H3C Technologies H3C Intelligent Management Center - Manual (Page 11)

1
1 VAN SDN Manager overview
Virtual Application Networking (VAN) is a network solution on virtualization, automation, and Software
Defined Network (SDN).
SDN is a new networking architecture that separates the control plane from the data plane of a network
device. SDN is mainly implemented by using the OpenFlow technology.
SDNM is an IMC service component used to manage OpenFlow-based SDN.
OpenFlow
OpenFlow keeps the flow-based forwarding function. A non-OpenFlow switch matches five or seven
tuples only, while an OpenFlow switch can match more tuples, including VLAN tag, MPLS tag, PBB tag,
and so on. To improve network resource usage, use the controller to create multiple OpenFlow instances
on a single OpenFlow switch. Each instance is operating as an independent virtual OpenFlow device. By
creating and deploying flow entries to one or more virtual OpenFlow devices, the controller directly
controls the packet forwarding to set up different forwarding paths for different network users.
The OpenFlow specification defines contents of the OpenFlow technology, including:
• OpenFlow switch components.
• OpenFlow ports.
• OpenFlow tables.
• OpenFlow channel.
• OpenFlow protocol.
The OpenFlow specification includes multiple versions and SDNM uses OpenFlow 1.3.1.
OpenFlow network
OpenFlow switch
An OpenFlow switch is a physical switch or a virtual switch (vSwitch) that supports the OpenFlow
protocol.
OpenFlow switches include the following types:
• OpenFlow-only—Supports only OpenFlow operation.
• OpenFlow-hybrid—Supports both OpenFlow operation and Ethernet switching operations.
Controller
A controller is typically a dedicated Linux server on which controller applications are deployed. The
controller controls various resources in the OpenFlow network and provides APIs for applications to
control packets forwarding.