Optimizing the POX controller with database systems

Software-defined networking (SDN) brings new opportunities and challenges to the current design of networks and how networks can be managed. In comparison to the traditional network architecture, SDN simplifies the control of the network by using a logically centralized controller and a set of OpenFlow switches. Network administrators can program OpenFlow switches to behave like routers, firewalls, load balancers, etc. by building different kinds of applications on top of the controller. On one hand, the controller maintains the connection with each OpenFlow switch and pushes down any instructions specified by the control application to the network. On the other hand, the controller provides a centralized view of the network state to control applications, and control applications can make intelligent decisions based on the overall state of the network. POX is one of the early popular SDN controllers. In this project, we studied the key design decisions made in POX and optimized the current implementation by building a new database module. Topology dependent applications are now supported by both in-memory and persistent storage. Since the database component updates the changes of the network in the database in real time, it also servers as the key step to connect the Ravel project to the actual software OpenFlow switches. Ravel is a database based controller platform. After starting Ravel, all the network elements on Mininet need to be mapped into the PostgreSQL database and constantly being monitored. This can be easily achieved using POX with the database component enabled. Once the connection between the network and the database is established, a SDN can be managed within the database by Ravel. We tested the database functionalities and evaluated its performance on Mininet. From the test result, we conclude that the overhead of retrieving link and switch information from the database is reasonably small.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Yang, Fan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Godfrey, Phillip B.

• Software defined networking
• POX controller
• Database

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2015 Fan Yang

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89153

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/89153