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Rev. A 07/13
SPIRENT
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Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA
Email: sales@spirent.com
Web: www.spirent.com
CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Understanding SDN and OpenFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A new Perspective on the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Benefits of SDN and OpenFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Common Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Enterprise Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Service Provider Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Summing up the Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Moving SDN Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Emerging Test Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
SDN/OpenFlow Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
INTRODUCTION
Networks must continue to evolve for a variety of reasons. For example, network traffic
continues to see very high rates of growth. According to Internet World statistics, 2.4
billion individualsor over one third of the Earths entire populationused the Internet
in 2012. The Cisco Visual Networking Index indicates that global IP traffic will surpass
the zettabyte threshold by the end of 2016, with a forecast of 1.3 zettabytes for the year
or 110.3 exabytes per month.
There are also ongoing shifts in the type of traffic crossing networks. The Cisco Visual
Networking Index reveals that the number of mobile devices connected to IP networks
in 2016 will be nearly three times as high as the global population at that time. The
index also shows that video traffic will represent 55% of all consumer Internet traffic
that year and that video on demand will grow to the equivalent of 4 billion DVDs
per month.
Emerging network deployment scenarios, such as virtualized and cloud environments
inside hyper-scale data centers, are also straining existing network technologies and
architectures. Dan Pitt, Executive Director of the Open Networking Foundation has
described three key challenges faced by traditional networkingcost, agility
and design.
A closer look at each of these challenges sheds light on the scope of change required to
keep up with evolving network demands:
CostAs with other types of infrastructure, significant up-front capital spending
(CapEx) is required in order to build a large network. Additionally, ongoing
operating expenditures (OpEx) in the form of management tools and staffing
also add to the cost.
AgilityTodays globally competitive world not only demands cost-effective
solutions, it requires fast time-to-market so that new services can be made
available quickly. Once these new services are available, they must also support
rapid, on-demand provisioning and re-provisioning.
DesignTraditional networks were not designed for virtualized and cloud
environmentsor for other on-demand service models. Unfortunately this
means they can become a bottleneck for server virtualization. They may
also fall short when it comes to east-west traffic performance.
It turns out that a new approach to networking, called software-defined networking
(SDN), and an associated protocol, OpenFlow, address each of these challenges and
more. Yet, while SDN and OpenFlow hold tremendous promise, they are also disruptive
to several aspects of the network ecosystem, including network testing.
Applications
API
Control
Plane
API
Data Plane
Hardware Abstraction Layer
Switching Silicon/HW
OpenFlow, shown between the control plane and the data plane in the diagram, is a
Layer 2 communications protocol that enables SDN. OpenFlow-enabled controllers and
switches communicate with each other through the OpenFlow protocol that supports a
small number of primitives such as modify forwarding table and get stats.
The OpenFlow protocol ensures that network configuration changes made in the
controller are quickly distributed to all appropriate switches and routers. Note that other
protocols beyond OpenFlow can be used to distribute forwarding rules.
Common Benefits
The greatest driver of disruptionas well as benefitsfrom SDN and OpenFlow is
likely to come from opening up the developer ecosystem, enabling a larger number of
developers to contribute to the advancement of networking. Prior to SDN, nearly all
developers of switch and router technology were employees of network equipment
vendors. While these vendors have many of the best and brightest in the industry,
separating out the network control plane means that just about any innovative
developer can now create an SDN application to control the network.
Would you like to create service paths and tunnels? There will be an app for that. Would
you like an easy way to configure quality of service (QoS) for a particular application
or set of users? There will be an app for that too. This is not to suggest that SDN
applications will install for $.99 from an app store. It is really meant to illustrate that
switch and router functionality will be developed and made available separately from
underlying hardware. Rather than waiting for your network equipment vendor of choice
to deliver a given capability, an OpenFlow-based SDN application will typically run on all
OpenFlow enabled devices just as soon as it is released.
Hardware advancements are also expected to happen more quickly as OpenFlow and
SDN are more broadly adopted. For example, more switches and routers that are only
responsible for the data plane will be implemented on general-purpose servers. As
soon as Intel or AMD release a new processor, new serverspresumably with higher
performancewill immediately be available to serve as faster switches and routers.
Enterprise Benefits
One of the more common trends in enterprise IT in recent years has been the
virtualization and consolidation of data centers. While most of the focus has been on
server virtualization, network virtualization has an important role to play as well. When
virtual machines (VMs) move from one host to another all related network traffic must
follow immediately. A network virtualization application on an OpenFlow network will
enable immediate and automated reconfiguration of forwarding rules. This keeps traffic
flowing to the right VMs and their applications. It also avoids sending traffic to a host
that should no longer receive it.
SDN/OPENFLOW TESTING
For example, the main components when testing an OpenFlow 1.0 network are:
An OpenFlow 1.0 Controller
One or more OpenFlow 1.0 Switches
Secure Channels connecting each switch to the controller
Fortunately there are test methodologies. Although constantly growing, the existing
ones include:
CONCLUSIONS
Existing networks are under pressure and facing a number of challenges. These include
the continued growth of network traffic, the rise of mobile devices and the increased
consumption of streaming video. Emerging network deployment scenarios, such as
virtualized and cloud environments inside hyper-scale data centers, are also straining
existing network technologies and architectures.
Traditional network technologies are less than ideal when it comes to cost agility and
design flexibility. These gaps are driving the need for a new approach to the network.
While new and improved hardware is often the answer to existing hardware challenges,
software and APIs will be the answer this time. SDN and OpenFlow will enable lower
CapEx and OpEx, faster rollout and provisioning of on-demand services, and flexible
designs that better support virtualized and cloud environments.
At the same time, SDN and OpenFlow will introduce a number of new challenges, many
of them within the domain of network testing. The increased use of software in network
devices will require fundamental testing to be revisited. Rather than just using siliconbased switches and routers with clearly specified throughput and latency measures,
network engineers will also use general-purpose servers as traffic for workers. This
will require testing and certification using the PASS-methodology to ensure that
performance, availability, security and scale are all validated. APIs, protocols and
vendor implementations must all be thoroughly tested to ensure compliance with
standards as well as interoperability between various implementations.
In order to increase your odds of success, be sure to select and use test tools that
support SDN and OpenFlow. Chosen tools should also support all elements of the PASS
methodology to ensure healthy network operation from-end to-end.
At Spirent Communications we work behind the scenes to help the world communicate
and collaborate faster, better and more often. The worlds leading communications
companies rely on Spirent to help design, develop and deliver world-class network
devices and services.
Spirents lab test solutions are used to evaluate performance of the latest technologies.
As new communication services and applications are introduced in the market, Spirent
provides tools for service management and field test to improve troubleshooting and
quality. Spirent also enables enterprises, institutions and government agencies to
secure and manage their networks.
To learn more about SDN/OpenFlow testing and how Spirent can help with your testing
requirements, please visit: http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/
OpenFlow.
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