Challenges for the success of SDN and NFV (from a standardization perspective)

Transcription

1 Challenges for the success of SDN and NFV (from a standardization perspective) Dr. Fabian Schneider Senior Researcher, NEC Laboratories Europe Vice-chair of the ONF Architecture WG Disclaimer: The views expressed in this presentation are my own not those of NEC or ONF.

2 Quick answers to Aki s Questions: What are your latest research activities in programmable networks, such as SDN, NFV, and Deeply Programmable Network (DPN). Enabling ICN with SDN, and improve ICN with SDN principles Assessing the relevance of old and new network performance limitations Discussing SDN architecture in- and outside the ONF What do you think is coming next after SDN and NFV? Any extension possible to these areas of research? Still plenty left in SDN/NFV: How to combine both? What is the right level of abstraction for control? NBI Framework? Next up: PiF, PaF, PoF! How can we educate young folks for creating innovations in computing and networking research? Encourage to think outside the box of existing networks And know your customers! E.g. Operators move and decide slow Page 2 NEC Corporation 2013

3 WHERE ARE WE NOW? Page 3 NEC Corporation 2013

4 OpenFlow protocols & SDN SDN is much more than just OpenFlow Whole eco-system: SDN Apps Network OS Network Elements Interfaces in between SDN Control Plane Applications API API API Network Operating System API Data Plane Switch/Network Element Page 4 NEC Corporation 2013

5 OpenFlow in a Nutshell The OpenFlow protocol provides a standardized protocol to separate control/ management plane from data plane Rules (Match/Action tuples) Support for quick & dynamic network configuration OF 1.0 OF 1.3.2, OF-Config Network Apps Custom Control Plane Custom Silicon Apps Control Plane Common Data Plane Page 5 NEC Corporation 2013

6 ONF & it s current activities ONF owns OpenFlow spec standardization Mission: Dedicated to the promotion and adoption of SDN for the benefit of users ONF s view on SDN: Physical separation of forwarding and control Simplification of networking devices ONF s activities: Build out the OpenFlow substrate: Optical, Wireless/Mobile, Security, OAM Plug-fests and Conformance testing Develop ONF s SDN Architecture (incl. NBIs, Hooks for NFV, ) How to migrate from legacy networks Foster Chipset/HW Ecosystem Page 6 NEC Corporation 2013

7 Peak into ONF s SDN Architecture Page 7 NEC Corporation 2013

8 Three Critical Properties of ONF s SDN Architecture Apps are network aware: SDN-enabled Apps Communicate their requirements/polices to the network Can monitor network state and adapt accordingly Logically centralized network control: SDN Network Controller Controller translates from app requirements to low-level rules Controller summarizes the network state for apps Well-understood driver-like model for devices: SDN Datapath Programmatic low-level control of all forwarding and configuration API for capabilities advertisement and publishing stats No resource contention with other entities Controller owns this device, subject to capabilities advertisement But can delegate control away if needed. Page 8 NEC Corporation 2013

9 WHAT IS MISSING? Page 9 NEC Corporation 2013

10 Standardized Northbound Interfaces (NBIs) Not an easy task Level of abstraction unclear Varies from OpenFlow+SwitchIDs (e.g. Trema, NOX/POX) Via network programming languages (e.g. Frenetic) Up to Neutron/Quantum level Scope unclear One single NBI to rule them all Or one per operation call Contradicting business interests ONF s approach Start with what is needed today and what is not yet available Standardize sets of functionality Determine gaps in standardization/de-facto-standards space Leave application specifics to other SDOs and focus on network specifics Page 10 NEC Corporation 2013

11 Framework/Execution Environment for SDN Apps Local and/or remote Apps Locate/ Discover Controller Communicate with Locate/ other components? App 4 Discover NBI type App 5 App 6 Migrate? Clone? Communicate? Forward data after migrate? New contact after migrate? Communicate with outside? Same Execution Context App 1 App 2 Northbound Interfaces SDN controller instance 1 Southbound Interfaces Same Execution Context App 1 App 2 Northbound Interfaces SDN controller instance 1 Southbound Interfaces Page 11 NEC Corporation 2013

12 NFV: How to orchestrate VM and network control OpenStack Model VM Mgmt cannot use info from networking Orchestration SDN controller Orchestration VM Mgmt Interfaces do not yet exist Orchestration VM Mgmt network compute /storage SDN controller SDN controller Complex Orchestration; Lots of info exchanged VM Mgmt network compute /storage Need to explore pros and cons! network compute /storage Page 12 NEC Corporation 2013

13 NFV: Network service chaining Network-wide labels approach (non-sdn based) E.g. as proposed in drafts for IETF NSC Problem: network functions need to be label aware Requires changes to the OS network stack of the NF Input traffic output network function (header rewriting) SDN based hop-by-hop service chaining Need to provision explicit rules per hop SDN App needs to know details of NF s (e.g. rewriting behavior) SDN based complete chain at once SDN Controller needs to know details of NF s (e.g. rewriting behavior) or a interface for communicating that behavior One chain requiring multiple passes through same network element How differentiate the different stages in the chain? How to carry various info from beginning of chain to NF in the middle? Page 13 NEC Corporation 2013

14 PiF, PaF, PoF Need more HW capable of Protocol independent/agnostic/oblivious Forwarding What for? Why should we care? Speed up deployment of new network architectures that do not aling well with the current Internet architecture (i.e. TCP/IP) e.g. Information Centric Networking (ICN), Locator/Identifier split (LISP), Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) Gives immediate access to match on everything in a packet: L5-7 information Thing not deemed important by SDOs, e.g. IPID in OpenFlow Page 14 NEC Corporation 2013

15 WHAT IS IN THE PIPELINE? Page 15 NEC Corporation 2013

16 In the ONF pipeline NBI Study next version Summarize existing NBIs and identify sets of common functionality Gap analysis and prioritization of functions sets App execution framework issues NBI standards coming closer Reluctance of some key players is decreasing Open Source initiatives, e.g. OpenDaylight Newly started NBI effort from vendors/providers/app dev s (maybe reference implementations) Better structure for all the optional OF features Forwarding Abstractions: Support more than Ethernet/IP/TCP mainstream forwarding pipelines Better negotiation of switch capabilities Page 16 NEC Corporation 2013

17 Summary SDN has come a long way OpenFlow widely deployed and accepted Eco-system is growing ONF defined Architecture and critical properties but challenges remain Standardized Northbound Interfaces (NBIs) Framework/Execution Environment for SDN Apps NFV: How to orchestrate VM and network control NFV: Network service chaining PiF, PaF, PoF in hardware Page 17 NEC Corporation 2013

18 NEC Group Vision 2017 To be a leading global company leveraging the power of innovation to realize an information society friendly to humans and the earth Page 18 NEC Corporation 2013

19 Page 19 NEC Corporation 2013