Hybrid networking SDN and SD-WAN: traditional network architectures and software-defined networks interoperability in digitization era

Abstract

Software-Defined Networking (or SDN), since its creation and subsequent adoption, has promised to be the solution to network infrastructure management, configuration, and performance problems using techniques such as programmability, Open-hardware with programmatic capabilities, extreme agility, in addition to the use of secure Graphical Interfaces/APIs that provide full visibility and infrastructure telemetry. This doctoral thesis takes a look at the evolution of data networks towards the SDN paradigm and its various adoptions (SD-Access, SD-Data Center and SD-WAN) in order to verify its ease of implementation, for which the fundamentals of these technologies are addressed, starting from what decoupling of the Control Plane from the Data Plane in network equipment implies, to the concept of cultural and technological change called NetDevOps, essential for the agile SDN ecosystem to work properly, going through the analysis of next-generation standardized protocols that allow the implementation of these environments in real networks: LISP, VXLAN, OMP and Segment- Routing, developing at the same time proofs of concept (PoCs) in emulation environments and with physical equipment, thus closing the investigative process that validates the integration of SDN-based programmability with traditional networks, this being precisely the greatest contribution of the present research.