6CC552 Research Project: Latency Analysis of OpenFlow in SDN

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the OpenFlow protocol's performance within Software Defined Networking (SDN), focusing specifically on monitoring end-to-end packet flow latency between an OpenFlow switch and the controller. The research involves implementing an OpenFlow switch and conducting a series of quantitative tests to evaluate the protocol's performance. It begins with an introduction to SDN and OpenFlow, followed by a literature review highlighting the evolution of network requirements and the architecture of SDN. The report then details the methods and design used, including the establishment of a network model using simulation tools. Analysis and results are presented, focusing on the performance of the OpenFlow network. The conclusion summarizes the findings and their implications for SDN deployment and optimization.

Abstract
Software defined networks (SDNs) presented the idea of decoupling control and data
planes which is a change in outlook. The Open Flow convention is one of various
advancements that empowers this decoupling and, essentially, commodifies arrange
hardware. Starting at now, there is as yet restricted work that has been done towards
demonstrating the travel delay crosswise over Open Flow switches experienced by organize
movement. The objective of Open Flow is to give open interoperability between organize
hardware of various merchants, as past endeavours made to this end were exclusive
arrangements. This exertion enhances the execution of SDNs. The Open Flow convention
oversees different components of a system, e.g. actualizing setup changes in the data plane of
a mind boggling system, for example, a server farm or telco's center system. Nonetheless,
these procedures must be finished in convenient way. In customary systems the control plane
lives on every individual switch in a divided/disseminated design which once in a while
influences the execution of the data plane. In Open Flow switches the postponement brought
about by data plane components to process packets increments because of the contribution of
a central controller. In this research, we are focus on analysing the Open flow protocol
performance in Software Defined Networking (SDN) and also focus on monitoring the
latency of end to end packet flow between an open flow switch and controller. This research
will implement the open flow switch and running a series of tests to quantitatively analyse the
open flow protocol performances.
1

Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
VMware Workstation and Mininet Installation....................................................................4
Literature Review.....................................................................................................................6
Methods and Design.................................................................................................................8
Software-Defined Networks and Open Flow.....................................................................8
Network Requirements’ Evolution.....................................................................................8
Architecture of SDN...........................................................................................................10
Open Flow...........................................................................................................................11
Logical Switch Architecture..............................................................................................12
Analysis and Results..............................................................................................................13
Software Defined Network................................................................................................13
Designing the Open Flow Network by using Simulation Tool.......................................14
Establishing the Network Model.......................................................................................15
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................23
References...............................................................................................................................25
2

Introduction
The SDN (Software Define Network) presented an idea of seperating control and data
planes that change in outlook. The Open Flow convention is one of various advancements
that empowers this decoupling and, essentially, commodifies arrange hardware. Starting at
now, there is as yet restricted work that has been done towards demonstrating the travel delay
crosswise over Open Flow switches experienced by organize movement. The fast
development of new innovations, for example, distributed computing, have muddled the
manner by which customary systems administration was finished.
Software defined networks (SDN), another systems administration worldview, gives an
answer for it by cleverly overseeing and arranging the system components. It establishes the
framework programmable by enclosing the framework’s control plane from the data plane.
The plane of information has just switches along with capability to send bundles as shown by
power plane produced essential rules. The SDN provides the more control to the framework
managers over the whole framework with united control plane which executes in software.
And it has furthermore empowered masters to test sent frameworks without making any
check their movement. The united control plane includes a southbound application
programming interface (API), for correspondence along with the hardware frameworks has
data plane and the Northbound API for correspondence along with the orchestrate
applications. It also helps in the making process of organization limits framework. OpenFlow
is considered as a preeminent southbound API, which is progressed with the help of ONF. It
represents Open Networking Foundation.
The main objective of “Open Flow” is to give an open interoperability among organized
hardware set of various suppliers, as past activities prepared to this end were exclusive
arrangements. The objective force enhances the execution of SDNs. The Open Flow
convention oversees different components of a system. For example, actualizing setup
changes in the mind boggling system’s data plane, such as, a server farm or telco's center
system. Nonetheless, these procedures must be finished in convenient way. In customary
systems the control plane lives on each individuals switch in a divided/disseminated design
which once in a while influences the execution of the data plane. In Open Flow switches the
postponement brought about by data plane components to process packets increments
because of the contribution of a focal controller system.
The latency is extended due to below reasons. These are listed below.
3

1. Among OpenFlow switch and control plan, the propagation delay is occurred.
2. The control plane rate is prepared
3. The responsiveness of Open Flow switches in producing banner for another
stream and refreshing their separate stream tables on accepting sign from the
central controller.
In this research, we are focus on analysing the Open flow protocol performance in SDN
(Software Defined Networking) and also it will focus on to monitor the latency of end to end
packet flow among an OpenFlow switch and the controller. This research will implement the
OpenFlow switch and then we will conduct the quantitative analysis to do series of tests for
analyzing the performance of OpenFlow protocol.
VMware Workstation and Mininet Installation
1. Download Mininet and VMware workstation.
2. First Install the VMware workstation.
3. Then, Open the VMware workstation.
4. Click, Create new Virtual machine.
5. After, browse the Mininet disk file to install the Mininet.
6. Then, Power on the Mininet.
7. Log on Mininet to enter the user name as Mininet and password as Mininet.It is
shown below.
4

5

Literature Review
According to this paper (Shamim et al., 2018), Software Defined Networking (SDN) is
another systems administration worldview where control plane is isolated from data plane. In
the course of recent years, SDN has risen as a convincing worldview for creating and sending
new system capacities and administrations. Open Flow is the most regularly sent Software
Defined Networking engineering. Various systems administration switches can be controlled
by a single centralized controlled OpenFlow controller. Distinctive Python and Java based
Open Flow controller are accessible for Software Defined Networking. This paper actualizes
Ryu, POX and Pyretic Open Flow based Python controller in tree organizing topology over
Software Defined Networking. The consequence of this paper demonstrates that these Python
based Open Flow controller performs well finished SDN. All the usage of various controller
has been finished utilizing Mininet Emulator. SDN gives some incredible highlights that
permit the system suppliers and managers to go about as quick as conceivable to access, trade
and refresh any framework effortlessly. It comprises of decoupling the control and data
planes of a system. It depends on the way that the least complex capacity of a change is to
forward parcels as per an arrangement of tenets. Be that as it may, the principles took after by
the change to forward packets are overseen by a software based controller. One inspiration of
SDN is to perform organize assignments that wasn't possible without extra software for every
6

one of the exchanging components. It permits abstracting the fundamental framework and
program and open stream of information into the system by isolating the control plane and
the data plane. It has been picking up an awesome prominence both in the examination
correspondence and industry. Most system administrators and proprietors are currently
investigating SDN. For instance, Google has changed over to Open Flow and SDN for its
inter data center arrange. Distinctive sorts of controller in SDN innovation are being utilized
for watching the execution of systems administration framework. This paper dissects
execution of various Open Flow based controllers in Software Defined Networking. All the
assessment has been finished utilizing Mininet Emulator. The consequence of this paper
demonstrates pyretic controller indicates better execution over Software Defined Networking
contrast with Ryu and POX controller. Future works includes execution investigation of
various Open Flow based controller over Software Defined Remote Networks.
Methods and Design
Software-Defined Networks and Open Flow
The technique of network organizing which is being noticed now includes Software-
Defined Network (SDN). Basically, the SDN isolates both transmitting data and its control
functionalities of the devices the used in networking process such as packet switches, LAN
switches and routers, with effectively defined Application Programming Interface (API)
among the two. Interestingly,for a large enterprise, switches, network and other network
devices incorporates data as well as the control functions. This makes it hard to modify the
infrastructure of the network and activity, to extensive scale expansion of end systems, the
virtual networks and the virtual machines. The SDN’s attributes are inspected in this section,
then the specifications of OpenFlow are portrayed. This is considered as the standard method
to for SDN implementation(Basheer Al-Somaidai, 2015).
Network Requirements’ Evolution
Initially,in-depth information of SDNs are examined which prompts the demand for
an adaptable and responsive way of controlling the traffic flow inside a network/ Internet.
The major key driving component includes undeniably far reaching utilization of Server
Virtualization. By and large, the server virtualization covers server assets, consolidating the
number and individual physical servers' personality, processors, and the OS from the clients
of the server. This covering makes it possible to portion a solitary machine into different,
7

independent servers, and directing equipment assets.It likewise makes it conceivable to move
a server rapidly starting with one machine then onto the next for balancing the load or for
dynamic switchover, where there is any failure in the machine. To manage the Bigdata
applications and to implement cloud computing, the server virtualization has turned into a
focal component. In any case, it makes issues with customary network architectures. One of
the issue includes Virtual LANs’ (VLANs) configuration. The network managersare required
to ensure that the VLAN utilized with the help of VM (Virtual Machine) which is allocated to
switch pot. It is same as in the physical server which runs on VM. In any case, with the
virtual machine being mobile, the VLAN must be reconfigured each time when a virtual
server is moved and it is highly significant (Bholebawa and Dalal, 2016).
For coordinating the server virtualization’s adaptability, the network supervisor
should have the capacity to progressively include drop, and then change the network profiles
and resources. Such a methodology is difficult to achieve when there are standard system
switches, where the control rationale for each switch is co-situated with the exchanging
rationale.
Theserver virtualization’s other impact includes that, from the traditional client-server
model the traffic flows varies generously. Ordinarily, among the virtual servers a lot of traffic
is present, and this traffic is maintained by access control. Forhandling the network resources,
an adaptable way is demanded as the flow change in server to sever in appropriate location
and their intensity over specific time. The other factor which prompts the requirement for
quick reaction forthe network resources allocation is the expanding usage by the
representatives of mobile devices. For example, cell phones,notebooks and tablets for
accessing the resources of the enterprise. The managers of the network should have the
capacity to react to instantly charging resources, security necessities and Quality of Service
(QoS).
For traffic flow management, the infrastructure of the existing network can react to
the changing prerequisites, by giving separated the levels of Quality of Services and security
in each individual flows, however the procedure can be exceptionally tedious if the
undertaking network is vast or if it includes devices used in networks from different sellers.
The manager of the network should arrange every seller's equipment independently,then also
modify their execution level and the parameters of security on a basis of, each session and on
the basis of per-application. In an extensively hugeenterprise, each time another virtual
machine is raised, and it could take hours or many days for the manager of the network to
carry out the essential reconfiguration. The architecture of SDN and the OpenFlow standard
8

gives an open design which has control works that are confined from the system gadgets and
set in accessible control servers. This network setup establishes the essential organization to
be excellent for applications and system administrations, engaging the system to be managed
as a legitimate substance (Bholebawa, Jha and Dalal, 2015).
Architecture of SDN
The below Figure delineates the SDN’s logical structure. A focal controller does all
the complicated functions along with naming, declaration of the policy, security checks and
routing. The SDN Control Plane is constituted as this plane, which comprises of either one
ore number of SDN servers.
The SDN Controller characterizes the information streams that happen at the data
plane of SDN. Each course by this framework should get firstly assent from the network
system controller. It authenticates the data plane framework based on its tolerance. If the
network controller permits the stream, then it will enlist the course for the stream to be taken
9

as well as it incorporates an entry for that stream in all individual switches as the same way.
With each and every mind boggling limit included with the help of network controller,
switches simply administer stream tables whose entries can be populated just by the
controller. Correspondence between the controller and the switches utilizes an
institutionalized convention and API. Most generally this interface is the OpenFlow
particular, examined in this manner(Hendriks et al., 2018). The SDN building is shockingly
versatile; the SDN can be worked along with various sorts of network switches and at various
tradition layers. The SDN network controllers and switches could be realized for the used
Ethernet switches at layer 2. In layer 3, the internet switches used. In transport (Layer 4),
interchange, or application layer trading and coordinating. SDN works based on the
fundamental limits found on frameworks organization devices, which essentially incorporate
sending bundles in perspective of some sort of stream definition.
In a SDN design, a switch plays out the accompanying capacities:
 The switch embodies and advances the primary parcel of a stream to a SDN
controller, empowering the controller to choose whether the stream ought to be added
to the switch stream table(Jarschel, 2018).
 The switch advances approaching bundles out the proper port in light of the stream
table. The stream table may incorporate need data managed by the controller.
 The switch can drop bundles on a specific stream, briefly or for all time, as managed
by the controller. Bundle dropping can be utilized for security purposes, checking
Denial-of-Service (DoS) assaults or activity administration necessities(Northbound
Networks, 2018).
Open FlowSwitch Architecture
The below architecture shows the major structure of the Open Flow condition. A SDN
controller talks with Open Flow-great switches using the Open Flow tradition manages over
the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). The changes in each partner with other Open Flow switches
and, conceivably, and to end-customer devices that are the sources and objectives of package
streams. Inside each switch, a movement of tables typically executed in hardware or firmware
are used to manage the surges of bundles through the switch (Javed et al., 2018).
10

SDNs, executed using Open Flow, give an awesome, dealer self-sufficient approach to
manage administering complex frameworks with dynamic solicitations. The item portrayed
framework can continue utilizing a substantial number of the significant framework
progressions starting at now set up, for instance, virtual LANs and a MPLS structure.SDNs
and OpenFlow are probably going to end up ordinary in extensive transporter systems, cloud
foundations, and different systems that help the utilization of huge information.
Analysis and Results
SDN (Software Defined Network)
The Mininet represents that the emulator which is used to enhance the prototyping
process of SDN along with allocated resources. This Mininet makes virtual frameworks
shown in the following. The Controller plane used to settle on making routing decisions; a
network switch is to send the parcels in perspective of the controller's directing choices. The
switch supports the stream entry implanted by the controller to the stream table of the
network switch. It will get rid of the need to achieve the controller for routing decisions for
each bundle, along these lines decreasing the idleness of the back to back packets after the
firstpacket (Kumar and Sood, 2016).
11