When the Software-defined network (SDN) gradually becomes the new paradigm  of networks with its accelerated commercial deployment, the SDN controller, the key to the whole SDN network, will increasingly draw the attention of the network users. BII-Global SDN Certified Testing Center (SDNCTC for short, www.sdnctc.com/en), after collecting extensively the demands and independent researches, successfully developed the SDN controller testing tool: OFsuite_Performance, which fills the gap of SDN controller performance test in the market, with the RYU Controller Performance Test Report to be released to the public. The Center will formally and officially start its controller testing service globally to provide the SDN controller users with more performance analysis methods and tools and effective and detailed data, which can be used by users to choose high-performance SDN controller for reference.

OFsuite_Performance Logo

OFsuite Performance is the new member of the OFsuite toolbox independently developed by the Center. The testing tool is used for the OpenFlow controller performance tests, it can emulate a large amount of OpenFlow 1.3 switches in the general Linux servers and it can emulate different network topologies and all the OpenFlow events. In addition, the testing tool can operate in real SDN environment to effectively measure the controller’s capacity of processing the OpenFlow messages. The testing results can assess the SDN network performance at the user’s site and provide reliable data support during tests and commercial deployment. On top of OpenFlow message performance tests, it can enable the multi-controller connection, TLS encryption channel connection, visualization of the test results and other additional functions. The testing tool is simple, efficient, easy to use, and subject to sustainable updates to provide the users with more performance test cases and test scenarios.

The debut of the OFsuite_Performance—RYU Controller Performance Test Report—has been officially released lately. The report uses the open-source RYU controller as the controller under test, uses the OFsuite_Performance to conduct the test and concludes the results to produce the report. The current test cases include control channel capacity test, topology discovery time test, Packet_out rate test, Flow_mod rate test, end-to-end link establishment time test, etc. All the tests are completed automatically by the OFsuite_Performance, and the results and graphics in the report are generated automatically by the testing tool.

As the core component of the control plane, SDN controller’s performance is highly related to the performance of the whole SDN network. According to Li Zhen, director of the Center, the testing center will continue to test the OpenDaylight, ONOS and other mainstream open-source controllers and will provide the report of performance tests then. Meanwhile, the center will continue to enrich the reservoir of the tests and add the master-slave handover test and cluster performance comparison, to provide the SDN users with more and simpler performance analysis methods and tools along with effective and detailed data support.

For more information on the controller tests, please visit the official website of the global SDN testing and certificating center www.sdnctc.com/en. Click http://www.sdnctc.com/public/download/RYU.pdf to download RYU Controller Performance Test Report for free.