1. Enabling Innovation Inside the Network
Jennifer Rexford
Computer Science Department Princeton University
With Nate Foster (Cornell), Mike Freedman (Princeton), Dave Walker (Princeton)

2. Traditional Computer Networks
Management plane: Configuration
Control plane:
Distributed algorithms
Data plane:
Packet streaming
Proprietary software and vendor-specific configuration interfaces

3. Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Logically-centralized control
Smart,
slow
Open API to the data plane
(e.g., OpenFlow)
Dumb,
fast
Switches

4. See http://www.openflow.org/videos/
Example Applications
Seamless mobility/migration
Dynamic access control
Server load balancing
Using multiple wireless access points
Energy-efficient networking
Adaptive traffic monitoring
Denial-of-Service attack detection
Network virtualization
See

5. Seamless Mobility/Migration
See host sending traffic at new location
Modify rules to reroute the traffic

6. Programming OpenFlow Networks
OpenFlow makes programming possible
Network-wide view at controller
Direct control over data plane
The APIs do not make it easy
Low level of abstraction
Challenges
Reading network state
Composing multiple modules
Updating an asynchronous network
Controller
Switches

7. Frenetic Language and Run-Time System
Frenetic today
SQL-like queries of network state
Run-time system for composing modules
Consistent updates to network configuration P1 P2
Learning Host Location
Select(packets) *
GroupBy([srcmac]) *
SplitWhen([inport]) *
Limit(1)

8. Conclusions Frenetic Ongoing work
Programming language and run-time system
Raises abstraction for network programming
Enables a vibrant software ecosystem for SDN
Ongoing work
Heterogeneous switches
Network virtualization
Network appliances
Distributed controllers