White Paper_wFM15

This white paper presents concept and solutions for virtualization of networks using Software Defined Networking. Software Defined Networking is an emerging trend in the networking and communication industry and it promises to deliver enormous benefits, from reduced costs to more efficient network operations. It is an architecture that allows network administrators to easily manage and introduce new network services. This is done by decoupling the management and control planes that makes decisions about where traffic is sent from (the control plane) the underlying hardware that forwards data traffic to the selected destination (the data plane). In this paper we are describing the virtualization of Traffic Engineering (TE) using SDN, which will cover the followings, Traditional network architecture Limitations of today’s networking technologies Why this transformation in networking architecture is required. Case Study Virtualization of Traffic Engineering Use cases and Challenges Conclusion Jithesh TJ, Santhosh Karipur March, 2014 sasdsdsdsadasfdsasdassdsadasfdsaVoD www.nestsoftware.com NeST Controlled Software Defined Networking, Virtualization of Traffic Engineering White Paper Page 2 of 8 Introduction SDN is a new approach to networking that gives network operators and owners more control of the infrastructure, allowing optimization, customization and virtualization that enable the creation of new types of network services. Such new network services will have the ability to generate new business models, products & services, which reduce capital & operational costs. Why SDN? In the traditional networks, protocols are tightly coupled with network equipment, which is based on the principles of autonomous systems. Even as a proven networking model, simple and scalable, Network engineers have to manually configure a large number of devices individually, which quickly becomes unmanageable. Also, since networking software is embedded with the networking equipments, moving equipment from one location to other requires a lot of reconfiguration in the network by making the changes in the networking elements such as router, switch or firewall. Packet Forwarding Hardware Operating System TE Label Distribution Apps Router Packet Forwarding Hardware Operating System TE Label Distribution Apps Router Packet Forwarding Hardware Operating System TE Label Distribution Apps Router Data & Control Path Data & Control Path Data & Control Path Today’s Network Figure 1 Traditional Network A modern network requires the ability to adjust dynamically based on application needs such as traffic patterns and volume of data flowing. Policy changes have to automatically propagate to the entire network for configuration thus manual work and error can be avoided. New features have to be integrated with minimal disruption of the network operations. sasdsdsdsadasfdsasdassdsadasfdsaVoD www.nestsoftware.com NeST Controlled Software Defined Networking, Virtualization of Traffic Engineering White Paper Page 3 of 8 Next Generation Networks using SDN SDN addresses most of the concerns that network administrators and designers of modern networks face. SDN provides centralized programmability and management of networks, by separating the control and data planes of network switching. An SDN controller with complete knowledge of networking components and behavior can instruct devices how to handle traffic flows by software messaging. The behavior of the network is then configured by software in contrast to each individual device being independently configured by command-line interface or user interface. Open Network Foundation (ONF) is take lead in standardization of SDN and defined SDN architecture as shown in the figure 2. Application layer contains business application which consumes SDN services provided by control layer. Control layerwhich is called SDN controller provides logically centralized control functionality to application layer and well defined open south API which communicates with infrastructure layer. Infrastructure layer contains networking switches provides switching and forwarding functionalities. Here standard OpenFlow protocol is used to communicate control layer with infrastructure layer. The networking elements used in infrastructure layer should support OpenFlow protocol. Figure 2 ONF SDN Architecture sasdsdsdsadasfdsasdassdsadasfdsaVoD www.nestsoftware.com NeST Controlled Software Defined Networking, Virtualization of Traffic Engineering White Paper Page 4 of 8