The Implementation of Real-Time Network Traffic Monitoring Service with Network Functions Virtualization

• Main Authors: Yao-Yu Yang., 楊曜佑
• Other Authors: Chao-Tung Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/37507177086893674185

碩士 === 東海大學 === 資訊工程學系 === 103 === Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), a concept for extended applications of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), is a virtualization technology using software solutions and can be used to replace the traditional networking hardware. NFV has been implemented in many ways, such as the OpenFlow technique, which is an essential technology in NFV implementation. SDN can be easily implemented with OpenFlow, by which the traditional switches can be divided into two parts: the data plane and the control plane. Besides, software-defined rules can be used to implement network traffic control. This is why the concept and technique of NFV are worth exploring. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a common service model in the era of cloud computing. How to conduct network management is a critical issue in a large IaaS cloud computing environment. Implementation of NFV can enhance performance of IaaS. When large numbers of virtualized network devices are used to replace traditional hardware, the hard work of IaaS construction, expansion, and migration can be greatly alleviated. There exist many virtualization studies on traditional networking hardware, such as the firewall, load balancers, routers, and managed switches. But some questions are still not answered: can virtualization networking devices really replace traditional hardware? Also, between hardware and software, which one performs better? These issues should be prudently explored and discussed. In this work, we customize network service Neutron on OpenStack. The traditional managed switch is replaced by using Open vSwitch and a real-time traffic monitoring function is implemented with an iptable filter. NetFlow is used to set configuration of Open vSwitch. Since a NetFlow collector is built, there is no need to use hardware port mirrors to collect NetFlow data. This service integrates with OpenFlow to manage networking. As a result, the proposed network monitoring service in this thesis can be implemented in any kind of networking environments.