Cloud Definable Networking: Software-Defined Mobile Network

With the rapid development of the networking, it brings the great challenges to the traditional Internet, such as the high complexity of network configuration, which indicates that the network infrastructure needs to be innovated. Fortunately, the researches on the programmable network provide the theoretical foundation for SND. Active network supports the data packet carrying with user program, which can be performed automatically by the network device. Therefore, it is available to dynamically configure the network programmatically for the convenient network management. However, due to the low demand and incompatible protocol, it is not actually deployed in the industry. 4D approach, including four planes: decision, dissemination, discovery, and data, to network control and management is proposed to separated the decision planes (i.e., control planes) from the data plane, i.e., centralize and automatize the control plane [13]. The design ideas produce the prototype of SDN controller.

SDN is originated in 2006 from Stanford Clean Slate research. In 2008, Professor Mckeown et al. proposed the concept of SDN to separate the control and data through the hierarchical design [23]. In the control layer, including the central logic and programmable controllers, the global network information is provided to the operators and researchers for the new protocols deployment and the network management and configuration. In the data layer, the dumb switch only provides the simple data forwarding function, which is different from the traditional switcher, and the corresponding packets are processed quickly for meeting the traffic growing demand. The control layer interacts with data layer through the unified open interfaces, such as OpenFlow. Specifically, the controller sends the unified standard rules to the switch through the standard interfaces, and the corresponding tasks are processed by the switches following the rules. Therefore, SDN technology can effectively reduce the equipment load to help network operators to better control infrastructure, reduce overall operating costs. SDN has become one of the most promising network technologies. Therefore, SDN related researches develop rapidly in recent years.

Draw upon the abstract architecture of the computer system architecture, the future network architecture includes virtualization concepts, i.e., abstract forwarding, abstract distribution, and abstract configuration. The abstract forwarding removes the control functions from the traditional switches, while all the controls are completed by the control layer. Moreover, the standard interfaces are provided to ensure that the switch is able to identify and forward the data. The control layer needs to abstract the equipment distribution into the overall network view, so that the applications can be uniformly configured through the overall network information.

The abstract configuration further simplifies the network model that the users only need to make some simple network configuration through the interfaces provided by the control layer, and then the unified deployment is automatically forwarded to the devices along the path. Therefore, the ideas of network abstraction decouple the dependence on the path, and become the determining factor to establish the architecture with the unified interface architecture and separating control and data, i.e., SDN.

In addition, many organizations have participated in the SDN-related standardization. Specifically, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) 1 is a representative organization to standardize the interface of SDN. The OpenFlow protocol developed by ONF has become the mainstream standard of SDN interface that many operators and manufacturers research and develop SDN product in accordance with this standard. The Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) 2 of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Software-Defined Networking Research Group (SDNRG) 3 of Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) and ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) 4 , and other working groups focus on the novel method and applications related to SDN. The standardization organizations promote the rapid development of the SDN market, and SDN has a broad development prospects and great research value.

Cloud Definable Networking: Software-Defined Mobile Network

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