Panopticon: Reaping the benefits of incremental SDN deployment in enterprise networks

Dan Levin, Marco Canini, Stefan Schmid, Fabian Schaffert, Anja Feldmann

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

148 Scopus citations

Abstract

The operational challenges posed in enterprise networks present an appealing opportunity for automated orchestration by way of Software-Defined Networking (SDN). The primary challenge to SDN adoption in the enterprise is the deployment problem: How to deploy and operate a network consisting of both legacy and SDN switches, while benefiting from simplified management and enhanced flexibility of SDN. This paper presents the design and implementation of Panopticon, an architecture for operating networks that combine legacy and SDN switches. Panopticon exposes an abstraction of a logical SDN in a partially upgraded legacy network, where SDN benefits can extend over the entire network. We demonstrate the feasibility and evaluate the efficiency of our approach through both testbed experiments with hardware switches and through simulation on real enterprise campus network topologies entailing over 1500 devices. Our results suggest that when as few as 10% of distribution switches support SDN, most of an enterprise network can be operated as a single SDN while meeting key resource constraints.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference, USENIX ATC 2014
PublisherUSENIX Association
Pages333-345
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9781931971102
StatePublished - 2014
Event2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference, USENIX ATC 2014 - Philadelphia, United States
Duration: Jun 19 2014Jun 20 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference, USENIX ATC 2014

Conference

Conference2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference, USENIX ATC 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPhiladelphia
Period06/19/1406/20/14

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Proceedings of the 2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference, USENIX ATC 2014. All rights reserved.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science

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