OpenFlow and Software Defined Networking

presented by Greg Ferro

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

would like to thank Greg Ferro and Ivan Pepelnjak for giving us the
opportunity to sponsor to this educational webinar on OpenFlow
and SDN, technologies core to our offering.
More information at: www.bigswitch.com

Contact us at: contact@bigswitch.com

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Customized webinars
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Inter-DC
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CONTROLLERS
AND
SOFTWARE DEFINED
NETWORKING
71

REALITY CHECK
[OpenFlow] doesnt let
you do anything you
couldnt do on a network
before - Scott Shenker

Frames are still forwarded,

packets are delivered to
hosts.
Its still early stage
technology but commercial
products are shipping

You dont need OpenFlow

to solve every age-old
problem. - Ivan Pepelnjak

72

BACKTRACK
Today, your Routing
Protocols / STP determine
the Forwarding Table in
your network.

Switch OS handles device

management and operations.
STP, TRILL, OSPF, BGP
MIGHT be used.

OpenFlow is another
method for configuring the
Forwarding table in the
Network Switch

OpenFlow describes a
solution for each frame or
packet flow
Wildcards provide granular
control to suit
73

CONTROLLER

Se
rve

pe

nF

lo
w

rs

Sw
i

tch

Co
ntr
oll

er
74

es

The controller will need to derive the desired forwarding

data in software,
Then send OpenFlow messages to update the Forwarding
Table in the device.
The messages can add, update or delete entries in the
Forwarding table.

75

Sv
rA

FLOW PATH
O
pe

nF

lo
w

Se
rve
rs

Co

ntr
o

lle

76

Sv
rB

SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING

A controller is a software
program that sends and
receives OpenFlow from
network devices.

Because the controller

must compute the flow
paths in software this is
usually known as
SOFTWARE DEFINED
NETWORKING

The controller sends

OpenFlow entries for the
forwarding table

Abbreviated to SDN

77

CONTROLLER CONCEPTS
Controller drives a level of network convergence that was
previously unimaginable.
Consider changing all the configuration on your network
to support new network path every 10 minutes ?
Todays tools cannot do that.
SNMP cant do configuration. CLI programming is too
diverse between vendors (and no standards will ever
solve that). See RFC3535.
78

CONTROLLER WEAKNESS
If routing is negatives, so
do controllers.

Transaction ability of
controller, device in
relation to service
required.

Bandwidth between
controller and device.
Controller availability and
reliability. (stability)

79

CONTROLLER
ARCHITECTURES
5 minutes
( Please wash hands )

80

CENTRALIZED OR DISTRIBUTED
Controller
Active

Device

Controller
Standby

Device

Device

81

Device

DISTRIBUTED
Controller Signalling

Controller

Device

Device

Controller

Device

Controller

Device

82

Device

Device

MULTILAYER
Controller

Controller

Controller

Controller

Controller

Controller

Controller

Device

Device

Device

Device

Device

Device

83

DEVIATION: DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING

Distributed computing
WAS a major challenge

Companies - Google,
Amazon et al.

In the last five years, major

developments in the
delivery and management

Distributed Controllers are

likely in the longer term.
Big Data controllers
further out.

Application examples:
Hadoop, MongoDB, blah blah big
data fashion of today

84

SNMP / NMS
We have form a SDN today
in Network Management
Systems.

RFC3535 agreed that The

SNMP transactional model
and the protocol constraints
make it more complex to
implement MIBs, as
compared to the
implementation of
commands of a command
line interface interpreter

SNMP works for simple data

such as counters & status.
SNMP is agreed to be
unusable for configuration
The SNMP/SMI/ASN.1 suite
describes data formats and
protocol interactions.
85

SNMP / NMS
SNMP does not support
easy retrieval and playback
of configurations

There is often a semantic

mismatch between the
task-oriented view of the
world usually preferred by
operators and the datacentric view of the world
provided by SNMP.

There are scaling

problems with regard to
the number of objects in a
device.

86

Sv
rA

APPS & CONTROLLER

Se
r
Fl
pe
n
O

For SDN, the

controller is
usually regarded
as the software
element that
interfaces to the
network devices.

ow

ver
s

Co
ntr
o

lle
r
87

Sv
rB

APPS & CONTROLLERS

al ion
rtu at
Vi igur
nf
Co

PF

Apps run on the

controller to provide
usable services

P
BG

OS

In practice, the
controller is an
platform or an API for
sending and receiving
data from the Network

Controller - APIs, Core Software,

Common Code etc

88

APPS
BigSwitch has open
sourced their FloodLight
OpenFlow Controller. (http://

BGP Route Server for

interop with existing
BGP Cores. (RouteFlow)

floodlight.openflowhub.org/

MPLS Edge (Ericsson)

Foundation of a
commercial controller that
is a basis for their Network
Virtualisation App.
Other App under
development:

Firewalls / Security
Flow Balancing
(FlowScale) LoadBal,
Security,

build a large cluster of Snort

servers and balance all of our
mirrored traffic from several
routers across the cluster.

89

ECOSYSTEM
User
Presentation
Layer

CLI

Management
Protocol
Physical
Network

SSH / Telnet

Device

Device

Device

90

Device

Device

ECOSYSTEM (CONT.)
User
Presentation
Layer

Presentation Layer
Configuration Manager, Asset Management,
Automation, User Interface, Operational
APIs etc

CLI

SNMP

SSH / Telnet

Management
Protocol
Physical
Network

Device

Device

91

Device

Device

Device

Application

Controller

App
[LoadBal]

App
[Firewall]

App
[Routing]

Existing Network Management Systems

App
[Switch/L2]

Open
Controller
Vendor
Controller

Management
Protocol
Physical
Network

OpenFlow

Device

CLI

SSH /
Telnet

SNMP

Device

Device

92

Device

Device

ECOSYSTEM (Cont.)

Presentation Layer
Configuration Manager, Asset Management, Automation, User Interface,
Operational APIs etc

Application
App
[Switch/L2]

App
[LoadBal]

App
[Firewall]

There are other

standards

App
[Routing]

OpenFlow is
Controller

Open
Controller
Vendor
Controller

Management
Protocol
Physical
Network

OpenFlow

Device

NetConf
/Yang

Device

Vendor /
Proprietary
XML APIs

Device

Device

Device

ECOSYSTEM (Cont.)

Presentation Layer
Configuration Manager, Asset Management, Automation, User Interface,
Operational APIs etc

93

Cloudy
Devops

OpenStack

VMware
vCenter /
MS SCVMM

Custom
Automation

Presentation Layer
Configuration Manager, Asset Management, Automation, User Interface,
Operational APIs etc

Application
CLI

Controller

App
[LoadBal]

App
[Firewall]

Existing Network Management Systems

App
[Switch/L2]

App
[Routing]

Open
Controller
Vendor
Controller

Management
Protocol
Physical
Network

OpenFlow

Device

NetConf
/Yang

Device

Vendor /
Proprietary
XML APIs

Device

SSH /
Telnet

SNMP

Device

Device

94

ECOSYSTEM (Cont.)

User
Presentation
Layer

You can find more information about our company and our offering
at www.bigswitch.com
Our open source solutions are posted at www.openflowhub.org
If you have any further question please do not hesitate to contact us
at: contact@bigswitch.com

114

THANKS
http://packetpushers.net
http://www.bigswitch.com
http://ipspace.net

116