MPLS based hybridization in SDN

Abstract

The new paradigm of Software Defined Networking (SDN) although has great potential to address the complex problems presented by enterprise networks, it has its own deployment and scalability issues. Further, a full SDN deployment has its own business and economic challenges. A smooth transition from legacy networks to SDN (disruption free, accommodating budget constraints, with progressive improvement in network management) requires a hybrid networking model as an inevitable intermediate step; that allows heterogeneous paradigms to function together while the full transition is realized in phases. Therefore, the need of the hour is to develop an incremental deployment strategy that caters to the needs of the organization. We present here a class-based hybrid SDN model for Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks. We discuss the model, design, components, their interactions, advantages and drawbacks. We also present a n implementation and evaluation of a prototype. In legacy networks, MPLS architecture closely resembles SDN paradigm in terms of separation of control and data planes, flow-abstraction etc. Moreover, ISPs have preferred MPLS over the years due to benefits of virtual private networks and traffic engineering. The central idea is to partition traffic using forwarding equivalence classes at the ingress router, the rules of which can be updated via a centralized controller using OpenFlow. Therefore, we aim to use the standard MPLS data-plane together with a control-plane based on OpenFlow to come up with a systematic incremental deployment methodology as well as a hybrid operation model