article

A clean slate 4D approach to network control and management

Authors:

Albert Greenberg,

Gisli Hjalmtysson,

David A. Maltz,

Jennifer Rexford,

Hui ZhangAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Volume 35, Issue 5

Pages 41 - 54

https://doi.org/10.1145/1096536.1096541

Published: 06 October 2005 Publication History

Abstract

Today's data networks are surprisingly fragile and difficult to manage. We argue that the root of these problems lies in the complexity of the control and management planes--the software and protocols coordinating network elements--and particularly the way the decision logic and the distributed-systems issues are inexorably intertwined. We advocate a complete refactoring of the functionality and propose three key principles--network-level objectives, network-wide views, and direct control--that we believe should underlie a new architecture. Following these principles, we identify an extreme design point that we call "4D," after the architecture's four planes: decision, dissemination, discovery, and data. The 4D architecture completely separates an AS's decision logic from pro-tocols that govern the interaction among network elements. The AS-level objectives are specified in the decision plane, and en-forced through direct configuration of the state that drives how the data plane forwards packets. In the 4D architecture, the routers and switches simply forward packets at the behest of the decision plane, and collect measurement data to aid the decision plane in controlling the network. Although 4D would involve substantial changes to today's control and management planes, the format of data packets does not need to change; this eases the deployment path for the 4D architecture, while still enabling substantial innovation in network control and management. We hope that exploring an extreme design point will help focus the attention of the research and industrial communities on this crucially important and intellectually challenging area.

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A clean slate 4D approach to network control and management
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cover image ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review Volume 35, Issue 5

October 2005

96 pages

ISSN:0146-4833

DOI:10.1145/1096536

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Copyright © 2005 Authors.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 06 October 2005

Published in SIGCOMM-CCR Volume 35, Issue 5

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