Today’s networks are a collection of proprietary, purpose-built switches and routers that are expensive and at various stages of depreciation cycle. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) helps Cloud and Service Providers address lack of programmability and vendor lock-in by introducing intuitive 3-tier architecture. With Spirent, you can benchmark SDN controllers, switches, and routers for programmability, scale and traffic steering capabilities. @malathimalla

2. Accelerating SDN and NFV
Deployments
Malathi Malla
Spirent Communications

3. Vertically integrated
Closed, proprietary
Slow innovation
Traditional
Networks

4.  Protocol flood
 Open source communities
 App portfolio – video, voice, security
 Interoperability
 Performance
Across virtual and cloud infrastructure
Infinite Complexity of Testing

5. SDN and NFV: Throughout the Network

6. SDN and NFV Timeline
PoCs
(Proof-of-Concept testing)
Operators, vendors
learn in the lab
Few field trials
Field trials
Vendors productize
SDN and NFV software in
operator lab trials
A few more field trials
~10 commercial
deployments
2013 2014 2015 2016–2020
Wider-spread
commercial
deployments
Operators deploy several
SDN and NFV use cases;
more each year
Commercial
deployments
~15–20 more
commercial deployments
Many operators deploy
1 or 2 use cases
(contained domains)
Source: IHS (Infonetics Research), 2015

8. Cloud-based
architectures
AT&T Supplier Domain
Program 2.0
SDN re-considerations to
drive automation
What’s Trending?
Next-Generation
Central Offices
(NG-COs) or Cloud COs
Spend shifting to
100GE for undeniable
traffic growth

9. Software-
Defined
Networking
Agility.
Manageability.
Programmability.
 New business models and
revenue opportunities
 Minimize complexity and
network management
 Lower capital and operational
expenses

10. SDN Architecture

11. SDN Architecture
Focus areas
in the SDN
ecosystem

12. SDN Approaches/Protocols
for Network Programmability
Overlay
Underlay

13. SDN Deployment with OpenFlow
• Defined by Open Networking
Foundation
• OpenFlow is an open API that
provides a common instruction
set for interacting with packet-
forwarding hardware
• It is a centralized Controller that
separates Data Plane from
Control Plane
• A single Controller interacts with
many switches and allows for
quick, dynamic changes as
network needs evolve
OpenFlow Model
Switch Switch Switch
Data Plane
Control Plane
OF Config
Protocol
OF Protocol
Applications
APIs

14. Spirent and Open Networking Foundation
• ONF member since founding year
• Testing and Leadership Council – member
• Testing and Interoperability Working Group
– Vice Chair Benchmarking Group
– Test Case Contributions
– Conformance Tests and Benchmarking
• AppFest and SDN Solutions Showcase
• Validating OpenFlow networks with Spirent
– OpenFlow Controller Emulation
– OpenFlow Switch Emulation

15. Validating SDN
• SDN deployments are facing strong headwinds
– Too many new moving parts and new protocols
– Dozens of flavors of SDN controllers and switches
• New validation methods
– Need to test functionality and
scale of controllers, switches
and the interactions between
them
– Need to ensure high-availability
and reliability
– Need to interoperate with
legacy environments

16. Functional testing of SDN components
• What to Test?Test cases
Desired outcome /
metrics
Device under test Protocols
Protocol functionality
and state machine
validation
Ensure that southbound
protocols comply with
standards (IETF, ONF…)
• PCE, OpenFlow
Controller
• OpenFlow switches,
PCC clients
OpenFlow, Path
Computation Element
protocol (PCE-P), BGP-LS,
Segment Routing
Interoperability in multi-
vendor environments
Ensure that network
functions from different
vendors interoperate in a
standards compliant way
to provide E2E services
Includes white box
equipment, branded
vendor equipment and
Open source controllers
OpenFlow, Path
Computation Element
protocol (PCE-P), BGP-LS,
Segment Routing

17. Scale testing of SDN components
• What to Test?Test cases
Desired outcome /
metrics
Device under test Protocols
Successful programming
of hundreds of clients or
switches across domains
Ensure that PCE and OF
controllers correctly
program hundreds of
clients/switches, at high
scale, in real time
• PCE Controller
• OpenFlow Controller
(including ODL, ONOS,
etc.)
PCE, OpenFlow, BGP-LS
Successful setup and
switching of millions of
flows or paths
Ensure that OF switches
perform line rate
forwarding at high flow
table depth
OpenFlow switches OpenFlow
Ensure that ingress
routers can establish
millions of TE paths with
peer PE routers
PCC clients (PE router,
vRouter, ASBR)
PCE, RSVP, Segment
Routing

18. QoS / Reliability testing of SDN components
• What to Test?Test cases
Desired outcome /
metrics
Device under test Protocols
Maintaining of QoS SLAs
while forwarding traffic
at high scale
Ensure OF switches
meter flows as defined
by Controller and
maintain acceptable
packet forwarding
latency
OpenFlow switches OpenFlow
Rapid detection of failed
paths and switchover
without loss of service
Measure time taken by
PCE controller to detect
failures on primary path
and the successful
switchover to backup
path
PCC clients (PE router,
vRouter, ASBR)
PCE, RSVP, Segment
Routing, BGP-LS

19. Network
Functions
Virtualization
Elasticity.
Flexibility.
Scalability.
 Shorter service delivery cycles
and quicker time-to-value
 Greater service agility and
scalability
 Lower capital and operational
expenses

20. Better Infrastructure to Support the
Future of Networking

21. Validating NFV
Choke Points
“How many app instances
can I spin up?”
“Can my network scale across
VXLAN or VLANs?”
“Should I use
SSD or Spinning Disk?”
“Can my VNFs handle
Internet Route Reflection?”
“Do multiple VMs contend for
storage performance?”
“How many flows
can I support?”
“Does my orchestrator
follow policy?”
“What is the service impact
of VM migration?”

22. Spirent and NFV Thought Leadership

23. Holistic Testing of Virtual and Cloud
Infrastructure

24. Performance and Benchmarking
Traffic Sweep Test: Benchmark the Forwarding Plane performance of the
VNF under test

25. Performance and Benchmarking
Control Plane: Benchmark the Control Plane scale and performance of
VNF under test

26. Performance and Benchmarking
On-demand Scale: End-to-end traffic testing between nodes in a multi-
tenant cloud/datacenter

27. Management and Orchestration
Functional test and instantiation time

28. Management and Orchestration
Auto-scale Validation: Successful completion of auto-scaling and the maintenance of customer
SLAs both during and after the completion of auto-scaling

29. Accelerate…
SDN and NFV
deployments
Scale up...
Infrastructure
Performance
Reliability
Be confident...
Virtualized
Network
Security
Realize more...
Continuous Testing
for DevOps
Spirent’s Turn Key Solutions

30. Accelerating SDN and NFV Deployments

31. spirent.com/Solutions/SDN-NFV-Solutions
Thank you!