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

TL;DR

This paper presents OSHI, a fully implemented hybrid IP/SDN network solution with open source tools for emulation, management, and advanced service deployment, facilitating integration of SDN into large-scale IP networks.

Contribution

It introduces OSHI, an open source hybrid IP/SDN system, along with Mantoo, a comprehensive set of management tools for emulation, deployment, and performance evaluation.

Findings

Successful implementation of OSHI hybrid network system

Development of Mantoo tools for topology design and emulation

Validation of the solution using Mininet and physical testbeds

Abstract

The introduction of SDN in large-scale IP provider networks is still an open issue and different solutions have been suggested so far. In this paper we propose a hybrid approach that allows the coexistence of traditional IP routing with SDN based forwarding within the same provider domain. The solution is called OSHI - Open Source Hybrid IP/SDN networking as we have fully implemented it combining and extending Open Source software. We discuss the OSHI system architecture and the design and implementation of advanced services like Pseudo Wires and Virtual Switches. In addition, we describe a set of Open Source management tools for the emulation of the proposed solution using either the Mininet emulator or distributed physical testbeds. We refer to this suite of tools as Mantoo (Management tools). Mantoo includes an extensible web-based graphical topology designer, which provides different layered network "views" (e.g. from physical links to service relationships among nodes). The suite can validate an input topology, automatically deploy it over a Mininet emulator or a distributed SDN testbed and allows access to emulated nodes by opening consoles in the web GUI. Mantoo provides also tools to evaluate the performance of the deployed nodes.