A Web Service- and For CES-based Programmable Router

A Web Service- and For. CES-based Programmable Router Architecture Evangelos Haleplidis 1, Robert Haas 2, Spyros Denazis 13, Odysseas Koufopavlou 1 1 University of Patras, ECE Department, Patras, Greece, 2 IBM Research, Zurich Research Laboratory, Rόschlikon, Switzerland, 3 Hitachi Sophia Antipolis Lab, France, Spyros. Denazis@hitachi-eu. com Seventh Annual International Working Conference on Active and Programmable Networks November 21 -23 2005 IWAN 2005 1

Outline n n The Need for Open APIs For. CES q q n Flexi. NET q q n Architecture Flexi. NET & For. CES For. CEG q q q n Concept Description For. CES Scope Concept For. CEG & Flexi. NET Architecture Use Case Evaluation – Conclusion – Future Work IWAN 2005 2

The Need for Open APIs “a programmable network is distinguished from any other networking environment by the fact that it can be programmed from a minimal set of APIs from which one can ideally compose an infinite spectrum of higher level services” 1. 1 Andrew Campbell, Herman De Meer, Michael Kounavis, Kazuho Miki, John Vicente, and Daniel Villela, “A Survey of Programmable Networks”, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communications, 1999. IWAN 2005 3

For. CES Concept n n Network division: Forwarding, Control, and Management plane Separation: q q n Increased scalability Allows the planes to evolve independently. Focus: Communication and Model for separating control-plane functionality (e. g. routing protocols) from data-forwarding-plane per-packet activities (e. g. packet forwarding). IWAN 2005 4

For. CES Description n Control Elements (CEs). n Forwarding Elements (FEs). n Logical Function Blocks (LFBs). q q Encapsulating fine-grained, operations Responsible of a specific task. Static Topology Dynamic Topology CE forwarding FE LFB LFB LFB IWAN 2005 plane, LFB 5

Flexi. NET Architecture n n Define and implement a scalable and modular network architecture incorporating adequate network elements offering cross-connect control, switching/routing control, and advanced services management/access functions at the network access points that currently only support connectivity between user terminals and network core infrastructures. Flexi. NET Node Instances: q q FUAN FWAN DGWN FLAS IWAN 2005 6

Flexi. NET Architecture (con. ) IWAN 2005 7

Flexi. NET & For. CES n Flexi. NET separates functionalities. n Dynamically deployed new services require additional programmability functions. n User specific network customization. IWAN 2005 control and data 8

For. CES & Flexi. NET n Dynamically Deploy CEs in any PC. User Specific Router Configuration. n Solution: For. CES n CE CE FE IWAN 2005 9

For. CES Scope n Only modelling of the forwarding plane is within the scope of the For. CES working group. n FEs can only be controlled by a single active CE, hence different services that require state changes in LFBs belonging to the same FE have to go over the same CE. IWAN 2005 10

For. CEG Concept n Further separate the functionalities of the control point into the Main Control Programs (MCPs), which execute control-plane services, and a For. CES CE Gateway (For. CEG), which implements, among other things, the CE side of the For. CES protocol IWAN 2005 11

For. CEG Concept (con. ) n Conceal For. CEs Model Details Multiple MCPs to FEs FE Easy Discovery Software Module Generic API n Solution: Web Services n n n API Software Module API For. CEG For. CES FE IWAN 2005 12

For. CEG & Flexi. NET n Dynamically Deploy MCPs in any PC. User Specific Router Configuration. n Solution: For. CEG n MCP CE For. CEG FE IWAN 2005 13

For. CEG Concept (con. ) Main Control Program CE For. CEG Firewall Qo. S-related Routing For. CES FE Start/Termination Point FE LFB … LFB Target Correlation between high-layer function & LFB’s Underlying Hardware IWAN 2005 14

For. CEG Concept (con. ) n n n Translates configuration commands from a Generic Web Service API into For. CES packets. Extend For. CES protocol. Conceal For. CES model from high-level functions. Provide connections of multiple Contol Elements into a Forwarding Element. Advertise APIs through a UDDI registry. Detect and prevent conflicts between different MCPs. IWAN 2005 15

For. CEG Architecture Main Control Program Web Services Server For. CES CE Start/Termination Point Subscribed Events & Pending Responses Message Parser For. CES Translator Command Control Logic Current FE & LFB State Web Service Interface For. CES FE Start/Termination Point IWAN 2005 16

For. CEG Use Case FCSTP Translator CCL MCP Parser Web Service For. CEG AAA Proxy UDDI Registry Register Web Service Locate For. CEG XML file Configuration Message For. CEG WSDL URL & Operations Request Confirmation Check current state. Check message for conflicts. CFLS Returns Response XML file Check FE State Create For. CES Message Acknowledgement from FE IWAN 2005 17

Evaluation n For. CEG will be evaluated against: q q q n Performance. Versatility. Ease of use. Measurements: q q Delay between the Web Service Call and the sending of the For. CES packet. Overhead incurred by the architecture as a service executes. IWAN 2005 18

Conclusion n Motivation: To create a Generic Web Service API to provide access to For. CES APIs. n Heterogeneous: Need a middleware architecture approach which provides a Generic Service API and translates it into a low-level API. n Contribution: Our approach extends the For. CES protocol and addresses the issues of multiple CEs to FE. IWAN 2005 19

Future Work n Dynamic Mapping in an automated way. n Integration of other control protocols such as Netconf may extend the versatility of the For. CEG. n Dynamically addition of user specific mappings. IWAN 2005 20

Questions? IWAN 2005 21