Abstract
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a pillar of next-generation networks. Implementing SDN requires the establishment of a decoupled control communication, which might be installed either as an out-of-band or in-band network. While the benefits of in-band control networks seem apparent, no standard protocol exists and most of setups are based on ad-hoc solutions. This article defines Amaru, a protocol that provides plug&play resilient in-band control for SDN with low-complexity and high scalability. Amaru follows an exploration mechanism to find all possible paths between the controller and any node of the network, which drastically reduces convergence time and exchanged messages, while increasing robustness. Routing is based on masked MAC addresses, which also simplifies routing tables, minimizing the number of entries to one per path, independently of the network size. We evaluated Amaru with three different implementations and diverse types of networks and failures, and obtained excellent results, providing almost on-the-fly rerouting and low recovery time.
Highlights
Control communication is pivotal for the thriving SoftwareDefined Networking (SDN) paradigm, which –by definition– cracks the network architecture into control and data planes [1]
Out-of-band control is arranged as a dedicated network, isolated from the data plane links and devices, requiring additional resources; while in-band leverages the already existing deployment to perform the communication, sharing the resources with the data plane
The justification to implement each approach resides in diverse aspects [2], which we could summarize as follows: 1) As the network grows in size, in-band control is more scalable and cheaper
Summary
Control communication is pivotal for the thriving SoftwareDefined Networking (SDN) paradigm, which –by definition– cracks the network architecture into control (logical) and data (physical) planes [1]. The main purpose of the control communication is to connect both planes and it may be deployed either as an out-of-band or an in-band network [2], or even as a hybrid solution [3]. Out-of-band control is arranged as a dedicated network, isolated from the data plane links and devices, requiring additional resources; while in-band leverages the already existing deployment to perform the communication, sharing the resources with the data plane. Hybrid solutions share the advantages and disadvantages of both modes, as control communication might either be routed through dedicated or –the already existing– data links.
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