Flexibility in Softwarized Networks: Classifications and Research Challenges

He, Mu; Alba, Alberto Martínez; Basta, Arsany; Blenk, Andreas; Kellerer, Wolfgang

doi:10.1109/comst.2019.2892806

Cited by 63 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 173 publications

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“…Since there is no common approach to the definition of network or data plane flexibility, various definitions have been used and proposed in many papers. While some observed flexibility through the structure and design of the system [23]- [25], [42]- [44], others tied the definition of flexibility to the resilience of the system [45]- [47].…”

Section: A Definition Of Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Network flexibility was also a subject of research presented in [25], where it is defined as "timely support of changes in the network requirements." Under changes in network requirements, they include traffic variation, user mobility, network lease, network upgrades, and failure mitigation.…”

Section: ) Flexibility In Sdnmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering the different definitions of the data plane flexibility [23]- [25] and programmability [4], [26]- [30], we advocate that flexibility means the possibility of a data plane to timely respond to new conditions in the network, and programmability as a method by which flexibility is achieved. Under new conditions in the network, we include changes in requirements, constraints, and data plane state.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A Survey on Data Plane Flexibility and Programmability in Software-Defined Networking

et al. 2019

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Software-defined networking (SDN) attracts the attention of the research community in recent years, as evidenced by a large number of survey and review papers. The architecture of SDN clearly recognizes three planes: application, control, and data plane. The application plane executes network applications; control plane regulates the rules for the entire network based on the requests generated by network applications; and based on the set rules, the controller configures the switches in the data plane. The role of the switch in the data plane is to simply forward packets based on the instructions given by the controller. By analyzing SDN-related research papers, it is observed that research, from the very beginning, is insufficiently focused on the data plane. Therefore, this paper gives a comprehensive overview of the data plane survey with particular emphasis on the problem of programmability and flexibility. The first part of the survey is dedicated to the evaluation of actual data plane architectures through several definitions and aspects of data plane flexibility and programmability. Then, an overview of SDN-related research was presented with the aim of identifying key factors influencing the gradual deviation from the original data plane architectures given with ForCES and OpenFlow specifications, which we called the data plane evolution. By establishing a correlation between the treated problem and the problem-solving approaches, the limitations of ForCES and OpenFlow data plane architectures were identified. Based on identified limitations, a generalization of approaches to addressing the problem of data plane flexibility and programmability is made. By examining generalized approaches, open issues have been identified, establishing the grounds for future research directions proposal.

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Section: A Definition Of Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ) Flexibility In Sdnmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Survey on Data Plane Flexibility and Programmability in Software-Defined Networking

et al. 2019

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“…Recently, flexibility has become a buzzword in the research of communication networks [6]. It refers to the ability of a network to accommodate new requests that can be represented as different traffic requirements and distributions [6], [7]. SD-WAN endows more degrees of freedom in managing the forwarding devices and is more flexible for the following reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Flexible Design of SDN Dynamic Control Plane: An Online Optimization Approach

Varasteh

Kellerer

2019

IEEE Trans. Netw. Serv. Manage.

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With a centralized control over the forwarding devices and the embedded flows, Software Defined Networking promises to increase the flexibility of communication networks. Meanwhile, a dynamic control plane would adapt itself in a timely manner to sustain flow setup performance in the face of traffic variations. Such adaptation depends on a careful decision of the controller placement, which is challenging because we need to consider two contradictory objectives, namely the cost of operating the control plane and the cost of its adaptation. In this work, we model the problem of operating the control plane as a multi-period offline optimization problem to minimize the total cost induced by the flow setup performance and the control plane adaptation. We leverage the lookahead control scheme and decompose the intractable offline problem into smaller instances, which are solved in an online fashion efficiently with an algorithm based on simulated annealing. We perform extensive simulations on real world topologies and show that our proposed algorithm can reduce the total cost by up to 20% compared with the reference algorithms. Further, we analyze the need of frequent control plane adaptation, and compare different control plane design choices according to a novel flexibility measure.

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“…In recent years, several concepts have emerged to provide more flexibility in networks through virtualization and controlplane programmability [1]. The split between data plane and control plane, proposed by software defined networking (SDN) [2], is regarded as the basic concept to allow flexible network adaptation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Mathematical Measure for Flexibility in Communication Networks

Klügel

Kellerer

et al. 2019

2019 IFIP Networking Conference (IFIP Networking)

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For communication networks research, flexibility of network design and networking solutions is considered a competitive advantage. However, this advantage is typically only claimed on an argumentative level and neither formally supported nor thoroughly investigated. To support the claim of flexibility and to make the flexibility of different solutions comparable, its degree must be quantified and thus made measurable. In this work, we propose a mathematical basis to quantify a degree of flexibility achieved by communication networks. We motivate that flexibility can be cast to the "size" of a set of achievable demand changes. Consequently, we propose the use of mathematical measure theory to quantify achieved networking flexibility. We derive several implications on the basic structure of flexibility, extend the insights towards a utility of flexibility and develop systematic approaches for both analytical and empirical measurement of flexibility. We apply the insights to several use-cases, showing that flexibility is in fact not as straight-forward to argue as it seems at first glance.

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Flexibility in Softwarized Networks: Classifications and Research Challenges

Cited by 63 publications

References 173 publications

A Survey on Data Plane Flexibility and Programmability in Software-Defined Networking

A Survey on Data Plane Flexibility and Programmability in Software-Defined Networking

Toward a Flexible Design of SDN Dynamic Control Plane: An Online Optimization Approach

A Mathematical Measure for Flexibility in Communication Networks

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