Title:  Validation of Scalable Software-defined Network Simulations using Simulation-based Routing Applications

Committee: 

Dr. Riley, Advisor        

Dr. Owen, Chair

Dr. Wardi

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to develop new Software-Defined Networking (SDN)-based routing applications based on simulation-based network routing and use these applications to design validated SDN component models based on their real-world network performance. Similarly to simulation, SDN provides an environment where an entire topology is controlled collectively. As such, the mechanisms that are used to manage routing decisions in simulation can be leveraged for use in SDN. Applications using controller libraries such as Ryu can be used to discover information regarding the underlying controlled topology, calculate routes through the network, and install forwarding information on OpenFlow-enabled switches. Most simulators and emulators that support SDN do not have validated controller and switch models, and of the few that do, validation is primarily confined to the behavior of a single switch or a similarly low scale topology. This work aims to provide representative performance profiles that can introduce appropriate latencies and other behaviors into an SDN simulation framework. Network metrics gathered from the simulation framework, such as latency, throughput, round trip time, flow lookup time, and controller processing time, will be evaluated with the goal of achieving statistically similar results to the hardware model that the framework represents. Hardware testbed resources will be configured and evaluated using the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) infrastructure.