Orchestrating 5G Network Slicing by Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization

With the ongoing transition to Industry 4.0, which aims for an increase in the interconnectivity of equipment and smart automation of processes, 5G networks become a good candidate for increasing the interconnectivity and communication speed of mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in industrial environments. However, many applications that involve components’ health monitoring and use of decision-making via machine learning require a time-sensitive, high throughput, and reliable transfer of critical data between devices for correct operability. Moreover, Industry 4.0 also aims for an increase in the integration between operational technology (OT) systems in industrial sites and information technology (IT) systems in the enterprise. This convergence can create potential pathways for lateral movement by cyber-threat actors and impacts the operability of both environments.

Network slicing becomes a useful tool to attend to the cybersecurity and timely data availability needs as a single network can be broken into others to destinate the kinds of data transferred through each partition and have rapid access to them while mitigating possible massive cyberattacks. Still, it becomes expensive when doing this process by having actual hardware dedicated to each partition. In this project, we orchestrate the 5G network slicing of a SCADA-based industrial environment by using a software-defined (SDN) architecture and network function virtualization (VNF) through Open Source MANO (OSM) in a cloud-based environment to meet the networking needs of having critical data ready for rapid components’ health monitoring and decision making via data analysis through distributed machine learning.

Using NFV technology to virtualize firewalls and load balancers and an SDN to have a programmable networking infrastructure allows a flexible environment to slice the proposed 5G network. However, this methodology can be used to deploy any network topology in an agile, secure, and cost-effective way as only one machine is required to host this solution to decentralize multiple networks. Moreover, by having a platform that supports the representation of Network Slice Templates (NSTs) and the use of Network Service Descriptors (NSDs) to specify the virtual network functions (VNFs), the network slicing can be orchestrated for this process to be automated, scalable, and easy to manage.

To increase the management capabilities of the solution’s computing and network resources, OpenStack became the technology to use for the deployment of a private cloud to host the virtual machine (VM) in charge of running OSM and leverage two components that help in the management of resources: Neutron for networking and Compute for VM management. By combining OSM and OpenStack, we can create a powerful and flexible cloud-based environment to orchestrate network slicing and accomplish the real-time networking needs of having the components’ health and field-sensed data ready for accurate and timely anomalous event detection by doing data analysis through distributed machine learning to ensure the industrial site’s operability and security of the enterprise from the roots.