Leveraging SDN layering to systematically troubleshoot networks

Heller, Brandon; Scott, Colin; McKeown, Nick; Shenker, Scott; Wundsam, Andreas; Zeng, Hongyi; Whitlock, Sam; Jeyakumar, Vimalkumar; Handigol, Nikhil; McCauley, James; Zarifis, Kyriakos; Kazemian, Peyman

doi:10.1145/2491185.2491197

Cited by 64 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…As previously observed [4], [3], network troubleshooting is generally still in a very early stage. "Rudimentary" probing tools like ping, traceroute, tcpdump, or nmap statistics are still being used for detecting network issues, but they are insufficient for large complex infrastructures with high amounts of traffic.…”

Section: Related Worksupporting

confidence: 59%

“…Second, debugging tools are typically linked to certain protocols. Many IT administrators of traditional networks are still using ping, traceroute and tcpdump, as noticed in [2], [3], but this is not scalable for large networks with multiple protocols (e.g., IPv4 and IPv6) that can even be encapsulated one into another. Third, network troubleshooting is hard because traffic can be forwarded over different/multiple paths in the network; forwarding devices and end-user devices are heterogeneous, or can be virtualised.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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SDN-RADAR: Network troubleshooting combining user experience and SDN capabilities

Gheorghe

Avanesov

Palattella

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the 2015 1st IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft)

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Abstract-Software-defined deployments are growing into data center and enterprise network infrastructures. The typical promises of software-defined networks (SDN) are improved time for market, decreased risk and operational costs for services, flexibility and unified management. However, little is known and shared about how to actually manage an SDN network, especially in localising underperforming network paths (what we call "troubleshooting"). We describe a novel approach to ease large network troubleshooting by leveraging SDN features and incorporating distributed monitoring of network traffic. We suggest SDN-RADAR, a tool that can help network administrators understand which is the most likely faulty network link. To the best of our knowledge this is the first troubleshooting solution that combines user-side performance measurements with network data extracted from the SDN controller.

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Section: Related Worksupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SDN-RADAR: Network troubleshooting combining user experience and SDN capabilities

Gheorghe

Avanesov

Palattella

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the 2015 1st IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The purpose of the entire SDN paradigm is to translate high-level human intent to low-level network behavior via multiple logical and physical layers, and each layer performs part of this translation process [21]. The layering used in SDN is to present different levels of abstraction for the purpose of virtualization and central control.…”

Section: System Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In MPI, we adopt the commonly used 5-layer SDN reference model as shown in Fig. 4, which is essentially the same as the one proposed in [21]. The task of translation between layers is conducted by various software components [5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: System Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic belief network modeling via policy inference for SDN fault localization

Tang

Cheng

et al. 2016

J Internet Serv Appl

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Fault localization for SDN becomes one of the most critical but difficult tasks. Existing tools typically only address a specific part of the problem (e.g., control plane verification, flow checker). In this paper, we propose a new approach to tackle SDN fault localization by automatically Modeling via Policy Inference (called MPI) the causality between SDN faults and their symptoms to a belief network. In the MPI system, a service oriented high level policy language is used to specify network services provisioned between end nodes. MPI parses each service provisioning policy to a logical policy view, which consists of a pair of logical end nodes, a traffic pattern specification, and a list of required network functions (or a service function chain). An SDN controller takes the policies from multiple parties and provisions the requested services on its orchestrated SDN network. MPI queries the controller about the network topology and retrieves flow rules from all SDN switches. MPI maps the policy view to the corresponding implementation view, in which all the logical components in the policy view are mapped to the actual system components along with the actual network topology. Referring to the component causality graph templates derived from SDN reference model, the implementation view of the current running network services can be modeled as a belief network. A heuristic fault reasoning algorithm is adopted to search for the most likely root causes. MPI has been evaluated in both a simulation environment and a real network system for its accuracy and efficiency. The evaluation shows that MPI is a highly scalable, effective and flexible modeling approach to tackle fault localization challenges in a highly dynamic and agile SDN network.

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“…In our understanding these issues also bear some relationship to Fault Tolerance. Heller et al [32] discuss the overall problem space regarding troubleshooting in SDN but the authors do not propose any system or framework. Scott et al [34] also deal with this aspect and in addition propose a troubleshooting system (called STS), which aims to alleviate the timeconsuming nature of debugging by eliminating events that are not causally related to the source of a failure.…”

Section: Fault Tolerance and Survivabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience support in software-defined networking: A survey

et al. 2015

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Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an architecture for computer networking that provides a clear separation between network control functions and forwarding operations. The abstractions supported by this architecture are intended to simplify the implementation of several tasks that are critical to network operation, such as routing and network management. Computer networks have an increasingly important societal role, requiring them to be resilient to a range of challenges. Previously, research into network resilience has focused on the mitigation of several types of challenges, such as natural disasters and attacks. Capitalising on its benefits, including increased programmability and a clearer separation of concerns, significant attention has recently focused on the development of resilience mechanisms that use software-defined networking approaches. In this article, we present a survey that provides a structured overview of the resilience support that currently exists in this important area. We categorize the most recent research on this topic with respect to a number of resilience disciplines. Additionally, we discuss the lessons learned from this investigation, highlight the main challenges faced by SDNs moving forward, and outline the research trends in terms of solutions to mitigate these challenges . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 This article presents a survey on the support for network resilience in SoftwareDefined Networking (SDN). This has been the subject of intense investigation by the academic and industrial community in the past few years, as evidenced by the number of papers included in our survey (159 references in total). Capitalizing on the benefits of SDN, including increased programmability and a clearer separation of concerns, significant attention has recently focused on the development of resilience mechanisms that use software-defined networking approaches. Thus, a wide range of solutions to classical network problems have been revisited using this architecture, but many problems continue to be challenging.Our survey investigates the resilience support that currently exists in this important area, and categorizes the most recent research on this topic with respect to a number of resilience disciplines. Additionally, we discuss the lessons learned from this investigation, highlight the main challenges faced by SDNs moving forward, and outline the research trends in terms of solutions to mitigate these challenges. The aim of the survey is to offer to the reader a structured view of network resilience in the SDN spectrum, and how resilience aspects are supported in these architectures.We believe that this subject material is closely aligned with the objectives of the journal. Please be assured that:1. This paper has not been published or accepted for publication w...

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Leveraging SDN layering to systematically troubleshoot networks

Cited by 64 publications

References 12 publications

SDN-RADAR: Network troubleshooting combining user experience and SDN capabilities

SDN-RADAR: Network troubleshooting combining user experience and SDN capabilities

Automatic belief network modeling via policy inference for SDN fault localization

Resilience support in software-defined networking: A survey

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