Various giants focus on OpenFlow and Software Defined Networks

The network industry has been discussing for more than a year.OpenFlowAnd Software Defined Network (SDN ). Through software-defined networks, engineers separated the network control layer from the underlying hardware to achieve finer management. They can also dynamically allocate Virtual Switches to support server virtualization environments.

The problem is that, although there are many OpenFlow and software-defined network applications, many users are still waiting for specific use cases to prove. They also want to know how many applications written in OpenFlow are used on existing network hardware.

This week, Tech Field Day held an OpenFlow seminar in California, where large data centers, Google and Yahoo, and network providers such as Cisco and Brocade, this section outlines their respective use of OpenFlow and software-defined networks, as well as preparations for these technologies before they can be marketed.

Software Defined network for Yahoo warehouse-level data centers

If you can run your own operating system and software on the server hardware, why can't you do the same on the network hardware? This is a question raised by Yahoo's chief architect Igor Gashinsky at the OpenFlow seminar. Modern networks, he said, are like running mainframes with everything available, but no software. A Software Defined network can change this situation and create a software ecosystem, including OpenFlow. Once the control layer is isolated from the network, the hardware will not waste the CPU on topology discovery and other operations. The result is not only innovative management, but also cost reduction and energy efficiency improvement.

Google: Software-defined networks mean energy efficiency

Google's Ed Crabbe says software-defined networks and OpenFlow are not new concepts. In fact, they are all practical applications of PCE and other technologies, which have been around for a long time. Based on this background and further development, the separation of intelligence from network hardware can improve the efficiency of network resources and other aspects, such as energy saving.

Cisco Software Defined Network: distributed firewall and Adaptive Monitoring

David Meyer, a distinguished Cisco engineer, said that the future of SDN is faster, cheaper, and better, which is also a concern of most engineers. He further pointed out that SDN supports forwarding extraction, distributed status and control, and can separate policies from configurations throughout the network. For future SDN use cases, Meyer lists dynamic access control, implementation and management of distributed firewalls, energy Symmetric Networks, and adaptive network monitoring.

Brocade's OpenFlow: There are many promises, but how can we implement expected control?

Curt Beckmann, chief architect of Brocade, pointed out that OpenFlow gave people great expectations, but expected management should follow up. Although some people compare OpenFlow with x86 command groups, Beckmann thinks it is only a kernel API. Although many development opportunities are provided, there is still much work to be done to compile OpenFlow or SDN languages to support existing hardware platforms.

Big Switch Network: Software Definition is of great significance for server virtualization

Kyle Forster of the Big Switch network pointed out that VMware can Virtualize servers, while Big Switch can Virtualize switches. He said that Big Switch supports dynamic creation of vswitches and network infrastructure, so that creating a simple VM does not take two weeks. Big Switch regards a Software Defined network as a three-tier structure: data layer, control layer, and application layer. Big Switch focuses on the last two layers.

Enterprise Strategy Group Analysis: OpenFlow is still controversial

John Olstik from the corporate strategy team said that many vendors tend to use software-defined networks and OpenFlow, but can external controllers be really scalable, providing control path guidance for large networks is still a concern.