Software-Defined Network Virtualization Platform for Enterprise Network Resource Management

Applications of a software-defined network (SDN) have increased. Notably an SDN has the benefits of programmability and automation for network control. It also realizes network virtualization. Based on the OpenFlow/FlowVisor network virtualization layer, this paper proposes a dynamic resource management scheme, called the EnterpriseVisor engine that manages the distribution of network resources among slices. The EnterpriseVisor engine first slices an enterprise's network into virtual subnets, and then continues to monitor the resource utilization of each subnet. In the engine, dynamic resource scheduling of the subnet for each service uses the linear programming method. The engine then delivers the schedule as the resource allocation policy of the FlowVisor layer for data plane users. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed EnterpriseVisor engine, an OpenFlow testbed with four subnets is designed. Compared with the basic OpenFlow and OpenFlow/FlowVisor platforms, the EnterpriseVisor engine has higher network utilization, 25.7% and 13.4% higher, respectively, with only a minor sacrifice to control message latency.