Towards a Virtualization-based Control Language for SDN Platforms

Abstract

Software defined networking (SDN) approaches rely on control languages to programmatically express the desired network behavior. Several SDN control languages use network virtualization to abstract the complex and dynamic nature of the physical infrastructure. However, almost all these languages use the same network abstraction model, which we believe is not the most appropriate one for expressing flexible and reusable network control policies. This paper presents work in progress towards a new high-level virtualization-based control language for SDN platforms. The main novelty of this language is to integrate a network abstraction model that explicitly identifies two kinds of virtual units: i) Fabrics to abstract packet transport functions and ii) Edges to abstract richer networking functions. We believe that this approach will allow network administrators to easily express modular and reusable network control policies independently of the underlying infrastructure.