Software defined networks: Comparative analysis of topologies with ONOS

摘要

Traditionally, data center networks consisted of large number of switches and routers, which had limited view of the entire network. The hardware and software were coupled to the device to manage the traffic flows. This coupling leads to an expensive maintenance and lacks the capability for users to introduce new applications. The different services like Cloud are being used to converge data centers to a much more efficient network. For better innovative applications, Quality of Service (QoS), energy efficient and high-security networking, Software Defined Networks (SDN) has hence emerged as a solution. Software defined network supports the dynamic nature of networks while lowering operating costs through a much simpler hardware and software management. There are various network topologies that are formed in the real-time environment. The topologies included in this paper are custom, linear and torus. In a linear topology each switch is linked to a single host. Torus topology is similar to a mesh topology; the nodes are interconnected with each other. The round trip time (RTT) from the initial host to the end host of the network topology is analyzed. It is obtained that the RTT for Torus topology is lower compared to that of the linear topology. The controller for the analysis is Open Network Operating System (ONOS) controller, which is an upcoming controller being deployed in telecom industries.