Using software-defined networking to improve campus, transport and future internet architectures

Software-defined Networking (SDN) promises to redefine the future of networking. Indeed, SDN-based networks have unique capabilities such as centralized control, flow abstraction, dynamic updating of forwarding rules and software-based traffic analysis. SDN-based networks decouple the data plane from the control plane, migrating the latter to a software controller. By adding a software layer between network devices and applications, features such as network virtualization and automated management are simpler to achieve. In this dissertation, we show how SDN-based deployments simplify network management at multiple scales such as campus and transport networks, as well as future Internet architectures. First, we propose OpenSec, an SDN-based security framework that allows network operators to implement security policies in campus networks. Second, we propose the eXtensible Traffic Engineering Framework (XTEF) to enable application-driven traffic engineering and provision transport network resources using on-demand Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) tunnels. Third, we demonstrate how SDN can be used to dynamically create intra-domain cut-through switching tunnels to bypass the routing layer in MobilityFirst. Finally, we propose how to extend the cut-through capabilities to inter-domain routing in MobilityFirst. In our work, we run experiments on the GENI testbed (Global Environment for Network Innovations), the ORBIT (Open-Access Research Testbed for Next-Generation Wireless Networks) and Mininet. The results show that SDN can be used to simplify policy-based network management, virtualize an entire WAN as a single switch, create Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) tunnels on demand and create inter-domain tunnels using techniques that scale better than traditional distributed methods