OpenFlow deployment and concept analysis

Abstract

Terms such as SDN and OpenFlow (OF) are often used in the research and development of data networks. This paper deals with the analysis of the current state of OpenFlow protocol deployment options as it is the only real representative protocol that enables the implementation of Software Defined Networking outside an academic world. There is introduced an insight into the current state of the OpenFlow specification development at various levels is introduced. The possible limitations associated with this concept in conjunction with the latest version (1.3) of the specification published by ONF are also presented. In the conclusion there presented a demonstrative security application addressing the lack of IPv6 support in real network devices since most of today's switches and controllers support only OF v1.0.