OpenFlow Switching: Data Plane Performance

Author

Bianco, Andrea ; Birke, Robert ; Giraudo, Luca ; Palacin, Manuel

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Elettron., Politec. di Torino, Turin, Italy

fYear

2010

fDate

23-27 May 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

OpenFlow is an open standard that can be implemented in Ethernet switches, routers and wireless access points (AP). In the OpenFlow framework, packet forwarding (data plane) and routing decisions (control plane) run on different devices. OpenFlow switches are in charge of packet forwarding, whereas a controller set up switch forwarding table on a per-flow basis, to enable flow isolation and resource slicing. We focus on the data path and analyze the OpenFlow implementation in Linux based PCs. We compare OpenFlow switching, layer-2 Ethernet switching and layer-3 IP routing performance. Forwarding throughput and packet latency in underloaded and overloaded conditions are analyzed, with different traffic patterns. System scalability is analyzed using different forwarding table sizes, and fairness in resource distribution is measured.

Keywords

Linux; local area networks; packet switching; telecommunication network routing; telecommunication traffic; Ethernet switches; Linux based PCs; OpenFlow switching; data plane performance; packet forwarding; resource distribution; routers; routing decisions; system scalability; wireless access points; Data analysis; Delay; Ethernet networks; Linux; Packet switching; Pattern analysis; Personal communication networks; Routing; Switches; Throughput;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Communications (ICC), 2010 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Cape Town

ISSN

1550-3607

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-6402-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICC.2010.5502016

Filename

5502016