I've been looking at OF to solve a number of problems that have been bugging me about networking lately, and I've been coming up with a few solutions to new problems too - which I'm sure those who know me well will be concerned about ;-)
What switch hardware are you using, or are you using a software switch? I can't seem to find much good information out there - it looked for a time like everyone had implemented up to just shy of OF1.0, but now it looks like the pronto/pica8 guys have ported openvswitch to their hardware so you get OF1.2..
The number of concurrent flows also seems to be fairly lacking - looked like the pronto/pica8 stuff was somewhere around about 4k flows, but I'm sure I've seen much better numbers (several hundred k) mentioned somewhere else..
Would be good to have a good source of information about this stuff.
On 11/12/2012, at 12:05 AM, Dean Pemberton
Hi all,
Just wanted to share with you all what we think is a world first, right here in New Zealand.
Today New Zealand can boast the first SDN controlled OpenFlow switch BGP peering with a public Internet Exchange.
Because you're all geeks, I've decided to write the rest of the email as a FAQ:
Q: What is SDN and/or OpenFlow? A: It's a new way of thinking about and building network devices. It stands for Software Defined Networking. It's basically a way to separate the control plane from the data plane in order to allow you unprecedented control over what your network can do, while still keeping it blindingly fast. You let the Software do what it's good for (running routing protocols, making policy decisions) and you let the Hardware do what it's good at (forwarding stuff at wire speed, zoooooom!). A match made in heaven
Have a look at the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_networking
Or this presentation from OpenFlow http://www.openflow.org/documents/OpenFlow_2011.pps
Q: Why do I care? A: SDN and OpenFlow allow you much more control and flexibility over your network. It's a new technology however, and people are yet to begin playing with it.
Q: Sounds like one of those scary technologies like IPv6 and DNSSEC. A: Well if you mean that other people are doing it while you're ignoring it and hoping that it will go away... Then you're right. =)
Just like IPv6, before we saw people willing to deploy it on their networks they needed to get some experience with how it worked. We're at that stage with SDNs at the moment. It is because of this need for more experience and public awareness that we've gone ahead with this little project.
Q: So what exactly have you done. A: We've deployed an OpenFlow controlled switch on the WIX and along with an OpenFlow controller built a BGP capable router.
Q: Details? A: From the WIX looking glass
Neighbor V AS MsgRcvd MsgSent TblVer InQ OutQ Up/Down State/PfxRcd 202.7.0.119 4 9483 24345 27397 0 0 0 07:21:59 1
Q: So what? Is that it? A: Hardly. We've got some more phases that we want to develop, so I guess this is a watch this space. Over the next few months, we'll be working on extending past this single box with a view to demonstrating to the NZ Internet community, and beyond, whats really possible with an SDN. Basically we don't want New Zealand falling behind whats happening in the rest of the world.
Q: We're not ready for this. It's scary, poke it with a stick!!! A: Thats fine. We've chosen to use New Zealand as the initial production deployment here. But if it looks like thats not going to get the traction needed, then there are other places which this would work in. Lets make this a good Kiwi development moment though. Remember how we're so proud of telling people we had EFTPOS so long before anyone else.
Q: Pfffft I've heard of this. It doesn't work! It's not production ready A: Hi, Welcome to the conversation. You're just the sort of person we need paying attention. We're doing this so that people arn't LISTENING about SDN, but are actually seeing it WORK. In a real world production setting. We hope you can stay for the rest of the show.
Q: So who else does SDNs. This sounds a little too much like witchcraft to me. A: Well from back in the days of the Juniper M-Series people have been separating Routing Engines from Packet Forwarding Engines. We then started to see multi chassis versions. This is just an extension of the same sort of concept. There are some organisations which run huge-scale SDN style networks. Maybe you've used a search engine or mail platform from one...
Q: This sounds like a pretty heavy sales pitch. What are you pushing? A: CYNIC! Nothing. Just like the reason I'm pushing people to think about IPv6 and DNSSEC, I want to see the New Zealand Internet community as a technology innovator, not just someone who swallows down the latest vendor slide-ware. And hey if SDN doesn't work then at least New Zealand still gets to write the book on it.
Q: Sounds cool, can I help? A: Sure, anyone's welcome to come and learn along with the rest of us. Drop me a line if you think you can help and we'll see where we can fit you in. As a starter I'm looking for between 1 and 3U of space in Auckland with access to the APE.
Q: Where can I hear more. A: If you're lucky I might do a lightning talk on where we've got to and where we're going at the NZNOG conference.
Thanks to Prophecy Networks, REANNZ, VUW, Waikato University, Citylink, FX Networks and others, for their contributions and support in getting the project to where it is today and for not wanting it to stop there!
Regards, Dean _______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing list NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog