SDN Technology Overview

The network paradigm as we know it…

Control and Data Plane resides within Physical Device

How fast these processes run Type of processes performed 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 Plane Two fundamental terms to begin understanding the concepts around SDN

this network paradigm has remained mostly intact… Over the years… this network paradigm has remained mostly intact…

SDN gained massive industry mindshare

(per Wikipedia definition) What is SDN? (per Wikipedia definition) Software defined networking (SDN) is an approach to building computer networks that separates and abstracts elements of these systems

In the SDN paradigm, not all processing happens inside the same device 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 team Namely a Catalyst 6500 and 3750 upon which some of the early work was done…

… Clean Slate led to the development of…

(per Wikipedia definition) What is Openflow? (per Wikipedia definition) OpenFlow is a Layer 2 communications protocol that gives access to the forwarding plane of a network switch or router over the network

Openflow Controller Code App App App Openflow Protocol Four parts to Openflow Northbound API Openflow Controller Code OF AGENT SERVER OF AGENT OF AGENT

Openflow Controller Central Administration and Operations point for Network Elements Openflow Controller Code SERVER Openflow Controller

Integral part of Controller App App App Northbound API Integral part of Controller “Network enabled” application can make use of Northbound API to request services from the network… Northbound API SERVER Openflow Controller | Northbound API

Openflow Device Agent Agent runs on the network device Agent receives instructions from Controller Agent programs device tables OF AGENT SERVER OF AGENT OF AGENT Openflow Device Agent

Openflow Protocol Openflow Protocol is… “A mechanism for the Openflow Controller to communicate with Openflow Agents…” SERVER Openflow Protocol

First lesson for today…

Openflow does not equal SDN Software Defined 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

speaking in a keynote at the Urs Holzle, Senior Vice President of Technology Infrastructure at Google speaking 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?

Dedicated to “the transformation of networks through SDN” OPEN NETWORK FOUNDATION Non Profit Consortium Dedicated to “the transformation of networks through SDN” Mission to “commercialize and promote SDN…as a disruptive approach to networking…”

Which companies make up the ONF?

Deutsche Telekom : Facebook : Goldman Sachs : Yahoo Google : Microsoft : NTT Communications : Verizon ONF Board Members

6WIND A10 Networks ADVA Optical Networking Alcatel-Lucent Aricent Group Big Switch Networks Broadcom Brocade Centec Networks China Mobile Ciena Cisco Citrix CohesiveFT Colt CompTIA Cyan Dell/Force10 Elbrys Ericsson ETRI Extreme Networks EZchip F5 France Telecom Orange Freescale Fujitsu Gigamon Hitachi HP Huawei IBM Infinera Infoblox Intel IP Infusion Ixia Juniper Networks KDDI Korea Telecom Level 3 Communications LineRate Systems LSI Luxoft Marvell Mellanox Metaswitch Networks Midokura NCL Communications NEC Netgear Netronome NetScout Systems Nokia Siemens Networks NoviFlow Oracle Overture Networks PICA8 Plexxi Inc. Qosmos Radware Riverbed Technology Samsung SK Telecom Spirent Sunbay Swisscom Tail-f Systems Telecom Italia Telefónica Tencent Texas Instruments Thales Transmode Turk Telekom / Argela Vello Systems Verisign VMware/Nicira Xpliant ZTE Corporation ONF Members

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 provides base for logical network Then you add an overlay Overlay Overlay provides base for logical network

Logical “switch” devices overlay the physical network They define their own topology Overlay Network #1 Underlying physical network carries data traffic for overlay network

Multiple “overlay” networks can co-exist at the same time Overlays provides logical network constructs for different tenants (customers)

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?

It is also referred to as a Cloud Operating System 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 Compute Storage 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 Servers Networking Runtimes Virtualization Storage Databases Security At a more detailed level, there are many resources inside the cloud

What resources you manage inside the cloud defines the following… Software as a Service (SAAS) Private Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) Platform as a Service (PAAS) How do these differ from one another?

Infrastructure as a Service Private Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) Platform as a Service (PAAS) Software as a Service (SAAS) Applications Applications Applications Applications Runtimes Runtimes Runtimes Runtimes Databases Databases Databases Databases Security Security Security Security Servers Servers Servers Servers Virtualization Virtualization Virtualization Virtualization Networking Networking Networking Networking Storage Storage Storage Storage Managed by You Managed by Vendor

Managed by You Managed by Vendor Applications Servers Networking Runtimes Virtualization Storage Databases Security With IAAS, compute, storage, networking and virtualization resources are managed by the Vendor (this defines them as an IAAS provider)

Openstack lets the provider manage these resources Servers Networking Virtualization Storage Openstack lets the provider manage these resources

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 Vendor-specific APIs Applications 1 Programmable APIs Control Plane Data Plane Controller Data Plane Applications Vendor-specific APIs OpenFlow 2a Classic SDN Vendor Specific (e.g. onePK) Controller Data Plane Applications Vendor-specific APIs OpenFlow Control Plane 2b Hybrid “SDN” Applications Virtual Control Plane Virtual Data Plane Overlay Protocols (e.g. VXLAN) Vendor-specific APIs 3 Network Overlays Control Plane Data Plane Vendor Specific (e.g. onePK) Vendor Specific (e.g. onePK) CLI, SNMP, Netflow, … Control Plane Data Plane OpenStack and Network Overlays Apply to All Models (Physical/Virtual) 51