Software-defined networking agent for integrating voice, data, and video services into XGS-PON architectures

Abstract

Software-defined networking (SDN) provides an efficient framework for managing passive optical networks (PONs) with equipment from different manufacturers, technologies, and standards. Thus, we recently proposed a robust and flexible SDN-OpenFlow agent to configure and manage 10 gigabit symmetric passive optical networks (XGS-PONs) to support Internet (data) services. That SDN agent communicates with the SDN controller via the OpenFlow protocol and with the optical line terminal (OLT) of the PON via the manufacturer’s chipset-specific API (application programming interface). In this paper, we significantly extend that SDN agent by incorporating the capability to support two essential services for network operators and Internet service providers, specifically voice over IP (VoIP) and video services. The required extensions and configuration procedures on the different layers that compose the SDN agent are described, and an experimental validation of the extended SDN agent in an XGS-PON is conducted, demonstrating its effectiveness in the integration of those two services. The source code of the SDN agent has been made open and available on GitHub.