Book Image

OpenFlow Cookbook

Book Image

OpenFlow Cookbook

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (17 chapters)
16
Index

Introduction

The OpenFlow channel is used to exchange OpenFlow messages between an OpenFlow switch and an OpenFlow controller. An OpenFlow controller must be able to accept connections from one or more switches over TCP/IP connectivity and manage these connections as OpenFlow channels. An OpenFlow controller typically runs in a remote node and manages a switch over a network. This network may be a separate network dedicated to controller-switch communication, or may use the existing network managed by the OpenFlow switch (in-band controller connection). If a switch is connected to multiple controllers, then one of the controllers will act as master and all the other controllers will act either as slave or equal. This chapter describes the steps and mechanisms involved in establishing an OpenFlow channel from controller to switch along with the handling of different messages related to the OpenFlow channels and controller roles.