Performance Evaluation of Next-Generation Data Plane Architectures and their Components

Modern services like video conferencing, video streaming or cloud gaming, but also technologies like the Internet of Things, are all relying on the availability of reliable, high speed network connectivity. The resulting requirements imposed on the underlying network infrastructure are highly complex, leading to the emergence of network softwarization with its instances Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). In this work, we develop mechanisms to assess the performance of software-based network components and architectures by means of measurements, simulation and numerical analysis. We develop tools and concepts to monitor, evaluate and optimize the performance of both single network components and complex interconnected systems.