An open testing framework for next-generation openflow switches

The deployment experience of OpenFlow support in production networks has highlighted variable limitations between network devices and vendors, while the recent integration of OpenFlow control abstractions in 10 GbE switches, increases further the performance requirements to support the switch control plane. This paper presents OFLOPS-Turbo, an effort to integrate OFLOPS, the OpenFlow switch evaluation platform, with OSNT, a hardware-accelerated traffic generation and capture system

OFLOPS-Turbo: Testing the next-generation OpenFlow switch

The heterogeneity barrier breakthrough achieved by the OpenFlow protocol is currently paced by the variability in performance semantics among network devices, which reduces the ability of applications to take complete advantage of programmable control. As a result, control applications remain conservative on performance requirements in order to be generalizable and trade performance for explicit state consistency in order to support varying performance behaviours. In this paper we argue that network control must be optimized towards network device capabilities and network managers and application developers must perform informed design decision using accurate switch performance profiles. This becomes highly critical for modern OpenFlow-enabled 10 GbE optical switches which significantly elevate switch performance requirements. We present OFLOPS-Turbo, the integration of the OFLOPS switch evaluation platform, with the OSNT platform, a hardware-accelerated traffic generation and capture system supporting lossless 10 GbE functionality. Using OFLOPS-Turbo, we conduct an evaluation of flow table manipulation capabilities in a representative collection of 10 GbE production OpenFlow switch devices and interpret the evolution of OpenFlow support by comparison with historical data.This work was jointly supported by the EPSRC INTERNET Project EP/H040536/1 and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), under contract FA8750-11- C-0249. The views, opinions, and/or findings contained in this article/presentation are those of the author/ presenter and should not be interpreted as representing the official views or policies, either expressed or implied, of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or the Department of Defense.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from IEEE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICC.2015.724921

Umbrella : A deployable SDN-enabled IXP switching fabric

Software Defined internet eXchange Points (SDXs) are a promising solution to the long-standing limitations and problems of interdomain routing. While proposed SDX architectures have improved the scalability of the control plane, these solutions have ignored the underlying fabric upon which they should be deployed. This work makes the case for a new fabric architecture that proposes stronger control and data plane separation

Inter-domain networking innovation on steroids: Empowering IXPs with SDN capabilities

While innovation in inter-domain routing has remained stagnant for over a decade, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) are consolidating their role as economically advantageous interconnection points for reducing path latencies and exchanging ever increasing amounts of traffic. As such, IXPs appear as a natural place to foster network innovation and assess the benefits of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), a recent technological trend that has already boosted innovation within data-center networks. In this paper, we give a comprehensive overview of use cases for SDN at IXPs, which leverage the superior vantage point of an IXP to introduce advanced features like load-balancing and DDoS mitigation. We discuss the benefits of SDN solutions by analyzing real-world data from one of the largest IXPs. We also leverage insights into IXP operations to not only shape benefits for members but also for operators.This research is (in part) supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ENDEAVOUR project (grant agreement 644960).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via https://doi.org/ 10.1109/MCOM.2016.758827

Rethinking IXPs' architecture in the age of SDN

© 2018 IEEE. Software-defined Internet eXchange points (SDXs) are a promising solution to the long-standing limitations and problems of interdomain routing. While the proposed SDX architectures have improved the scalability of the control plane, these solutions have ignored the underlying fabric upon which they should be deployed. In this paper, we present Umbrella, a software-defined interconnection fabric that complements and enhances those architectures. Umbrella is a switching fabric architecture and management approach that improves the overall robustness, limiting control plane dependence, and suitable for the topology of any existing Internet eXchange Point (IXP). We validate Umbrella through a real-world deployment on two production IXPs, TouSIX and NSPIXP-3, and demonstrate its use in practice, sharing our experience of the challenges faced

Bandwidth Measurements of ALM Trees for Content Distribution

The use of Application Level Multicast (ALM) is extremely promising for content distribution.F or these applications appropriate cost functions for deciding between different ALM tree configurations are required, and for these cost functions bandwidth measurement mechanisms are most likely to be important.Existing end-to-end measurement techniques cannot address several ALM and network topology scenarios. Enhancing existing techniques with cooperation mechanisms allows them to cope with the specificity of ALM, namely with transport link sharing.Sim ulation results indicate that these techniques can produce estimates with reasonable accuracy