Software-defined Internet eXchange points (SDXs) are a promising solution to the long-standing limitations and problems of interdomain routing. While the proposed SDX architectures have improved the scalability of the control plane, these solutions have ignored the underlying fabric upon which they should be deployed. In this paper, we present Umbrella, a software-defined interconnection fabric that complements and enhances those architectures. Umbrella is a switching fabric architecture and management approach that improves the overall robustness, limiting control plane dependence, and suitable for the topology of any existing Internet eXchange Point (IXP). We validate Umbrella through a real-world deployment on two production IXPs, TouSIX and NSPIXP-3, and demonstrate its use in practice, sharing our experience of the challenges faced.

Innovation in interdomain routing has remained stagnant for over a decade. Recently, Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) have emerged as economically-advantageous interconnection points for reducing path latencies and exchanging ever increasing traffic volumes among, possibly, hundreds of networks. Given their far-reaching implications on interdomain routing, IXPs are the ideal place to foster network innovation and extend the benefits of software defined networking (SDN) to the interdomain level. In this paper, we present, evaluate, and demonstrate ENDEAVOUR, an SDN platform for IXPs. ENDEAVOUR can be deployed on a multi-hop IXP fabric, supports a large number of use cases, and is highly scalable, while avoiding broadcast storms. Our evaluation with real data from one of the largest IXPs, demonstrates the benefits and scalability of our solution: ENDEAVOUR requires around 70% fewer rules than alternative SDN solutions thanks to our rule partitioning mechanism. In addition, by providing an open source solution, we invite everyone from the community to experiment (and improve) our implementation as well as adapt it to new use cases.

The Internet eXchange Points (IXP) are essential for the Internet evolution as they empower high bandwidth low latency and inexpensive local traffic peering as opposed to transit traffic. On the other side, Software Defined Networking, or SDN for short (and its pre-dominant realization, the OpenFlow protocol) enables more dynamic network programmability to control network behaviour via open interfaces, as opposed to the legacy closed-box solutions and proprietary-defined interfaces. This paper then reports the work that has been done to migrate the TouIX IXP located in Toulouse (France) from a traditional to a full OpenFlow IXP. It especially describes how switches have been selected, configured and installed, and presents the management tools that have been developed, together with performance and service measurements and evaluations. To the best of our knowledge, from may 2015, TouSIX (the SDN evolution of TouIX) is the first Internet Exchange Provider in Europe to fully leverage OpenFlow for its day-to-day operations.