Chapter 5

The OpenFlow Specification

Abstract

Chapter 5 provides the reader with a rudimentary understanding of the elements of OpenFlow and how they interoperate to provide basic switch and routing functions. We provide a detailed review of the general OpenFlow framework. This review includes the 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 releases of the OpenFlow protocol. While OpenFlow is only one of the technologies included under the big tent of SDN, it is the technology most closely associated with what we define as Open SDN. An important tool and catalyst for innovation, OpenFlow defines both the communications protocol between the SDN data plane and the SDN control plane and part of the behavior of the data plane. The OpenFlow protocol defines the specific ...

Get Software Defined Networks now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.