Virtualization-based Evaluation of Backhaul Performance in Vehicular Applications

Next-generation networks, based on SDN and NFV, are expected to support a wide array of services, including vehicular safety applications. These services come with strict delay constraints, and our goal in this paper is to ascertain to which extent SDN/NFV-based networks are able to meet them. To this end, we build and emulate a vehicular collision detection system, using the popular Mininet and Docker tools, on a real-world topology with mobility information. Using different core network topologies and open-source SDN controllers, we measure (i) the delay with which vehicle beacons are processed and (ii) the as- sociated overhead and energy consumption. We find that we can indeed meet the latency constraints associated with vehicular safety applications, and that SDN controllers represent a moderate contribution to the overall energy con- sumption but a significant source of additional delay.