Software Defined Networks
Abstract
Software defined networking is a new concept that redefined the current network device architecture and the way they behave. Due to the exponential growth of the Internet and services attached to this worldwide infrastructure, a number of issues have cropped up in modern day networks. This paper discusses a few of these limitations and how the software defined networking approach tries to alleviate them. OpenFlow, released in the year 2008, is a commercially viable implementation of this concept that is being well received by the networking industry at large. The paper also discusses the OpenFlow protocol, its implementation and the challenges facing its widespread acceptance
1. Introduction
Evolution of computer networks has traditionally been much slower than other fields of computer engineering. The primary reason for this trend has been the vertical integration of current network equipment. Almost all of today’s routers, switches and other network equipment consists of a fast switching hardware controlled by an operating system and applications built on top of it. Most network equipment vendors have their own proprietary operating system and implementation of various processes like Open Shortest Path First (OSFP), DHCP Snooping, etc and other router management functions. This vendor lock-in stifles innovation, as any implementations of new algorithms have to be approved by the vendors before it can be implemented on a commercial scale.
Further, the current processes for standardization of any new protocols are glacial at best. The candidate protocols have to be approved by a numerous standards organizations and manufacturers before they are accepted as a standard. This could take any where up to ten years or more, by which time the technology would have changed dramatically. This situation can be seen in the facts like TCP/IP and other Internet protocols have not changed since its inception and even though IPv6 was
Software defined networking is a new concept that redefined the current network device architecture and the way they behave. Due to the exponential growth of the Internet and services attached to this worldwide infrastructure, a number of issues have cropped up in modern day networks. This paper discusses a few of these limitations and how the software defined networking approach tries to alleviate them. OpenFlow, released in the year 2008, is a commercially viable implementation of this concept that is being well received by the networking industry at large. The paper also discusses the OpenFlow protocol, its implementation and the challenges facing its widespread acceptance
1. Introduction
Evolution of computer networks has traditionally been much slower than other fields of computer engineering. The primary reason for this trend has been the vertical integration of current network equipment. Almost all of today’s routers, switches and other network equipment consists of a fast switching hardware controlled by an operating system and applications built on top of it. Most network equipment vendors have their own proprietary operating system and implementation of various processes like Open Shortest Path First (OSFP), DHCP Snooping, etc and other router management functions. This vendor lock-in stifles innovation, as any implementations of new algorithms have to be approved by the vendors before it can be implemented on a commercial scale.
Further, the current processes for standardization of any new protocols are glacial at best. The candidate protocols have to be approved by a numerous standards organizations and manufacturers before they are accepted as a standard. This could take any where up to ten years or more, by which time the technology would have changed dramatically. This situation can be seen in the facts like TCP/IP and other Internet protocols have not changed since its inception and even though IPv6 was
References: 1. Cariden Technologies. "Infrastructure SDN with Cariden Technologies." 2012. 2. Foundation, Open Networking. "Software Defined Networking: The new norm for networking." April 2012. 3. Mehra, Rohit. "Designing And Building a DataCenter Network: An alternative approach with OpenFlow." Jan 2012. 4. Nicira. Network Virtualisation Platform. n.d. 5. Nick McKeon, Tom Anderson, Hari Balkrishnan. "Openflow: Enabling Innovation in Campus Networks." March 2008 6. Open Networking Foundation. "OpenFlow Switch Specification version 1.1." Feb 2011. Retreived from www.openflow.org 7. Rob Sherwood, Saurav Das, Yiannis Yiakoumis. "OpenFlow in Service Provider Networks." Oct 2010. 8. Technology, IBM Systems and. "Software Defined Networking: A new paradigm for virtual, dynamic, and flexible networking." (2012).