Understanding SDN

Understanding SDN
November 2013
SDN{Geeks}
Saurabh Kr. Agarwal
Consultant, SDN{Geeks},
Bangalore, India

Copyright @ 2014 | SDN{Geeks} | Unit Of Nivel Solutions (P) Ltd., Bangalore, India
Content
•Why SDN?
•What is SDN & its benefits
•History of SDN (Before OpenFlow)
•Pre-SDN Networks (How it looks like)
•SDN-Powered Networks (How it will look like)
Understanding Software
Defined Networking (SDN)
•What is OpenFlow?
•Evolution of OpenFlow
•Basics of OpenFlow
•SDN Vs OpenFlow
Understanding OpenFlow
•SDN Vendors
•SDN Competing Approaches
•SDN Opensource Projects
SDN Ecosystem
•Where are we right now?
•Projections to where its headed
•Forward Looking
SDN Today & After
•References and govering bodies.References
SDN{Geeks}

SDN{Geeks}
Why SDN? Overview of Networking Industry Today
What is SDN & its benefits?
History of SDN (Before OF)
Pre-SDN Network (How it looks like)
SDN-Powered Network (How will it look like)
Understanding Software Defined Networking (SDN)

SDN{Geeks}Why SDN?
Networking industry now:
•Vertically integrated
•Closed
•Proprietary
•Slow innovation
AppAppAppAppAppAppAppAppAppAppApp
Where its going with SDN:
•Horizontal
•Open interfaces
•Rapid innovation
Control
Plane
Control
Plane
Control
Plane
or or
Specialized
Control
Plane
Specialized
Hardware
Specialized
Features
Merchant
Switching Chips

SDN{Geeks}
What is SDN?
What is SDN & its benefits
Centralization of control of
the network via the
Separation of control logic
to off-device compute, that
Enables automation and
orchestration of network
services via
Open programmatic
interfaces.
Benefits?
Efficiency: Optimize existing
applications, services and
infrastructure
Scale: Rapidly grow existing
applications and services
Innovation: Create and deliver
new types of applications and
services and business models.
Decoupling the system that makes decisions about where traffic is sent (the control plane) from the
underlying systems that forwards traffic to the selected destination (the data plane)
– Wikipedia

SDN{Geeks}History of SDN (Before OF)
Distributed control plane is not a new concept...
(Early 90’s)
Devices:
(Mid 90’s)
Devices:
(Early 00’s)
Devices:
(Late 00’s)
Devices:

SDN{Geeks}Pre-SDN Networks
Packet Forwarding Hardware
Operating System
L2/L3 L4-7 Apps
Operating System
L2/L3 L4-7 Apps
Operating System
L2/L3 L4-7 Apps
Management Plane
Control Plane
Forwarding Plane
Operating
System

SDN{Geeks}SDN-Powered Networks
SDN Controller (Network Operating System)
App App App
OpenFlow Compliant OS
App App App

SDN{Geeks}
What is OpenFlow?
Evolution of OpenFlow
Basics of OpenFlow
SDN Vs OpenFlow.
Understanding OpenFlow (OF)

SDN{Geeks}What is OpenFlow?
OpenFlow is a standards based protocol allowing for a centralized control plane in a
separate device (the controller).
OpenFlow:
Provides hardware abstraction
Is managed by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF).
Is asynchronous.

SDN{Geeks}Evolution of OpenFlow
2006
Ethane
Dec 2009
OF 1.0
Feb 2011
OF 1.1
Dec 2011
OF 1.2
June 2012
OF 1.3
Sept 2012
OF 1.3.1
Apr 2013
OF 1.3.2
OF Begining at Stanford
Standford PhD student,
Martin Casado
Multiple Tables
Multipath
MPLS, VLAN Matching
Groups
802.1ah PBB
Extended IPv6
IPv6
Multiple Controllers
Bug Fixes
Bug Fixes
 OpenFlow is still very young
 Alot of changes are going thru the protocol specification

SDN{Geeks}Basics of OpenFlow
In an OpenFlow environment, flow tables are used by devices rather than routing or MAC address tables.
Match fields: To match against packets.
Priority: Matching precedence of the flow entry
Counters: Updated when packets are matched
Instructions: To modify the action set or pipeline
processing
Timeouts: Maximum amount of time
Cookie: Opaque data value chosen by the controller
Forward: The first options is to forward this flow’s
packets to a given port (or set of ports). This allows
packets to be switched through the network. In
most switches it is expected that this takes place at
line rate speeds.
Redirect: The second option is to encapsulate the
packet and forward this flow’s packets to the SDN
controller.
Drop: The third option is to drop this flow’s packets.
This can be be used for security reasons to block
unauthorized traffic, to stop denial of service
attacks, or to reduce spurious broadcast traffic from
end-hosts.
Statistics that keep track of the
number of packets and bytes for each
flow. (100 packets 8000 bytes for
example). The time since the last
packet matched the flow is also
recorded so as to remove inactive
flows.

SDN{Geeks}SDN Vs OpenFlow
SDN is not a technology, it’s an
architecture.
 There is nothing that can be
implemented using SDN and not
with traditional networks.
 While SDN is a architecture,
Openflow is a protocol that
enables deployment &
implementation of it.

SDN{Geeks}
SDN Vendors
Competing Approaches
OpenSource Projects
SDN Ecosystem

SDN{Geeks}SDN Vendors
All networking vendor’s are now SDn vendor’s too, totalling a number of 150+.
- SDNCentral.com
• Broadcom, Centec, EZChip, Intel/Fulcrum, Netronome, MarvellSilicon
• Arista, Brocade, Cisco, Dell, Extreme, HP, IBM, Juniper, Mellanox, NEC, Pica8, ...Switches
• Cisco, Juniper, HuaweiRouters
• 6WIND, Embrane, LineRate/F5, Vyatta/Brocade, QOSMOSL3/4-7
• Anuta Networks, LyattisOrchestration & Automation
• Cyan, GuavasManagement & Analytics
• Contextream, VMware, Midokura, vCider/CiscoVirtualization
• Big Switch Networks, Cisco, HP, IBM, Juniper, NECControllers

SDN{Geeks}SDN Competing Approaches
Who is doing what to get there. We have classified this into three broad categories & included
some of the big shots
• Extreme, HP, NEC
OpenFlow
Centric
• ALU, Arista, Brocade, Cisco, Dell,
Ericsson, Straddle IBM, Huawei, JuniperStraddle
• Vmware/Nicira (Acquired by VMware)Proprietary

SDN{Geeks}SDN Opensource Projects
There are alot of open-source/research projects going on in the field of SDN. This list gives
popular one’s only.
• NOX/POX, Floodlight, Trema, Ryu, OpenDaylightControllers
• OpenvSwitch, Indigo, LINC,Of13 softswitchVirtual/Soft Switches
• Quagga, RouteFlowRouting
• OpenStack Quantum, CloudStackOrchestration
• FortNOX, Fresco, ResonanceSecurity

SDN{Geeks}
Where are we right now?
Projections to where its going
Forward looking statements
SDN Today & After

SDN{Geeks}Where are we right now?

SDN{Geeks}Projections to where its going

SDN{Geeks}Forward looking
SDN solutions in mobile networking will reach $13 billion by 2018
- Mobile Software Defined Networking: Market Analysis & Forecasts, August 2013
Software-defined networking will grow from a $200 million market in 2013 to $2 billion by 2016
- IDC
According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research "Software Defined Networking
(SDN)Market -Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2012 - 2018," the global SDN
market is expected to reach USD 3.52 billion by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 61.5% from 2012 to 2018.
Only 10% of 450 IT practitioners at a recent Network World event raised their hands when asked if they
understand SDN. But if the emerging technology lives up to its promise to redefine networking as we know it,
there is no time like the present to dig in.
– NetworkWorld (July, 2013)

SDN{Geeks}
References
Open Networking Foundation
SDNCentral.Com
SearchSDN (TechTarget Initiative)

Understanding SDN

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