Performance Analysis of OpenFlow Hardware

OpenFlow is a protocol that defines an open control channel towards the data plane of multiple switches from different vendors. This allows for a scalable implementation when running a large network. There has been growing interest in OpenFlow within the networking industry, with the promise of new versions and features added by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). However, there is a lack of research in the performance of the switches that support it and if their performance will actually allow for the promised scalability. This report aims to fill this void by benchmarking three different hardware implementations provided by SARA with respect to their performance and OpenFlow features. Tested platforms include a NetFPGA card, Pica8 OpenFlow on a Pronto switch and the Open vSwitch implementation on the same switch platform. Tests include looking into the lookup procedure by the switches, Quality of Service features and impact of failover flows. In the end it appears that although the most basic forwarding features are available in the implementations tested, scalability is a characteristic, which cannot yet be added to the OpenFlow feature set. While the performance scalability could be improved by optimizing the hardware design, one of the more significant bottlenecks seems to be the interoperability between OpenFlow firmware of switches, their hardware and the software used to control them.