SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING/OPENFLOW:A PATH TO PROGRAMMABLE NETWORKS

April 23, 2012

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

From Past to FutureBringing modularity to network infrastructure

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Physical Infrastructure Today

Features

OS

Hardware

Features

OS

HardwareFeatures

OS

Hardware

Features

OS

Hardware

Features

Device OS

Hardware

• Network Controller abstracts physical network

• Controls infrastructure with OpenFlow

With Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Network Controller

OS

Hardware

Features

OS

Hardware

OpenFlow Client

OS

Hardware

OpenFlow Client

OS

Hardware

OpenFlow Client

Features (Applications)

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

SDN: Focus Areas

• Current considerations• Ethernet fabrics, cloud-scale routing, and application delivery

• Support for OpenFlow and OpenStack

• OpenFlow for 3 key applications:• Network virtualization

• Flow Management (Traffic engineering) on the WAN

• Flow Management on Carrier Ethernet Networks

• Standardization efforts• Open Networking Foundation (OpenFlow standardization)

• OpenStack.org (OpenStack standardization)3© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Brocade’s Unique Approach to SDN

• Brocade is committed to productizing SDN in its portfolio

• Interoperable with a broad set of OpenFlow controllers

• Flexible network hardware to support an evolving technology• Programmable network processor architecture ideal for an evolving

standard

• Maximizes investment protection

• Wire-speed performance without compromise• SDN support ranging from 1GbE to 100GbE interfaces

• Co-existence with today’s networks4© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

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Network VirtualizationA SDN Application using OpenFlow

SP Physical Infrastructure

VMVM VMVM VMVM

PHYPHY PHYPHY

VMVM VMVM VMVM

PHYPHY PHYPHY

VMVM VMVM VMVM

PHYPHY PHYPHY

A SDN application that enables the creation of logical networks (multi-tenancy) over a common physical network

Logical networks contain VMs and physical workloads (e.g., physical servers, firewalls, etc)

Enables seamless control of network resources regardless of location

Logical networks can be used to bridge private and public clouds

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

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Flow Management in the Metro/WANA SDN Application using OpenFlow

• OpenFlow is well suited for flow management in the metro/WAN

• Facilitates deployment of innovative new applications, e.g., • Global network optimizations

• Solving complex traffic engineering challenges

• Support traffic engineering incorporating business rules

• Applicable to Layer 2, Layer 3, and MPLS networks

Network Controller

OS

Hardware

Features

OS

Hardware

OpenFlow Client

OS

Hardware

OpenFlow Client

OS

Hardware

OpenFlow Client

Features (Applications)

OpenFlow

Physical Networking Infrastructure

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

OpenFlow for WAN Flow Management: Example

Network Operation Center

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5

CustomerSite A

CustomerSite B3 4

Service Provider OpenFlow Controller used to setup a traffic tunnel between customer sites A and B

OpenFlow Controller pushes the tunnel configuration to the required LERs and LSRs

Service is enabled and traffic flows between customer sites

Congestion sets in on network node. Customer flow needs to use an alternate path.

OpenFlow Controller is used to set up alternate path and to tear down old path.

New YorkSan

Francisco

Dallas

Chicago

Network Operation Center

CustomerSite A

CustomerSite B

New YorkSan

Francisco

Dallas

Chicago

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

• Engineer long lived flows in metro and core networks• Layer 2, such as PB (802.1ad) and PBB (802.1ah) networks

• Layer 3 (routing)

• MPLS

• SP customers with metro/core Layer 2 networks• Applications can use the capability of OpenFlow matching rules

applicable to Layer 2 fields, e.g., source MAC address, destination MAC address, VLAN ID

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Other Use Cases in Carrier Ethernet NetworksFor Layer 2 networks

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

• SP customers with metro/core Layer 3 networks• Applications can use the capability of OpenFlow matching rules

applicable to Layer 3 fields, e.g., source IP and destination IP addresses

• Tackle growing size of Internet routing table

• SP customers with metro/core MPLS networks• Applications can use the capability of OpenFlow matching rules

applicable to MPLS labels and OpenFlow actions to add and remove MPLS labels

• Requires OpenFlow v1.1 capabilities

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Other Use Cases in Carrier Ethernet NetworksFor Layer 3 and MPLS Networks

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

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• Hyper-scale Data Centers• Address the Virtual Machine (VM) scale challenge with OpenFlow and

facilitating VM mobility

• Facilitating multi-tenancy

• Network Virtualization• Simplifying multi-tenancy (also part of our hyper-scale DC solution)

• Flow Management in metro/WAN• Traffic engineering, load balancing, security management, and etc

• Enterprise/campus data center applications• Reduce operational complexity and facilitating deployment of new

features

OpenFlow ApplicationsWhat can we do with OpenFlow?

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

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Thank You

© 2011-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.