Digital Convergence is the bringing together of communications, information, media and transactions from multiple service providers, across multiple network infrastructures and delivery to any device. This should be done in a way that offers a consistent service experience regardless of a user's location.
This module will begin with the definition and description of converged networks and services and identify current and emerging services and network architectures. The introduction will also include an overview of the key next-generation network architectures that are being deployed today.
The course will dive into programable and virtualized networks, as key enablers in connecting the Internet of Things (IoT) for digital transformation. To this end, the course will introduce principles of software-defined networking and network function virtualization. It will then introduce principles of service cloudification and networking, including service mesh.
In order to understand the design of any network, it is important to understand the service characteristics in terms of customer usage patterns and traffic behaviour; these fundamentally determine the desired Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and ultimately the network and service architectures. Ensuring satisfactory user experience for multiple services will be addressed in detail by means of various Quality-of-Service (QoS) mechanisms.
When a user is mobile and traversing multiple networks and administrative domains, ensuring a seamless service is a demanding task that requires the convergence of fixed and mobile networks. An overview of the problems and proposed solutions will be described, focusing on the 5G architecture and how it employs network programmability/virtualization. The course will conclude with a clean-slate future Internet architecture called Information Centric Networking (ICN) that can go beyond the current IP networks.
The content of this module is relevant to IP Networking Principles covered in CE707. If CE707 is an option in your course structure then we strongly recommend choosing this option to take in conjunction with CE709.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Understand and describe a converged network architecture.
- Define a network specification for converged services (e.g. voice, video and data).
- Understand the design process of a converged network.
- Understand principles of network programmability and virtualization
- Discuss methods of implementing QoS strategies and service management.
- Module Supervisor: Mays Al-Naday