Software Networks, 2nd Edition

3Fabric, SD-WAN, vCPE, vRAN, vEPC

In the previous chapters, we introduced the SDN, its centralized architecture and its use of virtual machines. In this chapter, we will study the main categories of products linked to SDN. They can be divided into five main classes. The first class corresponds to fabrics that make out the access networks to datacenters’ servers. SD-WANs (Software-Defined Wide Area Networks) are the second class. They relate to a solution that allows the optimization of the use of WAN networks in a company. The third class gathers solutions of virtualization of a local network under the name vCPE (virtual Customer Premises Equipment). The fourth class, the vRAN (virtual Radio Access Network), is the virtualization of a network that expands between the core network and the antennas on which users are connected. Finally, the last class is the virtualization of the core network or vEPC (virtual Evolved Packet Core). We will go over these different classes in the next sections.

3.1. Fabrics control

A fabric is the network linked to a datacenter that allows rapid movement from one server to another within the same datacenter. The fabric is also used in order to access any server from the outside. The word fabric comes from the fact that there are many paths to move from one server to another in order to ease balance and traffic distribution. The goal of SDN is to centralize the order that enables the distribution of the flows over all the fabric paths. Two fabrics ...