1. The Open Networking Foundation:
OpenFlow & SDN from lab to market
IEEE ComSoc SV chapter
July 11, 2012
Dan Pitt, Executive Director

2. Points to cover Origins The Basics Why we exist Ambition, scope
How we operate
What we’re doing

3. Networks being built this way
Origins
Programmatic control of Enterprise networks
Global policy, directly enforced
Global vantage point
OpenFlow
Ethane
Martin
Casado
NSF/GENI
OpenFlow/SDN on 10 campuses
Research demonstrations
Now on 100+ campuses
US, Europe, Asia
Research Community:
How to deploy new ideas?
Data Center Networks
WANs
Enterprise and WiFi
Vendors & startups emerging
Industry Trend:
Networks being built this way

4. Why we exist
Users
Solving problems of scale, flexibility, east-west traffic (data centers)
Solving problems of cost, service introduction (service providers)
Solving problems of applications, administration, security (enterprises)
Networking
Catching up to computing (distributed systems, virtualization)
Becoming part of the computing infrastructure
Standards
User-led
Faster 4

5. Domain problems Carriers End-customer monthly bill: unchanged
Global IP traffic: up 40-50% per year
CAPEX, OPEX need: down 40-50% per Gb/s per year
CAPEX, OPEX reality: down 10-20% per year
Service-creation velocity
Data-center operators
East-west traffic, already have global view
Unbelievable scale
Enterprises
Everything else is virtualized
Need flexibility to match IT to business needs 5

6. Vertically integrated
Remember mainframes?
App
Specialized
Applications
Linux
Mac OS
Windows
(OS) or
Open Interface
Specialized
Operating
System
Specialized
Hardware
Microprocessor
Open Interface
The mainframe industry in the 1980s was vertical and closed: it consisted of specialized hardware, operating system and applications --- all from the same company.
A revolution happened when open interfaces started to appear. The industry became horizontal. Innovation exploded.
Vertically integrated
Closed, proprietary
Slow innovation
Small industry
Horizontal
Open interfaces
Rapid innovation
Huge industry

7. That’s what today’s routers are
Routing, management, mobility management, access control, VPNs, …
Million of lines of source code
Feature
Feature
6,000 RFCs OS
Custom Hardware
Billions of gates
Bloated
Power Hungry
Vertically integrated, complex, closed, proprietary
Networking industry with “mainframe” mindset

8. Vertically integrated
What SDN really is
App
Specialized
Features
Control
Plane or
Open Interface
Specialized
Control
Plane
Merchant
Switching Chips
Open Interface
Specialized
Hardware
Vertically integrated
Closed, proprietary
Slow innovation
Horizontal
Open interfaces
Rapid innovation

9. Network OS The transition Feature OS 9 Custom Hardware Custom Hardware

10. Feature Ctl. Program Network OS
Separation of control, forwarding planes
3. Consistent, well-defined global view
Feature
Ctl. Program
2. At least one Network OS probably many Open- and closed-source
Network OS
1. Open interface to packet forwarding
Flow
Table
“If header = x, send to port 4”
“If header = y, overwrite header with z, send to ports 5,6”
“If header = ?, send to me”
Packet
Forwarding
Packet
Forwarding
Packet
Forwarding
Packet
Forwarding
Packet
Forwarding 10

11. ONF basics
ONF
is a foundation for the advancement of SDN (including standardization)
is not a simple SDO
Vision
Make Software-Defined Networking the new norm for networks
Mission
Foster a vibrant market for SDN products, services, applications, users
Goals
Create the most relevant standards in record time to support a switching ecosystem based on the OpenFlow protocol
Accelerate understanding of how to realize the abstractions above OpenFlow

12. Slicing Layer: FlowVisor
Rich environment above OpenFlow
Apps
Tools
Control Program A
Control Program B
Abstract Network View
Virtualization
Control Program C
Global Network View
Network OS(s)
Control Program D
Packet
Forwarding
Slicing Layer: FlowVisor 12

13. ONF legal A non-profit industry consortium 501(c)(6)
Incorporated 2010, Launched March 22, 2011
Funded by member dues
Open to any org. that pays annual dues, agrees to bylaws, IPR policy
IPR policy
RAND-Z: royalty-free use of protocol, OpenFlow trademark, logo
Automatic cross-licensing of all related IP to all other members
No licensing charges to members
No protection for non-members
ONF itself: no IP
Open interfaces, not open source or reference implementations (yet)

14. ONF principles Operation Fast, lean, efficient Absent politics AMAP
A startup ourselves, iterating with customers, agile, learning
Standards creation
Driven by users and user needs
Developed by those close to implementation/deployment
Standardize as little as necessary
Vendor differentiation without lockin, market fragmentation
More and more like a software community
No names on drafts
Relevant, implementable now; protocol-agnostic eventually
Rapid real-world experience

15. Technical Advisory Group
ONF governance
Board of Directors
Users, not vendors
Executive Director (employee)
Reports to the Board; vendor neutral
Technical Advisory Group
Advises Board on fundamental technical issues
Working Groups
Chartered by the Board
Chaired by Board appointee
Council of Chairs
Executive Director
Board of Directors
Technical Advisory Group
. . .
Technical
Working
Group
Market
Education
Activities
Regional
Chairs Council
of Chairs

16. 7 Board companies, 65 others
Urs Hölzle (Sr. VP, Engineering, Google), chairman
Najam Ahmad (Director, Network Engineering, Facebook)
Adam Bechtel (VP, Infrastructure Group, Yahoo)
Stuart Elby (VP, Network Architecture, Verizon)
Axel Clauberg (VP, IP & Optical, Deutsche Telekom)
Yukio Ito (Sr. VP, Services & Infrastructure, NTT Communications
Clyde Rodriguez (GM, Windows Azure Networking, Microsoft)
Nick McKeown (Professor, EE and CS, Stanford)
Scott Shenker (Professor, EECS, UC Berkeley and ICSI)
ETRI
Extreme Networks
EZchip
F5 Networks
Freescale Semi
Fujitsu
Gigamon
Goldman Sachs
Hitachi HP
Huawei
IBM
Infinera
Infoblox
Intel
IP Infusion
Ixia
Juniper Networks
Korea Telecom
LineRate Systems
LSI
Luxoft
Marvell
Mellanox
Metaswitch Networks
Midokura
NCL Comms K.K.
NEC
Netgear
Netronome
Nicira Networks
Nokia Siemens Netw.
NoviFlow
Oracle
Orange/France Telecom
Pica8
Plexxi Inc.
Radware
Riverbed Technology
Samsung
SK Telecom
Spirent
Telecom Italia
Tencent
Texas Instruments
Vello Systems
VMware
ZTE
A10 Networks
ADVA Optical
Alcatel-Lucent
Aricent
Argela/Turk Telekom
Big Switch Networks
Broadcom
Brocade
Ciena
Cisco
Citrix
Colt
CompTIA
Cyan Optics
Dell/Force10
Elbrys
Ericsson 16

17. OpenFlow standards Evolution path:
OF 1.0 (03/2010): Most widely used version, MAC, IPv4, single table (from Stanford)
OF 1.1 (02/2011): MPLS tags/tunnels, multiple tables, counters (from Stanford)
OF 1.2 (12/2011): IPv6, extensible expression
OF-Config 1.0 (01/2012): Basic configuration: queues, ports, controller assign
OF (04/2012): Tunnels, meters, PBB support, more IPv6
OF-Config 1.1 (04/2012): Topology discovery, error handling
OF-Test 1.0 (2H2012): Interoperability & conformance test processes, suites, labs
Goals:
Widespread adoption, experimentation w/OF 1.3.x
Accommodate current merchant silicon
Move beyond limitations of current merchant silicon 17

18. Technical activities Chartered Working Groups
Extensibility (chair: Jean Tourrilhes, HP): OpenFlow protocol
Config-mgmt (chair: Deepak Bansal, Microsoft): basic switch configuration
Testing-interop (chair: Michael Haugh, Ixia): conformance, interop., benchmarking
Hybrid (chair: Jan Medved, Cisco): mixed OpenFlow/legacy switches & networks
Discussion Groups
OpenFlow-Future: forwarding-plane models
NorthboundAPI: how the network relates to the applications
NewTransport: OpenFlow for optical, circuits, wireless
Market Education (chair: Isabelle Guis, Big Switch): marketing, customer value 18

19. Conclusions ONF now the home of OpenFlow
Take OpenFlow 1.1 to commercial strength – Job One
Family of standards: foundation, building blocks, choices
Protocols; configuration and management; compliance and interoperability
Development, deployment, experience, feedback
SDN beyond OpenFlow
SDN abstractions, object models, interactions
Ecosystem for new features, new players, new business models
Technical standards + market education
Market pull to drive the ecosystem

20. ONF: innovating in technology and standardization