Multi-layer Virtual Transport Network management

Abstract

Nowadays there is an increasing need for a general paradigm which can simplify network management and further enable network innovations. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an efficient way to make the network programmable and reduce management complexity, however existing SDN solutions do not realize the full potential of SDN because of their lack of scoping in network management. In response to limitations of current Software Defined Networking (SDN) management solutions, we propose a recursive approach to enterprise network management, where network management is done through managing various Virtual Transport Networks (VTNs) over different scopes (i.e., regions of operation).Our approach offers a generalized and structured framework to realize the full potential of SDN using recursive scoped management, and our VTN-based approach provides communication service with explicit Quality-of-Service (QoS) support for applications via transport flows. Each VTN involves all mechanisms (e.g., addressing, routing, error and flow control, resource allocation) needed to support such transport flows. Based on this approach, we design and implement a management architecture, which recurses the same VTN-based management mechanism for enterprise network management. Our experimental results show that our management architecture achieves better performance demonstrated through unicast and multicast video applications.