Demonstrator for Experimental Evaluation of Large-Scale Distributed SDN Deployments

Hemanth Kumar Ravuri, Maria Torres Vega, Jeroen van der Hooft, Tim Wauters, Filip De Turck

Abstract: The software-defined networking (SDN) paradigm has gained widespread popularity due to its ability to ease network management. However, the traditionally used centralized SDN architectures are restricted by scalability issues. To cope with these, several distributed alternatives have been proposed. The performance evaluation of such distributed solutions is limited to simulation-based methodologies, where virtualization technologies are used (e.g., virtual machines (VMs) and containers to distribute the control plane). In this context, large-scale testbeds offer a platform to validate the applicability of an architecture to real-world network conditions. The Virtual Wall is one such large-scale generic experimentation facility for advanced networking research and testing. This work proposes a demonstrator for large-scale distributed SDN deployment using the Virtual Wall. It provides a thorough description of the steps involved to deploy experiments, by evaluating the scalability of a hierarchically distributed control plane.