SDN-based Multimedia Content Delivery in 5G MmWave Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Networks

The outcomes in terms of very high data rates, low latencies, almost full-time availability and wide coverages promised by the fifth generation (5G) networking technology should cope with the increasing customers demand for high quality multimedia content and services. The attempt to fulfill 5G pledges has seen the move to explore other groundbreaking technologies. These will include, among the others, the exploitation of millimeterwave (mmWave) bandwidths in both satellite and terrestrial communications, the novel paradigm of Software Defined Networking (SDN), the use of smart satellite gateways, etc. This paper aims at proposing an SDN-based seamless integration of ultra-broadband short-range wireless network segments, namely information showers with fixed fiber-based terrestrial network infrastructures for internetworking and mmWave geostationary satellite links in order to provide multi-gigabit multimedia content delivery to nomadic users. The impact of different parameters (including tropospheric conditions, latency and technical faults) on network performance have been fully appreciated by means of realistic emulations in Mininet environment. Preliminary results evidenced the clear advantages in terms of increased throughput and reduced latencies of the proposed SDN-based approach.