Software-Defined Networking

[Nick L]

I've recently been reading up on some of the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating a

Who is actually using this type of technology? Is it geared toward developers, network engineers or some combination of the two? Is this more for data centers, or offices?

I see openflow mentioned as “commonly used to establish forwarding rules in each device, and the sum of these rules creates the connectivity offered by the network.” Do I need to use OpenFlow in software-defined networks? Is this a required protocol in SDN?

 

[James M]

Data centers would be using this. Campuses would be using this.

In networks today, each network device has its own little brain (control plane) which it uses to figure out where to send traffic next (data plane). You can see if you have hundreds if not thousands of these devices in a data center or campus that configuring each one would be very difficult and they might not always forward traffic as they should. You're having to set up routing protocols, spanning-tree protocols, and all sorts of complicated stuff.

What if we ripped out all of their brains and consolidated the brains into a brain cluster? (of three nodes typically for redundancy) The brain cluster would then be used to control all of these dumb devices. The brain cluster can "see" the entire network. The brain cluster tells each device "if you see this kind of traffic, do this". That way you only have one place to configure traffic patterns. It allows one to program the network as a whole. No routing protocols, spanning-tree protocols, or any of that. Shut up and forward traffic like I tell you. No routing, no switching, just forwarding.

Now that the network operates as a cohesive single unit, it is a lot easier to configure it, even using orchestration tools via an API.

Check this out these as well:

http://etherealmind.com/openflow-software-defined-networking-routing-or-switching/

http://blog.ipspace.net/2013/08/management-control-and-data-planes-in.html

about your second question from techtarget directly "The OpenFlow protocol isn't required in SDN. SDN architectures will end up taking many approaches, and each vendor will have a different way of developing its SDN solution. However, the Open Network Foundation (ONF) has made great progress with the standard, and many vendors have already put OpenFlow into action. The ONF recommended using OpenFlow as the foundation technology for SDN implementation. "

 

[Nick L]

Thanks James, I can see how it would be useful in data centers specifically to manage these networks.I'm understanding it as you cant easily change what computer is connected to what when you have a large server due to the enormous volume of machines you're working with so we use SDNs to automatically manage the network behind it. Is that correct?

 

[Neil_Hines]

Software-defined networking (SDN) is an approach to managing using open protocols, for instance, OpenFlow, to apply comprehensive careful programming control at the edges of the network to get the chance to organize switches and switches that routinely would use close and prohibitive firmware.Here you know about the 7 Essentials Of Software-Defined Networking.