OpenFlow-Based Network Management with Visualization of Managed Elements

The new software defined networking (SDN) paradigm advocates separating the data plane and the control plane, making network switches simple packet forwarding devices and leaving a logically-centralized software to control the behavior of the network. SDN introduces new possibilities for a centralized network management and configuration. The main benefit is having the programmability of the forwarding tables according to the needs of the applications. Therefore, efficient and effective management of network resources becomes even more crucial in providing effective control plane functionality to the applications. OpenFlow standardization efforts at the Open Networking Foundation resulted in an OpenFlow Configuration (OFConfig) specification to address the management of resources in networks with OpenFlow-enabled switches. We report the implementation of an intuitively easy to use interface for the OpenFlow-capable logical devices as managed resources in a SDN.