SDN Architecture- The Basics

SDN architecture shows how open and software-based technologies are built by separating the control plane and data plane of the SDN.

Conventionally, both the control and data planes of SDN were integrated into the same architecture but then in 2008 OpenFlow created the SDN architecture in which both the control planes and data planes were separated and did communication by OpenFlow protocols.

Architecture

SDN Architecture

Source: SDX

In the SDN architecture, the control plane and data plane are separated by the performance of their functions and these separated functions are known as the “disaggregation,”. This is given this name because these planes have different sources rather than one integrated system. This architecture is more defined and more informative of the whole network.

The architecture of SDN has three groups according to functionality:

  • SDN Applications

SDN Applications constitute a layer of programs that are used for communication of resources with the SDN. This communication is done by APIs which can be used for decision-making purposes.

These applications can also be used for managing networks or business apps. For instance, uage of application in intrusion detection or security.

  • SDN Controller

The information from the application layer is passed to the logical layer of SDN controller which then further relays it to the networking components. SDN controller is engaged in extracting out the information of hardware in a network and then sends to the SDN along with all happenings and statistics.

  • SDN Networking Devices

The data processing and forwarding of data path within a network is done by SDN Networking devices.

The SDN architecture has northbound and southbound APIs, used for the communication between the systems.

A Northbound API specifies the controller and applications’ connection, while the Southbound API specifies the controller and the physical networking hardware connection.

To get more knowledge about the architecture of SDN refer to the following link

https://www.logicfinder.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/course-2.pdf