Stochastic Switching Using OpenFlow

Abstract

In this thesis, feasibility of performing stochastic switching using OpenFlow in SDN environments was investigated. In this work, stochastic switching is defined as forwarding incoming packets from ingress ports to one of possible egress ports according to the predefined output probabilities associated with each egress port. Different scenarios to perform stochastic switching using OpenFlow were examined and advantages and drawbacks of each scenario was outlined. Through the investigation, SELECT method of OpenFlow group feature was found useful to execute load sharing algorithms. Since there is not any predefined SELECT function in OpenFlow specifications, a SELECT function was defined to execute stochastic output port selection according to the predefined egress port probabilities assigned to each egress port for that specific packet or flow. The defined SELECT function was implemented in an OpenFlow 1.3 enabled virtual switch (OF13SoftSwitch) in Mininet software emulator. The results of conducted tests revealed that the defined SELECT method works properly. The results of this thesis might contribute to future research on developing stochastic routing module in OpenFlow controller in the SDN architecture.