What is ZeroSDN ?
Zero Software Defined Networking(ZSDN) is a distributed SDN controller. It consists of multiple independent modules that are connected by a messaging middleware, ZMQ (see http://zeromq.org). Currently ZeroSDN supports OpenFlow versions 1.0 und 1.3.
ZeroSDN was developed by 13 students during a software engineering project at the Distributed Systems department (see https://www.ipvs.uni-stuttgart.de/abteilungen/vs?__locale=en) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Resources:
Overview
Why yet another SDN-Controller?
We felt that many controllers are either too monolithic, too hard to understand, or not scalable enough.
This is why we created a controller which does not have these limitations.
Highly modularized, distributed design
Rather than using a monolithic design, ZeroSDN encapsulates controller functions into modules communicating through the ZeroMQ high-perfomance messaging library. These modules can run on a single host or can be distributed between several hosts. Modules can also be added to or removed from a running controller easily.
Lightweight
ZeroSDN can run on hosts spanning a large performance range including a simple Raspberry Pi, cloud servers, or even on a switch itself.
Language independent
Out of the box, ZeroSDN supports modules implemented in Java or C++. However, since ZeroSDN utilizes ZeroMQ as messaging library (which supports many more languages!) support for other languages can be added to ZeroSDN easily.
Extensive documentation
We made sure to document all functionality thoroughly to facilitate the usage and extension of ZeroSDN.
Flexible Event Filtering
ZeroSDN uses the publish/subscribe paradigm to filter events. We designed a hierarchical pub/sub schema making it easy for modules to receive just the events that are relevant for the module. Thanks to ZeroMQ, events can be filtered at high speed. Here is a simplified example for Packet-In messages from switches:A module subscribed to IPv4 packets will not receive ARP packets, but will receive both UDP and TCP packets.
High performance
The distributed design of ZeroSDN based on the high-performance messaging library ZeroMQ helps it to scale well with the number of hosts:
Tested
using Cbench. 16 Switches, throughput mode
How to install/use ZeroSDN?
It’s easy, take a look at https://github.com/zeroSDN/ZSDN-Controller/wiki for more information.
Support
If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact us: contact.zsdn@gmail.com
Participate
ZeroSDN is an open source project. You have own ideas or plans concerning ZSDN or found bugs? Share them with us.
You can create pull requests at https://github.com/zeroSDN/ZSDN-Controller/pulls or contact us at https://github.com/zeroSDN
We are looking forward to your participation!
Licence
ZeroSDN is licenced under the Apache License Version 2.0.