SDN: Software Defined Networks

SDN: Software Defined Networks

by Thomas D. Nadeau, Ken Gray
Released August 2013
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449342302

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Book description

Explore the emerging definitions, protocols, and standards for SDN—software-defined, software-driven, programmable networks—with this comprehensive guide. Two senior network engineers show you what’s required for building networks that use software for bi-directional communication between applications and the underlying network infrastructure.

This vendor-agnostic book also presents several SDN use cases, including bandwidth scheduling and manipulation, input traffic and triggered actions, as well as some interesting use cases around big data, data center overlays, and network-function virtualization. Discover how enterprises and service providers alike are pursuing SDN as it continues to evolve.

  • Explore the current state of the OpenFlow model and centralized network control
  • Delve into distributed and central control, including data plane generation
  • Examine the structure and capabilities of commercial and open source controllers
  • Survey the available technologies for network programmability
  • Trace the modern data center from desktop-centric to highly distributed models
  • Discover new ways to connect instances of network-function virtualization and service chaining
  • Get detailed information on constructing and maintaining an SDN network topology
  • Examine an idealized SDN framework for controllers, applications, and ecosystems

Table of contents

  1. A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
  2. Foreword by David Meyer
  3. Foreword by David Ward
  4. Preface
    1. Assumptions
    2. What’s in This Book?
    3. Conventions Used in This Book
    4. Using Code Examples
    5. Safari® Books Online
    6. How to Contact Us
    7. Acknowledgments from Thomas Nadeau
    8. Acknowledgments from Ken Gray
  5. 1. Introduction
  6. 2. Centralized and Distributed Control and Data Planes
    1. Introduction
      1. Evolution versus Revolution
    2. What Do They Do?
      1. The Control Plane
      2. Data Plane
      3. Moving Information Between Planes
      4. Why Can Separation Be Important?
        1. Scale matters
        2. Evolution
        3. Cost
        4. Innovation
        5. Stability
        6. Complexity and its resulting fragility
    3. Distributed Control Planes
      1. IP and MPLS
      2. Creating the IP Underlay
      3. Convergence Time
      4. Load Balancing
      5. High Availability
      6. Creating the MPLS Overlay
      7. Replication
    4. Centralized Control Planes
      1. Logical Versus Literal
      2. ATM/LANE
      3. Route Servers
    5. Conclusions
  7. 3. OpenFlow
    1. Introduction
      1. Wire Protocol
      2. Replication
      3. FAWG (Forwarding Abstraction Workgroup)
      4. Config and Extensibility
      5. Architecture
    2. Hybrid Approaches
      1. Ships in the Night
      2. Dual Function Switches
    3. Conclusions
  8. 4. SDN Controllers
    1. Introduction
    2. General Concepts
      1. VMware
      2. Nicira
        1. Relationship to the idealized SDN framework
      3. VMware/Nicira
      4. OpenFlow-Related
        1. Relationship to the idealized SDN framework
      5. Mininet
      6. NOX/POX
      7. Trema
      8. Ryu
      9. Big Switch Networks/Floodlight
        1. Relationship to the idealized SDN framework
    3. Layer 3 Centric
      1. L3VPN
        1. Relationship to the idealized SDN framework
      2. Path Computation Element Server
        1. RSVP-TE problem statement
        2. Bin-packing
        3. Deadlock
        4. The PCE Solution
        5. Relationship to the idealized SDN framework
    4. Plexxi
      1. Plexxi Affinity
    5. Cisco OnePK
      1. Relationship to the Idealized SDN Framework
    6. Conclusions
  9. 5. Network Programmability
    1. Introduction
    2. The Management Interface
    3. The Application-Network Divide
      1. The Command-Line Interface
      2. NETCONF and NETMOD
        1. Basic NETCONF Operations
        2. Capabilities
      3. SNMP
        1. The SNMP agent
        2. The SNMP manager
        3. Manager and agent relationship
        4. The MIB (management information base)
    4. Modern Programmatic Interfaces
      1. Publish and Subscribe Interfaces
      2. XMPP
      3. Google’s Protocol Buffers
      4. Thrift
      5. JSON
    5. I2RS
    6. Modern Orchestration
      1. OpenStack
      2. CloudStack
      3. Puppet
      4. Conclusions
  10. 6. Data Center Concepts and Constructs
    1. Introduction
    2. The Multitenant Data Center
    3. The Virtualized Multitenant Data Center
      1. Orchestration
      2. Connecting a Tenant to the Internet/VPN
      3. Virtual Machine Migration and Elasticity
      4. Data Center Interconnect (DCI)
      5. Fallacies of Data Center Distributed Computing
      6. Data Center Distributed Computing Pitfalls to Consider
        1. DCI approaches
        2. VLANs for DCI
        3. VPLS for DCI
          1. EVPN for DCI
        4. Summary comparison of VPLS and EVPN for DCI
    4. SDN Solutions for the Data Center Network
      1. The Network Underlay
    5. VLANs
    6. EVPN
      1. Locator ID Split (LISP)
    7. VxLan
    8. NVGRE
      1. OpenFlow
      2. Network Overlays
        1. Tunnels terminated at the vSwitch
      3. Network Overlay Types
        1. Layer 2 overlays
        2. Layer 3 overlays
        3. Hybrid overlay-underlay approach
    9. Conclusions
  11. 7. Network Function Virtualization
    1. Introduction
    2. Virtualization and Data Plane I/O
      1. Data Plane I/O
      2. I/O Summary
    3. Services Engineered Path
    4. Service Locations and Chaining
      1. Metadata
      2. An Application Level Approach
      3. Scale
    5. NFV at ETSI
    6. Non-ETSI NFV Work
      1. Middlebox Studies
      2. Embrane/LineRate
      3. Platform Virtualization
    7. Conclusions
  12. 8. Network Topology and Topological Information Abstraction
    1. Introduction
    2. Network Topology
    3. Traditional Methods
    4. LLDP
    5. BGP-TE/LS
      1. BGP-LS with PCE
    6. ALTO
      1. BGP-LS and PCE Interaction with ALTO
    7. I2RS Topology
      1. Conclusions
  13. 9. Building an SDN Framework
    1. Introduction
    2. Build Code First; Ask Questions Later...
    3. The Juniper SDN Framework
    4. IETF SDN Framework(s)
      1. SDN(P)
      2. ABNO
    5. Open Daylight Controller/Framework
      1. API
      2. High Availability and State Storage
      3. Analytics
    6. Policy
    7. Conclusions
  14. 10. Use Cases for Bandwidth Scheduling, Manipulation, and Calendaring
    1. Introduction
    2. Bandwidth Calendaring
      1. Base Topology and Fundamental Concepts
      2. OpenFlow and PCE Topologies
      3. Example Configuration
      4. OpenFlow Provisioned Example
      5. Enhancing the Controller
      6. Overlay Example Using PCE Provisioning
      7. Expanding Your Reach: Barbarians at the Gate
    3. Big Data and Application Hyper-Virtualization for Instant CSPF
    4. Expanding Topology
    5. Conclusions
  15. 11. Use Cases for Data Center Overlays, Big Data, and Network Function Virtualization
    1. Introduction
    2. Data Center Orchestration
      1. Creating Tenant and Virtual Machine State
      2. Forwarding State
      3. Data-Driven Learning
      4. Control-Plane Signaling
      5. Scaling and Performance Considerations
    3. Puppet (DevOps Solution)
    4. Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
      1. NFV in Mobility
    5. Optimized Big Data
    6. Conclusions
  16. 12. Use Cases for Input Traffic Monitoring, Classification, and Triggered Actions
    1. Introduction
    2. The Firewall
    3. Firewalls as a Service
    4. Network Access Control Replacement
    5. Extending the Use Case with a Virtual Firewall
    6. Feedback and Optimization
    7. Intrusion Detection/Threat Mitigation
    8. Conclusions
  17. 13. Final Thoughts and Conclusions
    1. What Is True About SDN?
      1. Economics
      2. SDN Is Really About Operations and Management
    2. Multiple Definitions of SDN
    3. Are We Making Progress Yet?
  18. Index
  19. About the Authors
  20. Colophon
  21. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: SDN: Software Defined Networks
  • Author(s): Thomas D. Nadeau, Ken Gray
  • Release date: August 2013
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449342302