1. IWAN 2005 1 A Web Service- and ForCES-based Programmable Router Architecture Evangelos Haleplidis 1, Robert Haas 2, Spyros Denazis 13, Odysseas Koufopavlou 1 1 University of Patras, ECE Department, Patras, Greece, 2 IBM Research, Zurich Research Laboratory, Rόschlikon, Switzerland, 3 Hitachi Sophia Antipolis Lab, France,Spyros.Denazis@hitachi-eu.com Seventh Annual International Working Conference on Active and Programmable Networks November 21-23 2005

2. IWAN 2005 2 Outline The Need for Open APIs ForCES  Concept  Description FlexiNET  Architecture  FlexiNET & ForCES ForCEG  ForCES Scope  Concept  ForCEG & FlexiNET  Architecture  Use Case Evaluation – Conclusion – Future Work

3. IWAN 2005 3 The Need for Open APIs “a programmable network is distinguished from any other networking environment by the fact that it can be programmed from a minimal set of APIs from which one can ideally compose an infinite spectrum of higher level services” 1. 1 Andrew Campbell, Herman De Meer, Michael Kounavis, Kazuho Miki, John Vicente, and Daniel Villela, “A Survey of Programmable Networks”, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communications, 1999.

4. IWAN 2005 4 ForCES Concept Network division: Forwarding, Control, and Management plane Separation: IIncreased scalability AAllows the planes to evolve independently. Focus: Communication and Model for separating control-plane functionality (e.g. routing protocols) from data-forwarding-plane per-packet activities (e.g. packet forwarding).

5. IWAN 2005 5 ForCES Description Control Elements (CEs). Forwarding Elements (FEs). Logical Function Blocks (LFBs).  Encapsulating fine-grained, forwarding plane, operations  Responsible of a specific task.  Static Topology  Dynamic Topology CE FE LFB

6. IWAN 2005 6 FlexiNET Architecture Define and implement a scalable and modular network architecture incorporating adequate network elements offering cross-connect control, switching/routing control, and advanced services management/access functions at the network access points that currently only support connectivity between user terminals and network core infrastructures. FlexiNET Node Instances: FFUAN FFWAN DDGWN FFLAS

7. IWAN 2005 7 FlexiNET Architecture (con.)

8. IWAN 2005 8 FlexiNET & ForCES FlexiNET separates control and data functionalities. Dynamically deployed new services require additional programmability functions. User specific network customization.

9. IWAN 2005 9 ForCES & FlexiNET CE FE Dynamically Deploy CEs in any PC. User Specific Router Configuration. Solution: ForCES

10. IWAN 2005 10 ForCES Scope Only modelling of the forwarding plane is within the scope of the ForCES working group. FEs can only be controlled by a single active CE, hence different services that require state changes in LFBs belonging to the same FE have to go over the same CE.

11. IWAN 2005 11 ForCEG Concept Further separate the functionalities of the control point into the Main Control Programs (MCPs), which execute control-plane services, and a ForCES CE Gateway (ForCEG), which implements, among other things, the CE side of the ForCES protocol

12. IWAN 2005 12 ForCEG Concept (con.) Conceal ForCEs Model Details Multiple MCPs to FEs FE Easy Discovery Generic API Solution: Web Services Software Module Software Module Software Module API ForCEG ForCES FE ForCES

13. IWAN 2005 13 ForCEG & FlexiNET CE FE ForCEG MCP Dynamically Deploy MCPs in any PC. User Specific Router Configuration. Solution: ForCEG

14. IWAN 2005 14 ForCEG Concept (con.) FE CE Main Control Program ForCES FE Start/Termination Point LFB … Underlying Hardware ForCEG Routing Target Correlation between high-layer function & LFB’s FirewallQoS-related

15. IWAN 2005 15 ForCEG Concept (con.) Translates configuration commands from a Generic Web Service API into ForCES packets. Extend ForCES protocol. Conceal ForCES model from high-level functions. Provide connections of multiple Contol Elements into a Forwarding Element. Advertise APIs through a UDDI registry. Detect and prevent conflicts between different MCPs.

16. IWAN 2005 16 ForCEG Architecture Web Services Server ForCES Translator ForCES CE Start/Termination Point Message Parser Command Control Logic Web Service Interface ForCES Main Control Program Subscribed Events & Pending Responses Current FE & LFB State ForCES FE Start/Termination Point

17. IWAN 2005 17 ForCEG Use Case Acknowledgement from FE Configuration Message Web Service AAA Proxy Parser CCLTranslator FCSTP XML file Request Confirmation Check current state. Check message for conflicts. Returns Response XML file Check FE State Create ForCES Message ForCES Message ForCES Message UDDI Registry Register Web Service Locate ForCEG ForCEG WSDL URL & Operations CFLS ForCEG MCP

18. IWAN 2005 18 Evaluation ForCEG will be evaluated against:  Performance.  Versatility.  Ease of use. Measurements:  Delay between the Web Service Call and the sending of the ForCES packet.  Overhead incurred by the architecture as a service executes.

19. IWAN 2005 19 Conclusion Motivation: To create a Generic Web Service API to provide access to ForCES APIs. Heterogeneous: Need a middleware architecture approach which provides a Generic Service API and translates it into a low-level API. Contribution: Our approach extends the ForCES protocol and addresses the issues of multiple CEs to FE.

20. IWAN 2005 20 Future Work Dynamic Mapping in an automated way. Integration of other control protocols such as Netconf may extend the versatility of the ForCEG. Dynamically addition of user specific mappings.

21. IWAN 2005 21 Questions?