Does Facebook switch and sdn OS change the network?

Does Facebook switch and sdn OS change the network?

On July 6, June this year, Facebook announced that it was preparing to open source its SDN switch operating system FBOOS forward proxy and its hardware receiver switch Wedge.

Most people know that very large-scale operators have quietly deployed bare metal switch hardware and will install SDN operating systems for them in the next few years. Facebook released a product that is compatible with Google's Andromeda network platform and disclosed earlier information about its Pluto switch.

These released products (and other white box switches) are significantly affecting the switch market share. In fact, Alan Weckel of Dell Oro group pointed out in the report that the delivery of bare metal switches accounted for more than 2013 of the fixed top-level rack 10 Ge switch products at the end of 10%, its quantity exceeds the sum of Arista, zhanbo, and Extreme.

The main problem facing the network community is: will these ultra-large scale network technologies expand to other fields in the market, or is it just a unique phenomenon?

It is certain that the release of Facebook has ignited the interest of Community pursuit. Therefore, I took this opportunity to communicate with many network architects to understand their views on the potential impact.

In this regard, I believe most people in the network community agree that the design challenges of ultra-large scale data centers are certainly different from those of traditional data centers. I like to make a metaphor. Designing a super-large data center network is like training an elephant-you are putting all your energy into the needs of a specific part of the software. However, designing a traditional data center network is more like managing a zoo-architects balance different applications based on different problems and needs, but they all have the same architecture.

In addition to the clear boundaries between ultra-large-scale data centers and traditional data centers, we should also clearly see that for Facebook Wedge and FBOSS release information, network engineers are divided into three different camps.

Camp 1: now we are preparing to apply the Facebook switch and SDN OS

Some think that they need to deploy FBOSS and Wedge in their own data centers. These companies have software development teams capable of developing internal control/management systems, and they prefer to solve problems such as "initial deployment and shutdown, upgrade and downgrade, clearing and filling. Therefore, for an already formed Network Software Development Team, FBOSS is a new software component they want to use immediately.

Camp 2: Wedge and FBOSS are good, but they must be integrated with management functions

Some people want to try methods like Wedge/FBOSS, but they want these methods to be integrated into the control/management system and can be used directly by traditional network teams. This type of person does not design the entire data center network at one time, but wants to use existing projects (such as OpenStack, VDI, and big data) to correct the new network design. These organizations usually have a strong network engineering tradition and a tendency to become early adopters.

Camp 3: Wedge and FBOSS are only suitable for ultra-large-scale data centers and not general enterprises.

The last group of people thought that the news only represented a very large scale phenomenon, not a big trend. They don't really put too much attention into the community until they see a large scale of applications. This type of people is more traditional, which means that existing suppliers will maintain a business for a long time.

Conclusion

What is my opinion? Facebook's Support Team in this field is a very smart team and a very busy team. This team member will not bother to turn a well-running project into a messy open-source project, unless they want to direct a large network community to a path different from existing network providers. My idea is that when some high-end users show such leadership, the entire community will gradually follow.

[Edit recommendations]

How can SDN and switches achieve "protocols" to implement communication? SDN reduces the expenditure on routers and switches. Facebook is an open-source new force. To use Broadcom to open switches, [responsible editor: Lin TEL :( 010) 68476606]