Software defined networking (SDN) and flexible grid optical transport technology are two key technologies that allow network operators to customize their infrastructure based on application requirements and therefore minimizing the extra capital and operational costs required for hosting new applications. In this paper, for the first time we report on design, implementation & demonstration of a novel OpenFlow based SDN unified control plane allowing seamless operation across heterogeneous state-of-the-art optical and packet transport domains. We verify and experimentally evaluate OpenFlow protocol extensions for flexible DWDM grid transport technology along with its integration with fixed DWDM grid and layer-2 packet switching.

OpenFlow is a leading standard for Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and has already played a significant role in reshaping network infrastructures. However, a wide range of existing provider domains is still not equipped with a framework that supports wider deployment of an OpenFlow-based control plane beyond Ethernetdominated networks. We address this gap by introducing a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) which can transform legacy network elements into OpenFlow capable devices. This paper details the functional architecture of HAL, discusses the key design aspects and explains how HAL can support a number of network device classes. In addition, this paper presents the implementation details of HAL for hardware platforms such as DOCSIS (Data over Cable Service Interface Specification) and DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) which have so far received little attention by the OpenFlow research community despite their wide real-world deployment.

In this paper, a novel Software-Defined Networking (SDN) architecture is proposed for high-end Ultra High Definition (UHD) media applications. UHD media applications require huge amounts of bandwidth that can only be met with high-capacity optical networks. In addition, there are requirements for control frameworks capable of delivering effective application performance with efficient network utilization. A novel SDN-based Controller that tightly integrates application-awareness with network control and management is proposed for such applications. An OpenFlow-enabled test-bed demonstrator is reported with performance evaluations of advanced online and offline media- and network-aware schedulers.

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