P.S.R.

RENGASAMY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, SIVAKASI - 626 140

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Subject Name: ccs365/Software Defined Networks
Year/Sem: V / III

1.What is the difference between SDN and OpenFlow?

SDN enables separation of control and data plane, which means switches can use all their
hardware resources in just forwarding data instead of computing routes. OpenFlow provides
an easy way of communication between controller and switch, easily implemented in an
existing network.
2. How does control plane and data plane communicate in SDN?
SDN architecture separates the control and data planes of the network stack. The OpenFlow
protocol is an open source way to have the different planes of a network communication.
SDN controllers communicate with applications via the northbound API and with the
network infrastructure via southbound APIs.
3. What is the plane separation in SDN?
In SDN, the data plane and control plane are separated. The functionality of a devices' data
plane is dependent on instructions coming from the centralized controller's control plane.
4. How does the SDN work?
In SDN (like anything virtualized), the software is decoupled from the hardware. SDN
moves the control plane that determines where to send traffic to software, and leaves the data
plane that actually forwards the traffic in the hardware.
5. Difference between control plane and data plane
S.No. CONTROL PLANE DATA PLANE

Control plane refers to the all Data plane refers to all the functions
functions and processes that and processes that forward
1.
determine which path to use to packets/frames from one interface to
send the packet or frame. another based on control plane logic.

It is responsible for building and It is responsible for forwarding actual

2.
maintaining the IP routing table. IP packet.

Control plane responsible about Data plane responsible for moving

3.
how packets should be forwarded. packets from source to destination.

Control plane performs its task Data plane performs its task depending
4.
independently. on Control plane.

In general we can say in control In general we can say in data plane the
5. plane it is learned what and how it actual task is performed based on what
can be done. is learned.
 Control plane packets are The forwarding plane/data plane
6. processed by router to update the forwards the packets based on the built
routing table. logic of control plane.

Control plane packets are locally Data plane packets go through the
7.
originated by the router itself. router.

Control plane acts as a decision Data plane acts as a decision

8
maker in data forwarding. implementer in data forwarding.

Routing is performed in the control Switching is performed in the data

9.
plane. plane.

6. Which plane is centralized by an SDN controller?

The SDN control plane is centralized while the data plane is distributed. The centralized
nature of the control plane makes the network flexible and enhances flow forward
decisionmaking. The SDN controller resides in the control plane of an SDN architecture that
can be programmed externally.
7. What is an SDN controller?
A software-defined networking controller is an application in SDN architecture that manages
flow control for improved network management and application performance. The SDN
controller platform typically runs on a server and uses protocols to tell switches where to
send packets.
8. Benefits or advantages of SDN
Following are the benefits or advantages of SDN:
➨It enables centralized management of networking devices.
➨It helps in automation of networking devices.
➨It provides improvements to end users.
➨It offers flexibility, scalability and efficiency compare to traditional networking.
➨It is widely used by social networking websites (facebook, twitter, google plus etc.) and
large database search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask etc.)
9. Drawbacks or disadvantages of SDN
Following are the disadvantages of SDN:
➨It requires change in entire network infrastructure to implement SDN protocol and SDN
controller. Hence it requires complete reconfiguration of the network. This increases cost due
to reconfiguration.
➨Staff need to be trained.
➨New management tools need to be procured and everyone should be trained to use it.
➨Security is a big challenge in SDN.
➨Single point of failure.

10. What is an example of SDN?

What are Examples of Software-Defined Networking (SDN)? Examples of how software-
defined networking (SDN) is used in practice are network virtualization, SD-WAN
(software-defined wide area network), switching fabrics, traffic engineering, and access
networks.
11. What is ryu controller in SDN?
It is one of the SDN controller specially designed for the agility of the network and for
managing the higher traffic rate. Ryu includes well-defined software components along
with API. Ryu makes the developers develop a new application and manage various other
networking devices. Ryu controller is written in Python.
12.Open Day Light(ODL) controller ?
ODL is one of the most versatile and largest open-source controllers. It is helpful for
automating larger area networks and it is scalable. ODL is written in Java. Compared to all
other SDN Controllers, this controller is the best out of all and it is well-known for its
security.
13.What is distributed controller in SDN?
Network domains. In a distributed SDN controller, a single SDN controller controls a chunk
of the wide-area network called domain. We define a domain of an SDN controller to be the
set of all switches directly connected to the same controller and all hosts attached to this
switch.
14.Open flow Flow table
An OpenFlow switch matches packets with one or more flow tables. A flow table
contains flow entries, and packets are matched based on the matching precedence of flow
entries. OpenFlow flow tables include the following types: MAC-IP—Combines the MAC
address table and FIB table.
15.What is group table in SDN?
The group table contains group entries; each group entry contains a list of action buckets
with specific semantics dependent on group type. The actions in one or more action buckets
are applied to packets sent to the group.
16. What is the difference between flow table and forwarding table?
Forwarding tables are sometimes called flow tables in the OpenFlow standard. These are
tables that define how a frame will be forwarded out of a given switch or router in the
network.
17. What is OpenFlow switch and how does it work?
An OpenFlow switch separates the data path from the control path. The data path portion
resides on the switch itself; a separate controller makes high-level routing decisions. The
switch and controller communicate by means of the OpenFlow protocol.
18.Southbound and North bound interface:
software-defined networking, the southbound interface is the OpenFlow protocol
specification, which allows communication between the SDN controller and the network
nodes.
The northbound interface is protocol-supported communication between the controller and
applications or higher-layer control programs.
19. What is the function of northbound API?
Northbound APIs are the link between the applications and the SDN controller. The
applications can tell the network what they need (data, storage, bandwidth, and so on) and
 the network can deliver those resources, or communicate what it has. These APIs support a
wide variety of applications.
20. What is a function of a southbound API?
Southbound APIs facilitate control over the network and enable the SDN Controller to
dynamically make changes according to real-time demands and needs. OpenFlow, which was
developed by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), is the first and probably most well-
known southbound interface.
21. What is OpenFlow as an SDN protocol?
OpenFlow is the standard southbound protocol used between the SDN controller and the
switch. The SDN controller takes the information from the applications and converts them
into flow entries, which are fed to the switch via OF. It can also be used for monitoring
switch and port statistics in network management.
22. What protocols does SDN use?
OpenFlow is the protocol that allows the SDN controllers to communicate with the
forwarding plane of network devices. It is considered one of the first software-defined
networking (SDN) standards.
23.what are the three types of OpenFlow ports?
OpenFlow supports the following types of ports:
 Physical port—Corresponds to a hardware interface, such as an Ethernet interface. ...
 Logical port—Does not correspond to a hardware interface and might be defined by non-
OpenFlow methods. ...
 Reserved port—Defined by OpenFlow to specify forwarding actions.