Outsourcing the routing control logic: better internet routing based on SDN principles

  • Authors:
  • Vasileios Kotronis;Xenofontas Dimitropoulos;Bernhard Ager

  • Affiliations:
  • ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 11th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Inter-domain routing is based on a fully decentralized model, where multiple Autonomous Systems (AS) interact via the BGP protocol. Although BGP is the "glue" of the Internet, it faces a lot of problems regarding its fully distributed nature, policy enforcement capabilities, scalability, security and complexity. Due to the widespread adoption of BGP, only incrementally deployable solutions are feasible. Taking this observation into account, we describe a new, backwards-compatible routing model which is based on outsourcing and logically centralizing the routing control plane. We claim that outsourcing enables enhanced inter-domain routing. As multiple ASes outsource their routing control plane to the same outsourcing service contractor, AS clusters are being gradually formed. A logically centralized multi-AS routing control platform based on Software Defined Networking (SDN) principles is the natural point for taking efficient routing decisions, detecting policy conflicts, troubleshooting routing problems, and evolving BGP. We present the technical and financial incentives which support the feasibility of the model and also propose an implementation scheme to facilitate it.