SDN 101

Network Foundations Guide

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 About this Guide

Software-defined networking (SDN) is becoming

Table of Contents
an essential part of operating and managing a
What is Software-Defined Networking (SDN)? . . 1 modern network. Using automation, abstraction, and

Understanding SDN Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 disaggregation, a network operator can successfully

deploy and run a network with a minimal amount of
SDN Southbound and Northbound APIs . . . . . . . 5
hassle or need for manual interference.
What are SDN Controllers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
There are several factors that contribute to making this
Why is SDN Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
happen. A software-defined network’s architecture
makes it uniquely elastic and scalable. Application
program interfaces (APIs) serve as mediators between
the network functions and the control interface. The SDN
controller serves as the central command point for the
network, and network function virtualization (NFV) helps
create, design, and deploy the network services that
keep it running on a virtualized platform.

This guide will serve as a walkthrough to the functions,

architecture, and applications of SDN. It will examine the
significance of SDN in modern networking, and how it
will continue to develop and grow into the future.

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IT infrastructure is under more demand and more

scrutiny than ever. The way we build networks has
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constantly evolving to solve new challenges. At the
same time, the role of IT departments and of individuals
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the trenches scramble to keep up.

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This guide was compiled by Marlese Lessing

© 2019 SDxCentral LLC. All Rights Reserved.

SDN 101: Network Foundations Guide | What is Software-Defined Networking (SDN)?
What is Software-Defined Networking (SDN)?
SDN (software defined networking) is a set of
networking principles governed by the goals of creating
a dynamic, flexible, and scalable network through
software-based management and configuration.
The goal of SDN is to enable cloud-like computing
within a network. This allows network engineers and
administrators to respond quickly to changing business
requirements via a centralized control console that is
abstracted from the physical hardware the network is
placed on.
SDN encompasses multiple kinds of network
technologies designed to make the network more
flexible and agile to support the virtualized server and
storage infrastructure of the modern data center.
How Does SDN Work?
SDN providers offer a wide selection of competing
architectures. At its most simple, the software-defined
networking method centralizes control of the network
by separating the control logic to off-device computer
resources.
All software-defined network solutions have some
version of an SDN controller, as well as southbound and
northbound application program interfaces (APIs):
Controllers
The “brains” of the network, SDN Controllers offer
a centralized view of the overall network, enabling
network administrators to dictate to the underlying
systems (like switches and routers) how the forwarding
plane should handle network traffic, and offering a
holistic view of network behavior and loads.
Southbound APIs
SDN uses southbound APIs to relay information to the
switches and routers “below.” OpenFlow, considered
the first standard in SDN, was the original southbound
API, and once was considered synonymous with SDN.
While popular, it is no longer the only API available on
the market, as other companies have released their own
proprietary versions of it.
© 2019 SDxCentral LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Northbound APIs
SDN uses northbound APIs to communicate with the
applications and business logic “above.” These help
network administrators to shape traffic and deploy
services through program instead of by manual
configuration.
The Business Benefits of SDN Solutions
SDN offers a centralized, programmable network that
can dynamically provision network resources so as
to address the changing needs of businesses. It also
provides the following technical and business benefits.
Directly Programmable
SDN network policy is directly programmable
because the control functions are decoupled from
forwarding functions, which enables the network to be
programmatically configured by proprietary or open
source automation tools, including OpenStack, Puppet,
Salt, Ansible, and Chef.
Centralized Management
Network intelligence is logically centralized in an SDN
controller software that maintains a global view of
the network, which appears to applications and SDN
network policy engines as a single, logical switch.
Reduce Capex
Software-Defined Networking potentially limits the
need to purchase purpose-built, ASIC-based networking
hardware, and instead supports pay-as-you-grow models
with its scaling capabilities.
Reduce Opex
SDN enables algorithmic control of the network and
network elements (such as hardware or software
switches/routers) that are increasingly programmable,
making it easier to design, deploy, manage, and scale
networks. The ability to automate provisioning and
orchestration optimizes service availability and reliability
by reducing overall management time and the chance
for human error.
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SDN 101: Network Foundations Guide | What is Software-Defined Networking (SDN)?

Deliver Agility and Flexibility

SDN can help organizations

rapidly deploy new applications,
services, and infrastructure to
quickly meet changing business
goals and objectives.

Enable Innovation

SDN enables organizations to

create new types of applications,
services, and business models that
can offer new revenue streams and
more value from the network.

SDN Use Cases

As detailed above, software-
defined networking offers several
benefits for businesses trying to
move into a virtual environment.
There is a multitude of use cases
for different organizations,
including carrier and service
providers, cloud computing and
data centers, and enterprise
campuses.
The architectural and infrastructural framework for SDN. The network is decentralized
For carrier and service providers, from the hardware, creating a flexible system that can be changed from a single control
SDN offers bandwidth-on- center. Source: Open Networking Foundation
demand, which gives control on
carrier links to request additional a wide geographic area without being restrained by
bandwidth when necessary, as well as WAN optimization the distance between nodes. For instance, all the
and bandwidth calendaring. For cloud computing and branch office networks and data centers within a
data centers, network virtualization for multi-tenants national enterprise, with branches in every state, can
is an important use case as it offers better utilization be connected via SD-WAN, and managed by a single
of resources and faster turnaround times for creating a central controller. More organizations are turning
segregated network. Enterprise campuses experience toward SD-WAN due to this ability to unify the various
network access control and network monitoring when connections. Another perk to SD-WAN is that it provides
using SDN policies. end-to-end encryption across the network, and thus

SDN and SD-WAN increases security.

Software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) is an SD-WAN is also applicable to a local area connection

extension of SDN. SD-WAN applies SDN to networking (LAN) to create a software-defined LAN (SD-LAN) for a

connections that cover a wide geographical area. single office or location. This can be used for networks

According to IEEE, this technology allows enterprises and data centers that must be kept on-premises for

to connect all their networks within their system across security, regulatory, or logistical reasons, while still
offering the flexibility and scalability of SD-WAN.

© 2019 SDxCentral LLC. All Rights Reserved. 2

SDN 101: Network Foundations Guide | Understanding Software-Defined Networking Architecture

Understanding SDN Architecture

SDN architecture defines how a
networking and computing system
can be built using a combination of
open, software-based technologies
and commodity networking
hardware that separate the SDN
control plane and the SDN data
plane of the networking stack.

OpenFlow and Open

Source’s Role in SDN
Architecture
Traditionally, both the SDN control
plane and data plane elements of
a networking architecture were
packaged in proprietary, integrated
code distributed by one or more
proprietary vendors. The OpenFlow
open-source standard, created in
2008, was recognized as the first
SDN architecture that defined
how the control and data plane
elements would be separated and
communicate with each other using
the OpenFlow protocol. The Open
Networking Foundation (ONF) is
the body in charge of managing
OpenFlow standards. There are
other standards and open-source A simplified visualization of OpenFlow’s SDN architecture standard with separated
organizations with SDN resources, layers with communicating APIs. Using open source standards, OpenFlow makes it
so OpenFlow is not the only possible to mix and match proprietary plane elements, and have them communicate
with OpenFlow protocol. Source: ONF
protocol that makes up SDN.

Three SDN “Stacks” SDN architectures generally have three components or

In the SDN architecture, the splitting of the control
and data forwarding functions is referred to as
“disaggregation,” because these pieces can be sourced
separately, rather than deployed as one integrated
system. This architecture gives the applications more
information about the state of the entire network from
the controller, as opposed to traditional networks where
the network is only application-aware.
groups of functionality.
SDN Applications
SDN applications are programs that communicate
behaviors and needed resources with the SDN controller
via APIs. In addition, the applications can build an
abstracted view of the network by collecting information
from the controller for decision-making purposes. These

© 2019 SDxCentral LLC. All Rights Reserved. 3

SDN 101: Network Foundations Guide | Understanding Software-Defined Networking Architecture
applications could include networking management,
analytics, or business applications used to run large data
centers. For example, an analytics application might
be built to recognize suspicious network activity for
security purposes.
SDN Controller
The SDN controller is a logical entity that receives
instructions or requirements from the SDN application
layer and relays them to the networking components.
The controller also extracts information about the
network from the hardware devices and communicates
back to the SDN applications with an abstract view of
the network, including statistics and events about what
is happening.
SDN Networking Devices
The SDN networking devices control the forwarding and
data processing capabilities for the network.
The SDN architecture APIs are often referred to as
northbound and southbound interfaces, defining the
communication between the applications, controllers,
and networking systems. A northbound interface is
defined as the connection between the controller and
applications, whereas the southbound interface is the
© 2019 SDxCentral LLC. All Rights Reserved.
connection between the controller and the physical
networking hardware. Because SDN is a virtualized
architecture, these elements do not have to be physically
located in the same place.
Webscale Built with SDN
The first SDN architectures were built by large
“webscale” players such as Google and Amazon as
they looked for new ways to build a series of huge,
scalable data centers with commodity and open source
parts. By using a combination of open source code and
commodity hardware, data-center technology can be
built in a flexible and modular way, adding new servers
and networking gear on a large scale. This architecture is
connected with SDN software.
One of the strengths of the SDN architecture is that it
provides applications with the unique ability to obtain
an abstracted, holistic view of the entire network.
These make the network “smarter” by being able to
analyze itself and integrate real-time information about
networking activity with the applications. This means
that applications can be load-balanced during moments
of high traffic, flagged for issues, or analyzed for
performance.
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SDN 101: Network Foundations Guide | What are SDN Southbound & Northbound APIs?
What are SDN Southbound & Northbound APIs?
SDN southbound APIs are used to communicate
between the SDN controller and the switches and
routers of the network. They can be open-source or
proprietary.
How Do SDN Southbound APIs Work?
Southbound APIs facilitate control over the network and
enable the SDN Controller to dynamically make changes
according to real-time demands and needs.
The OpenFlow southbound interface defines the way the
SDN Controller should interact with the forwarding plane
to make adjustments to the network, so it can better
adapt to changing business requirements.
With OpenFlow, entries can be added and removed
to the internal flow-table of switches and routers to
make the network more responsive to real-time traffic
demands.
Many companies are also building and selling their own
APIs, often complementary to their main products. Some
of these companies include YouTube, Google, Facebook,
and Amazon.
These other proprietary SDN protocols for southbound
APIs that use different methods for the same tasks
OpenFlow tackles.
The Network Configuration Protocol (NetConf) uses an
Extensible Markup Language (XML) to communicate
with the switches and routers to install and make
configuration changes.
Lisp, also promoted by ONF, is available to support
flow mapping. In addition, there are more established
networking protocols finding ways to run in an SDN
environment, such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF),
MPLS, BGP, SPB and IS-IS.
What are SDN Northbound and REST APIs?
SDN northbound APIs are usually SDN RESTful APIs
used to communicate between the SDN Controller and
the services and applications running over the network.
© 2019 SDxCentral LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The northbound APIs can be used to facilitate efficient
orchestration and automation of the network to align
with the needs of different applications via SDN network
programmability.
How Do Northbound APIs Work?
Northbound APIs are the link between the applications
and the SDN controller. The applications can tell
the network what they need (data, storage, and/or
bandwidth) and the network can deliver those resources,
or communicate what it has.
Northbound APIs support a wide variety of applications.
This is possibly why SDN northbound APIs are one of the
most moldable components in an SDN environment — a
variety of possible interfaces exist in different places up
the stack to control different types of applications via an
SDN controller.
Examples of the types of network applications that can
be optimized via the northbound interface include load
balancers, firewalls, or other software-defined security
services, or orchestration applications across cloud
resources.
Northbound APIs are also used to integrate the SDN
Controller with automation stacks, such as Puppet,
Chef, SaltStack, Ansible, and CFEngine, as well as
orchestration platforms, such as OpenStack, VMware’s
vCloudDirector or Apache’s open source CloudStack.
The goal is to abstract the inner-workings of the
network, so that application developers can “hook” into
the network and make changes to accommodate the
needs of the application.
There are several open source projects and groups
dedicated to developing northbound and REST APIs.
The Linux Open API Initiative, for example, is focused on
building programmable APIs using open-source code
that can be used across multiple programs, interfaces,
and operating systems.
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SDN 101: Network Foundations Guide | What are Software-Defined Networking Controllers?
What are SDN Controllers?
An SDN Controller is the application that acts as a
strategic control point in a software defined network.
Essentially, it is the “brains” of the network. An SDN
controller manages flow control to the switches/routers
“below” (via southbound APIs) and the applications and
business logic “above” (via northbound APIs) to deploy
intelligent networks. They consolidate and mediate
between different controller domains using common
application interfaces.
Two of the most well-known protocols used by SDN
controllers to communicate with the switches/routers
is OpenFlow and the open virtual switch database
(OVSDB). Other controller protocols are being
currently developed, many of them open-standard and
collaborative.
For example, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
working group — the Interface to the Routing System
(i2rs) — developed an SDN standard that enables a
controller to leverage proven, traditional protocols, such
as OSPF, MPLS, BGP, and IS-IS, across a variety of SDN
platforms.
The type of protocols supported can influence the
overall architecture of the network — for example, while
OpenFlow attempts to completely centralize packet-
forwarding decisions, i2rs splits the decision making
by leveraging traditional routing protocols to execute
distributed routing and allowing applications to modify
routing decisions.
SDN Controller Platforms
An SDN Controller platform typically contains a
collection of “pluggable” modules that can perform
different network tasks. Some of the basic tasks
including taking inventory of what devices are within the
network and the capabilities of each, gathering network
statistics, and other monitoring functions. Extensions
can be inserted that enhance the functionality and
support more advanced capabilities, such as running
algorithms to perform analytics and orchestrating new
rules throughout the network.
A controller platform can be from a different company
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than the application is from, allowing for interoperability
and flexibility. Cisco, for example, offers a controller
platform built by OpenDaylight. This open-source
controller is interoperable with several different
proprietary applications.
A Little History about SDN Controllers
The first SDN controller was NOX, which was initially
developed by Nicira Networks, alongside OpenFlow. In
2008, Nicira Networks (acquired by VMWare) donated
NOX to the SDN community, making it open source. It
has since become the basis for many SDN controller
solutions.
Nicira then went on to co-develop ONIX with NTT
and Google; ONIX is the base for the Nicira/VMware
controller. While ONIX was originally supposed to be
opened up, the parties later decided not to make it open
source.
There are, however, a variety of open source controllers
currently available. The earliest ones include POX and
Beacon. Started in early 2010, Beacon is a Java-based
OpenFlow controller licensed under a combination of
the GPL v2 license and the Stanford University FOSS
License Exception v1.0. Other controllers of note
include Trema (Ruby-based from NEC), as well as Ryu
(supported by NTT).
Subsequently, vendors such as Cisco, HP, IBM, VMWare,
Lumina Networks, and Juniper have jumped into the
controller market with their own offerings.
OpenDaylight is another major player in the SDN
controller game, as it’s the largest open-source SDN
controller and SDN controller platform currently offered
on the market.
SDN and SD-WAN Controller
Software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) has
seen increased popularity among enterprises. One of
the reasons for its popularity is that the centralized
application-based policy controller leverages existing
hybrid WAN architectures. The controller in conjunction
with analytics brings network and application visibility.
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SDN 101: Network Foundations Guide | Why is Software-Defined Networking Important?
Why is SDN Important?
SDN is important because it gives network operators
new ways to design, build, and operate their networks.
Over the past two decades, networks have come under
increased traffic demands and increased scrutiny
as both businesses and consumers increasingly rely
on network connectivity for sales, customer service,
internal communications, and document sharing. SDN,
paired with NFV, is a key technology needed to meet
these new demands.
SDN is just one piece of the puzzle: Network
virtualization, SDN, network function virtualization
(NFV), and white box devices each offer network
operators a new way to design, deploy, and manage the
network and its services.
NFV focuses on optimizing the network services
themselves. NFV decouples the network functions, such
as DNS, caching, firewalls, routing, and load balancing,
from proprietary hardware appliances. Decoupled
functions can run in software to accelerate service
innovation and provisioning, particularly within service
provider environments such as the public cloud.
Network virtualization ensures the network can
integrate with and support the demands of virtualized
architectures, particularly those with multi-tenancy
requirements.
White box devices, such as switches and routers,
are based on “generic” merchant silicon networking
chipsets available for anyone to buy, as opposed to
proprietary silicon chips designed by and for a single
networking vendor.
The Constraints of Custom Hardware
Historically, the most reliable networks with the highest
availability and fastest performance were those built
with custom silicon (ASICs) and purpose-built hardware.
Software and hardware on these systems were
intertwined; software from one company could not run
on hardware from a different one unless it’s specifically
built to do so.
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Because it takes a significant investment to build
custom silicon and hardware, rigorous processes are
required to ensure vendors get the most out of each
update or new iteration.
This means adding features without extensive manual
configuration virtually impossible. Customers that
want new or different functionality to address their
requirements end up beholden to the vendor’s timeline
and resources.
Software abstracted from the hardware, however, can
be freed from those restraints and adapted without
changing the hardware. This is why SDN is important for
network innovation.
Why SDN is Critical for Today’s Networking
With the abstraction from hardware and all the
limitations that a hardware-bound network once had,
SDN, NFV, and network virtualization technologies
create networks that can enable innovation, reduce
capex and opex, and deliver fluidity and flexibility.
Organizations can enable innovation by creating new
types of applications, services and business models in a
record amount of time and with less hassle than before.
Businesses can create new services and new paths for
revenue with dynamic applications and a more efficient
workflow. Network functions can be run on less-
expensive off-the-shelf hardware, reducing capex.
Enterprises can reduce opex on IT services by
supporting automation and algorithm control through
increased programmability of network elements to
make it simple to design, deploy, manage, and scale
networks.
These approaches and technologies combined help
organizations rapidly deploy new, fluid, and flexible
applications, services and infrastructure to meet their
changing requirements.
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