Nowadays, while most of the programmable network apparatus vendors support OpenFlow, a number of fragmented control plane solutions exist for proprietary software-defined networks. Thus, network applications developers need to re-code their solutions every time they encounter a network infrastructure based on a different controller. Moreover, different network developers adopt different solutions as abstract control plane programming language (e.g. Frenetic, Nettle), leading to not reusable and shareable source code for network programs. So despite having OpenFlow as the candidate for a standard interface between the controller and the network infrastructure, interworking between different controllers and network devices is hindered and walled gardens are emerging. NetIDE will deliver a single integrated development environment to support the whole development lifecycle of network controller programs in a vendor-independent fashion.

Objectives

1. to define a platform agnostic representation format for network applications
2. to deliver a prototype IDE and associated tools that support the SDN development lifecycle
3. to develop a prototype of a run-time environment (the NetIDE Network Engine) that supports open & proprietary SDN controllers
4. to promote the establishment of an Open SDN Model based on an Open Community of develop.

Work Packages

The University of Paderborn ‒ Research Group Computer Networks ‒ is mainly involved in the following work packages:

Work Package 2:

This WP provides the backbone of the project. It will perform requirement analysis, define the NetIDE architecture and provide coherence within the project by the internal APIs between the main NetIDE components. In order to cope with the evolution of the SDN eco-system during the lifetime of the project, the WP will perform two full cycles of requirement analysis, architecture definition and API specification and produce two iterations of the NetIDE architecture definition and the NetIDE integrated platform. This allows us to integrate insights acquired during the first iteration as well as the evolution of the State-of-the-art (SotA) into the final version of the NetIDE framework.

Work Package 4:

The high-level goal of the Network App Engine work package is to enable Network App programs to be executed, systematically tested, and refined on a variety of concrete SDN platforms. The work will be structured along three tasks. The first task is focused on creating the means for executing a Network App and carefully managing the state within the deployed network. The second task aims to provide a set of tools that will reduce the programmer effort at all steps of development and deployment. Finally, the third task creates the glue between the basic execution environment and different SDN platforms.