Date of Award

5-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Computer Science

Committee Chair/Advisor

Goasguen, Sebastien

Committee Member

Wang , Kuang-Ching

Committee Member

Martin , James

Abstract

Cloud computing is a popular paradigm for accessing computing resources. It provides elastic, on-demand and pay-per-use models that help reduce costs and maintain a flexible infrastructure. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds are becoming increasingly popular because users do not have to purchase the hardware for a private cloud, which significantly reduces costs. However, IaaS presents networking challenges to cloud providers because cloud users want the ability to customize the cloud to match their business needs. This requires providers to offer dynamic networking capabilities, such as dynamic IP addressing. Providers must expose a method by which users can reconfigure the networking infrastructure for their private cloud without disrupting the private clouds of other users. Such capabilities have often been provided in the form of virtualized network overlay topologies.
In our work, we present a virtualized networking solution for the cloud using the OpenFlow protocol. OpenFlow is a software defined networking approach for centralized control of a network's data flows. In an OpenFlow network, packets not matching a flow entry are sent to a centralized controller(s) that makes forwarding decisions. The controller then installs flow entries on the network switches, which in turn process further network traffic at line-rate. Since the OpenFlow controller can manage traffic on all of the switches in a network, it is ideal for enabling the dynamic networking needs of cloud users. This work analyzes the potential of OpenFlow to enable dynamic networking in cloud computing and presents reference implementations of Amazon EC2's Elastic IP Addresses and Security Groups using the NOX OpenFlow controller and the OpenNebula cloud provisioning engine.

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