Exploration Of OpenFlow Technology Based On TCAM

With the rapid development of network technology, current network architecture can’t support the improvement of network, especially the innovation and flexibility. The network administrator can hardly implement new network protocol and change previous packet forwarding strategy. And all these issues above lead to a new kind of network architecture, the software-defined network (SDN), which separates the forwarding strategy from the hardware. The OpenFlow protocol is one of best SDN architecture. However, there are very few router and switch which support OpenFlow protocol, and the OpenFlow protocol can’t support some network method well, such as Quality of Service (QoS).In this thesis, we explore and analysis the key technologies of OpenFlow router, and extend the OpenFlow protocol to support QoS. Then an OpenFlow router is designed and implemented. The main work of this thesis is shown as follows:(1) Explore and analysis the key methods of OpenFlow. Find the packet process system architecture which adaptes the OpenFlow network system. Explore the fast entry matching method based on TCAM. Then a new method to shorter the length of match entry for TCAM is proposed based on MPLS.(2) Explore and find the defects of OpenFlow protocol in supporting QoS. Analysis the current method which sovle this issue. Then a new method through extending the OpenFlow protocol to support QoS is proposed.(3) An OpenFlow router is designed and implemented, including the hardware and software structure. And TCAM module is designed to support fast entry matching in the OpenFlow Router.(4) Test and verify the key method of OpenFlow with the OpenFlow router, including the test of basic OpenFlow router platform forwarding performance, the verification of TCAM entry length solution based on MPLS and the verification of Extended OpenFlow protocol to support QoS.This thesis makes a lot of efforts on the exploration of OpenFlow key methods and achieves the design and implementation of the OpenFlow router. The works in this thesis further promote the OpenFlow protocol from theory to practical application.