MLV: A Multi-dimension Routing Information Exchange Mechanism for Inter-domain SDN

Software Defined Networking (SDN) separates the tightly coupled network control and data forwarding functions. During the past years, it has been applied in all kinds of intra-domain networks, such as enterprise networks, data centers and content provider networks. However, it is a big challenge to extend SDN to inter-domain networks. In this paper, we extend the advantage of SDN to an inter-domain network federation to improve the Internet routing flexibility. To achieve this goal, we propose a Multi-dimension Link Vector network view exchange mechanism (MLV) to exchange the fine-grained inter-domain routing information and enable programmable inter-domain routing. MLV can support flexible inter-domain routing control by exchanging multiple fields of the IP header. Based on MLV, innovations in inter-domain routing can be deployed as applications over SDN controllers. In order to validate the MLV design, we analyzed its performance with BGP-derived Internet AS topology. Finally, we implemented a prototype of MLV and tested it on an internationally collaborative inter-domain SDN testbed.