A Survey of Multicast in Software-Defined Networking

Abstract

Multicast is an important communication way, which addresses how to distribute the data from one or many sources to a group of destination computers simultaneously. Recently emerging software-defined networking (SDN) separates the network control plane from the data forwarding plane with the promise to dramatically improve network resource utilization. The multicast in this new network paradigm should be reconsidered according to the new network features. In this paper, we introduce the multicast technique in SDN, including SDN-based Multicast in Datacenter, Multicast Routing in SDN and Multicast Tree Packing in SDN. We believe that the multicast technique in SDN, especially the multicast tree packing, has better potential performance than that in traditional network. Introduction Multicast is an important communication way, which addresses how to distribute the data from one or many sources to a group of destination computers simultaneously. The typical application examples include video conference, video-on-demand and file distribution. Multicast can be classified into two main types, i.e. IP multicast and application layer multicast (ALM). IP multicast is a technique for one-to-many communication over an IP infrastructure in a network. The nodes in the network (switches and routers) take care of replicating the packet to reach multiple receivers such that messages are sent over each link of the network only once. Therefore the forwarding efficiency of IP multicast is very high. However, it has not been widely deployed in current Internet because of some limitations such as dependence on the supports of network infrastructures and rapid resource-consuming of routers. As an alternative of IP multicast, ALM is implemented at the application layer, using only end-systems. Participating peers organize themselves into an overlay topology, where each edge in this topology corresponds to a unicast path between two end-systems or peers. Recently emerging software-defined networking separates the network control plane from the data forwarding plane with the promise to dramatically improve network resource utilization, simplify network management, reduce operating cost, and promote innovation and evolution. In SDN, the controller can collect information from network devices and change the traffic flow settings. With the full knowledge of network condition, the SDN controller can adaptively set up different routes for different flows to maximize the service utility. In this paper, we present a survey of multicast in software-defined network. Typical SDN Architecture In this section, we review two well-known SDN architectures, i.e. ONF OpenFlow-based SDN and IETF ForCES. The above two architectures each follow the basic principle of separation between the control and data planes, and each standardize information exchange between planes. However, there exist some differences on the architecture design. The ONF SDN architecture [1] comprises three layers, i.e. data plane, control plane and application plane, as Figure 1 shows. The network elements in the data plane expose their capabilities toward the control layer. In the Controller Plane, the SDN controller translates the 5th International Conference on Information Engineering for Mechanics and Materials (ICIMM 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 1096 applications’ requirements and exerts more granular control over the network elements. Services are offered to applications via the application-controller plane interface. An SDN controller may orchestrate competing application demands for limited network resources. SDN applications reside in the Application Plane, and communicate their network requirements toward the Controller Plane. Data plane Control plane Application plane Network services Business applications