Networking: a World Moving to Software Is networking hardware still relevant in a software defined world? Pascal Geenens Sr. Consulting Engineer Lead Cloud Providers EMEA
SDN, opportunities for Service Providers Carrier SDN (SD-WAN) Control / Data Plane separation Logically centralized Control Plane Increased flexibility Time to deploy new services Reduced complexity / easier to operate, maintain Lower cost through optimization SDN (active/programmable networks) Network Virtualization (virtualization of infrastructure) OPPORTUNITIES Agility / Time to Value Innovation Abstraction SDDC Visibility Network Virtualization Overlays through leveraging SDN on the endpoints Abstraction Higher efficiency and lower costs Time to deploy new infrastructure/applications Self-service infrastructure Elastic scale Availability and security NFV Leverage virtualization technology to consolidate network equipment onto industry standard high volume infrastructure Reduce CAPEX, OPEX, space & power consumption using COTS server infrastructure Increased speed of Time to Market Elastic scale (up/down, in/out) Lower risk for new/innovative services Significantly reduced maturation cycle Encourages openness Revenue growth by capitalizing on new opportunities Operational Efficiency Middlebox Virtualization & Consolidation to excel in a changing landscape of competitors Highly Complementary
SDN Paradigms SDN as an OS SDN as a Compiler High Level Data Model High Level, declarative specification of network requirements Control Plane Management Plane Parse and Process Store High Level Representation Compile, translate to low level language Control Plane Low level Low level Low level low level realization Data Plane Data Plane NOS offers a set of services (like a new POSIX ) User writes imperative control program to transform current network state to desired state Control programs are transformations of network state Abstract High Level Declarative Specification User writes desired state in declarative programming language SDN Compiler translates high level declaration, requirements and constraints to low level instructions that each data plane element can implement
SDN, a Layered Model North Bound Interface (NBI) South Bound Interface (SBI) Less hardware/vendor specific Every layer encapsulates functionality and exposes services to the upper layer Decoupled layers Design, implement, operate, maintain and optimize every layer individually More hardware/vendor Specific
Network State and Abstraction SDN Layers Network Device Network state SDN Controller ephemeral SDN Controller Implements an ephemeral service Does not deploy, operate or maintain the network Dynamic configuration of network devices Controller keeps track of the ephemeral state Analytics collector Correlate and export analytics (layer-crossing) Underlay Control Plane static x86 / purpose built Data Plane Underlay Static configuration + ephemeral control plane state Ephemeral state from eg routing protocols Traditional network management (EMS) Independent design and implementation Automation and DevOps Automated recovery / Self healing (google ref ) Analytics export Good Abstraction == Decoupled layers (independent) Standardized or Open API/Data Model Balance in encapsulated functionality
SDN Controllers Manages the ephemeral state of the network Protocols (controller programs the network device) PCEP XMPP OVSDB OpenFlow Netconf / XML MP-BGP Feedback stream (real-time feedback loop) BGP-TS RSVP-TS BMP (BGP Monitoring Protocol) GPB (Google Protocol Buffers) JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) XML Some of the earlier mentioned protocols are bidirectional Physical network device Network state Ephemeral state (data model) Orchestrator Policy / HL Data Model NBI SDN Controller eph eph eph Physical network device X86 vrouter/vswitch
SDN WAN Optimization The Data Plane Is geographically distributed Variable link cost, capacity, latency CONTINUOUS GLOBAL REAL-TIME optimization of ALL traffic in the network Juniper Networks NorthStar Controller Path Computation Client (PCC) PCE Protocol (PCEP) Ephemeral State Controller touches IP/MPLS EVERY device IGP-TE (ISIS, OSPF) BGP-LS Topology discovery One session PCE Protocol (PCEP) LSP provisioning / discovery Path Computation Element (PCE) Eg, GUI allowing user to Isolate a node for maintenance PCE Ephemeral State SDN Controller Topology Discovery Control Program (SDN Application)
Network Virtualisation (Cloud DC, NFV VIM) Overlays: intelligence pushed to the edge of the network (SDDC) leaf leaf Juniper Networks Contrail Cloud x86 Host virtualized vswitch/vrouter x86 BMS VTEP (OVSDB) Controller only touches the edges Does not touch the underlay fabric Nova VXLAN spine SDN Controller Neutron MPLSoUDP MPLSoGRE Nova OpenStack Orchestrator VRF L3VPN/EVPN x86 Host virtualized vswitch/vrouter DC Edge router Underlay Fabric (LAN) Virtual Machines Ephemeral state (SDN Controller) Overlay Tunnels Overlay (blue virtual network) Overlay agnostic for underlay underlay is independent design Underlay Requirements for adequate and consistent performance resiliency and high availability Overlay hides logical state from underlay need for analytics correlation
Custom SDN Controller Merchant silicon (limited FIB mem) Open & Programmable with Control plane/api isolation Scalable Peering Router System using limited FIB devices (*) Peering Devices OpenBMP Collector BMP OpenBMP Collector BMP GPB/JSON/XML stream [Junos AnalyticsD] Netconf/Yang [Junos ephemeral] SDN Controller (Go/Python/Ruby/C++/ ) [Thrift] (*) untested design
Cloudlets and NFVO Contrail Service Maestro Virtual Infrastructure [OpenStack Orchestrator + Contrail Controller] Cloudlet miniature cloud data center in PoP/CO providing virtual infrastructure services NFV Orchestrator Manages vnf in Cloudlets Manages pnf Instantiates pnf/vnf service chains NFVO POP Cloud Public Cloud Azure, Salesforce, AWS Branch Location BUSINESS POP 2 IP/MPLS VPN Internet Corporate Location BUSINESS POP 1 Business POP 3 Remote Office
SDN and the ETSI NFV Reference Architecture OSS/BSS Os-Nfvo NFV ORCHESTRATOR(NFVO) OSS/BSS Element Element Element Manager Manager Manager VeEn-Vnfm NS Catalog VNF Catalog Nfvo-Vnfm NFV Instances NFVI Resources Exposes API / Data Model ORCHESTRATORS VNF VNF VNF VeNf-Vnfm VNF Manager (VNFM) Exposes API / Data Model Virtual Compute Virtual Storage Virtualisation Layer Virtual Network Nf-Vi Vnfm-Vi Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) Nfvo-Vi CONTROLLERS Exposes API / Data Model Compute Hardware Storage Hardware Hardware Layer NFV Infrastructure Network Hardware AGENTS and HARDWARE UNDERLAY
Conclusions
Hardware layer requirements for efficient SDN Provide Adequate abstraction Independent and Open Controller/Orchestrator should not have to care about detail in the underlying layer (eg how HA, LB or congestion control is implemented) Layers expose functionality through open/standardized APIs or Data Models (richer ecosystem) Balanced Must be self-contained and encapsulate a fair amount of functionality to provide better hiding of complexity and ease of reuse for higher level functions Resilient and Highly Available Adequate and Consistent performance (throughput, latency, hops) Mainly for the Cloud DC and NFV VIM use cases (One flat pool of network resources, no performance silos ; handle elephant flows) Easy to manage, deploy and operate Providing Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) and Automation (Ansible, Puppet, Chef, ) Integrated Systems (VCF, Junos Fusion) Open and Programmable Preferably isolating the programming interface from the control plane to protect the programmer /controller Be resilient against controller failures (static and device ephemeral vs SDN controller ephemeral state) Optimized (features vs performance vs size vs power / merchant vs custom silicon) Efficient power use and heat dissipation for MSDC Size and form-factor for Central Office / POP deployments Open Architectures that provide value over time Smooth upgrade paths from legacy, to scalable and dynamic architectures without controllers, up to full controller based SDNs Rich Analytics Troubleshooting and cross-layer network correlation
Optimized hardware for the forwarding plane Depending on the function or place in the network Efficiency vs Flexibility, Bandwidth vs Features, Price vs Performance Juniper Custom Silicon systems Merchant Silicon solutions (commercial off-the-shelf) Q5 QFX10k series No compromise scale Deep buffers High Port Density Express PTX High performance, low power, optimized LSR, OTN integration for the core Trio MX Rich Edge Routing services, flexible and programmable chipset with high logical scale Broadcom Trident II QFX5100/EX4600 Plans for T2+, TH (Tomahawk) High volumes = competitive price per 10GbE port Low latency, lower logical scale, shallow buffers Fixed and limited hw feature set
The foundation to a sustainable, long term strategy in Software Defined Networks ---------- OSS/BSS, DevOps, Platforms & Apps --------- INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SERVICE VIRTUALIZATION Network Director Service Insertion and Chaining Security Director VNF Partners (Security, ADC, NAT ) vsrx vmx OVERALL SOLUTION INTEGRATED WITH OPEN TECHNOLOGIES NorthStar CONTROLLER AND OVERLAY ARCHITECTURE Controller UNDERLAY ARCHITECTURE QFX Series Switching FOUNDATION TECHNOLOGIES MH VCF, Fusion Systems EX & MX Series SRX Series Security PTX Universal SDN Gateways ACX Multi-Silicon Strategy 1/10/25/40/100G Optics Innovative Systems Innovative Software
Thank you!