Improving OpenStack Networking: Advantages and Performance of Native SDN Integration

A key aspect that Telco operators must carefully consider when deploying Network Function Virtualization (NFV) solutions is the level of performance that cloud computing software platforms can guarantee in support of the offered network services. OpenStack is widely considered as one of the most relevant open-source frameworks that could accelerate the NFV adoption, also because the evolution of its networking components sees a progressive integration of SDN-based solutions that could significantly improve the performance of cloud-based connectivity services. In this paper, we discuss some of the most recent OpenStack innovations that enable a native SDN-like approach to firewalling functions in the data plane, as well as a native SDN-oriented control of the virtual network infrastructure. Then we present a detailed performance analysis of the aforementioned innovations at both the data and control/management plane, showing the potentials of native SDN adoption within OpenStack toward an integrated solution for production-level NFV deployments.