Hybrid OpenFlow Switching
Hybrid OpenFlow Switching
The hybrid OpenFlow model allows operators to deploy Software Defined Network (SDN) traffic
steering using OpenFlow atop of the existing routing/switching infrastructure. Some of the main
benefits of the hybrid model include:
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In a basic mode of operation, a single OpenFlow Switch instance is configured on the router and
controlled by a single OpenFlow controller.
The OF controller(s) and router exchange OpenFlow messages using the OpenFlow protocol
(version 1.3.1) over the TCP/IPv4 control channel. An OpenFlow message is processed by the
OpenFlow switch instance on the router that installs all supported H-OFS traffic steering rules in a
flow table for the H-OFS instance. A single table per H-OFS instance is supported initially. The
OpenFlow switch maps the flow table rules to IPv4 and IPv6 filter policies to achieve traffic
steering.
The H-OFS allows operators to:
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The router allows operators to control traffic using OF, as follows:
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Increased flexibility and speed for new service deployment—H-OFS implements flexible,
policy-driven, standard-based Hybrid OpenFlow Switch traffic steering that allows
deployment of new services and on-demand services through policy updates rather than
service and infrastructure programming.
Evolutionary capex/opex-optimized SDN deployment—The H-OFS functionality can be
deployed on the existing hardware through software upgrade, realizing benefits of
FlexPath programmability. The OpenFlow traffic placement is focused access only (i.e.
flexible, fast, on-demand service deployment) while network infrastructure provides
robustness, resiliency, scale and security.
Steer IPv4/v6 unicast traffic arriving on a Layer 3 interface in a GRT context (base router
or IES interfaces) onto a specified RSVP-TE P2P LSP.
Steer IPv4/IPv6 unicast traffic arriving on a Layer 3 interface in a GRT context (base
router or IES service) onto a specified MPLS-TP LSP.
Drop traffic.
Forward traffic using regular processing.
Operator can select a subset of interfaces on the router to have OF rules enabled, by
embedding given instance of H-OFS in filter policies used only by those interfaces.
For the interfaces with a given H-OFS instance enabled, operator can:
7750 SR OS Router Configuration Guide