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Affordable hardware switch for SDN

Wheel in the Sky

Article from ADMIN 34/2016

By Konstantin Agouros

Most OpenFlow-ready hardware switches are prohibitively expensive if you just want to set up a small-scale test lab. Northbound Networks has stepped in with a Kickstarter campaign, filling the gap with the Zodiac FX switch.

Most OpenFlow test and lab environments are built by admins and researchers using the Open vSwitch virtual switch [1]. Another common tool for test labs is the Mininet environment [2], which connects Open vSwitch with Linux namespaces to simulate various devices. Running your OpenFlow tests on real hardware is a little more complicated. Hardware switches with OpenFlow support (such as white-label switches with PicOS) cost a solid, four-figure sum and are thus prohibitively expensive for a small test lab.

Northbound Networks [3], with the aid of a Kickstarter campaign, has developed the inexpensive Zodiac FX as an alternative for testing OpenFlow configurations on real hardware. Zodiac FX is a four-port, 100MB switch controlled by an Atmel CPU. The Zodiac FX switch works with the OpenFlow protocol Version 1.3, and it comes with support for open source firmware.

The Hardware

Figure 1 shows the Zodiac FX, which takes the form of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) system. Only the first three (from the left) of the four interfaces are available for flow control with OpenFlow; the fourth interface communicates with the OpenFlow Controller.