Title:  Architectural Approaches for a Science Network Software Defined Exchange

Committee: 

Dr. Owen, Advisor

Dr. Clark, Co-Advisor        

Dr. Beyah, Chair

Dr. Riley

Abstract:

The objective of this proposed research is to investigate architectural approaches for a science network software-defined exchange (SDX) which provides access control to circuit reservations, flexible reservation requests, and secure, automated provisioning over multiple domains. The proposed science network software-defined exchange may be regarded as an advanced reservation system incorporating software defined networking concepts enabling experimenters to establish and manage dedicated connections over research and education networks. The contributions of the proposed research include: (1) a framework for designing northbound interfaces that operators can use to expose services in a science network software-defined exchange; (2) a framework for designing software-defined exchange southbound protocols optimized for WAN deployments and that include concepts of consensus protocols to orchestrate the provisioning of network circuits; and (3) a basis for future studies of the management of federated auditing systems for a secure software-defined exchange.