Tavakoli et al (2009) Applying NOX to the Datacenter (HotNets)

This paper argues whether we are necessary to use specialized solution for data center network.

VL2 and PortLand are specialized solutions for data center networks. In this paper, the authors argue that we do not need specialized solution but just need to configure the general network management technology. This paper use NOX (Network Operating System, by Berkeley) as the example of general network management technology. It comprises of a centralized controller(s) and manageable switches. The controller can install forwarding rules into those switches, which instruct the switch on how to forward a packet and whether any fields in the header should be changed upon being forwarded.

The paper demonstrates how we can configure NOX to perform the load balancing function exactly like VL2. And argues that, the resources consumed (i.e. forwarding table capacity) using NOX is smaller than VL2.

Bibliographic data

@inproceedings{
   title = "Applying NOX to the Datacenter",
   author = "Arsalan Tavakoli and Martin Casado and Teemu Koponen and Scott Shenker",
   booktitle = "Proc. HotNets VIII",
   year = "2009",
}