Analysis of Characteristics and Application of Software Defined Networks

Računalne mreže su se razvile zbog novih trendova i zahtjeva korisnika za što bržom uspostavom i isporukom usluga. Nefleksibilnost arhitekture računalnih mreža predstavlja izazov razvijateljima jer se njihovi eksperimenti ne mogu ocijeniti u stvarnim mrežama. Softverski definirana mreža (SDN) i OpenFlow arhitektura omogućuju način implementacije programabilnih mrežnih arhitektura koje se mogu implementirati postepeno u već postojeću mrežu. Kontrola mreže je na vanjskom uređaju u obliku software-a odvojena od prosljeđivanja paketa i ima mogućnost direktnog programiranja. SDN omogućuje dinamičku prilagodbu mrežnog okruženja trenutnim aplikativnim zahtjevima ili potrebama korisnika te znatno pojednostavljuje upravljanje i povećava skalabilnost mreže. U ovom radu su analizirane funkcionalnosti i karakteristike softverski definiranih mreža i na temelju usporedbe s konvencionalnom mrežom utvrđene su bitne razlike, prednosti i nedostaci te koliko SDN utječe na samo poslovanje jedne organizacije (tvrtke).The new trends and users' demands for fastest setting up and delivering of new services are the main reasons for computer networks being developed. The inflexibility in architecture of computer networks represents a challenge for developers due to the fact that their experiments can not be verified in real networks. Software Defined Networks (SDN) and the OpenFlow architecture allow implementation of programmable networks' architectures, which can be gradually deployed in already existing networks. The network control is on an external device as a kind of software program (Controller). It is separated from the packet forwarding (Switch), having the possibility of being directly programmed. SDN enables dynamic adaptation of networks' environments to the current applications' requests or users' demands, making the network control easier and at the same time increasing its scalability. In this thesis, the functionality and characteristics of software defined networks have been analysed and due to the comparison with conventional networks, the main differences, advantages and drawbacks have been determined as well as the answer to the question: How much software defined networks can influence the core business of an organisation