A Survey on the Contributions of Software-Defined Networking to Traffic Engineering

Since the appearance of OpenFlow back in 2008, software-defined networking (SDN) has gained momentum. Although there are some discrepancies between the standards developing organizations working with SDN about what SDN is and how it is defined, they all outline traffic engineering (TE) as a key application. One of the most common objectives of TE is the congestion minimization, where techniques such as traffic splitting among multiple paths or advanced reservation systems are used. In such a scenario, this manuscript surveys the role of a comprehensive list of SDN protocols in TE solutions, in order to assess how these protocols can benefit TE. The SDN protocols have been categorized using the SDN architecture proposed by the open networking foundation, which differentiates among data-controller plane interfaces, application-controller plane interfaces, and management interfaces, in order to state how the interface type in which they operate influences TE. In addition, the impact of the SDN protocols on TE has been evaluated by comparing them with the path computation element (PCE)-based architecture. The PCE-based architecture has been selected to measure the impact of SDN on TE because it is the most novel TE architecture until the date, and because it already defines a set of metrics to measure the performance of TE solutions. We conclude that using the three types of interfaces simultaneously will result in more powerful and enhanced TE solutions, since they benefit TE in complementary ways.European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (GN4) under Grant 691567 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the Secure Deployment of Services Over SDN and NFV-based Networks Project S&NSEC under Grant TEC2013-47960-C4-3-

Traffic Management Applications for Stateful SDN Data Plane

The successful OpenFlow approach to Software Defined Networking (SDN) allows network programmability through a central controller able to orchestrate a set of dumb switches. However, the simple match/action abstraction of OpenFlow switches constrains the evolution of the forwarding rules to be fully managed by the controller. This can be particularly limiting for a number of applications that are affected by the delay of the slow control path, like traffic management applications. Some recent proposals are pushing toward an evolution of the OpenFlow abstraction to enable the evolution of forwarding policies directly in the data plane based on state machines and local events. In this paper, we present two traffic management applications that exploit a stateful data plane and their prototype implementation based on OpenState, an OpenFlow evolution that we recently proposed.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figure

Arbitrary Packet Matching in OpenFlow

OpenFlow has emerged as the de facto control protocol to implement Software-Defined Networking (SDN). In its current form, the protocol specifies a set of fields on which it matches packets to perform actions, such as forwarding, discarding or modifying specific protocol header fields at a switch. The number of match fields has increased with every version of the protocol to extend matching capabilities, however, it is still not flexible enough to match on arbitrary packet fields which limits innovation and new protocol development with OpenFlow. In this paper, we argue that a fully flexible match structure is superior to continuously extending the number of fields to match upon. We use Berkeley Packet Filters (BPF) for packet classification to provide a protocol-independent, flexible alternative to today’s OpenFlow fixed match fields. We have implemented a prototype system and evaluated the performance of the proposed match scheme, with a focus on the time it takes to execute and the memory required to store different match filter specifications. Our prototype implementation demonstrates that line-rate arbitrary packet classification can be achieved with complex BPF programs

Matching model of flow table for networked big data

Networking for big data has to be intelligent because it will adjust data transmission requirements adaptively during data splitting and merging. Software-defined networking (SDN) provides a workable and practical paradigm for designing more efficient and flexible networks. Matching strategy in the flow table of SDN switches is most crucial. In this paper, we use a classification approach to analyze the structure of packets based on the tuple-space lookup mechanism, and propose a matching model of the flow table in SDN switches by classifying packets based on a set of fields, which is called an F-OpenFlow. The experiment results show that the proposed F-OpenFlow effectively improves the utilization rate and matching efficiency of the flow table in SDN switches for networked big data.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Deliverable DJRA1.2. Solutions and protocols proposal for the network control, management and monitoring in a virtualized network context

This deliverable presents several research proposals for the FEDERICA network, in different subjects, such as monitoring, routing, signalling, resource discovery, and isolation. For each topic one or more possible solutions are elaborated, explaining the background, functioning and the implications of the proposed solutions.This deliverable goes further on the research aspects within FEDERICA. First of all the architecture of the control plane for the FEDERICA infrastructure will be defined. Several possibilities could be implemented, using the basic FEDERICA infrastructure as a starting point. The focus on this document is the intra-domain aspects of the control plane and their properties. Also some inter-domain aspects are addressed. The main objective of this deliverable is to lay great stress on creating and implementing the prototype/tool for the FEDERICA slice-oriented control system using the appropriate framework. This deliverable goes deeply into the definition of the containers between entities and their syntax, preparing this tool for the future implementation of any kind of algorithm related to the control plane, for both to apply UPB policies or to configure it by hand. We opt for an open solution despite the real time limitations that we could have (for instance, opening web services connexions or applying fast recovering mechanisms). The application being developed is the central element in the control plane, and additional features must be added to this application. This control plane, from the functionality point of view, is composed by several procedures that provide a reliable application and that include some mechanisms or algorithms to be able to discover and assign resources to the user. To achieve this, several topics must be researched in order to propose new protocols for the virtual infrastructure. The topics and necessary features covered in this document include resource discovery, resource allocation, signalling, routing, isolation and monitoring. All these topics must be researched in order to find a good solution for the FEDERICA network. Some of these algorithms have started to be analyzed and will be expanded in the next deliverable. Current standardization and existing solutions have been investigated in order to find a good solution for FEDERICA. Resource discovery is an important issue within the FEDERICA network, as manual resource discovery is no option, due to scalability requirement. Furthermore, no standardization exists, so knowledge must be obtained from related work. Ideally, the proposed solutions for these topics should not only be adequate specifically for this infrastructure, but could also be applied to other virtualized networks.Postprint (published version

Dynamic resource management in SDN-based virtualized networks

Network virtualization allows for an abstraction between user and physical resources by letting a given physical infrastructure to be shared by multiple service providers. However, network virtualization presents some challenges, such as, efficient resource management, fast provisioning and scalability. By separating a network's control logic from the underlying routers and switches, software defined networking (SDN) promises an unprecedented simplification in network programmability, management and innovation by service providers, and hence, its control model presents itself as a candidate solution to the challenges in network virtualization. In this paper, we use the SDN control plane to efficiently manage resources in virtualized networks by dynamically adjusting the virtual network (VN) to substrate network (SN) mappings based on network status. We extend an SDN controller to monitor the resource utilisation of VNs, as well as the average loading of SN links and switches, and use this information to proactively add or remove flow rules from the switches. Simulations show that, compared with three state-of-art approaches, our proposal improves the VN acceptance ratio by about 40% and reduces VN resource costs by over 10%