DPI in an SDN world

Charles Glass

DPI seeks to make the network application-aware, while SDN seeks to make applications network-aware

(Heavy Reading, 2012)

SDN

DPI

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What is DPI?DPI helps operators regain control over a network that is now primarily carrying third-party applications and services, by accurately identifying those applications in real time.

Source: Online-edge

(Heavy Reading, 2012)

DPI High-level Architecture

• Control Layer• Data Layer– Load balancing– Inspection– Enforcement

• ManagementSource: Cisco

What is SDN?The physical separation of the network control plane from the forwarding plane, and where a control plane controls several devices.

Application layer

Source: Network Computing

(Heavy Reading, 2012)

Control layer

Infrastructure layer

High-level SDN Architecture

• Application Layer• Control layer• Infrastructure

layer• Management

Source: ONF

Build-up to SDN

• DPI– Will it still be relevant?– Where will it be located?

• NFV– Complementary to SDN– Encourage virtualisation of network functions– DPI a strong candidate for virtualisation

• Network Virtualisation

Bridging the gap• Core concepts in todays networks– Policy– DPI

• SDN focused on Layers 2-3• How do we bridge the gap?

Will operators still need DPI?

• Fundamentals of DPI have not changed– Identify traffic in real-time– Associate with other data• Subscriber• Location• Device

SDN Applications

• Applications in SDN need a complete view of the network– DPI could feed information to the controller?– Killer app for DPI?

Locating DPI in an SDN

• Collocated with network devices• In the controller• Collocated with controller• Extensions to the flow table to include an

application ID

Benefits for African Operators

• DPI components are being virtualized in the build-up to SDN– NFV is the main driver– Early days?

• Benefits– Simpler deployment, update and testing– Scale to changing workloads– Lower cost– Reduced complexity– Open standards

Industry View

• DPI – Some large deployments..

• SDN– Not so many..

• Use cases– African Operators

Q&A

Source: Cisco blog – Stephen Spiershttp://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/sdn-adoption-challenges-my-wrap-up-for-2013