Software-Defined Networking for Big-Data Science - Architectural Models from Campus to the WAN

Abstract

University campuses, Supercomputer centers and R&E networks are challenged to architect, build and support IT infrastructure to deal effectively with the data deluge facing most science disciplines. Hybrid network architecture, multi-domain bandwidth reservations, performance monitoring and GLIF Open Lightpath Exchanges (GOLE) are examples of network architectures that have been proposed, championed and implemented successfully to meet the needs of science. Most recently, Science DMZ, a campus design pattern that bypasses traditional performance hotspots in typical campus network implementation, has been gaining momentum. In this paper and corresponding demonstration, we build upon the SC11 SCinet Research Sandbox demonstrator with Software-Defined networking to explore new architectural approaches. A virtual switch network abstraction is explored, that when combined with software-defined networking concepts provides the science users a simple, adaptable network framework to meet their upcoming application requirements.