Software-defined networking (SDN): Enterprises, Organizations, and service providers are being surrounded by a number of competing forces.
The enormous growth in multimedia content, the impact of increasing mobile usage, the high demand for cloud computing are causing unpredictable traffic patterns.
To find a problem coping with unpredictable traffic patterns, large data centers were demanded. These traffic patterns cause a very high demand for particular resources.
That they couldn’t meet with existing network infrastructure.
So there were 2 choices:
- Scale network infrastructure to meet the peaks, which was very expensive and complex.
- Or you can build a network in such a way that it can reconfigure automatically to cope up with those peaks and channels to meet appropriate demands.
That’s where SDN came into existence.
So, What is SDN?
SDN – Software-defined networking is a unique approach or an umbrella term for cloud computing and networking which simplifies the management of the network.
It enables a programmatically efficient configuration of the network to improve the performance of networks and monitoring results.
Software-defined networking is emphasized on the fact that the basic architecture of the traditional networks is so much complex and decentralized while the present network needs more flexible architecture with a simple troubleshoot option.
Software-defined networking recommends the centralization of network intelligence by withdrawing the forwarding process of network packets (data packets) from the routing process (control process).
Software-defined networking (SDN) Architecture
Software-defined networking architecture layers consist of 3 layers.
a) an infrastructure layer
b) a control layer and
c) an application layer.
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The Application Layer
The application layer contains programs that explicitly and programmatically communicate their desired network behavior and network requirements to the SDN Controller.
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The Control Layer
The SDN Controller is the mid-layer that connects the application layer and infrastructure layer- Northbound interface is the connection between the controller and applications while the southbound interface is the connection between the controller and the infrastructure layer.
This layer processes the instructions and requirements sent by the application layer (via southbound interface) and proceeds them to the networking components (via northbound interface).
It also communicates back necessary information extracted from the networking devices to the application for it function optimally.
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The Infrastructure Layer
This consists of networking devices that control the forwarding and data processing capabilities for the network.
The devices are responsible for handling packets based on the rules provided by a controller.
It is the physical layer responsible for collecting the network statuses such as traffic statistics, network topology, network usage, etc. and send them to the control layer.
SDN architecture has the following features:
DIRECTLY PROGRAMMABLE
Network control can be directly programmable as it is decoupled from forwarding functions.
CENTRALLY MANAGED
In Software-based SDN controllers network intelligence is (logically) centralized which maintains an overall view of the network.
AGILE
Abstracting control from forwarding lets admin allows us to manage network-wide traffic flow dynamically to meet changing needs.
PROGRAMMATICALLY CONFIGURED
In SDN, network managers can manage, configure, secure, and optimize resources of the network easily and quickly.
VENDOR-NEUTRAL
SDN Implementation instructions are provided by SDN controllers instead of vendors and protocols. So it is Vendor neutral.
Hence, Software-defined networking technology is ideal for customers who have faced rapid changes in their day to day network load. Such as Social Networking sites or social media sites and large data Centers.
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