Modular Overlay Networking Solutions with the Container Network Interface

Software-defined networking (SDN) technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring making it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.SDN is meant to address the fact that the static architecture of traditional networks is decentralized and complex while current networks require more flexibility and easy troubleshooting. SDN attempts to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets (data plane) from the routing process (control plane). The control plane consists of one or more controllers which are considered as the brain of SDN network where the whole intelligence is incorporated. However, the intelligence centralization has its own drawbacks when it comes to security, scalability and elasticity and this is the main issue of SDN.
SDN was commonly associated with the OpenFlow protocol (for remote communication with network plane elements for the purpose of determining the path of network packets across network switches) since the latter's emergence in 2011. However, since 2012. OpenFlow for many companies is no longer an exclusive solution, they added proprietary techniques. These include Cisco Systems' Open Network Environment and Nicira's network virtualization platform.
SD-WAN applies similar technology to a wide area network (WAN).
SDN architectures decouple network control and forwarding functions, enabling network control to become directly programmable and the underlying infrastructure to be abstracted from applications and network services.
The OpenFlow protocol can be used in SDN technologies. The SDN architecture is:
Directly programmable: Network control is directly programmable because it is decoupled from forwarding functions.
Agile: Abstracting control from forwarding lets administrators dynamically adjust network-wide traffic flow to meet changing needs.
Centrally managed: Network intelligence is (logically) centralized in software-based SDN controllers that maintain a global view of the network, which appears to applications and policy engines as a single, logical switch.
Programmatically configured: SDN lets network managers configure, manage, secure, and optimize network resources very quickly via dynamic, automated SDN programs, which they can write themselves because the programs do not depend on proprietary software.
Open standards-based and vendor-neutral: When implemented through open standards, SDN simplifies network design and operation because instructions are provided by SDN controllers instead of multiple, vendor-specific devices and protocols.
SDMN
Software-defined mobile networking (SDMN)is an approach to the design of mobile networks where all protocol-specific features are implemented in software, maximizing the use of generic and commodity hardware and software in both the core network and radio access network. It is proposed as an extension of SDN paradigm to incorporate mobile network specific functionalities. Since 3GPP Rel.14, a Control User Plane Separation was introduced in the Mobile Core Network architectures with the PFCP protocol.
The Linux Foundation
Published on Sep 15, 2017
Modular Overlay Networking Solutions with the Container Network Interface - Murali Paluru, Rancher Labs, Inc. The Container Network Interface (CNI) is becoming the de facto standard for implementing plugins for container runtimes, and is used by Mesos, Kubernetes, and Cloud Foundry. The same CNI standard makes it possible to implement networking as a modular component of your environment, enabling teams to swap in the best networking solution based on the infrastructure used. This talk will walk through the process of building and implementing modular networking solutions, designed to swapped out based on use case. We’ll conclude with a demo of the solutions built, and include important takeaways for determining which overlay networking solutions are best suited for certain use cases. About Murali Paluru Murali Paluru is a Principal Software Engineer at Rancher Labs. His most recent works include implementing network policy to secure communications between containers, implementation of VXLAN CNI plugin for different container orchestration engines like Rancher, Kubernetes, refactoring various networking microservices at Rancher. A couple of months back he gave two talks at the Scale 15x Conference held in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Github: github.com/leo... Twitter: / leodotcloud
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Science & Technology
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Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)