# SDN as Active Measurement Infrastructure

## TL;DR

This paper proposes integrating active network measurements directly into SDN infrastructure, enabling scalable, accurate, and diverse vantage points without dedicated measurement nodes.

## Contribution

It introduces SAAMI, a framework that embeds active measurements into SDN, allowing measurements from any SDN-enabled location and simplifying deployment.

## Key findings

- SAAMI is accurate in measurement results.
- SAAMI is scalable to large networks.
- SAAMI is extensible for different measurement protocols.

## Abstract

Active measurements are integral to the operation and management of networks, and invaluable to supporting empirical network research. Unfortunately, it is often cost-prohibitive and logistically difficult to widely deploy measurement nodes, especially in the core. In this work, we consider the feasibility of tightly integrating measurement within the infrastructure by using Software Defined Networks (SDNs). We introduce "SDN as Active Measurement Infrastructure" (SAAMI) to enable measurements to originate from any location where SDN is deployed, removing the need for dedicated measurement nodes and increasing vantage point diversity. We implement ping and traceroute using SAAMI, as well as a proof-of-concept custom measurement protocol to demonstrate the power and ease of SAAMI's open framework. Via a large-scale measurement campaign using SDN switches as vantage points, we show that SAAMI is accurate, scalable, and extensible.