A Centralized Network Management Application for Academia and Small Business Networks

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Dewang Gedia, Levi Perigo

Abstract

Software-defined networking (SDN) is reshaping the networking paradigm. Previous research shows that SDN has advantages over traditional networks because it separates the control and data plane, leading to greater flexibility through network automation and programmability. Small business and academia networks require flexibility, like service provider networks, to scale, deploy, and self-heal network infrastructure that comprises of cloud operating systems, virtual machines, containers, vendor networking equipment, and virtual network functions (VNFs); however, as SDN evolves in industry, there has been limited research to develop an SDN architecture to fulfil the requirements of small business and academia networks. This research proposes a network architecture that can abstract, orchestrate, and scale configurations based on academia and small business network requirements. Our results show that the proposed architecture provides enhanced network management and operations when combined with the network orcestration application (NetO-App) developed in this research. The NetO-App orchestrates network policies, automates configuration changes, secures container infrastructure, and manages internal and external communication between the campus networking infrastructure.

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