaWAN planning to improve overall reliability for message transmissions and scalability. At the end, the cost component is discussed. Therefore, a five step approach is presented that helps to plan a LoRaWAN deployment step by step: Based on the device locations, an initial gateway placement is suggested followed by in-depth frequency and channel access planning. After an initial planning phase, updates for channel access and the initial gateway planning is suggested that should also be done periodically during network operation. Since current gateway placement approaches are only studied with random channel access, there is a lot of potential in the cell planning phase. Furthermore, the performance of different channel access approaches is highly related on network load, and thus cell size and sensor density. Last, the influence of different cell planning ideas on expected costs are discussed.}, subject = {Datennetz}, language = {en} }