Accelerating OpenFlow switching with network processors

OpenFlow switching enables flexible management of enterprise network switches and experiments on regular network traffic. We present in this paper a complementary design to OpenFlow's existing reference designs. We apply network processor based acceleration cards to perform OpenFlow switching. We describe the design options and report our experiment results that show a 20% reduction on packet delay and the comparable packet forwarding throughput compared to conventional designs. Categories and Subject Descriptors C.2.6 [Computer-Communication Networks]: Internetworking--Routers; C.2.2 [Computer-Communication Networks]: Network Protocols General Terms Design, Management, Performance Keywords OpenFlow, Network Processors, Performance Evaluation

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2009
• Where: ANCS
• Authors: Yan Luo, Pablo Cascón, Eric Murray, Julio Ortega
• Keywords: ANCS 2009, Computer Networks, Computer-Communication Networks, Design, Network Processors