Software Defined Networking Research Paper Samples

Introduction

Software defined networking can be described as drastic fresh thoughts in networking that guarantees or assures dramatic simplification of network administration and permit innovation throughout network programmability. This paper describes the technical details of software defined networking with respect to what it does, what it improves, how it changes our technology and the future that comes with it (Nunes 74). The Open Network Foundation defines software defined networking as a network architecture where network control is decoupled from forwarding and is directly programmable (Alaettinoglu 203).

Technical aspects of Software Defined Networking

The software defined network is a group of northbound application interfaces that permits an application to reprogram the network. The software defined architecture comprises of three main components namely the application, the controller and forwarders. The application component defines bandwidth calendaring, demand placement and service deployment. The controller component defines the service, network and device control while forwarder defines the physical or virtual routers and/or switches. The centralized controller is responsible for the management of many switches. The controller can be decoupled physically from the forwarder. Programmability with no decoupling of controller to the forwarder is regularly known as software derived networking, also called software defined networking. The decoupling of controller from the forwarder might have self-governing advantage. It might make it feasible to set up switches from commercial off the shelf hardware components. Decoupling of forwarder and controller makes the protocols such as OpenFlow Open network Foundation to be utilized amid the controller and the forwarder for the purpose of programming the forwarder. The diagram in figure (A) bellow shows the architecture of software defined networking (Alaettinoglu 38).
The major component of software defined networking is the controller which offers northbound application interface to the applications. It can make possible programming, reconfiguring and reorganizing of networks on behalf of the applications. The controller can also track all requests for applications, uphold network topology model as well as maintaining loads of traffic, utilizing this to calculate application paths in addition to programming the forwarders. The diagram in figure (B) bellow illustrates the controller component part of software defined networking (Alaettinoglu 29).
Figure A: Architecture of Software Defined Networking
The most well known software defined networking application is the network virtualization. Nevertheless, a number of current applications are developed as cloud applications to allow access by users irrespective of their location or device they use. The majority of virtualization applications generates a virtualization network amid virtual switches to link virtual machines. The applications makes Application interface calls to the bandwidth broker with an aim of requesting a given quantity of bandwidth to be assigned to them. This assignment can be done either immediately or at given time in future. The broker can either accept or deny the request. In the case of acceptance, the application traffic can be routed on the existing paths or newly established paths. Software defined networking is thus a natural approach to implementing bandwidth calendaring (Alaettinoglu 3).

What software defined networking does

Software defined networking being a new paradigm in networking advocates the separation of data plane alongside control plane. By so doing, it makes network switches in the data plane to be simple packet forwarding devices. It also uses logically centralized software program to control the activities of the whole network. Software defined networking also permits regular modifications to network situations and state. It offers support for network design by means of high level language in addition to offering visibility. It also offers control over tasks for conducting diagnosis for network with troubleshooting. The technologies used for software defined networking also allows operators of the network to implement extensive range of policies for network in a high level language policy. Moreover, it aids in in easy determination of sources of problems in performance of the network. In the process of improving network management, software defined networking uses network policies that automatically respond to low level events of the network. (Hyojoon, and Feamster 92).
The Open Flow which is an embodiment of software defined networking embraces the example of extremely programmable switch infrastructure which allows software to calculate the maximum routing flow choice on demand. In the case of current networks which have to deal with virtualization of host and dynamic application migration in an increasing way, OpenFlow might provide the agility required to work with dynamic network orchestration further than that which can be achieved by conventional networks (Shin 102).

What Software defined networking Improves

Software defined networking improves network management tasks and security of communication network. It also improves the visibility and control over tasks for carrying out network diagnosis. In overall, software defined networking improves network performance, scalability, efficiency and even availability. This implies that reliability of the communication network is improved as well. The improvement in security in this case means that the incidences caused by cyber criminals such as hacking and others are also minimized (Kim and Nick 99, Yeganeh, Amin , and Yashar 29).
Software defined network also improves the behavior of the whole network in addition to improving state of the art configuration of the network as well as network administration approaches or mechanisms. Various features of network management are also improved through the introduction of fresh mechanisms (Kim and Nick 28). The speed of the network is also improved which adds to the efficiency of the network infrastructure. There is also improvement in network traffic control. This better traffic control further improves continuous network availability thereby enhancing business continuity during downtime as a result of improved stability of the network. This implies that issues associated with disaster recovery and planning are improved in businesses that are conducted with the help of computer network. All these improvements also call for corresponding improvement in quality and functionality of network equipment by the vendors thereby improving service quality of the network. Other improvements include flexibility in network programmability. Software defined network also improves the counter measures used against various network attacks and vulnerabilities (Goth 82; Hong 29).

How Software defined networking changes our technology

The fresh virtual machines are added or deleted as the application user base grows or shrinks respectively. The virtual machines are also migrated to better save the user group as the user geography also changes. This virtual machine migration can also help in offering continuity of business during down time caused by rolling black outs or natural disasters. The additions, deletions and migrations of virtual machines can also be carried out by means of programming. Nonetheless, the network requires to be reconfigured to reflect these changes in order to keep the technology current. It is the network virtualization that permits this reconfiguration to be programmed by the virtual machine management system. The reconfiguration must always be normally performed during windows maintenance (Alaettinoglu 109).
Software defined networking changes our technology by ensuring advancement in hardware and software equipment used in the network configuration. The technology is also changed through further gain of experience by network operators and programmers who use their knowledge to ensure that abetter system is designed that meets various performance parameters in accordance with the design specifications. It also changes our technology by introducing programmability to the network. Software defined networking also improves packet design which offers unique capabilities for modeling network topologies. Software defined networking also promotes much study and industrial effort in the process of defining, polishing and implementing fresh topology change. By so doing, the network operators do implement complex high level network policies through their experience in order to achieve the target change in technology. Software designed network, in addition, advocates for the separation of data plane, making switches for networks in the data plane trouble-free devices for packet forwarding. It also permits the software that is logically centralized to control the behavior of the whole network as well as introducing fresh possibilities of network administration and design approaches (Kim and Nick 23; Nunes 89)

The future that comes with Software defined networking

The future that comes with software defined networking consists of increase in traffic loads which also call for increase in bandwidth and transmission speed. The past traffic volumes can be employed in producing future profiles in traffic. These profiles can determine whether the application should be allowed to run or not. As a result, fresh ideas also continue to emerge that simplifies network management and further innovation through fresh programming. Therefore, the current ideas are used to examine the future implications which are explored through research directions that are based on software defined networking paradigm. This translates to saying that new ideas and their implementation in network that comes with software defined networking are always more superior that the current or former as they result to better network systems in terms of performance,, reliability and security (Alaettinoglu 72).
Software defined networking also comes with new approaches to network traffic control up and down the stack of an application.. It also comes with fresh standards that offers the technology a fast mover advantage (Goth 109). Others comprises of the possibilities of technology innovation in relation to new network devices and protocols that governs the fresh ways of data transmission amid entities in a network. All these come as a result of new models and patterns of networking that also comes with software defined networking. Last but not least, software defined networking comes with improved network design methods that leads to all enhancements in network technology mentioned above (Kim and Nick 29).

Research

The continuous growth of software defined networking therefore comes as a result of continuous research in the field of technology. Nevertheless, the constant further needs of network users in terms of quality, efficiency, reliability, speed and other related qualities is what brings this idea of research in this area for the purpose of coming up with better technologies that can be used to replace the existing one. The result of the research is the improvement on what the software defined networking can do, by changing the current technology thereby bringing new technological knowhow and better infrastructure in prospect. The research in this case affects the software through programming principles can be used to develop better software applications and operating systems for the control of network devices.
The research in the area of software and programming thus helps network based programmers and the network administrators to come up with new applications programs and operating systems in the area of software defined networking. However, the attempt to make changes in software also necessitates the need to make some adjustments in the type of hardware equipment used. In other words, the process of research also results to the change in the type of hardware equipment used that will have to be compatible with the new network software used.
The organizations, companies, institutions and government are some of the sources of clients that use the outcome of software defined networking in their day to day operations. The issues and complaints that arise from these clients concerning the challenges and specific performance issues of the existing network equipment alongside the associated software becomes the starting point of research with is aimed at solving the specific problem(s) in question. This is to say that research in this field is a continuous process just like in other areas of study. This is why new network technologies keep on being introduced in the market with time in order to meet customer or client needs.

Conclusion

Software defined networking is a radical new thoughts or ideas in the area of networking that aims at simplifying the network management in dramatic way. It involves a series of research that that leads to innovations in the area of application software and operating systems used in networking together with the connected hardware. This takes place with the help of programming that is employed by experts in the software development and network hardware interfacing.
The whole process results in new software design that incorporate the latest technology such as network defined virtualization with applications created as cloud applications to permit user access irrespective of their geographical location or network device used. The eventual effect is the change in what the network does, improvement in both hardware and software used, better prospect outcomes and different procedures of ensuring how the technology changes in terms of design principles.

Works cited

Alaettinoglu, Cengiz. "Software Defined Networking." (2013).
Goth, Greg. "Software-defined networking could shake up more than packets." Internet Computing, IEEE 15.4 (2011): 6-9.
Hong, Sungmin, et al. "Poisoning Network Visibility in Software-Defined Networks: New Attacks and Countermeasures." NDSS, 2015.
Kim, Hyojoon, and Nick Feamster. "Improving network management with software defined networking." Communications Magazine, IEEE 51.2 (2013): 114-119.
Nunes, B., et al. "A survey of software-defined networking: Past, present, and future of programmable networks." (2014): 1-18.
Shin, Seungwon, et al. "FRESCO: Modular Composable Security Services for Software-Defined Networks." NDSS. 2013.
Yeganeh, Soheil Hassas, Amin Tootoonchian, and Yashar Ganjali. "On scalability of software-defined networking." Communications Magazine, IEEE 51.2 (2013): 136-141