SplitArchitecture Applying Software Defined Networking concept to carrier networks Mario Kind, Steffen Topp, Fritz-Joachim Westphal, Andreas Gladisch Presentation given at World Telecommunication Congress 2012, March 5th 2012
Outline. 1. Motivation 2. Concept of Software Defined Networking 3. SplitArchitecture 4. Conclusion 13.03.2012 2
Complexity in network operation increases, while evolution of network technologies continues to accelerate. Demands on network operation The threats on network operation Internet traffic growth still at 50% per year Support of new services like VoIP, IPTV Multiple migration / evolution paths of technologies with involvement of different organisations The consequences for network operation Continuous exchange of network devices with increasing forwarding capacities Continuous migration of existing platforms Continuous adoption of IT and related OSS/BSS interfaces Total number of RFCs RFCs published annually 100 0 Increase of complexity 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 200500 400 300 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Increasing and confusing amount of standards and RFC Huge amount of patches for Security, QoS, MPLS, Demarcation etc. Year Demand to understand interdependencies and to reduce complexity in network operation 3
Learn from application services of OTT service providers: Centralized generic processing platforms and open APIs. Generic processing platforms API OTT service providers host services in data centres centres are build based on general purpose storage and processing hardware In contrast, traditional network elements are based on high-performance specialized hardware Application services could be based on programmable interfaces (API) API could be used by various application services from different providers Network services could be modified by network operator intervention only Leverage advantages of generic processing platforms and APIs 4
The Software Defined Networking concept* is a new approach for operation and management of networks. Three important aspects Constrained forwarding model Distributed state of network & customer information Manifold configuration aspects Customer Network Today s typical design concept access/aggregation network Access Node Agg. Switch Edge Node Software Defined Networking* Split 1: and control plane Split 2: Network operation system & control program Split 3: Abstraction Program abstract network view Network Hypervisor global network view Network Operating System * SDN concept defined by Scott Shenker 5
OpenFlow is a first step to enable SDN. OpenFlow Concept Initial development organized by Stanford University Initial approach: Ethernet based Layer 2-4 Rule set Pipeline approach Limited abstraction Extensible Since last summer activities organized by Open Networking Foundation Program Proprietary Interface OpenFlow ler OpenFlow Protocol 6
A first carrier grade approach of the SDN concept: SplitArchitecture. SplitArchitecture SplitArchitecture is an architecture concept and the full name of an European research project SPARC Starting point: Initial definition of OpenFlow Extension under investigation for carrier-grade approach MPLS support IPv6 Service creation Restoration and resiliency etc. 7
SplitArchitecture extends the SDN concept with abstraction layer and split between forwarding and processing. Software Defined Networking* Split 1: and control plane Split 2: Network operation system & control program Split 3: Abstraction Program abstract network view Network Hypervisor global network view Network Operating System SplitArchitecture plane is split into forwarding and processing Hierarchical controller filters and abstracts data plane filtered, abstracted network view Forwarding Processing Network Application Hierarchical ler Forwarding Processing Processing Forwarding Processing Extended OpenFlow Protocol * SDN concept based on Scott Shenker 8
Example: Service creation based on. Today s residential model service creation improved by SplitArchitecture BRAS and Session AGS2 AGS1 BSS/ OSS BRAS new Session AGS2 AGS1 OpenFlow ler Session App BSS / OSS DSLAM DSLAM RGW RGW 9
Example: Service creation based on. Today s residential model service creation improved by SplitArchitecture BRAS and Session RGW AGS2 AGS1 DSLAM BSS/ OSS BRAS new Session RGW AGS2 AGS1 DSLAM OpenFlow ler Session App BSS / OSS Scalability (!?) Installed hardware base Economics Numerous deployment options require careful analysis! 10
Conclusion and outlook. First generic concept: Software Defined Networking OpenFlow is a basic approach with first implementations Open Networking Foundation will develop further SplitArchitecture Conclusion Initial approach to develop a carrier-grade SDN Concept / architecture Proof-of concept of basic functions SDN and OF Standardization Next steps Extensions of data and control plane Specification of advanced interfaces SplitArchitecture Scalability analysis Revised architecture Additional service creation concepts More Information WTC2012 workshop 2 (Wednesday): Software Defined Networks and OpenFlow Project SPARC: http://www.fp7-sparc.eu 11
Thank you! mario.kind@telekom.de 12