The introduction of SDN in IP backbones requires the coexistence of regular
IP forwarding and SDN based forwarding. The former is typically applied to best
effort Internet traffic, the latter can be used for different types of advanced
services (VPNs, Virtual Leased Lines, Traffic Engineering...). In this paper we
first introduce the architecture and the services of an "hybrid" IP/SDN
networking scenario. Then we describe the design and implementation of an Open
Source Hybrid IP/SDN (OSHI) node. It combines Quagga for OSPF routing and Open
vSwitch for OpenFlow based switching on Linux. The availability of tools for
experimental validation and performance evaluation of SDN solutions is
fundamental for the evolution of SDN. We provide a set of open source tools
that allow to facilitate the design of hybrid IP/SDN experimental networks,
their deployment on Mininet or on distributed SDN research testbeds and their
test. Finally, using the provided tools, we evaluate key performance aspects of
the proposed solutions. The OSHI development and test environment is available
in a VirtualBox VM image that can be downloaded.Comment: Final version (Last updated August, 2014