Evaluating SDN and SDN-based Multicast for Network Intensive Services in UNINETT

Abstract

The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate and evaluate how Software-Defined Networking (SDN) techniques can help provision a flexible network service in support of videoconferencing applications using multicasting and network service chaining. Specifically, we show how OpenFlow and the Ryu controller can be used to implement multicasting at network level and route part of the traffic through a middlebox that converts high-quality streams into low quality ones, in order to accommodate users with limited access bandwidth. After reviewing the main theoretical foundations behind this work, a solution is designed and tested on a sample network topology emulated with Mininet. The results and experience gained from this work confirm that SDN is a promising approach to computer networking that makes service deployment and management easier and allows for better utilization of network resources.