Design and implementation of an SDN network and an API

Abstract

Traditional networks may be complex and very hard to manage. It is both difficult to configure the network according to predefined policies, and to reconfigure it to respond to faults, load, and changes. Recently, software-defined networking (SDN) is one of the most promising solutions for today’s networking. SDN is characterized by its dynamic programmability on forwarding devices through open southbound interfaces, the decoupling of the control plane and the data plane, and the global view of the network by logical centralization of the controller. This project, starts by introducing the SDN approach and Explains its main concepts and how it differs from traditional Networking. Next, it presents the key building blocks of a layered SDN architecture. Then, an in-depth analysis of the control plane, southbound and northbound application programming interfaces (APIs), and the application plane is performed. One of the SDN approaches is tested and verified on a network implemented by traditional network devices. Finally, this project is concluded with some suggested studies about SDN approaches.