Achieving Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) in Next-Generation Cellular Networks with Programmable Data Planes

Recent advancements in wireless technologies towards the next-generation cellular networks have brought a new era that made it possible to apply cellular technology on traditionally-wired networks with tighter requirements, such as industrial networks. The next-generation cellular technologies (e.g., 5G and Beyond) introduce the concept of ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). This thesis presents a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) architecture with programmable data planes for the next-generation cellular networks to achieve URLLC. Our design deploys programmable switches between the cellular core and Radio Access Networks (RAN) to monitor and modify data traffic at the line speed. We introduce the concept of \textit{intra-cellular optimization}, a relaxation in cellular networks to allow pre-authorized in-network devices to communicate without being required to signal the core network. We also present a control structure, Unified Control Plane (UCP), containing a novel Ethernet Layer control protocol and an adapted version of link-state routing information distribution among the programmable switches. Our implementation uses P4 with an 5G implementation (Open5Gs) and a UE/RAN simulator. We implement a Python simulator to evaluate the performance of our system on multi-switch topologies by simulating the switch behavior. Our evaluation indicates latency reduction up to 2x with \textit{intra-cellular optimization} compared to the conventional architecture. We show that our design has a ten-millisecond level of control latency, and achieves fine-grained network security and monitoring.