Hybrid IP/SDN networking: open implementation and experiment management tools

摘要

The introduction of SDN in large-scale IP provider networks is still an openissue and different solutions have been suggested so far. In this paper wepropose a hybrid approach that allows the coexistence of traditional IP routingwith SDN based forwarding within the same provider domain. The solution iscalled OSHI - Open Source Hybrid IP/SDN networking as we have fully implementedit combining and extending Open Source software. We discuss the OSHI systemarchitecture and the design and implementation of advanced services like PseudoWires and Virtual Switches. In addition, we describe a set of Open Sourcemanagement tools for the emulation of the proposed solution using either theMininet emulator or distributed physical testbeds. We refer to this suite oftools as Mantoo (Management tools). Mantoo includes an extensible web-basedgraphical topology designer, which provides different layered network "views"(e.g. from physical links to service relationships among nodes). The suite canvalidate an input topology, automatically deploy it over a Mininet emulator ora distributed SDN testbed and allows access to emulated nodes by openingconsoles in the web GUI. Mantoo provides also tools to evaluate the performanceof the deployed nodes.