Created: Jun 21, 2012
Blueprint: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/quantum/+spec/quantum-nec-openflow-plugin

Quantum NEC OpenFlow Plugin

Abstract

NEC OpenFlow plugin talks to OpenFlow Controller and each Quantum network would be mapped to an virtual layer-2 network slice on an OpenFlow enabled network. The interface between the Quantum plugin and OpenFlow Controller is RESTful API. This API is supported by two implementations:Tream Sliceable Switch (OSS) and NEC ProgrammableFlow Controller (NEC Commercial Product).

This plugin consists of two components: "Plugin" and "Agent".

Plugin: It processes Quantum API calls and controls OpenFlow controller to handle logical networks on OpenFlow enabled network.
agent: It runs on each compute node. It gathers a mapping beween a VIF and a switch port from local Open vSwitch and reports it to the plugin.

Requirements

OpenFlow Controller: Trema with Sliceable Switch (distributed under Apache License version 2.0), or an OpenFlow Controller that has the same functionalities and REST API available at https://github.com/trema/apps/wiki/Sliceable-Network-Management-API .

Design

[[Media:quantum-nec-openflow-plugin-design.png|alt|Quantum NEC OpenFlow] Plugin Design| width=800}}

Communication between plugin and agent

This plugin uses "common-rpc" in openstack-common for the agents to communicate with the plugin and will conform to the convention for scalable-agent-comms. The current implemetation of the plugin supports Essex and is available at https://github.com/nec-openstack/quantum-openflow-plugin . The topic name for RPC will be set to "quantum.plugin" as proposed in the blueprint scalable-agent-comms.

Integration with Nova

There are no need for additional features in Nova. This implemetation utilizes a current libvirt VIF driver and linux-net interface driver.

How to run this plugin

Devstack for this plugin is available at https://github.com/nec-openstack/devstack-quantum-nec-openflow .

This installs Tream Sliceable Switch (OSS OpenFlow Controller) and run devstack for this plugin.

Configuration

quantum.conf

# Quantum plugin provider module
core_plugin = quantum.plugins.nec.nec_plugin.NECPluginV2
# Path to the extensions.
# It must be abosolute path (or relative path from the directory where quantum-server is invoked)
api_extensions_path = /opt/stack/quantum/quantum/plugins/nec/extensions/

Plugin specific configurations /etc/quantum/plugins/nec/nec.ini

Section "[OFC]" is particular configurations to NEC OpenFlow plugin.

[OFC]
# OpenFlow Controller Host and Port to connect.
host = 127.0.0.1
port = 8888
# Drivers are in quantum/plugins/nec/drivers/ .
driver = trema
# PacketFilter is available when it's enabled in this configuration
# and supported by the driver.
enable_packet_filter = true

quantum agent configuration : needs to use OVSVethInterfaceDriver to use DHCP agent (dhcp_agent.ini), L3 agent (l3_agent.init).

It is a derivative of OVSInterfaceDriver that use veth netdev. It will be integrated into OVSInterfaceDriver.

interface_driver = quantum.agent.linux.interface.OVSVethInterfaceDriver

nova.conf : same as OVS plugin

NOVA_VIF_DRIVER="nova.virt.libvirt.vif.LibvirtOpenVswitchDriver"

References

Essex version of Quantum NEC OpenFlow plugin is available at https://github.com/nec-openstack/quantum-openflow-plugin . Note that the implemetation of Essex version uses a dedicated VIF driver to gather a mapping beween a VIF and a switch port from local Open vSwitch. The proposed version of this plugin uses the agent for this purpose.

(Contact: Ryota Mibu, Akihiro Motoki, NEC)

Neutron/NEC OpenFlow Plugin