Scalable Multicast Using MPLS in Software Defined Network
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/tnc.73.6561Keywords:
Software Defined Network, OpenFlow, Multicast, MPLS, ScalabilityAbstract
Multicast helps to deliver data to multiple receivers efficiently. One scalability challenge faced by multicast is the per-channel forwarding states being maintained in the network layer, which increases linearly with the number of established multicast channels. MPLS helps to alleviate this problem by removing forwarding states from non-branch routers on the multicast tree and label switch packets in non-branch routers. To reduce the number of forwarding states in branch routers, many solutions were proposed to merge multicast trees/subtrees from different channels. Software Defined Network (SDN) decouples the control plane from the data plane, which enables low cost commodity design in routers and flexible network feature deployments through software implementation in centralized controllers. Equipped with SDN’s flexible policy and packet processing action installation, multicast tree/subtree merging becomes more convenient in SDN. This paper proposes a new scalable multicast solution in SDN to further reduce the number of forwarding states in routers. In the new solution, first a 2 level MPLS label switching scheme is used to reduce the extra point to point LSPs needed when multicast trees are merged. Secondly, a new multicast tree construction algorithm is designed to pursue more aggressive subtree matching between channels by taking advantage of per channel packet dropping actions in SDN. Simulation results show that the new solution can achieve 10-20 percent reduction in the number of forwarding entries needed for multicast traffic’s forwarding.References
(1) S. Deering, “Host extensions for IP multicasting,” RFC 1112, August 1989.
(2) Qian, L., Liu, X., & Wang, Y. (2010). A New Tree Construction Algorithm for Scalable Multicast in MPLS Networks. Accepted in Proceedings of International Symposium on Computer Network and Multimedia Technology, 2010, CNMT.
(3) S. Bhattacharyya, “An overview of source-specific multicast (SSM),” RFC 3569, July 2003.
(4) H. Holbrook, and B. Cain, “Source-specific multicast for IP,” Internet draft, draft-ietf-ssm-arch-04.txt, Oct. 2003.
(5) D. Estrin, D. Farinacci, A. Helmy, D. Thaler, S. Deering, M. Handley, V. Jacobson, C. Liu, P. Sharma, and L. Wei, “Protocol independent multicast-sparse mode (PIN-SM): protocol specification,” RFC 2362, June 1998.
(6) E. Rosen et al., “Multipotocol label switching architecture,” RFC 3031, January 2001.
(7) A. Boudani, B. Cousin, and J. –M. Bonnin, “An effective solution for multicast scalability: the MPLS multicast tree (MMT),” Internet draft, draft-boudani-mpls-multicast-tree-06.txt, October 2004.
(8) Lie Qian, Yiyan Tang, Yuke Wang, Bashar Bou-Diab, and Wladek Olesinski, “A New Scalable Multicast Solution in MPLS Networks,” IEEE GLOBECOM 2006, San Francisco, November 2006.
(9) H. Yin et al., SDNi: A Message Exchange Protocol for Software Defined Networks (SDNS) across Multiple Domains, Jun. 2012, Internet draft. [Online]. Available: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/
ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-481360.pdf
(10) W. Xia, Y. Wen, C. Foh, D. Niyato and H. Xie, A Survey on Software-Defined Networking, IEEE Communication Surveys & Tutorials, Vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 27-51, 1st Quarter 2015
(11) F. Hu, Q. Hao and K. Bao, A Survey on Software-Defined Network and OpenFlow: From Concept to Implementation, IEEE Communication Surveys & Tutorials, Vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 2181-2206, 4th Quarter 2014
(12) OpenFlow Switch Specification, version 1.5.1, Open Networking Foundation, March 26, 2015, [Online]. Available: https://www.opennetworking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/openflow-switch-v1.5.1.pdf
(13) L. Andersson, P. Doolan, N. Feldman, A. Fredette, and B. Thomas, “Label Distribution Protocol Specification,” RFC 3036, January 2001.
(14) D. Awdeche, L. Berger, D. Gan, T. Li, V. Srinivasan, and G. Swallow, “RSVP-TE: Extensions to RSVP for LSP tunnels,” RFC3209, December 2001.
(15) Jun-Hong Cui, Li Lao, Dario Maggiorini, Mario Gerla, “BEAM: A distributed aggregated multicast protocol using bi-directional trees,” IEEE ICC 2003, vol. 1, pp. 689 – 695, 11-15 May 2003.
(16) A. Fei, J. H. Cui, M. Gerla, and M. Faloutsos, “Aggregated multicast: an approach to reduce multicast state,” Proc. Of Sixth Global Internet Symposium (GI2001), November 2001.
(17) Jun-Hong Cui, Jinkyu Kim, A. Fei, M. Faloutsos, and M. Gerla, “Scalable QoS multicast provisioning in Diff-Serv-supported MPLS networks,” IEEE GLOBECOM 2002, vol. 2, pp. 1450 – 1454, 17-21 November 2002.
(18) A. Striegel, and G. Manimaran, “A scalable approach for DiffServ multicasting,” IEEE ICC 2001, vol. 8, pp. 2327-2331, 11-14 June 2001.
(19) A. Boudani, and B. Cousin, “Simple explicit multicast (SEM),” Internet draft, draft-boudani-simple-xcast-04.txt, March 2004.
(20) Jining Tian, and Gerald Neufeld, “Forwarding state reduction for sparse mode multicast Communication,” IEEE INFOCOM 1998, March 1998.
(21) D. Ooms et al., “Framework for IP multicast in MPLS”, RFC 3353, August 2002.
(22) S.H. Yeganeh, A. Tootoonchian, and Y. Ganjali. On scalability of software-defined networking. IEEE Commun. Mag., 51(2):136–141, February 2013.
E. Kissel, G. Fernandes, M. Jaffee, M. Swany, and M. Zhang, Driving software defined networks with xsp. In
SDN12: Workshop on Software Defined Networks, 2012.