OVS – DPDK on Openstack Newton

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In this tutorial we will show detailed instructions and debugging info, in order to deploy a DPDK enabled OVS on an Openstack Newton environment, on Ubuntu 16.04.

First and foremost you must have a working Openstack Newton environment with OVS networking.

Secondly you need to have a DPDK enabled OVS, built and running on your system.

The easy way to do that is to just download and configure the official package.

Following these instructions:

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/using-open-vswitch-with-dpdk-on-ubuntu

sudo apt-get install openvswitch-switch-dpdk
sudo update-alternatives --set ovs-vswitchd /usr/lib/openvswitch-switch-dpdk/ovs-vswitchd-dpdk

This will install the ovs with dpdk in it. But we also need to add some parameters to the configuration files, and also enable it.

However, before that we need to build DPDK and reserve some hugepages in order to make it run successfully.

The easiest way I have found to do so is, download the DPDK source from dpdk.org, and then run the ./<DPDK-dir>/tools/dpdk-setup.sh

Then select the reserve hugepages option and enter the number. (For us it was 4096 x 2MB hugepages).

Now it is time to configure our OVS files

at the /etc/default/openvswitch-switch, an example configuration would be:

DPDK_OPTS='--dpdk -c 0x3 -n 4 --socket-mem 512 --vhost-owner libvirt-qemu:kvm --vhost-perm 0660'

SIDENOTE: The vhost-perm parameter is very important, as it may lead to a permission denied error in kvm, when binding the port to the VM

So one more thing needs to be configured at the /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

You need to set:

user = "root"
group = "root"

Then as OVS is running exectute this command:

ovs-vsctl --no-wait set Open_vSwitch . other_config:dpdk-init=true

And then restart the ovs service.

service openvswitch-switch restart.

Check the logs to see the successful execution

You should see something like this at the /var/log/openvswitch/ovs-vswitchd.log:

dpdk|INFO|DPDK Enabled, initializing
dpdk|INFO|No vhost-sock-dir provided - defaulting to /var/run/openvswitch
dpdk|INFO|EAL ARGS: ovs-vswitchd --socket-mem 1024,0 -c 0x00000001
dpdk|INFO|DPDK pdump packet capture enabled
ofproto_dpif|INFO|netdev@ovs-netdev: Datapath supports recirculation
ofproto_dpif|INFO|netdev@ovs-netdev: MPLS label stack length probed as 3

One cause of failure would occur if someone does not reserve sufficient hugepages, or does not fill the configuration files correctly.

From then on, the Openstack part remains to be configured

Now comes the first tricky part. Most guides state that you need to configure the tag [OVS] at the ml2_conf.ini, like this:

[OVS]
datapath_type=netdev
vhostuser_socket_dir=/var/run/openvswitch

what they fail to state is that at the Newton release you need to change the /etc/neutron/plugins/ml2/openvswitch_agent.ini , which overwrites the ml2_conf.ini .

Once OVS is correctly configured with DPDK support, vhost-user interfaces are completely transparent to the guest. However, guests must request large pages. This can be done through flavors. For example:

openstack flavor set m1.large –property hw:mem_page_size=large

At last we are ready to setup and boot a DPDK-port enabled VM.

We can boot it through an already created network, or create a new network.

VITAL NFV Manager

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In the framework of the EC-funded research project VITAL, MediaNet lab presented at EC premises during the second review meeting, the v2.0 of the VITAL NFV Manager: A lightweight NFV Orchestrator, capable of composing, deploying, instantiating and managing a Virtual Satellite Network (i.e. a Network Service which includes beyond the terrestrial VNFs, also virtualised Satellite Network Functions). The v2.0 of the NFV Manager has been upgraded with a graphical user interface, which provides resource monitoring per NFVI-PoP of the NFV infrastructure and per instantiated Network Service/Virtual Satellite Network.

The NFV Manager is compatible with the Openstack CCP and Opendaylight Platform, and the has been developed utilizing the Meteor Framework, Javascript and Python. For the needs of the satellite components the OpenSAND emulator platform has been integrated.

The following figures present some screenshots from the monitoring dashboard of the NFV Manager and the NS.VSN composition tool.

NFV Manager Dashboard

1

NS/VSN Composition by NFV Manager

2

A basic version of the NFV Manager is planned to be released as opensource.

 

Opendaylight (Helium) – Openstack (Juno) integration for NFVI implementation

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In the frame of the EU funded ICT T-NOVA Project, Medianetlab will host one of the project’s pilot sites. The project has presented an initial reference demonstrator architecture based on the integration of Openstack and Opendaylight constituting the Virtualised Infrastructure Manager for the Network Function VIrtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI. The first take on T-NOVA high-level architecture of the project is presented in the public deliverable D2.21.

Reference NFVI-PoP architecture

Reference NFVI-PoP architecture

Medianetlab provides lessons learned and guidelines used for the appropriate deployment from scratch of ODL, plus Openstack over Ubuntu using GRE networking. The setup and the details of the deployment setup and configurations used are available here.

 

 

MNL presented a study on the effects of Video Transcoding Parameters on Event Detection for Surveillance Systems

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Dr. Emmanouil Kafetzakis presented a full paper at IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia (ISM), held at Anaheim Marriott Hotel, California, U.S.A., 9-11 December 2013.
The ISM conference is an international forum for researchers to exchange information regarding advances in the state of the art and practice of multimedia computing, as well as to identify the emerging research topics and define the future of multimedia computing.
The paper, entitled “The Impact of Video Transcoding Parameters on Event Detection for Surveillance Systems”, explains the need for transcoding and studies different video quality metrics. Commonly used algorithms for motion and person detection are briefly described, with emphasis in investigating the optimum transcoding configuration parameters. The analysis of the experimental results reveals that the existing video quality metrics are not suitable for automated systems, and that the detection of persons is affected by the reduction of bit rate and resolution, while motion detection is more sensitive to frame rate.
The paper was co-authored by C. Xilouris (NCSRD), M. A. Kourtis (NCSRD), M. Nieto (Vicomtech), I. Jargalsaikhan (Dublin City University), and S. Little (Dublin City University).
The conference proceedings will be published by the IEEE.

MNL Introduces the Network Cost Concept in FIArch Workshop

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Media Networks Laboratory presented a position paper entitled “Network Cost Services for Network-Aware FI Applications” in FIArch Workshop on “Internet Architectural Research: Projects Results and Gap Analysis”, Brussels 27 Sept. 2012. Read more

MNL study unveils 14 Mbps of additional wireless capacity per citizen unleashed via TV “White Space” exploitation

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TV “White Spaces” (TVWS) are locally underutilized portions of the terrestrial TV bands and occur as a by-product of the Digital Switchover. Thanks to the very good characteristics of the TV bands in terrestrial radio communications, the exploitation of TVWS for license-exempt networking, under a carefully established regulatory framework, is a very attractive perspective.
Read more

Novel IPTV functionalities over IMS

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New functionalities in IPTV over IMS architecture were developed, which optimize satisfaction of the end-user and resource utilization of the operator’s networks. Read more in the paper entitled “Adaptive IPTV services based on a novel IP Multimedia Subsystem“, accepted for publication at Int. J. of Multimedia Tools and Application, Springer.

Reference architecture developed for correlating Network- and Perceived-QoS

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In the frame of ICT ADAMANTIUM project, a reference architecture and a prototype system was developed for correlating network- and perceived-Quality of Service in Video Delivery Networks. Read more in the paper entitled “Joint Assessment of Network- and Perceived-QoS in Video Delivery Networks“, accepted for publication at Int. J. of Telecommunication Systems, Springer.