SDN Technology Overview

The network paradigm as we know it…

Control and Data Plane resides within Physical Device

Processing Plane

Where it runs How fast these processes run

Type of processes performed

Control Plane

Switch CPU In the order of thousands of packets

per second

Routing protocols (i.e. OSPF, IS-IS, BGP), Spanning Tree, SYSLOG, AAA (Authentication Authorization

Accounting), NDE (Netflow Data Export), CLI (Command Line interface), SNMP

Data Plane Dedicated Hardware

ASIC’s

Millions or Billions of packets per second

Layer 2 switching, Layer 3 (IPv4 | IPv6) switching, MPLS forwarding, VRF Forwarding, QOS (Quality of Service)

Marking, Classification, Policing, Netflow flow collection, Security Access Control Lists

Control Plane and Data PlaneTwo fundamental terms to begin understanding the concepts around SDN

Over the years…this network paradigm hasremained mostly intact…

SDN gained massive industry mindshare

Software defined networking (SDN) is an approach to building computer networks that separates and

abstracts elements of these systems

What is SDN?(per Wikipedia definition)

In other words…

In the SDN paradigm, not all processing happens inside the same

device

Where did this SDN “thing” come from?

Stanford University – Clean Slate Project

“…explore what kind of Internet we would design if we were to start with a clean slate and 20-30 years of hindsight.”

http://cleanslate.stanford.edu/

You might have noticed the Cisco Logo on the web page

Cisco provided some equipment early in the cycle to the research teamNamely a Catalyst 6500 and 3750 upon which some of the early work was done…

… Clean Slate led to the development of…

OpenFlow is a Layer 2 communications protocol that gives access to the forwarding plane of a network

switch or router over the network

What is Openflow?(per Wikipedia definition)

Four partsto Openflow

Openflow Controller CodeOF

AGENT

OFAGENT

OFAGENT

Openflow

Protocol

SERVER

Northbound API

App

App

App

Openflow Controller Code

SERVER

Central Administrationand Operations

point forNetwork Elements

Openflow Controller

SERVER

Northbound API

Openflow Controller | Northbound API

Northbound APIIntegral part of Controller

“Network enabled” application can make use of Northbound API to

request services from the network…

App

App

App

SERVER

OFAGENT

OFAGENT

OFAGENT

Openflow Device Agent

Agent runs on the network device

Agent receives instructions from Controller

Agent programs device tables

SERVER

Openflow Protocol

Openflow Protocol is…

“A mechanism for the Openflow Controller to communicate with

Openflow Agents…”

First lesson for today…

Openflow does not equal SDN

Openflow

SoftwareDefined

Networking

Openflow is one flavor of SDN

By the way,.. did you know?

Google have been using Openflow to drive their Wide Area Network since January 2011

Urs Holzle, Senior Vice President of Technology Infrastructure at Googlespeaking in a keynote at the

second annual Open Networking Summit (April 2012)

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4371179/Google-describes-its-OpenFlow-network

That was a pretty big statement…

…and somewhat validated Openflow as a viable technology in the SDN space

Who controls Openflow?

Non Profit ConsortiumDedicated to “the transformation of networks through SDN”

Mission to “commercialize and promote SDN…as a disruptive approach to networking…”

OPEN NETWORK FOUNDATION

Which companies make up the ONF?

ONF Board Members

Deutsche Telekom : Facebook : Goldman Sachs : YahooGoogle : Microsoft : NTT Communications : Verizon

ONF Members

6WINDA10 NetworksADVA Optical NetworkingAlcatel-LucentAricent GroupBig Switch NetworksBroadcomBrocadeCentec NetworksChina Mobile CienaCiscoCitrixCohesiveFTColtCompTIACyanDell/Force10ElbrysEricsson

ETRIExtreme NetworksEZchipF5France Telecom OrangeFreescaleFujitsuGigamonHitachiHPHuaweiIBMInfineraInfobloxIntelIP InfusionIxiaJuniper NetworksKDDIKorea Telecom

Level 3 CommunicationsLineRate SystemsLSILuxoftMarvellMellanoxMetaswitch NetworksMidokuraNCL CommunicationsNECNetgearNetronomeNetScout SystemsNokia Siemens NetworksNoviFlowOracleOverture NetworksPICA8Plexxi Inc.Qosmos

RadwareRiverbed TechnologySamsungSK TelecomSpirentSunbaySwisscomTail-f SystemsTelecom ItaliaTelefónicaTencentTexas InstrumentsThalesTransmodeTurk Telekom / ArgelaVello SystemsVerisignVMware/NiciraXpliantZTE Corporation

The moral of this story is

The “Network Paradigm”……is being challenged

What is…

Overlay Networks

You start with a Physical Switch Network

Physical Devices and Physical Connections

Overlay

Then you add an overlay

Overlay provides base for logical network

Logical “switch” devices overlay the physical

network

Underlying physical network carries data traffic

for overlay network

Overlay Network #1

They define their own topology

Multiple “overlay” networks can co-exist at

the same time

Overlays provides logical network constructs for different

tenants (customers)

Overlay Network #1

Overlay Network #2

Main Benefit of Overlays?

Overlay Network can be created and torn down without changing underlying physical network

What about Openstack?Where does that fit in?

Openstack is an IAAS (Infrastructure As A Service) cloud computing project

It is also referred to as a Cloud Operating System

“…provides a means to control (administer) compute, storage, network and virtualization technologies…”

To understand IAAS, let us first, let us define Cloud Computing…

Network

Storage

Compute

Users

Cloud Computing provides a set of resources and services through the internet

What are these resources?

At a more detailed level, there are many resources inside the cloud

Applications

Runtimes

Databases

Servers

Security

Virtualization Storage

Networking

Private Cloud

What resources you manage inside the cloud defines the following…

Infrastructure as a Service

(IAAS)

Platform as a Service (PAAS)

Software as a Service (SAAS)

How do these differ from one another?

Applications

Runtimes

Databases

Servers

Security

Virtualization

Storage

Networking

Private Cloud

Infrastructure as a Service

(IAAS)

Platform as a Service(PAAS)

Software as a Service(SAAS)

Applications

Runtimes

Databases

Servers

Security

Virtualization

Storage

Networking

Applications

Runtimes

Databases

Servers

Security

Virtualization

Storage

Networking

Applications

Runtimes

Databases

Servers

Security

Virtualization

Storage

Networking

Managed by YouManaged by Vendor

Applications

With IAAS, compute, storage, networking and virtualization resources are managed by the Vendor (this

defines them as an IAAS provider)

Runtimes

Databases

Servers

Security

Virtualization Storage

Networking

Managed by YouManaged by Vendor

Openstack lets the provider manage these resources

Servers

Virtualization Storage

Networking

What is OpenDaylight?• OpenDaylight is an open source project formed by industry leaders and others under the

Linux Foundation with the mutual goal of furthering the adoption and innovation of Software Defined Networking (SDN) through the creation of a common vendor supported framework.

Platinum Gold Silver

Draft Project Daylight Framework

Network Programmability Models

Control Plane

Data Plane

Controller

Data Plane

Applications

Vendor-specific APIs

OpenFlow

2a Classic SDN

VendorSpecific(e.g. onePK)

Controller

Data Plane

Applications

Vendor-specific APIs

OpenFlow

Control Plane

2b Hybrid “SDN”

Applications

Virtual Control Plane

Virtual Data Plane

OverlayProtocols(e.g. VXLAN)

Vendor-specific APIs

3 Network Overlays

Control Plane

Data Plane

Vendor-specific APIs

Applications

1 Programmable APIs

Control Plane

Data Plane

VendorSpecific(e.g. onePK)

VendorSpecific(e.g. onePK)

OpenStack and Network Overlays Apply to All Models (Physical/Virtual)

CLI, SNMP, Netflow, …

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