Innovating in Your Network with OpenFlow: A Hands-on Tutorial

OpenFlow is an open interface for remotely controlling the forwarding tables in network switches, routers, and access points. Upon this low-level primitive, researchers can build networks with new high-level properties. For example, OpenFlow enables more secure default-off networks, wireless networks with smooth handoffs, scalable data center networks, host mobility, more energy-efficient networks and new wide-area networks-to name a few. By building on OpenFlow, you can leverage a high-quality set of supported tools with a direct path to hardware deployment. This tutorial is your opportunity to gain hands-on experience with the platforms and debugging tools most useful for developing network control applications on OpenFlow. Following an introduction, each participant will create a flow-based Ethernet switch. Along the way, you´ll learn the full suite of OpenFlow debugging tools: you´ll view flow tables with dpctl, dissect packets with Wireshark, slice with FlowVisor, simulate a multi-switch, multi-host network with Mininet on your laptop, and control a network with real switches. After the tutorial, you can apply what you´ve learned to physical networks based on software switches, NetFPGAs, or even line-rate hardware switches from a number of vendors.