Project: SDN

Overview:

The goal of this project is to build a simulation environment for experimenting with software-defined networks (SDN). The environment includes (i) a Mininet Virtual Machine, for simulating a network with switches and hosts; and (ii) a FloodLight controller, running on the host machine.

This document may be updated as needed to update version numbers and other important information. Please report any changes needed.

Environment Setup

The best way to guarantee full credit for the project is to do project development using a Ubuntu 16.04-based virtual machine.

You can easily create an image in your favourite virtualization engine (VirtualBox, VMware) using the Vagrant platform and steps outlined below.

Set Up Vagrant and Create VM Instance

Note that all example commands are executed on the host machine (your laptop), e.g., in Terminal.app (or iTerm2.app) on macOS, cmd in Windows, and console or xterm on Linux. After the last step (vagrant ssh) you will get inside the virtual machine and can compile your code there.

  • Download and install your favourite virtualization engine, e.g., VirtualBox

  • Download and install Vagrant tools for your platform

  • Set up project and VM instance

    • Clone project template

      git clone https://github.com/aa-fiu-classes/fall17-tcn-6430-project ~/project
cd ~/project

    • Initialize VM

      vagrant up

      Do not start VM instance manually from VirtualBox GUI, otherwise you may have various problems (connection error, connection timeout, missing packages, etc.)

    • To establish an SSH session to the created VM, run

      vagrant ssh

    If you are using Putty on Windows platform, vagrant ssh will return information regarding the IP address and the port to connect to your virtual machine.

  • Work on your project

    All files in ~/project folder on the host machine will be automatically synchronized with /vagrant folder on the virtual machine. For example, to compile your code, you can run the following commands:

      vagrant ssh
  cd /vagrant
  make

Notes

  • If you want to open another SSH session, just open another terminal and run vagrant ssh (or create a new Putty session).

  • If you are using Windows, read this article to help yourself set up the environment.

Detailed instructions for setting up the experiment environment:

  1. Login to the virtualized environment (vagrant ssh)

    • Download and unpack OpenDaylight controller Carbon SR1 release

        wget https://nexus.opendaylight.org/content/repositories/public/org/opendaylight/integration/distribution-karaf/0.6.1-Carbon/distribution-karaf-0.6.1-Carbon.tar.gz
  mkdir opendaylight
  tar -x -C opendaylight --strip-components 1 -zf distribution-karaf-0.6.1-Carbon.tar.gz

    • Start the controller (the process will take a couple of minutes first time):

        cd opendaylight
  ./bin/karaf

      After everything started, you should see

        vagrant@vagrant:~$ cd opendaylight
  vagrant@vagrant:~/opendaylight$ ./bin/karaf
        
  Apache Karaf starting up. Press Enter to open the shell now...
   52% [=====================================>                                  ]
      ________                       ________                .__  .__       .__     __
      \_____  \ ______   ____   ____ \______ \ _____  ___.__.|  | |__| ____ |  |___/  |_
       /   |   \\____ \_/ __ \ /    \ |    |  \\__  \<   |  ||  | |  |/ ___\|  |  \   __\
      /    |    \  |_> >  ___/|   |  \|    `   \/ __ \\___  ||  |_|  / /_/  >   Y  \  |
      \_______  /   __/ \___  >___|  /_______  (____  / ____||____/__\___  /|___|  /__|
              \/|__|        \/     \/        \/     \/\/            /_____/      \/
        
        
  Hit '<tab>' for a list of available commands
  and '[cmd] --help' for help on a specific command.
  Hit '<ctrl-d>' or type 'system:shutdown' or 'logout' to shutdown OpenDaylight.
        
  opendaylight-user@root>

    • Install OpenDaylight features in the prompt (it may take a while):

        feature:install odl-dlux-core odl-dluxapps-applications odl-mdsal-apidocs odl-l2switch-switch-ui odl-openflowplugin-flow-services odl-openflowplugin-flow-services-rest odl-openflowplugin-flow-services-ui

  2. Login to the virtualized environment (vagrant ssh in a separate window or use screen/tmux)

    2.1. Start Mininet and connect to the controller

     sudo mn --topo single,3 --mac --switch ovsk --controller remote,ip=127.0.0.1,port=6653

    This will create a simple three node connected via an OpenFlow switch in Mininet. The switch will also connect to the OpenDaylight controller running on the virtual machine..

    To learn more about the command line arguments, simply do sudo mn –h

  3. Explore OpenDaylight web GUI and Mininet

    To see a live view of the network, go to http://localhost:8181/index.html#/topology (login credentials are admin/admin)

    Until you start any network activity in the Mininet, you will see just switch. After you start pinging hosts inside Mininet, the hosts will appear and you will be able to see per-port statistics.

  4. Explore flow table that is populated by the SDN controller. Use sudo ovs-ofctl dump-flows s1 and sudo ovs-ofctl dump-flows s2 commands at different stages.

Exercise

  1. Create the following topology in Mininet: (Note: s1 and s2 are switches, h1, h2, h3, and h4 are hosts. The bandwidth of each link is also given and must be implemented. ). Include output of dump, nodes, links commands in your report.

    project-topology.png

    You will need to create a simple python file to do this (or generate using Mininet topology editor). You will also need to include the bw=X setting when adding links in the script, where X is a number such as 20, 15, 10 or 5. Finally, when starting Mininet using the sudo mn ... command, you will need to add --link=tc to enforce the bandwidth setting in the resulting network. tc stands for traffic control.

  2. Connect the above Mininet topology to SDN Controller. Test the connectivity among the hosts, using the pingall command. Include screenshot of the output.

  3. Immediately After finishing the pingall test, take a screenshot of the network topology as displayed by OpenDaylight

  4. Now use iperf to confirm the bandwidth between h1 and h4, between h2 and h3, between h1 and h2, and between h3 and h4. Include the screenshots of all the iperf output.

  5. Report and interpet content of flow tables in switches s1 and s2:

  • just after starting Mininet
  • after running h1 ping h4
  • after running pingall

Submission Guide:

Please submit to gradescope a report in PDF format that includes the following descriptions:

  • your experience setting up Linux environment
  • installing and working with Mininet, working with Mininet
  • working with SDN controller

Make sure you list encountered problems and how you (tried to) resolved them.

Your description must include screenshots at different stages of your experimentation. Make sure the resolution is high enough so that the screenshots can be easily read!

Plagiarism will be reported to the university for academic dishonesty.