SDNs and OpenFlow

We have investigated a few historical milestones of programmable networks and network virtualization that form the base of what we know today as SDNs. Next, let’s talk about the details behind SDNs.

In order for SDNs to be successful, they need to be flexible and programmable, making it simple to deploy and control traffic and manage their components. None of this could be done without separation between the control plane and the forwarding plane (the data plane).

SDN implementation is done by having an application that uses the decoupling of these two planes to construct the data flows of the network. This application can run in a network server or in a VM, which sends control packets to the network devices using an OpenFlow protocol when possible.

History of OpenFlow

OpenFlow is a standard protocol used in SDNs. Its origins can be traced back to 2006 with the project mentioned earlier in this chapter called Ethane. Eventually, the Ethane project...