EEL 5937 Special Topics: Software-Defined Networking

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Central Florida, Fall 2018

Contact Information - Course Information - Description - Prerequisites - Textbooks - Syllabus - Organization - Grading - Schedule, Notes & Assignments - Acknowledgment

Contact Information

Instructor: Murat Yuksel

E-mail: murat.yuksel@ucf.edu

Phone: (407) 823-4181

Web page: www.ece.ucf.edu/~yuksem

Office: HEC 317A

Office hours: 10-11:30am on Tuesday and Thursday, or by appointment

Course Information

Class Hour & Schedule	Registration Information
· Credit Hours: 3 · Lecture Hours: TR noon – 1:15pm · Classroom: ENG1 386A	· Subject: EEL · Course Number: 5937 · Course ID: 002994 · Class Number: 91941

Objective

The Internet’s routing and switching speeds have been on super-linear increase to cope with the exponentially growing traffic demand. As the load on the Internet’s backbone increased, it has employed more sophisticated solutions which, in turn, caused associated labor and management costs to increase. To respond to the increasing complexity in the core, the networking community has moved to techniques with cheaper management costs via more virtualization and centralization of the protocol functions. This trend came with separation of control and data plane networking functions, a paradigm named as ‘software-defined networking’ (SDN). This course covers fundamentals of SDN, its basic design tradeoffs, potential applications, and relations with network function virtualization (NFV). It explores emerging applications of SDN in network management, traffic engineering, and software-defined exchanges (SDXes). The course offers hands-on exercises of SDN protocols such as OpenFlow and ONOS.

Description

Fundamentals of software-defined networking (SDN). Control, data, and management plane separation. Northbound and southbound APIs. Network function virtualization (NFV), network orchestration, service chaining. SDN and NFV protocols and controllers such as OpenFlow, OpenDaylight, and Open Network Operating System (ONOS).

Prerequisites

Required:

· EEL 4781 Computer Communication Networks or equivalent, or consent of instructor.

· Strong knowledge of Python, Java, C/C++ or a similar programming language.

Desired:

· Working knowledge of UNIX environments, scripting languages, and virtual machines.

Textbooks

There is no required textbook for this course. Since this is an advanced level class, the textbook is only the starting point for the majority of topics that we will cover. The lectures will cover ideas from a broad range of sources including other books, papers, and RFCs. In addition, the following books are recommended but not required:

· [GBC] P. Goransson, C. Black, and T. Culver. (2017) Software Defined Networks: A Comprehensive Approach, 2^nd Edition. Morgan Kaufmann. (ISBN: 978-0-12-804555-8)

· [GN] K. Gray and T. D. Nadeau. (2016) Network Function Virtualization. Morgan Kaufmann. (ISBN: 978-0-12-802119-4)

Syllabus (Tentative)

1. Networking Basics
• Switching
• Addressing
• Routing

2. Switching Architecture
• Data, Control, and Management Planes
• Hardware Lookup
• Forwarding Rules
• Dynamic Forwarding Tables
• Autonomous Switches and Routers

3. SDN Architecture
• Plane Separation
• Simple Device and Centralized Control
• Network Automation and Virtualization
• Openness
• SDN Controllers: OpenDaylight and ONOS
• SDN Applications
• Northbound and Southbound APIs

4. OpenFlow
• Switch-Controller Interaction
• Flow Table
• Packet Matching
• Actions and Packet Forwarding
• Extensions and Limitations

5. Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
• SDN vs. NFV
• OPNFV
• Inline Network Functions
• Service Creation and Chaining
• NFV Orchestration

6. Emerging SDN Models
• Protocol Models: NETCONF, BGP, MPLS
• Controller Models
• Application Models: Proactive, Declarative, External
• SDN in Datacenters: Multitenancy, Failure Recovery
• SDN in Internet eXchange Points (IXPs)

7. SDN Ecosystem
• White-box switching
• Open Sourcing SDN
• Open Networking Foundation
• OpenDaylight
• ONOS
• OpenStack
• OpenSwitch

Organization

• Project   There will be a project to be done by each student. The project will involve development, testing, and reporting of an SDN application. Ideally, graduate students should pick an SDN application topic in their own domain of research. The project will require Mininet, GENI or similar simulation/emulation environments depending on the appropriateness to the selected application topic. The students will be expected to write a report describing the design, implementation and testing of their prototyping efforts. Finally, the students will be required to present their project to their peers in the class.
• Exercises   There will be an exercise approximately once every two weeks. The exercises will provide an opportunity for the students to gain hands-on knowledge of SDN technologies and tools.
• Homeworks   There will be homework assignments approximately once in every two weeks.
• WebCourses   Except this web page, all course materials will be posted at the WebCourses.
• Academic Integrity and Professionalism   There will be no team projects or reports in this class, therefore all assignments and exams must be prepared strictly individually. Any form of cheating such as plagiarism or ghostwriting will incur a severe penalty, usually failure in the course. You are allowed to discuss the course materials with your classmates or colleagues, but no written document, material or code can be shared with your classmates or colleagues. All work you submit must be your own scholarly and creative efforts. Please refer to the UCF policy on rules of conduct.
• Disability Statement   If you have a disability for which you will need to request accommodations, please contact the instructor or someone at the Student Accessibility Services as soon as possible.

Grading (Tentative)

Grading Policy

Project	35%
Exercises	35%
Home Quizzes	30%

Grading Scale

90% - 100%	A-, A
80% - 89%	B-, B, B+
65% - 79%	C-, C, C+
55% - 64%	D
0% - 54%	F

Important Note: Re-grading requests can only be made within the first week after the graded assignments/tests are returned to the students.

Schedule (Tentative), Notes & Assignments

This is a tentative schedule. It is subject to readjustment depending on the time we actually spend in class covering the topics. Slides presented in class and assignments will be posted at the WebCourses.

Date	Lectures	Assignments & Notes
Aug 21, 23	Week 1: Introduction; Addressing & Forwarding
Aug 28, 30	Week 2: Routing	Lab 1
Sep 4, 6	Week 3: Why SDN?	GBC Chapters 1 and 2
Sep 11, 13	Week 4: SDN Architecture	GBC Chapters 3 and 4 Lab 2
Sep 18, 20	Week 5: SDN Architecture; OpenFlow	GBC Chapters 4 and 5 Home Quiz 1
Sep 25, 27	Week 6: OpenFlow	GBC Chapter 5 Lab 3 Home Quiz 2
Oct 2, 4	Week 7: OpenFlow; Emerging SDN Models	GBC Chapters 5 and 7 Lab 4 Home Quiz 3
Oct 9, 11	Week 8: Emerging SDN Models; SDN Applications	GBC Chapter 7 and 12 Project: Title & Abstract
Oct 16, 18	Week 9: SDN Applications	GBC Chapter 12 Lab 5 Home Quiz 4
Oct 23, 25	Week 10: SDN in the Datacenter	GBC Chapter 8
Oct 30, Nov 1	Week 11: NFV	GBC Chapter 10 Lab 6
Nov 6, 8	Week 12: Emerging SDN Models	GBC Chapter 12 Home Quiz 5 Project: Literature
Nov 13, 15	Week 13: SDN Ecosystem	GBC Chapters 11 and 13 Lab 7
Nov 20	Week 14: SDN Ecosystem	GBC Chapters 14
Nov 27, 29	Week 15: Project Presentations	Project: Final Report

Acknowledgment

The materials for this course are in part based upon the materials from a number of people/sources, including:

· Official website for the Goransson, Black, & Culver text: Software Defined Networks: A Comprehensive Approach

· Official website for the Gray & Nadeau text: Network Function Virtualization

Contact Information - Course Information - Description - Prerequisites - Textbooks - Syllabus - Organization - Grading - Schedule, Notes & Assignments - Acknowledgment

Last updated on November 8, 2018