Book Image

Building Modern Networks

By : Steven Noble
Book Image

Building Modern Networks

By: Steven Noble

Overview of this book

<p>As IT infrastructures become more software-defined, networking operations tend to be more automated with falling levels of manual configuration at the hardware level. Building Modern Networks will brush up your knowledge on the modern networking concepts and help you apply them to your software-defined infrastructure.</p> <p>In this book you'll gain the knowledge necessary to evaluate, choose, and deploy a next generation network design. We will cover open and closed network operating systems (NOS) along with the protocols used to control them such as OpenFlow, Thrift, Opflex, and REST. You will also learn about traffic engineering and security concepts for NGNs. You will also find out how to fine-tune your network using QoS and QoE.</p> <p>By the end of the book, you'll be well versed in simplifying the way you design, build, operate, and troubleshoot your network.</p>
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
2
Networking Hardware and Software
4
Using REST and Thrift APIs to Manage Switches
9
Where to Start When Building a Next Generation Network

How an OpenFlow controller and agent work together


Without an OpenFlow controller, an OpenFlow-capable switch has no intelligence when it comes to forwarding traffic. Whether the controller runs locally on the switch, or on a server in the network, the controller is central to how OpenFlow works. Here, we will look at two simple examples: Floodlight and Indigo.

Floodlight

Floodlight is an open source OpenFlow controller that was initially released by Big Switch in 2011. It is a Java-based OpenFlow controller based on the Beacon OpenFlow controller written by David Erikson originally at Stanford and then further enhanced while he was working for Big Switch Networks.

Floodlight utilizes a RESTful API, which can be controlled via curl, Postman, or any other REST compliant tool.

Indigo

Indigo is an open source OpenFlow agent that runs on open networking switches. Indigo is the basis for Big Switch Networks, Switch Light, which is a combination of ONL and a commercial version of Indigo. Indigo is...