SPN OS: Managing network services with virtual network objects

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of a new controller platform, called the software-programmed networking (SPN) operating system (OS). SPN OS separates distributed control of virtual network services from the centralized management of network-wide resources. The key abstraction provided in SPN OS is a virtual network object (VNO), which encapsulates multiple layers of network stack as well as their associated resource constraints and service behaviors. VNOs are created by a VNO Arbiter, which handles provisioning of global network resources, but are managed independently by tenants through an intuitive object-oriented interface. This separation provides flexibility and scalable performance. We describe the design of SPN OS and VNOs, present a prototype implementation on top of the high-level language NetKAT, and discuss use cases.