Understanding the drivers of software-defined networking (SDN) / freescale
Today’s network is run on agility. In this context, agility is often defined as “faster everything.” Not only are the data rates of the networks increasing, but more importantly from an SDN context the network connections themselves are in constant flux. Mobile devices are moving around within a city, state, country, and continent. Connectivity moves back and forth between WiFi and broadband, yet we expect our phones, our tablets and our computers to always be connected and to always receive only the data that is meant for them. These mobile devices are connecting to enormous cloud data centers with hundreds of thousands of computers providing services. These computers communicate with each other as much or more than they do the clients as they deliver information, entertainment and communications services. With global data center traffic growing at a compound rate of 25% per year (Cisco Global Cloud Index White Paper), the ability to support rapid provisioning of new and ever more complex systems and services becomes a key requirement for networking equipment customers.
Much of this build out of data center capacity has been supported by the transition to server virtualization, which provides for higher utilization of compute resources.
Beyond servers, storage systems are also deploying virtualization technology as well to increase their utilization. While this progress was occurring with server and storage systems, it became clear that networking technology itself was restricting the speed at which new IT and communication services could be developed and deployed because it lacked proper industry standard programming interfaces or platforms upon which management software could be built.
Enter software defined networking (SDN) – an approach that enables the management of networks through a programmable network paradigm, as opposed to the traditional (and often proprietary) distributed control protocols that have been used up to now.
Freescale recognized the shift to SDN very early on and has made significant hardware and software investments to support it. Freescale is committed to providing the high-performance multicore processors and software solutions required to build SDN-based networking environments. Our product and development teams operate under the fundamental belief that SDN changes the way processors are designed, enabled, and supported and we have placed a strong emphasis on architecting our solutions to meet the needs of next-generation networks.
In this video, Tom Deitrich, senior vice president and general manager of Digital Networking, and Sam Fuller, head of system solutions, share Freescale's approach for software-defined networking.
Our strategy focuses on several core areas, all of which are designed to match the challenges network operators are facing today when considering deploying SDN solutions:
Driving SDN Optimization: SDN requires processors to deliver more than ever in terms of high performance and power — for both processing and accelerations. For example:
Data plane:
SDN defines new ways of parsing and classifying network traffic
SDN involves new encapsulations
None of the above are truly standardized, thus any processor must be flexible to support a given vendors' SDN scheme
Control plane:
SDN in most cases is likely to be implemented as an overlay on non-virtualized networks. Thus, a switch must support both SDN agent software and traditional local control-plane software.
Underlying switch ICs are unlikely to be SDN-optimized for now. Thus, the control processor must intermediate between SDN and pre-SDN worlds
At the heart of SDN is the decoupling of the control and data paths, with the provision of an API between the two such that a centralized controller can instruct the data path on how to behave. This does not preclude, however, intelligence local to the data path making forwarding decisions. Preserving local control as in the pre-SDN regime alleviates bottlenecks at the centralized controller and reduces latency. The net result is that the processors in switches now have to carry the load of both the local control functions that they previously did and the SDN agent functions. The processors on those now-intelligent switches have a lot more work to do. Freescale offers the optimized solutions for both multicore processors and software to accommodate unprecedented levels of programmability, performance and acceleration.
Defining Industry Standards: Freescale has been at the forefront of shaping the future and stability of SDN. We hold a leadership position in the Open Network Forum (ONF), and are leading the definition and standardization of the OpenFlow protocol. One of the only silicon vendors directly participating in ONF “plugfest” events, Freescale has made multiple contributions to the development of OpenFlow, including playing a strong role in the definition of the ONF northbound API interface.
Demonstrating Innovation for Next Generation Networks: Freescale has a long history of matching architectural changes to evolving network requirements, and meeting the needs of the new network is no exception. Freescale’s multicore processing technology and the industry’s first software-aware data path acceleration architecture provide a foundation for SDN-inspired innovation, including beyond L2-L3 into L4-L7 network functions. Customers can use our recently announced VortiQa SDN solutions, along with our QorIQ multicore processor platforms to develop open and innovative network systems based on the principles of SDN.
SDN is here to stay, and operators must look to take advantage of SDN capabilities in their companies to ensure future growth and industry relevance. At Freescale, we understand the engineering support required for this next era of transformation and we’re continuing to look forward in our networking product and development labs – stay tuned, there is more to come.
Tareq Bustami is Vice President and General Manager of Product Management for Digital Networking.
