SDN & NFV for energy-efficient

clouds
(from the smart grid to the smart shirt)

Christos Kolias, Sr. Research Scientist

Network Architecture, Orange Silicon Valley

E2DC Workshop ACM e-Energy 2013

May 21, 2013 Berkeley, CA, USA

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Menu
Trends, Challenges & Facts
Energy-Efficient Clouds (E2C)
Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)
Next-generation Data Center
Conclusion

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Orange, a worldwide presence

Orange Silicon Valley (OSV), a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Orange-France
Telecom Group, is the Silicon Valley
presence of Orange
Internet, Fixed, Mobile, TV provider

Orange is one of the major telcos, in 5

continents, 32 countries, 226 million
customers, 6 million business customers
180,000 employees and ~ $ 57 b
revenues in 2012
Founding member of ETSI NFV. Member
of Open Networking Foundation (ONF)

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Trends & Challenges

Trends

Challenges

Deluge of data: Big Data & Big Data

Centers; small but many transactions
Mobility, explosion of devices and
traffic (video)
Cloud services
Convergence of computing, storage
and networks
New virtualization technologies that
abstract underlying hardware
yielding elasticity, scalability and
automation
Software-defined networking
Energy efficiency
Cost-cutting in IT

Data-intensive applications (hadoop)

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Real-time processing, fast response

Storing/archiving huge amounts of
data
High availability
Ubiquitous connectivity
How to move network resources where
& when needed
Aging legacy data centers

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Factoids
Data Center annual growth: 20%

Data Center real estate

Unprecedented surge in energy

requirements
Electricity costs is the dominant
operating expense
Amazons data centers energy-related costs
>40% of total costs
Power costs for the data center equipment over its useful life to
exceed the cost of the original capital investment
Global Data Center power demand
Avg. power consumption per DC is
equivalent to 25k households, in terms
17%
of CO2 emissions
: outsourced

DCs consume 2% of US total power;

$2B/month doubles every 4-5 yrs

source: DCD Intelligence

63%

source: DCD Intelligence

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Typical Data Center Energy Consumption

Worldwide IT Spending on Servers, Power,
Cooling and Management Administration

PUE= 1/0.36 = 2.77

source: Info-tech Research Group

Data Center power use

source: IDC

Power allocation in the Data Center

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source: Intel

The Green Effect

Lessons from Energy-Efficient Technologies
Eco-friendly energy generation: solar, wind, waves
Energy saving: insulation & Energy monitoring
Smart Grids

Data Center
Low-power CPUs
Efficient power supplies
Cooling

What about the Network

Energy-Efficient Ethernet (EEE, 802.3az)

Power saving: virtualization
Bandwidth monitoring
Smart Networks & Clouds

PUE most common metric for EE in data centers

Avg data center PUE in US is ~ 1.8, higher elsewhere
Google is 1.12, FB 1.07 (using solar for the office space)
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Energy-Efficient Clouds
Energy efficiency: E2 = % of total energy required to support
useful traffic carried by a network
Energy efficiency involves all system components
Hardware (servers, networking)
Software (protocols, applications)
Physical (cooling, power generation, power minimization)

Energy-aware data centers/networks and applications

Virtualization (compute, storage, network) is key aspect in E2DC
Energy control policies required in addition to QoS/traffic, security policies
Energy aware apps: can adjust their (idleness in ) workloads for power
management

Need to ensure a balance between energy efficiency and

performance
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 Energy-saving techniques
Power-aware computing (CPU, disks, communication devices/links)
Clock gating: slowing down CPU clock speeds
Power gating: powering off parts of the chips (if idle)

Energy analyzer and optimizer

Energy-aware resource management, scheduling and provisioning

Partition workloads (load balancing)

Move peak loads in the cloud as to maximize performance
Scheduling tasks for multiprocessors

Consolidation (equipment, data centers, data, applications)

Even when run at low utilization servers consume up to 70% power

Less redundancy required

Wireless Networks are ripe for energy savings

Even when idle, typical base station may use 70-80% of its power

Savings of the order of 20% can be achieved in server and

network energy consumption, Data Centre Energy Forecast
Such savings can bring additional 30% saving in cooling needs
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Software-Defined Networking (SDN)

SDN supports the abstraction of the control plane
from the data plane

Supports programmability for hardware

Users can define (their) traffic flows and decide how

these are treated in the network

People want to control their own network

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Why SDN
Todays boxes are closed & proprietary
I want to add a new service/capability but my equipment (h/w & s/w) has

to support it hard and risky to innovate

No elasticity. Too much complexity.

Challenges from mobile growth to big data and cloud computing

Poor resource utilization
Create an abstraction that
yields a logical view of the
network (topology & resources)
Network programmability
Open APIs

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source:ONF

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OpenFlow
Controller

Protocol for an SDN, standardized by ONF

Classical
Architecture

Built around the concept of traffic flows

identify flows (matching, statistics)

dynamically manage flows (action)

Proprietary
Bus

Control
Plane

Firmware. Vendor-enabled.

Control
Plane
Plane

OpenFlow
Protocol
open i/f

Data
Plane

Data
Plane

Main components:
Switch/Router
Switch/Router
flow table: incoming packets header matched against flow entry,
action (e.g.MAC_dst
send to port
in switch
in_porttake MAC_src
IP_src5 or block
IP_dst it, etc)-resides
Action
Stats
4
*
controller:
20
12
1

00:1f..

1.2.3.4

5.6.7.8

port 5 & 6

2.3.4.5

drop

- software (e.g., residing outside switch/router)

controller

4
235

- decides
flow entries,
programmable
7e:4b..on actions,
5a:2c.. inserts
6.7.8.1
*
port 1
37

8
6b:11..
01:ab..
8.7.6.5
4.3.2.1
all ports
protocol
(for controller-switch
communication,
secure)
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1000

89
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OpenFlow Network
Server room

OpenFlow
Access Point

OpenFlow
switch

OpenFlow
switch
OpenFlow
switch

flow_A

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flow_B

PC

OpenFlow-enabled
Commercial Switch
Normal
Software

OpenFlow
switch

Controller

Normal
Datapath

Secure
Channel

Flow
Table

OF allows to monitor the network and take

instant action (programmatically)

OpenFlow
switch
Add/delete flow entry
Encapsulated packets
Controller discovery

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Benefits of SDN
Programmable platform brings agility & elasticity into network
Allows for optimization & customization: Build Your Own
Router, Firewall, Load Balancer, DPI, WAN Accelerator

Supports intelligent management of traffic flows

Enabler for network virtualization. Great tool for cloud
management.
Deploy new, on-demand, tailored services & apps
Resource discovery and monitoring
Unified method for traffic engineering, network management

Great tool for (live) VM migration across network boundaries

It is all about empowering the administrator/operator, user

More choices, more control

Define your own rules/policies

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Bandwidth Management
Elastic Capacity: Bandwidth-on-Demand (BoD)

Dealing with traffic spikes

kbps

Dynamic Bandwidth allocation/scheduling

who gets what, when & for how long
choose level of granularity
automation, calendaring

Resource optimization
pooled capacity
bundling (aggregation)/unbundling as needed
Coupling capacity with time-varying traffic demand

Active monitoring and real-time response

set up thresholds
programmable alerts

Physical Layer: single radio channel, optical wavelength (or a

band)
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Power Management
Overprovisioned networks, with extra capacity
Network is often underutilized (but designed to
handle peaks/failures)

Dynamically adjust network elements to

save energy

Activate/deactivate devices, cards, ports on a need-basis

Software-controlled, e.g.: program capacity depending on energysaving needs/modes

Todays devices are not energy-proportional
Fans, chips, interfaces waste power at low-loads
Software components/features not always needed

Elastic Tree: prototype testbed using OpenFlow

Benefits: less power consumption, cooling, less hardware failures,
improved redundancy
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Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV)

Network Functions Virtualisation is about implementing network
functions in software - that run today on proprietary hardware leveraging (high volume) standard servers and IT virtualization
Advances in virtualization & server technologies have propelled the
importance and use of software in many applications and fields

Facilitates innovation towards new network functions and services

that are only practical in a pure software network environment
Gives rise to the virtual (network) appliance (VA)

Automation of management and configuration of functions

important for NFV to scale
SDN can be a significant enabler for NFV
NFV aims to ultimately transform the way network operators
architect and operate their networks though change will be
incremental
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Network Functions Virtualisation: Vision

Message
Router

DPI

SGSN/GGSN

CDN

Independent
Software Vendors

WAN
Acceleration

Session Border
Controller

Firewall

Carrier
Grade NAT

Tester/QoE
monitor

PE Router

BRAS

Radio/Fixed Access
Network Nodes
EPC

Fragmented non-commodity hardware.

Physical install per appliance per site.
Hardware development large barrier to entry for
new vendors, constraining innovation & competition.
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Network Functions
Virtualisation Approach

Competitive &
Innovative
Open Ecosystem

Classical Network Appliance

Approach

Orchestrated,
automatic & remote install.

High volume standard servers

High volume standard storage

High volume Ethernet switches

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Why we believe NFV is the future for Networks

Recent tests have demonstrated network
functions can operate at the level of several
millions of packets per sec, per CPU core

Demonstrates that servers have sufficient

processing performance to cost-effectively
virtualise network appliances
The hypervisor need not be a bottleneck
The OS need not be a bottleneck

[source=BT]

Reduced CapEx/OpEx; consolidation of devices (ease of management)

dramatic

energy savings

Faster time-to-market
In November 2012 we formed the NFV ISG under ETSI
More than 100 members, more than 20 operators

Goal: deliver requirements and framework for NFV

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VDC: the new norm for the Cloud

Virtual Data Center (VDC): using virtualization technologies and
cloud solutions to emulate your racks in a highly efficient,
optimized environment

Make physically dispersed hw/sw operate logically as one DC

Virtual servers, virtual storage, virtual networking
Multi-tenancy
DR/BC: ability to redeploy fast (e.g., Japan earthquake)

Cloud-wide management system: allocation, management &

Software-Defined
Virtual
Data
Centers
will
be
the
basis
orchestration of resources. Virtual Data Centers (VDC) will be the
of the New E2 Cloud
basis of the new cloud.
SDN can fundamentally change the way we design and build data
centers

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Deeply programmable and virtualized

Applications/services awareness
Resource optimization (compute, storage, compute). Enhanced policy
(routing, TE, security) management

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The Future Cloud Architecture

I want a
cloud

Cloud App

Cloud App

Cloud App

Cloud API

Cloud API

SDN API
Cloud API

SDN
Controller

Cloud
Cloud
Management Plane
MaestroCloud Broker

Network Virtualization Plane

Smart
Cloud
Cloud
Network Server

Storage

Virtualization
Virtualization

Virtualization

Ideally, the user should be able to specify his application demands (broadcast election video coverage for 12 hours and 50m
subscribers) and the cloud should broker the specific resource needs (capacity, storage, bandwidth, etc)
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The Next Generation Data Center

Green (energy star equipment), self-contained
100% virtualized

Intelligently controlled
Automation

Optimized, efficient
Extremely modularized

source: Cisco

Consolidation, VDC
Application-aware networking
Facebook builds its 4th data center, super-energy efficient, $1.5B,
1.4m f2, in Iowa. IO gets a $260 credit line
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Internet of Things (IoT)

Energy efficiency very important
Activity scheduling for energy saving; power control
Flexible, smart devices/objects

Applications

Home automation: programmable HVAC, appliances, smart LEDs

M2M
Sensors: from temp gauges to sprinklers
Wearable technologies (dress smart: glasses, shoes, shirts, watches)

Enablers: software, mobile devices, sensor networks, wireless

networks, cloud computing, geo-location
Software-Defined Environment

eg, re-programmable & reconfigurable SDBs)

Smart Cities
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GreenTouch
GreenTouch: consortium of ICT stakeholders (industry, government,
academia, research) launched in 2010, funded by >50 companies
Mission: deliver the architecture, specifications and technologies
needed to increase energy efficiency by a factor of 1000 compared to
2010 levels
Objectives & benefits
Reinvention of todays telecommunications networks; design new

architectures, communication protocols, etc.

Demonstrate those key components for making network more E2
Make network & internet sustainable
Applicable to both wired & wireless/mobile networks; mobile networks can
benefit the most
Effectively cut carbon emissions of ICT networks by more than 250m tons a
year

Prediction: energy consumption in overall networks can be reduced by

90% by 2020!
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Key Takeaways
SDN brings automation, orchestration, optimization, scale,
programmability and customization to the network
NFV brings server virtualization, commoditization in the (service
provider) network
Dedicated hardware gives way to the virtual network appliance
Both SDN & NFV can be huge energy savers
It is the power of software

(but be aware of bugs and hackers!)

Make your network more intelligent. Smart devices & apps* need
smart networks!

*app= application or appliance

Smart means with low carbon footprint

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SDN is like a buffet !

self-provisioning
automation
elastic
customization

NFV is like

single hardware,
many services
mix & match
centralized
control
customization

You need soda to digest afterall

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thank you
& bon appetit !

christos.kolias@orange.com

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