DevoFlow: cost-effective flow management for high performance enterprise networks

The OpenFlow framework enables flow-level control over Ethernet switching, as well as centralized visibility of the flows in the network. OpenFlow's coupling of these features comes with costs, however: the distributed-system costs of involving the OpenFlow controller on flow setups, and the switch-implementation costs of involving the switch's control plane too often. In this paper, we analyze the overheads, and we propose DevoFlow, a modification of the OpenFlow model in which we try to gently break the coupling between centralized control and centralized visibility, in a way that maintains a useful amount of visibility without imposing unnecessary costs. Categories and Subject Descriptors C.2.1 [Computer-Communication Networks]: Network Architecture and Design General Terms Design, Performance, Measurement Keywords Network, OpenFlow, Traffic Engineering, Enterprise

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: HOTNETS
• Authors: Jeffrey C. Mogul, Jean Tourrilhes, Praveen Yalagandula, Puneet Sharma, Andrew R. Curtis, Sujata Banerjee
• Keywords: Centralized Visibility, Computer Networks, Design General Terms, HOTNETS 2010, Measurement Keywords Network