Topics: Software De fined Networking
Authors: Robert Bauer (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany); Martina Zitterbart (KIT, Germany)
Presenter Bio: Robert Bauer received his Diploma in Computer Science from Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2014. Since then, he worked as a
research assistant and PhD Candidate at the research group of Prof.
Zitterbart (Institute of Telematics, KIT). He is involved in several
teaching activities related to software-based networking. In April 2016,
he joined the CELTIC EUREKA project SENDATE-PLANETS, where he is
working on the coexistence of multiple communication paradigms and
user-tailored services that are incorporated into the network. His
research interests focus on advanced communication systems based on
Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization.
Abstract:
Software-defined networks (SDNs) come with
great promises regarding flexible operation of networks. A key component
within SDN-switches is the flow table which holds the rules that
determine how data streams are handled. The flow table, however, is a
scarce resource with a rather limited rule capacity. To soften this
well-known hassle, PBCE (Port Based Capacity Extension) provides the
possibility to delegate flows to a so-called extension switch (e.g.,
neighboring switch) in order to utilize flow table resources of this
switch. Delegation is performed without breaking control plane
transparency, i.e., without interfering with established SDN
applications. To do so, PBCE uses flow rule aggregation based on ingress
ports and a small set of predefined rules at the initial switch that
are needed to redirect incoming flows to a dynamically chosen output
port. In this paper, we present the PBCE delegation architecture for
OpenFlow-based SDNs along with a basic mechanism for flow table capacity
outsourcing. A prototypical implementation and first promising
performance results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. Within
this paper, we focus on flow table scalability, the concept of PBCEs
can, however, be applied to other delegation scenarios.
