Dreamer

DREAMER focuses on introducing and exploiting Software Defined Networking SDN) capability in carrier grade IP backbones. The objective of the DREAMER proposal is to investigate how a network based on an OpenFlow/SDN control plane can provide the same functionalities of an IP/MPLS control plane, offering a carrier grade approach to resiliency and fault management.

DREAMER will consider the operational requirements coming from the GARR National Research and Education Network (NREN) to drive the design of the solutions, and will study its applicability to the GÉANT backbone network.

DREAMER will implement prototypes of the proposed solutions based on and extending available Open Source SDN controller platforms, IP routing suites and OpenFlow capable software switches. Therefore DREAMER will have an impact towards the availability of a truly open ecosystem for carrier grade backbone IP networks based on the SDN paradigm . The DREAMER proposal focuses on Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking but in a longer term perspective the developed solutions can be extended to the optical layer and to the “Transport SDN” platforms.

DREAMER has two main dimensions: scientific and experimental. The scientific dimension  has the goal of designing an innovative, resilient SDN system  able to smoothly operate in case of link and node failures, by providing resiliency to the controller element and by promptly restoring paths in the data plane, keeping consistency in the control plane.

The experimental dimension  has the goal of implementing and validating the designed modules over the GÉANT OpenFlow facility. In this respect DREAMER will implement a “Topology Deployer ” tool, which can automatically deploy an arbitrary layer 2 topology among a set of virtual machines running in the servers offered by the GÉANT testbed. This tool is re-usable by other experimenters outside DREAMER, contributing to extend the “Testbed as a Service” capability of the GÉANT OpenFlow testbed.

Date: 10/2013 - 11/2014
  • RiSING

  • GEANT Open Call