SDN Query Abstraction for Switches as Distributed Databases Switches

Abstract

The languages currently used for describing network policies are not so e - cient and well known. The ow entries stored in network switches forwarding tables, can be considered as distributed databases. SQL, originally designed for relational databases, can be used for maintaining these distributed network switches forwarding tables. SQL inherently includes CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete) actions which are also used in network switch forwarding tables. In our work we have proposed that by writing well known SQL instructions using SQL framework on top of OpenFlow, we can leverage the DBMS CRUD actions for OpenFlow enabled network switches distributed databases changes. SQL being a well-known language has number of open source implementations available. We have built a controller that can understand SQL statements and translate them into OpenFlow instructions for applying CRUD actions on the switch ow tables in a network. By using this approach we can bene t from SQL features like ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) with little or no e ort. For the implementation and testing of our proposed solution, we built a controller that accepts SQL instructions as input and deploys respective rules or query data to and from the switches distributed ow tables.