Design And Implementation Of A Data Plane For The OpenBox Framework

The OpenBox Framework is framework that effectively decouples the con- trol plane of NFs from their data plane. Similarly to SDN solutions that address only the networks forwarding plane (e.g., switching, routing), OpenBox provides a framework for network-wide deployment and management of NFs. The OpenBox framework is composed of three logic components: OpenBox Application, OpenBox Controller and OpenBox Instances used as the data plane.
This project presents a design of a general Open Box Instance that can be used as the data plane of the OpenBox Framework. The suggested architecture is modular in nature and allows the easy replacement of its packet processing engine. This feature allows a lot of improvement and innovation in the way packets are processed with an OBI and between them.
We also present a reference implementation of the suggested architecture which shows its usability as an OpenBox Instance and integrates it inside a working OpenBox Framework. Our reference implementation uses Click as its packet processing engine and explains how it can be easily replaced.