Intelligent Network Management and Control

2An Intelligent Control Plane for Security Services Deployment in SDN-based Networks

Maïssa MBAYE¹, Omessaad HAMDI² and Francine KRIEF³

¹ Gaston Berger University, Saint-Louis, Senegal

² IMT Atlantique, Rennes, France

³ ENSEIRB-MATMECA, Bordeaux, France

2.1. Introduction

The software-defined networking (SDN) approach involves the management of a network infrastructure by software applications (Fortes 2013; ONF 2015). These applications may be hosted by one or several servers and enable the control of the (physical or virtual) network components of the infrastructure. This new model of network architecture, relying on the separation between the control plane and the data plane, is increasingly drawing the attention of major players in networking and telecommunications (Open Networking Foundation [ONF], IETF, ITU-T, ETSI) (Kreutz et al. 2015).

The data plane corresponds to network equipment in charge of optimized (at best) data transfer to the destination node. In this plane, the main task involves using a forwarding/flow table for correct data retransmission. In the case of SDN/ OpenFlow-based networks, this table contains the flow transfer rules that match the fields values of common headers (Ethernet, IPv4/v6, MPLS, TCP/UDP, etc.) and deduces from them the action to be taken (retransmit, delete, modify header, etc.). From 2015 onward, the main manufacturers (IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, Juniper, NEC, etc.) launched SDN/OpenFlow compatible network equipment on the market (Kreutz ...