Packet and Circuit Convergence with OpenFlow

Stanford Clean Slate Programhttp://cleanslate.stanford.edu

Funded by Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, DoCoMo, Ericsson, Google, LightSpeed, MDV, NEC, NSF, Xilinx

Guru Parulkarparulkar@stanford.edu

with Saurav Das (Stanford), Nick McKeown (Stanford), Preeti Singh (Ciena), Dan Getachew (Ciena), Lyndon Ong (Ciena)

Outline

• OpenFlow/Software Defined Networking

• Unifying packet and circuit networks

• Why providers like it

Internet has many problems

Plenty of evidence and documentation

Internet’s “root cause problem”

It is Closed for Innovations

3

Million of linesof source code

5400 RFCs

500M gates10Gbytes RAM

Bloated Power Hungry

Many complex functions baked into the infrastructureOSPF, BGP, multicast, differentiated services,Traffic Engineering, NAT, firewalls, MPLS, redundant layers, …

An industry with a “mainframe-mentality”

We lost our way

Specialized Packet Forwarding Hardware

OperatingSystem

App App App

Routing, management, mobility management, access control, VPNs, …

4

5

Controller

OpenFlow Switch

FlowTableFlowTable

SecureChannelSecure

Channel

PC

OpenFlow

Protocol

SSL

hw

sw

OpenFlow: Enable Innovations “within” the Infrastructure

• Add/delete flow entries• Encapsulated packets• Controller discovery

API

Net Services

OpenFlow Protocol

C C C

FLOWVISOR

OpenFlow Protocol

Research Team A Controller

Research Team B Controller

Production Net Controller

IsolatedNetwork

Slices

Physical InfrastructurePacket&Circuit

Switches: wired, wireless, optical media

Sliced and Virtualized OpenFlow Infrastructure

Control Plane API

6

Control Plane API

Example Network Services• Static “VLANs”• New routing protocol: unicast, multicast,

multipath, load-balancing• Network access control• Mobile VM management • Mobility and handoff management • Energy management • Packet processor (in controller)• IPvX• Network measurement and visualization• …

7

OpenFlow Enabled Switches/Routers/APs

Cisco Catalyst 6k

NEC IP8800

HP Procurve 5400

Juniper MX-series WiMax (NEC) WiFi

Quanta LB4G More to follow...

Cisco Catalyst 3750 (2010)

Arista 7100 series (2010) 8

Ciena CoreDirector

OpenFlow as GENI Networking Substrate

A nationwide network before end of 2010

9

European Deployment

10

L2 Packet Wireless Routing

Pan-European experimental facility

L2 Packet Optics Content delivery

L2 Packet Shadow networks

L2 L3Packet Optics Content delivery

L2 Packet Emulation Wireless Content

delivery

OpenFlow: A Hack to Experiment?

Is there a bigger architecture story with business implications?

11

12

Controller

OpenFlow Switch

FlowTableFlowTable

SecureChannelSecure

Channel

PC

OpenFlow

Protocol

SSL

hw

sw

OpenFlow: Enable Innovations “within” the Infrastructure

• Add/delete flow entries• Encapsulated packets• Controller discovery

API

Net Services

App

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware

App App

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware Simple Packet

Forwarding Hardware

Network Operating System

1. Open interface to hardware

3. Well-defined open API2. At least one good operating system

Extensible, possibly open-source

Architecturally what It Means

13

Packet and Circuit Convergence with OpenFlow

14

DDC

DDC

DDC

DDC

IP/MPLSIP/MPLS IP/MPLS

IP/MPLS

IP/MPLSIP/MPLS

IP/MPLSIP/MPLS

CDD

CDD

CDD

DD

DD

DD

DD

C C

DD

DD

GMPLS

Motivation

• are separate networks managed and operated independently

• resulting in duplication of functions and resources in multiple layers

• and significant capex and opex burdens

… well known

IP & Transport Networks (Carrier’s view)

Convergence is hard

… Two networks have very different architectures

… previous attempts assumed networks remain the same

We believe true convergence will come about from architectural change!

FlowNetwork

DD

DD

DD

DD

DD

DD

DD

DD

DD

DD

DDDD

DD

UCP

… that switch at different granularities: packet, time-slot, lambda & fiber

Simple,network of Flow Switches

Research Goal: Packet and Circuit Flows Commonly Controlled & Managed

Software Defined Networking

Signal Type

Signal Type

OpenFlow & Circuit Switches

Exploit the cross-connect table in circuit switches

PacketFlowsSwitchPort

MACsrc

MACdst

Ethtype

VLANID

IPSrc

IPDst

IPProt

TCPsport

TCPdport

Action

Circuit Flows

VCG VCG

The Flow Abstraction presents a unifying abstraction

… blurring distinction between underlying packet and circuit and regarding both as flows in a flow-switched network

IN OUT

GE ports

TDM ports

Packet

Switch Fabric

Packet

Switch Fabric

OpenFlow(software)OpenFlow(software)

R A S R A S

IP 11.12.0.0 + VLAN2, P1 VLAN2 VCG 3

OpenFlow(software)OpenFlow(software)

VLAN1025 + VLAN2, P2

VLAN7 VCG5

Packet Switch FabricPacket Switch Fabric

IP11.13.0.0TCP80

+ VLAN7, P2

TDM

CircuitSwitch Fabric

VCG5

VCG3

VCG3 P1 VC4 1 P2 VC4 4 P1 VC4 10

VCG5 P3 STS192 1

OpenFlow Example

Congestion ControlQoS

Converged packets & dynamic circuits

opens up new capabilities

NetworkRecovery

Traffic Engineering

PowerMgmt

VPNsDiscovery

Routing

Congestion Control

Congestion Control

Example Application

..via Variable Bandwidth Packet Links

OpenFlow Demo at SC09

Demo Videohttp://www.openflowswitch.org/wk/index.php/PAC.C

Why providers want it

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New Generation Providers Already Buy into It

In a nutshell– Driven by cost and control– Started in data centers….

What New Generation Providers have been Doing Within the Datacenters

• Buy bare metal switches • Write their own control/management

applications on a common platform25

Example: New Data Center

Cost200,000 serversFanout of 20 10,000 switches$5k commercial switch $50M$1k custom-built switch $10M

Savings in 10 data centers = $400M

Control

1.Optimize for features needed2.Customize for services & apps3.Quickly improve and innovate

26The value prop applies to enterprise and service provider networks

Going Forward

• They want to apply this approach to other parts of their infrastructure

• Work together to bring this change at a bigger scale

Another way to look at it …

App

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware

App App

Simple Packet Forwarding Hardware Simple Packet

Forwarding Hardware

Network Operating System

1. Open interface to hardware

3. Well-defined open API2. At least one good operating system

Extensible, possibly open-source

“Meeting of Minds” with Providers

28

Consequences

• More innovation in network services

– Owners, operators, 3rd party developers, researchers can improve the network

– E.g. energy management, data center management, policy routing, access control, denial of service, mobility

• Lower barrier to entry for competition

– Healthier market place with reducing Capex&OpEx

29

Ecosystem Coming TogetherRole for Everyone to Contribute

• Researchers and R&E Networks

• Providers: old and new– Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, (Microsoft, Facebook),

– DT, DoCoMo, BT (Level3, Verizon, …)

• Box vendors– Enterprise and backbone

– Packet and circuit (electronic and photonics)

– Incumbents and startups

• Chip vendors– Broadcom, Dune, Marvell, ….

30

The Value Chain

OpenFlow As Networking Substrate

• A platform for innovations

– Within enterprise, backbone, & data center networks

• Providers already buy into this vision

– For their own reasons

• Opportunities

– Eco system is coming together

– Time to engage 31

Thank You!!

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