Towards an Ethernet Learning Switch and Bandwidth Optimization using POX Controller

Abstract: Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging network architecture where network control is decoupled from forwarding and is directly programmable. It promises to dramatically simplify the network management and enable innovation through network programmability. The POX is one of the open source SDN controller and a platform for the rapid development and prototyping of network control software. This paper proposes a set of rules which are defined in the POX controller and based on which the Ethernet switch will take the appropriate decisions during transmission of data packets in the network. The method is proposed to optimize the bandwidth of the network using the iPerf tool. Then the method of assigning priority to the network packets based on different fields in the open flow table is presented. Also described the process of defining different rules set in each switch in the network. The experimental results show that the utilization of bandwidth increases and the average Round-Trip Time (RTT) time decreases for the POX controller.

Keywords: Software Defined Networking, POX Controller, Openflow, Mininet, Ethernet Switch