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A Web Service- and A Web Service- and ForCES-based ForCES-based

Programmable Router Programmable Router ArchitectureArchitecture

Evangelos Haleplidis1, Robert Haas2, Spyros Denazis13, Odysseas Koufopavlou1

1University of Patras, ECE Department, Patras, Greece,

2IBM Research, Zurich Research Laboratory, Rόschlikon, Switzerland, 3Hitachi Sophia Antipolis Lab, France,Spyros.Denazis@hitachi-eu.com

Seventh Annual International Working Conference onActive and Programmable Networks

November 21-23 2005

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Outline The Need for Open APIs ForCES

Concept Description

FlexiNET Architecture FlexiNET & ForCES

ForCEG ForCES Scope Concept ForCEG & FlexiNET Architecture Use Case

Evaluation – Conclusion – Future Work

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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.

1Andrew Campbell, Herman De Meer, Michael Kounavis, Kazuho Miki, John Vicente, and Daniel Villela, “A Survey of Programmable Networks”, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communications, 1999.

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ForCES Concept Network division: Forwarding, Control, and

Management plane Separation:

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).

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ForCES Description Control Elements (CEs).

Forwarding Elements (FEs).

Logical Function Blocks (LFBs). Encapsulating fine-grained, forwarding plane,

operations Responsible of a specific task.

Static Topology Dynamic Topology

CE

FE

LFBLFB

LFB

LFB

LFB

LFB

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FlexiNET Architecture 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.

FlexiNET Node Instances: FUAN FWAN DGWN FLAS

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FlexiNET Architecture (con.)

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FlexiNET & ForCES

FlexiNET separates control and data functionalities.

Dynamically deployed new services require additional programmability functions.

User specific network customization.

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ForCES & FlexiNET

CE CE

FE

Dynamically Deploy CEs in any PC. User Specific Router Configuration.

Solution: ForCES

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ForCES Scope

Only modelling of the forwarding plane is within the scope of the ForCES working group.

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.

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ForCEG Concept

Further separate the functionalities of the control point into the Main Control Programs (MCPs), which execute control-plane services, and a ForCES CE Gateway (ForCEG), which implements, among other things, the CE side of the ForCES protocol

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ForCEG Concept (con.) Conceal ForCEs Model Details Multiple MCPs to FEs FE Easy Discovery Generic API

Solution: Web Services

SoftwareModule

SoftwareModule

SoftwareModule

API API API

ForCEG

ForCES

FE

ForCES

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ForCEG & FlexiNET

CE CE

FE

ForCEG

MCP MCP

Dynamically Deploy MCPs in any PC. User Specific Router Configuration.

Solution: ForCEG

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ForCEG Concept (con.)

FE

CE

Main Control Program

ForCES FE Start/Termination Point

LFB LFB LFB…

Underlying Hardware

ForCEG

Routing

Target

Correlationbetweenhigh-layer function &LFB’s

Firewall QoS-related

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ForCEG Concept (con.) Translates configuration commands from a

Generic Web Service API into ForCES packets. Extend ForCES protocol. Conceal ForCES 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.

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ForCEG Architecture

WebServicesServer

ForCES Translator

ForCES CEStart/Termination

Point

MessageParser

CommandControlLogic

Web Service Interface

ForCES

Main Control ProgramMain Control ProgramMain Control Program

SubscribedEvents &Pending

Responses

CurrentFE & LFB

State

ForCES FE Start/Termination

Point

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ForCEG Use Case

Acknowledgement from FE

ConfigurationMessage

Web Service AAA ProxyParserCCLTranslatorFCSTP

XML file

RequestConfirmation

Check current state.Check message for conflicts.

ReturnsResponse

XML fileCheck FE StateCreate ForCES

Message

ForCESMessage

ForCESMessage

UDDI Registry

Register Web Service

Locate ForCEG

ForCEG WSDLURL & Operations

CFLS

ForCEG

MCP

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Evaluation ForCEG will be evaluated against:

Performance. Versatility. Ease of use.

Measurements: Delay between the Web Service Call and the sending

of the ForCES packet. Overhead incurred by the architecture as a service

executes.

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Conclusion Motivation: To create a Generic Web Service

API to provide access to ForCES APIs.

Heterogeneous: Need a middleware architecture approach which provides a Generic Service API and translates it into a low-level API.

Contribution: Our approach extends the ForCES protocol and addresses the issues of multiple CEs to FE.

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Future Work Dynamic Mapping in an automated way.

Integration of other control protocols such as Netconf may extend the versatility of the ForCEG.

Dynamically addition of user specific mappings.

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Questions?