1. IEEE ICC ‘16
Dynamic M2M Device Attachment and Redirection in Virtual Home Gateway Environments
Apostolos Papageorgiou, NEC Labs Europe
Roberto Bifulco, NEC Labs Europe
Ernoe Kovacs, NEC Labs Europe
Hans-Joerg Kolbe, Deutsche Telekom AG

2. Background: Virtual Home Gateway
USB Ethernet
WiFi
ZigBee
Bluetooth
UPnP ……
Operator‘s
Backend System
HGW
Network
Protocol
M2M devices
M2M devices’
drivers
The complexity of the Home Gateway (HGW) is an issue
More expensive (CAPEX)
More difficult to operate (OPEX)
More difficult to troubleshoot (OPEX)
More components can fail (OPEX)
More components need update (OPEX)

3. Background: Virtual Home Gateway
USB Ethernet
WiFi
ZigBee
Bluetooth
UPnP ……
Operator‘s
Backend System
HGW
Network
Protocol
M2M devices
M2M devices’
drivers
USB Ethernet
WiFi
ZigBee
Bluetooth
UPnP ……
Operator‘s
Backend System
Bridged
Residential
Gateway
Network
Protocol
vGW
Minimalized M2M Anchor
Protocol
Virtualization
M2M devices
M2M devices’
drivers

4. Challenges and Opportunities
Device attachment
The M2M anchor does not know the device
Drivers/Operating system compatibility issues
Protocol virtualization
The selection of the backend server is pre-configured
The selection of the backend server is static
The device’s communication flow cannot be easily identified at the network level
Several “servers” to handle one home’s devices
Decoupling the physical attachment point from the logical mounting point
Support scalability

5. Virtualized access to M2M devices
M2M anchor S/W Incl.:
Virtualization S/W, e.g., USB virt. client
M2M server config
Device-to-port mapper
Network Controller 1
...
SDN
M2M 2 3
Virtualized access, e.g.,
with USB virtualization
M2M Access Manager
vGW
vGW
.....
M2M
Srv. A
Minimalized M2M Anchor
M2M Access Manager
vGW
vGW
M2M
Srv. B
......
.....
Network infr.,
e.g., OpenFlow
switches n
M2M Access Manager
Minimalized M2M Anchor
vGW
vGW
M2M
Srv. N
.....
Servers or VMs

6. High-level process for mounting M2M devices
M2M anchor
NW switch
NW controller
M2M servers
Generate
constant port number
for this device 1
Setup virtualized connection based on the M2M anchor‘s „server configuration“ 2 1
Inform upon failure
Decide
If able to
mount 2 2
Find capable server / VM
Add re-direction rule 3
(Device traffic)
(Possibly redirected device traffic) 3
(Device traffic)
(Possibly redirected device traffic)
(Device traffic)
(Possibly redirected device traffic)

7. 1. M2M anchor „device attachment logic“
This source port is maintained for any communication originated from the device and destined to the M2M server;
Different devices MUST have different source port numbers.
M2M anchor S/W Incl.:
Virtualization S/W, e.g., USB virt. client
M2M server config
Device-to-port mapper
M2M
Devices X
Device-to-port mapper Y
Minimalized M2M Anchor Z
Device
Src Port
X (USB)
4550
Y (Eth)
5001
Z (USB)
4551
...
Virt. technology
Port range
USB
Ethernet
...
Enables the identification of the network flows related to a device
without requiring DPI (Deep Packet Inspection)
providing additional „lightweight“ info about its virtualization technology

8. 2. Troubleshooting & negotiation of device mounting
If an M2M server fails to mount a device that was just plugged in, the M2M Access Manager is informed
The M2M access manager triggers an M2M server selection logic in the network controller (implicit information about the virtualization technology is provided via the port number)
The selection logic selects a different M2M server according to information provided and based on additional constraints (e.g., server load, type, etc.)
The selection decision is then transferred to the SDN controller
Server info table
USB virt.
Ethernet virt.
... virt.
Load / Stats
Drivers info
10.X.X.1 ✘ ✔
...
10.X.X.2 3
I cannot handle incoming packets from X.X.X.X:4551
Network Controller
...
SDN
M2M 4 2
10.X.X.1
Attempt to mount newly attached device
M2M Access Manager 1
vGW
vGW
.....
The software stack of the M2M server informs directly the network about its ability to handle the connection from a given device

9. 3. SDN-based configuration of M2M traffic
Network Controller
The SDN controller instructs the switch to forward any packet destined to the M2M server address to an actual M2M server (Translating from the IP address configured in the M2M anchor into the M2M server real IP address)
The SDN rule redirects the flows related to a device (identified using the SRC Port) to the newly selected M2M server
...
SDN
SRC IP
DST IP
SRC Port
DST port
Action
Any
1111
- Set DST IP =
- Fw-to-M2M srv. B Port
M2M Anchor
4550
- Set DST IP =
The network is able to selectively redirect a network flow related to a given device attached to a given M2M Anchor

10. Alternatives No one-size-fits-all solution
Usually a trade-off between flexibility/costs/complexity

11. Conclusion
A solution for attaching M2M devices in a Virtual Home Gateway environment
Virtual Home Gateways are starting to be deployed this year
More relevant in future with IoT growth
No one-size-fits-all solution
But if an SDN network is available, many advantages can be combined
And now… what about applications?