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Performance Comparison of SDN Solutions for Switching Dedicated Long-Haul Connections

Authors:
Nageswara Rao

Keywords: Software defined networks; OpenFlow; Opendaylight; controller; long-haul connection; impulse-response; testbed.

Abstract:
We consider scenarios with two sites connected over a dedicated, long-haul connection that must quickly fail-over in response to degradations in host-to-host application performance. We present two methods for path fail-over using OpenFlow-enabled switches: (a) a light-weight method that utilizes host scripts to monitor the application performance and dpctl API for switching, and (b) a generic method that uses two OpenDaylight (ODL) controllers and REST interfaces. The restoration dynamics of the application contain significant statistical variations due to the controllers, north interfaces and switches; in addition, the variety of vendor implementations further complicates the choice between different solutions. We present the impulse-response method to estimate the regressions of performance parameters, which enables a rigorous and objective comparison of different solutions. We describe testing results of the two methods, using TCP throughput and connection rtt as main parameters, over a testbed consisting of HP and Cisco switches connected over long-haul connections emulated in hardware by ANUE devices. The combination of analytical and experimental results demonstrates that dpctl method responds seconds faster than ODL method on average, while both methods restore TCP throughput.

Pages: 110 to 117

Copyright: Copyright (c) The Government of USA, 2016. Used by permission to IARIA.

Publication date: February 21, 2016

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4413

ISBN: 978-1-61208-450-3

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Dates: from February 21, 2016 to February 25, 2016