Teaching Computer

Networking with Mininet

Te-Yuan Huang, Vimalkumar Jeyakumar
Bob Lantz, Brian O'Connor
Nick Feamster
Keith Winstein, Anirudh Sivaraman

Wi-Fi: HHonors, SGC2014

Tutorial Goals
Learn how Mininet (and network emulation in
general) works, and how it can be used in
computer networking courses

Gain hands-on experience using Mininet for a

network lab exercise

Find out what we've learned from using Mininet

in on-campus courses and MOOCs
Tutorial Agenda
1. Introduction to Mininet
presentation, demos, short break

2. Hands-on Lab
presentation, lab, coffee break

3. Teaching with Mininet

presentations, discussion, done!
 Teaching Computer
Networking with Mininet
Session 1: Introduction to Mininet

Bob Lantz
Open Networking Laboratory
Introduction to Mininet
Platforms for Network/Systems Teaching
Network Emulator Architecture
Mininet: Basic Usage, CLI, API
Example Demos: Network Security
Conclusion and Questions
Experiential Learning for Networking
"Learning by doing" is memorable and leads
to mastery.

In computer systems courses, this means

building, modifying, using, and experimenting
with working systems.

Networking (and distributed systems) courses

require complicated testbeds including multiple
servers and switches.
 Platforms for Network/Systems
Teaching (and Research)
Platform Advantages Disadvantages

Hardware Testbed fast expensive

accurate: "ground truth" shared resource?
hard to reconfigure
hard to change
hard to download

Simulator inexpensive, flexible may require app changes

detailed (or abstract!) might not run OS code
easy to download detail != accuracy
virtual time (can be may not be "believable"
"faster" than reality) may be slow/non-interactive

Emulator inexpensive, flexible slower than hardware

real code experiments may not fit
reasonably accurate possible inaccuracy from
easy to download multiplexing
fast/interactive usage
Introduction to Mininet
Platforms for Network/Systems Teaching
Network Emulator Architecture
Mininet: Basic Usage, CLI, API
Example Demos: Network Security
Conclusion and Questions
To start with,
a Very Simple Network

firefox httpd

Host Switch Host

 Very Simple Network using
Full System Virtualization
firefox httpd

cupsd bash cupsd bash

init init

Linux Kernel Linux Kernel

Host VM 10.0.0.1 eth0 eth0 10.0.0.2 Host VM

tap0 tap1 ovs-vswitchd

Linux Kernel openvswitch kernel module

VM Server
 Very Simple Network using
Lightweight Virtualization
firefox httpd

10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2
Network Namespace 1 eth0 eth0 Network Namespace 2

veth1 veth2 ovs-vswitchd

Linux Kernel openvswitch kernel module

Server (or VM!)

 Mechanism: Network Namespaces
and Virtual Ethernet Pairs
firefox httpd

10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2
Network Namespace 1 eth0 eth0 Network Namespace 2

virtual Ethernet pairs

veth1 veth2

Software
Root Namespace Switch
 Creating it with Linux
sudo bash
# Create host namespaces # Configure network
ip netns add h1 ip netns exec h1 ifconfig h1-eth0 10.1
ip netns add h2 ip netns exec h1 ifconfig lo up
# Create switch ip netns exec h2 ifconfig h2-eth0 10.2
ovs-vsctl add-br s1 ip netns exec h1 ifconfig lo up
# Create links ifconfig s1-eth1 up
ip link add h1-eth0 type veth peer name s1-eth1 ifconfig s1-eth2 up
ip link add h2-eth0 type veth peer name s1-eth2 # Test network
ip link show ip netns exec h1 ping -c1 10.2
# Move host ports into namespaces
ip link set h1-eth0 netns h1
ctrl’er
ip link set h2-eth0 netns h2
ip netns exec h1 ip link show
ip netns exec h2 ip link show
# Connect switch ports to OVS
s1
ovs-vsctl add-port s1 s1-eth1
ovs-vsctl add-port s1 s1-eth2
ovs-vsctl show
# Set up OpenFlow controller h2
h1
ovs-vsctl set-controller s1 tcp:127.0.0.1
10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2
ovs-controller ptcp: &
ovs-vsctl show
Wouldn’t it be great if...
We had a simple command-line tool and/or API
that did this for us automatically?

It allowed us to easily create topologies of

varying size, up to hundreds of nodes, and run
tests on them?

It was already included in Ubuntu?

Introduction to Mininet
Platforms for Network/Systems Teaching
Network Emulator Architecture
Mininet: Basic Usage, CLI, API
Example Demos: Network Security
Conclusion and Questions
Mininet command line tool and CLI
demo
# mn
# mn --topo tree,depth=3,fanout=3 --
link=tc,bw=10
mininet> xterm h1 h2
h1# wireshark &
h2# python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80 &
h1# firefox &
# mn --topo linear,100
# mn --custom custom.py --topo mytopo
Mininet's Python API
Core of Mininet!! Everything is built on it.
Python >> JSON/XML/etc.
Easy and (hopefully) fun
Python is used for orchestration, but emulation
is performed by compiled C code (Linux +
switches + apps)
api.mininet.org
docs.mininet.org
Introduction to Mininet
Mininet API basics
net = Mininet() # net is a Mininet() object
h1 = net.addHost( 'h1' ) # h1 is a Host() object
h2 = net.addHost( 'h2' ) # h2 is a Host()
s1 = net.addSwitch( 's1' ) # s1 is a Switch() object
c0 = net.addController( 'c0' ) # c0 is a Controller()
net.addLink( h1, s1 ) # creates a Link() object
net.addLink( h2, s1 )
net.start() c0

h2.cmd( 'python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80 &' )

sleep( 2 )
s1
h1.cmd( 'curl', h2.IP() )
CLI( net )
h2.cmd('kill %python')
h1 h2
net.stop()
10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2
 Performance modeling in Mininet

# Use performance-modeling link and host classes

net = Mininet(link=TCLink, host=CPULimitedHost)
# Limit link bandwidth and add delay
net.addLink(h2, s1, bw=10, delay='50ms') controller
# Limit CPU bandwidth
net.addHost('h1', cpu=.2)
s1

10
M
bp
s,
50
m
s

h1 h2

10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2
20% of CPU
Low-level API: Nodes and Links
h1 = Host( 'h1' )
h2 = Host( 'h2' )
s1 = OVSSwitch( 's1', inNamespace=False )
c0 = Controller( 'c0', inNamespace=False )
Link( h1, s1 )
Link( h2, s1 )
h1.setIP( '10.1/8' )
h2.setIP( '10.2/8' )
c0.start()
s1.start( [ c0 ] )
print h1.cmd( 'ping -c1', h2.IP() )
s1.stop()
c0.stop()
Mid-level API: Network object
net = Mininet()
h1 = net.addHost( 'h1' )
h2 = net.addHost( 'h2' )
s1 = net.addSwitch( 's1' )
c0 = net.addController( 'c0' )
net.addLink( h1, s1 )
net.addLink( h2, s1 )
net.start()
print h1.cmd( 'ping -c1', h2.IP() )
CLI( net )
net.stop()
High-level API: Topology templates
class SingleSwitchTopo( Topo ):
"Single Switch Topology"
def build( self, count=1):
hosts = [ self.addHost( 'h%d' % i )
for i in range( 1, count + 1 ) ]
s1 = self.addSwitch( 's1' )
for h in hosts:
self.addLink( h, s1 )

net = Mininet( topo=SingleSwitchTopo( 3 ) )

net.start()
CLI( net )
net.stop()

more examples and info available at docs.mininet.org

Custom Topology Files
# cat custom.py
from mininet.topo import Topo
class SingleSwitchTopo( Topo ):
"Single Switch Topology"
def build( self, count=1):
hosts = [ self.addHost( 'h%d' % i )
for i in range( 1, count + 1 ) ]
s1 = self.addSwitch( 's1' )
for h in hosts:
self.addLink( h, s1 )
topos = { 'mytopo': SingleSwitchTopo }
# mn --custom custom.py --topo mytopo,3
*** Creating network
*** Adding controller
*** Adding hosts:
h1 h2 h3
Introduction to Mininet
Platforms for Network/Systems Teaching
Network Emulator Architecture
Mininet: Basic Usage, CLI, API
Example Demos: Network Security
Conclusion and Questions
Security Demo #1: DHCP Attack

internet

dhcp
slow link 10.0.0.50
h1
10.0.0.10 (good DHCP
Switch (500 ms delay)
(client/ server)
victim)

evil
10.0.0.66
(malicious
DHCP+DNS+
WWW server)
Security Demo #2: BGP
More Demos!
MiniEdit
Consoles.py
Cluster prototype
Introduction to Mininet
Platforms for Network/Systems Teaching
Network Emulator Architecture
Mininet: Basic Usage, CLI, API
Example Demos: Network Security
Conclusion and Questions
Conclusion and Questions
Network Emulators can facilitate teaching networking via realistic live
demos, interactive labs and course assignments
- inexpensive, interactive, real apps and OS, reasonably accurate
- downloadable, fast setup
Mininet is a lightweight virtualization/container based emulator
- modest hardware requirements, fast startup, hundreds of nodes
- command line tool, CLI, simple Python API
- SDN as well as Ethernet/IP networking as well as SD
- install using VM, Ubuntu package, or source

mininet.org: Tutorials, walkthroughs, API documentation and examples

teaching.mininet.org: Mininet-based course assignments and labs
open source: hosted on github, permissive BSD license

Next up: short break, then hands-on lab!

Tutorial Agenda
1. Introduction to Mininet
presentation, demos, short break

2. Hands-on Lab
presentation, lab, coffee break

3. Teaching with Mininet

presentations, discussion, done!
Backup/Supplementary
Slides
Mininet is a Network Emulator
In this talk, emulation (or running on an
emulator) means running unmodified code
interactively on virtual hardware on a regular
PC, providing convenience and realism at low
cost – with some limitations (e.g. speed, detail.)

This is in contrast to running on a hardware

testbed (fast, accurate, expensive/shared) or a
simulator (cheap, detailed, but perhaps slow
and requiring code modifications.)
Context: Platforms for Network
Experimentation and Development
Container-based emulators: CORE, virtual
Emulab, Trellis, Imunes, even ns-3 (in
emulation mode), Mininet
VM-based emulators: DieCast
UML-based emulators: NetKit
Simulators: ns-3, OPNET
Testbeds: Emulab, GENI, PlanetLab, ORBIT

All of these are fine, but we think Emulators are

particularly useful! Why? Because...
Apps move seamlessly to/from hardware
SDN App
SDN App

Controller Controller

App
App

Switch Switch Host

Host
# mn
> h1 ping h2

Switch

Host

Emulated Network Hardware Network

Appendix: Mininet
Subclassing for Fun and
Profit
Bob Lantz, Brian O'Connor
 Classes in Mininet

Example
class Host( Node ):
"A host is simply a Node"
pass
 What do you want to customize?
class Node( object ):
def config( self, mac=None, ip=None,
defaultRoute=None, lo='up', **_params ):

# If we were overriding this method, we would call

# the superclass config method here as follows:
# r = Parent.config( **_params )
r = {}
self.setParam( r, 'setMAC', mac=mac )
self.setParam( r, 'setIP', ip=ip )
self.setParam( r, 'setDefaultRoute', defaultRoute=defaultRoute )
self.cmd( 'ifconfig lo ' + lo )
return r
 Customizing Host()
class VLANHost( Host ):
def config( self, vlan=100, **params ):
"""Configure VLANHost according to (optional) parameters:
vlan: VLAN ID for default interface"""
r = super( Host, self ).config( **params )
intf = self.defaultIntf()
self.cmd( 'ifconfig %s inet 0' % intf ) # remove IP from default, "physical" interface
self.cmd( 'vconfig add %s %d' % ( intf, vlan ) ) # create VLAN interface
self.cmd( 'ifconfig %s.%d inet %s' % ( intf, vlan, params['ip'] ) ) # assign the host's IP to
the VLAN interface
# to maintain CLI compatibility
newName = '%s.%d' % ( intf, vlan ) # update the intf name and host's intf map
intf.name = newName # update the (Mininet) interface to refer to VLAN interface name
self.nameToIntf[ newName ] = intf # add VLAN interface to host's name to intf map
return r

hosts = { 'vlan': VLANHost }

 Using Custom Hosts
In Python:
def run( vlan ):
# vlan (type: int): VLAN ID to be used by all hosts
host = partial( VLANHost, vlan=vlan )

# Start a basic network using our VLANHost

topo = SingleSwitchTopo( k=2 )
net = Mininet( host=host, topo=topo )
net.start()
CLI( net )
net.stop()

From the CLI:

sudo mn --custom vlanhost.py --host vlan,vlan=1000
 Customizing Switch()
class LinuxBridge( Switch ):
"Linux Bridge"

prio = 0

def __init__( self, name, stp=True, **kwargs ):

self.stp = stp
Switch.__init__( self, name, **kwargs ) # BL doesn’t care about multiple inheritance

def start( self, controllers ):

self.cmd( 'ifconfig', self, 'down' )
self.cmd( 'brctl delbr', self )
self.cmd( 'brctl addbr', self )
if self.stp:
self.cmd( 'brctl setbridgeprio', self.prio )
self.cmd( 'brctl stp', self, 'on' )
LinuxBridge.prio += 1
for i in self.intfList():
if self.name in i.name:
self.cmd( 'brctl addif', self, i )
self.cmd( 'ifconfig', self, 'up' )

def stop( self ):

self.cmd( 'ifconfig', self, 'down' )
self.cmd( 'brctl delbr', self )

switches = { 'lxbr': LinuxBridge }

 Customizing Switch()
demo

openflow@ubuntu13:~$ sudo mn --custom torus3.py --switch lxbr --topo torus,3,3

mininet> sh brctl showstp s0x0

…
 Customizing Switch()
c0 = Controller( 'c0', port=6633 )
c1 = Controller( 'c1', port=6634 )
c2 = RemoteController( 'c2', ip='127.0.0.1' )

cmap = { 's1': c0, 's2': c1, 's3': c2 }

class MultiSwitch( OVSSwitch ):

"Custom Switch() subclass that connects to different controllers"
def start( self, controllers ):
return OVSSwitch.start( self, [ cmap[ self.name ] ] )

topo = TreeTopo( depth=2, fanout=2 )

net = Mininet( topo=topo, switch=MultiSwitch )
for c in [ c0, c1 ]:
net.addController(c)
net.start()
CLI( net )
net.stop()

DEMO: controllers.py
Customizing Controller()
from mininet.node import Controller
from os import environ

POXDIR = environ[ 'HOME' ] + '/pox'

class POX( Controller ):

def __init__( self, name, cdir=POXDIR,
command='python pox.py',
cargs=( 'openflow.of_01 --port=%s '
'forwarding.l2_learning' ),
**kwargs ):
Controller.__init__( self, name, cdir=cdir, command=command, cargs=cargs, **kwargs )

controllers={ 'pox': POX }

 Customizing Controller()
from mininet.node import Controller
from os import environ
from functools import partial

POXDIR = environ[ 'HOME' ] + '/pox'

POX = partial( Controller, cdir=POXDIR,

command='python pox.py',
cargs=( 'openflow.of_01 --port=%s '
'forwarding.l2_learning' ) )
controllers = { 'pox': POX }