Network-Embedded Management and Applications

Transcription

1 Network-Embedded Management and Applications

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3 Alexander Clemm Ralf Wolter Editors Network-Embedded Management and Applications Understanding Programmable Networking Infrastructure

4 Editors Alexander Clemm Cisco Systems San Jose, CA, USA Ralf Wolter HPCG Hilden, Germany ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, speci fi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on micro fi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied speci fi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speci fi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (

5 Preface The last decade has seen an explosion in networking services and applications. At the same time, the basic technological underpinnings and architectural principles on which these services and applications are built have proven remarkably stable and remain fundamentally unchanged. Communication services are provided through a fabric consisting of routers and switches, interconnecting an ever-increasing number of end devices, servers, and data centers. Equipment in the network is largely appliance based, consisting of specialized hardware and fi rmware dedicated to the very speci fi c purpose of forwarding, switching, and directing networking traf fi c. This is in stark contrast to equipment that is connected to the network, which generally consists of devices that host a variety of applications that are programmed against the host platforms. In many instances, these applications are even provided by different vendors than the equipment they are running on. In recent years, the fundamental architectural concepts that networks are based on are increasingly challenged by new methods. Research initiatives explore architectural alternatives for a future or next-generation Internet. Various approaches that rethink the way in which networks are organized are being proposed. These proposals range from content-centric networking that makes routing decision based on references to contents rather than physical locations to software-de fi ned networking that allows to decouple network control planes from the physical topology of forwarding planes. It is in this context that the topic of network-embedded management and applications becomes a focus of attention. What if instead of being fundamentally based on special-purpose appliances, the network itself would become more programmable? What types of applications would we want to embed inside the network? One important category of such network-embedded applications is related to network management. Instead of relying on central applications that observe the network from outside and provide the bulk of operational intelligence, some of the management functionality could be provided by the network itself, making the network dramatically easier to use and more cost effective to operate. Many efforts are already under way in this direction, substantially altering the way in which networks are managed and applications across a network are deployed and operated. What if these puzzle pieces would be combined and orchestrated? v

6 vi Preface This book addresses the rapidly evolving fi eld of network-embedded management and applications, attempting to convey a grasp of fundamental principles as well as providing a glimpse into the current state of the art. Therefore, we are excited that a few very distinguished experts agreed to contribute chapters that illustrate many of the different facets of the fi eld, making this book a unique combination of individual experiences and insights. We would like to emphasize that the topic of this book is an emerging story. Programmable networking infrastructure and network-embedded management and application technology are rapidly evolving, and at the same time many open problems exist. We consider this a great opportunity for researchers and practitioners alike and would like to encourage the reader to become an active part of the community that shapes the future of this exciting fi eld. The following is a small starter list of some of the questions on which we expect signi fi cant progress to be made in coming years: Will the paradigm that networks will follow in the future be that of a body whose components are controlled by a central nervous system, or will it resemble more a society of intelligent and interdependent yet independent components? What are the models for human interaction with such networks, and what will a healthy balance between network autonomy and human control look like? Beyond management automation, which other killer applications will programmable networking infrastructure enable? What impact will virtualization have in this area? Virtualization tends to favor the development of general-purpose platforms, whereas today, special-purpose devices are the norm. How will this play out in the future? Will we be able to find a balance between customized applications that are fully understood by the customer on the one hand and general-purpose applications from multiple sources that may not be fully understood on the other hand? As embedding applications inside the network makes networking devices increasingly intelligent, how will these devices be able to adapt to different circumstances? Can we make them understand their purpose in life so that they can make their own decisions in pursuit of that purpose, adjusting to the specific deployment scenario? Which additional algorithms, which development and test environments are needed for the advance of new generations of massively decentralized applications that take advantage of all that internetworked, programmable infrastructure? What lessons can be applied from big data to the real-time processing and analysis of network telemetry data to simplify management even further? The book is divided into two parts: Part I provides an introduction into the fundamental principles of network-embedded management and applications. Chapter 1, Motivation The Dawn of the Age of Network-Embedded Applications, sets the stage for the book, outlining opportunities and challenges.

7 Preface vii Chapter 2, A Brief History of Network Programmability and Related Fields, puts the different areas into perspective and explores how themes and principles have evolved over time, how we got here, and what to expect on the road ahead. Chapter 3, Network-Embedded Management, explains the foundations of network-embedded management, including fundamental drivers, challenges, and design goals behind this important area of network-embedded applications. Chapter 4, Improving Manageability Through Network-Embedded Management, explores the concept of manageability, a fundamental network property that stands to greatly bene fi t from embedding management functionality into the network. Part II focuses on speci fi c topics, providing a sample of the current state of the art by leading experts in the fi eld. This part begins with chapters that explore programmatic environments available today that allow building and deploying applications, which can be embedded inside the network. The subsequent chapters illustrate how these environments are used to support operations and solve network management problems in the network today. Part II is concluded by a set of chapters that are dedicated to research-oriented topics. They illustrate the boundaries of technology that are being pushed today and what to expect from future research initiatives. While we organized chapters in a way that presents a natural progression and fl ow, the chapters are independent of one another and do not have to be read in order. In other words, we encourage the readers to start their own journey of discovery. Chapter 5 by Bruno Klauser, On the Relevance and Adoption of Network Automation, provides an overview of network-embedded management applications that are most commonly used today, namely, automation of management best practices inside the network that support operational life cycle models. Chapter 6 by Curtis Call, Embedding Operational Intelligence into Junos Devices Through On-Box Scripts, gives an introduction into a speci fi c network-embedded automation platform that is available today, explaining how embedded management tasks can actually be implemented in the network using a scripting environment. Chapter 7 by James Kelly, Developing Innovative Embedded Applications in the Network with the Junos SDK, shows how the development of network-embedded applications can move beyond scripts to the development of outright applications. Using Junos platforms as an example, it describes how networking devices can be programmed using an SDK and presents some case studies. Chapter 8 by Patrice Bellagamba, Using Embedded Scripting to De fi ne a Protocol for High-Available Data Center Interconnect, provides a real-world example how a scripting platform can be used to build a network-embedded application that extends existing networking capabilities. Chapter 9 by Ammar Rayes, Enabling IP-Based Smart Services, describes how scripting and programming platforms for network-embedded management capabilities are used by service providers to provide advanced managed services that adhere to strict service-level agreements and require very little intervention by remote service providers. Chapter 10 by Joe Marcus Clarke and Carlos Pignataro, Network-Embedded Social Network Protocols, takes the operational concepts one step further, showing how

8 viii Preface the demarcation line between management taking place outside the network and within the network can be further blurred by applying social networking principles to network management and using corresponding embedded capabilities to evolve the operational paradigms with which networks are approached. Chapter 11 by Zdravko Bozakov and Volker Sander, OpenFlow: A Perspective for Building Versatile Networks, presents another type of programming platform for a network that promotes an alternative way of programming networks in which intelligence, as provided through a network control plane, can be separated from the physical topology of the network. Chapter 12 by Masum Z. Hasan, Application and Network Resource Access Control, presents another example of a network-embedded application. It describes a framework that allows to control in a very sophisticated and fi ne-grained manner how resources are accessed and shared in a network. Chapter 13 by Rolf Stadler, Protocols for Distributed Embedded Management, provides an overview of novel protocols that allow accomplishing management tasks in a way that is embedded within the network. Using these protocols, different nodes in the network can cooperatively solve management problems in ways that are entirely decentralized. This is a complete departure from the centralized operational paradigms that are commonly in use today and it offers compelling advantages in areas such as scalability, resiliency, and real-time responsiveness. Chapter 14 by Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville, Peer-to-Peer (P2P)-Based Network Management, explores the use of P2P technology that is known from fi lesharing applications for management purposes. It follows a similar theme as the previous chapter in embedding managment functionality across a network of nodes that cooperate to solve management issues, not just embedding management functionality that addresses management problems one node at a time. Chapter 15 by Burkhard Stiller, Cristian Morariu, and Peter Racz, Scalable and Robust Decentralized IP Traf fi c Flow Collection and Analysis (SCRIPT), completes the book. It is based on an applied research project that developed a model and an application for distributed collection and analysis of traf fi c fl ow records. This is entirely embedded inside the network, which is in strong contrast to today s best practice of deploying large number-crunching servers at the network edge. We hope that you will enjoy this book and fi nd it useful. This book is the result of the combined effort of many people. First and foremost, we would like to sincerely thank the invited authors for their contributions and passion for this topic. Without them, this book would not have been possible. A very special thanks goes to our editor at Springer, Brett Kurzman, who managed the right balance between encouraging, supporting, and challenging us to take up and complete the writing of this book. Finally, we would like to thank our families for their support and for allowing us to spend many hours on it. It was an exciting journey! San Jose, CA, USA HPCG, Hilden, Germany Alexander Clemm Ralf Wolter

9 Contents Part I Foundations of Network-Embedded Management and Applications 1 Motivation: The Dawn of the Age of Network-Embedded Applications... 3 Ralf Wolter 2 A Brief History of Network Programmability and Related Fields Ralf Wolter 3 Network-Embedded Management Alexander Clemm 4 Improving Manageability Through Network-Embedded Management Alexander Clemm Part II (Invited Chapters) Infrastructure, Case Studies, Research Areas 5 On the Relevance and Adoption of Network Automation Bruno Klauser 6 Embedding Operational Intelligence into Junos Devices Through On-Box Scripts Curtis Call 7 Developing Innovative Embedded Applications in the Network with the Junos SDK James Kelly ix

10 x Contents 8 Using Embedded Scripting to Define a Protocol for High-Available Data Center Interconnect Patrice Bellagamba 9 Enabling IP-Based Smart Services Ammar Rayes 10 Network-Embedded Social Network Protocols Carlos Pignataro and Joe Marcus Clarke 11 OpenFlow: A Perspective for Building Versatile Networks Zdravko Bozakov and Volker Sander 12 Application and Network Resource Access Control Masum Z. Hasan 13 Protocols for Distributed Embedded Management Rolf Stadler 14 Peer-to-Peer (P2P)-Based Network Management Lisandro Zambenedetti Granville 15 Scalable and Robust Decentralized IP Traffic Flow Collection and Analysis (SCRIPT) Burkhard Stiller, Cristian Morariu, and Peter Racz Index