wiki:GENIExperimenter/Tutorials/WiMAXOpenFlow/Design-Setup

Version 2 (modified by Ryan Izard, 10 years ago) (diff)

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OpenFlow-Based Vertical Handoff over WiFi and WiMAX in the Orbit Testbed

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1. Design the Experiment

The goal of this tutorial is to perform a vertical handoff over WiFi and WiMAX in the Orbit testbed. Let's talk specifics with repect to each Orbit node. As briefly mentioned in the Overview, the experiment will be conducted with three Orbit nodes -- the client, the server, and the AP. Up first, we have the client node. The client is equipped with an Intel 6250 WiFi/WiMAX network adapter and an Atheros 5000 series WiFi network adapter. The Intel 6250 has a limitation – it can support the operation of either WiFi or WiMAX but not both simultaneously. As such, the Intel 6250 will serve as the WiMAX adapter and the Atheros 5000 series will serve as the WiFi adapter on the client. The OpenFlow-based handoff solution will choose which of these network interfaces it would like to use in order to relay messages to the server. Speaking of which, the server is equipped with the same wireless cards as the client. In order to receive packets from the client over both WiFi and WiMAX, the server will listen for the client's traffic over both its WiFi and WiMAX interfaces. To do this seamlessly, the server will also implement an OpenFlow-based solution. More details about how OpenFlow is used in both the server and the client are provided as the tutorial progresses. The third and final Orbit node necessary for this tutorial is the AP. Like the client and the server, the AP also contains both an Intel 6250 and an Atheros 5000 series wireless card; however, it will only use the Atheros card. The Atheros card on the AP is used by the software package hostapd to provide a WiFi network for both the client and the server machines. If you are interested in expanding upon this experiment, it is worth noting that Atheros cards play very well with hostapd-based networks; however, some Intel cards (such as the Intel 6250) are not directly supported. This is the reason we choose to use the Atheros over the Intel 6250 to provide the WiFi network.

Now, in order to provide a seamless handoff, the application should not be aware that the handoff takes place. The "seamlessness" of the handoff is still in development by the SDN team at Clemson. But for starters, from a networking point of view, if a network interface is brought up or is taken down, the IP address will be added to or removed from that network interface. This means the application's network socket will be broken if a break-before-make handoff occurs (which is oftentimes the case). When an application socket breaks, that means the application can no longer communicate over then network with it, and if this happens, the application must have some scheme to recreate the socket, otherwise the connection will be lost. In order to put as little reliance on the application layer as possible, a virtual tap interface is used. All applications will bind to the IP on this tap interface, and since tap interfaces are not physical, the only time it can “go down” is if we as programmers/network administrators take it down ourselves. Thus, it is a reliable way to make sure the application's socket stays “up”. In this tutorial, all application traffic will originate from and terminate at the tap interface.

The end-user will use the virtual tap interface (created by OpenVPN) for network connections, while the handoff execution will handle which physical interface to use. Now, the metric that decides which interface to use and when to perform the handoff is beyond the scope of this tutorial. Instead, this tutorial is designed to provide a basic framework for a handoff. To conduct the handoff, the Static Flow Pusher API in Floodlight, the OpenFlow controller, is used to insert OpenFlow flows manually, as determined by the handoff decision (e.g. a super-cool metric a GENI experimenter has implemented). A Python script leverages the Static Flow Pusher API to add and remove flows.

The next logical question is where should this Static Flow Pusher insert flow? In order to leverage the capabilities of OpenFlow, we need to have hardware and/or software that supports its use. Hence, OpenVswitch (OVS) is used in this tutorial. OVS is a software package that implements a virtual OpenFlow switch. This tutorial uses a pre-installed OVS network that incorporates the WiFi, WiMAX, and tap interfaces of the client as ports of virtual switches of an OVS network. The following is a picture depicting the general OVS topology used in this tutorial.

Each physical and tap interface has a corresponding OVS bridge. (In OVS terminology, an "OVS bridge" is essentially an "OpenFlow switch." It is called a bridge rather than a switch, since from the Linux kernel's perspective, the OVS bridge bridges the physical interface it is associated with.) These OVS bridges are linked together as if you actually plugged a physical switch into another with an Ethernet cable. The interfaces of the machine appear as ports on the OVS bridges, as do the internal links between the OVS bridges.

2. Establish the Environment

  1. Before booting into the VM, create three network interfaces -- two host-only interfaces and one control NAT interface. If you are using VirtualBox, you must also enable promiscuous mode for each of the two host-only interfaces.
  1. Remove the Forwarding module from the Floodlight OpenFlow controller. Floodlight uses what it calls a module loading system, where the user can write modules to perform a certain task or set of tasks. Each module can register for certain events. For example, the Forwarding module registers for PACKET_IN events where the controller is sent a packet from a connected switch. Upon such an event, the Forwarding module will send the packet out the correct port(s) depending on the destination. This module essentially implements a standard learning switch function where the OpenFlow-enabled switch behaves as if it were a standard network switch. We do not want this functionality, since we would like to have control over which port(s) our packets get forwarded.
    1. Open the Root Terminal by browsing to Applications-->Accessories-->Root Terminal. The password is password.
    2. Launch Eclipse by running eclipse in the Root Terminal.
    3. The module loading system maintains a list of the modules to be loaded at runtime. To remove the Forwarding module from this list (and thus disable it), open the floodlight/src/main/resources/floodlightdefault.properties file and remove the line net.floodlightcontroller.forwarding.Forwarding,\.
    4. By default, Eclipse automatically builds the Floodlight project, so we do not need to do so manually.
  2. Customize the setup script. This script is designed to (1) define user variables, (2) configure the tap interface with OpenVPN, (3) start Floodlight, (4) initialize and start OpenVswitch, and (5) configure Linux networking.
    1. In the Root Terminal, open a new tab by browsing to File-->Open Tab.
    2. In the Root Terminal, execute ifconfig:
      $ ifconfig
      eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:04:5c:41  
          inet addr:192.168.93.128  Bcast:192.168.93.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fe04:5c41/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:48 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:38 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:8503 (8.3 KiB)  TX bytes:6274 (6.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0x1424 
      
      eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:04:5c:4b  
          inet addr:192.168.193.132  Bcast:192.168.193.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fe04:5c4b/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:152 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:26 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:31818 (31.0 KiB)  TX bytes:5234 (5.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:19 Base address:0x14a4 
      
      eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:04:5c:55  
          inet addr:192.168.193.129  Bcast:192.168.193.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fe04:5c55/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:138 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:31 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:27881 (27.2 KiB)  TX bytes:6277 (6.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:16 Base address:0x1824 
      
      lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:560 (560.0 B)  TX bytes:560 (560.0 B)
      
      Note the subnets and names given to each of the network interfaces. Recall, when the VM was initialized, we configured 1 NAT interface and 2 host-only interfaces. The two interfaces on the same subnet are the host-only interfaces. Make notes of each interface name and its IP and subnet mask.
    3. With this information, to the setup script directory:
      $ cd /root/06-03-13
      $ ls
      ... system_setup.sh ...
      
    4. Open the script with the text editor of your choice (vi, gedit, pico, nano, etc):
      $ gedit system_setup.sh
      
    5. There are numerous user defined variables at the top of the script. These are placeholders for commonly used system and configuration specific information throughout the script. We need to change a few of them to suit our needs for this tutorial. Modify the physical interface names for IFACE_wlan0 and IFACE_wimax to match those names of the host-only interfaces noted from ifconfig. Also, modify the IFACE_tap_IP variable to be an IP in the same subnet of the host-only interfaces (e.g. 192.168.193.155 would work for the host-only subnet 192.168.193/24).
      ###################
      #USR DEF VARIABLES#
      ###################
      IFACE_bridge_eth=br_eth
      IFACE_bridge_wlan0=br_wifi0
      IFACE_bridge_wimax=br_wimax
      IFACE_bridge_int=br_tap
      
      IFACE_tap=tap0
      IFACE_tap_IP=192.168.193.110
      IFACE_ethernet=eth0
      IFACE_wlan0=eth1
      IFACE_wimax=eth2
      
    6. Next, we need to create our tap interface. This is the network interface that will funnel all outbound packets from the userspace on our VM and send them into our OpenVswitch network.
      ###############
      #ADD TAP IFACE#
      ###############
      
      echo "OVPN: Installing tap interface, $IFACE_tap"
      openvpn --mktun --dev $IFACE_tap --lladdr 12:51:16:90:8f:ee
      
    7. Now, it is sometimes desirable to automate the start of Floodlight; however, for the purposes of this tutorial, we will launch it from within Eclipse. Comment out the following lines of the system_setup.sh script:
      ##################
      #START FLOODLIGHT#
      ##################
      
      echo "FL: Starting Floodlight..."
      cd / && ((java -jar ./root/floodlight/target/floodlight.jar) > floodlight-output 2>&1 &)
      echo "FL: Finished!"
      
    8. Next, we need to insert the OpenVswitch kernel module:
            ###################
            #START OPENVSWITCH#
            ###################
            
            echo "OVS: Configuring OVS..."
            echo "OVS: Checking for kernel module..."
            if [ -e $(lsmod | grep openvswitch) ]      
            then
      	   echo "OVS: ...inserting kernel module"
                 /sbin/rmmod bridge
                 sleep 1
      	   insmod /root/openvswitch-1.7.1/datapath/linux/openvswitch.ko
            else
      	   echo "OVS: ...kernel module already present"
            fi
      
    9. After that, we need to initialize OpenVswitch and its database:
      echo "OVS: Creating database"
      ovsdb-server --remote=punix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock \
      --remote=db:Open_vSwitch,manager_options \
      --private-key=db:SSL,private_key \
      --certificate=db:SSL,certificate \
      --bootstrap-ca-cert=db:SSL,ca_cert \
      --pidfile --detach
      echo "OVS: Initializing OVS..."
      ovs-vsctl --no-wait init
      echo "OVS: Starting OVS..."
      ovs-vswitchd --pidfile --detach
      
    10. Now, we need to take down any pre-existing OVS bridges:
            echo "OVS: Removing any existing bridge, $IFACE_bridge_eth $IFACE_bridge_wlan0"
            echo "OVS: $IFACE_bridge_wimax $IFACE_bridge_int ..."
            
            ...
            
            ## Wlan0
            echo "OVS: Removing any existing bridge, $IFACE_bridge_wlan0..."
            if [ -n "$(ovs-vsctl show | grep $IFACE_bridge_wlan0)" ]      
            then
                 echo "OVS: ...removing $IFACE_bridge_wlan0"
                 ovs-vsctl del-br $IFACE_bridge_wlan0
            fi
            
            ## WiMAX
            if [ -n "$(ovs-vsctl show | grep $IFACE_bridge_wimax)" ]
            then
      	   echo "OVS: ...removing $IFACE_bridge_wimax"
      	   ovs-vsctl del-br $IFACE_bridge_wimax
            fi
            
            ## Internal
            if [ -n "$(ovs-vsctl show | grep $IFACE_bridge_int)" ]
            then
      	   echo "OVS: ...removing $IFACE_bridge_int"
      	   ovs-vsctl del-br $IFACE_bridge_int
            fi
      
            ######################
            #ADD INTERNAL BRIDGES#
            ######################
      
            ...
      
            ## Wlan0
            echo "OVS: Adding interface bridge, $IFACE_bridge_wlan0..."
            ovs-vsctl add-br $IFACE_bridge_wlan0
            echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_wlan0"
            ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_wlan0 $IFACE_wlan0 -- set Interface $IFACE_wlan0 ofport=$port_eth1
            echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_patch_wlan0_to_tap"
            ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_wlan0 $IFACE_patch_wlan0_to_tap -- set Interface $IFACE_patch_wlan0_to_tap ofport=$port_wlan0_to_tap
      
            ## WiMAX
            echo "OVS: Adding interface bridge, $IFACE_bridge_wimax..."
            ovs-vsctl add-br $IFACE_bridge_wimax
            echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_wimax"
            ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_wimax $IFACE_wimax -- set Interface $IFACE_wimax ofport=$port_eth2
            echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_patch_wimax_to_tap"
            ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_wimax $IFACE_patch_wimax_to_tap -- set Interface $IFACE_patch_wimax_to_tap ofport=$port_wimax_to_tap
      
            ## Internal
            echo "OVS: Adding interface bridge, $IFACE_bridge_int..."
            ovs-vsctl add-br $IFACE_bridge_int
            echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_tap"
            ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_int $IFACE_tap -- set Interface $IFACE_tap ofport=$port_tap0
            #echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_patch_tap_to_eth"
            #ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_int $IFACE_patch_tap_to_eth -- set Interface $IFACE_patch_tap_to_eth ofport=$port_tap_to_eth
            echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wlan0"
            ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_int $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wlan0 -- set Interface $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wlan0 ofport=$port_tap_to_wlan0
            echo "OVS: ...with port $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wimax"
            ovs-vsctl add-port $IFACE_bridge_int $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wimax -- set Interface $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wimax ofport=$port_tap_to_wimax
      
    11. At this point, we're ready to set the patch ports between the OVS bridges. These create links between the OVS tap bridge and the OVS WiFi and WiMAX bridges in order to facilitate the flow of packets from the tap bridge to the physical interface of choice.
      #################
      #SET PATCH PORTS#
      #################
      
      ...
      
      echo "OVS: Patching ports $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wlan0, $IFACE_patch_wlan0_to_tap"
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wlan0 type=patch
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wlan0 options:peer=$IFACE_patch_wlan0_to_tap
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_wlan0_to_tap type=patch
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_wlan0_to_tap options:peer=$IFACE_patch_tap_to_wlan0
      
      echo "OVS: Patching ports $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wimax, $IFACE_patch_wimax_to_tap"
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wimax type=patch
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_tap_to_wimax options:peer=$IFACE_patch_wimax_to_tap
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_wimax_to_tap type=patch
      ovs-vsctl set interface $IFACE_patch_wimax_to_tap options:peer=$IFACE_patch_tap_to_wimax
      
    12. Now, we need to assign each OVS bridge a unique ID (DPID) and point them to the address of the Floodlight controller. Floodlight will be run on the localhost, so the loopback address is defined within a the variable OVS_controllerIP.
      ##########
      #SET DPID#
      ##########
      
      ...
      
      ## Set Wlan0 DPID
      echo "OVS: Setting $IFACE_bridge_wlan0 DPID to $OVS_switchDPID_wlan0..."
      ovs-vsctl set bridge $IFACE_bridge_wlan0 other-config:datapath-id=$OVS_switchDPID_wlan0
      
      ## Set WiMAX DPID
      echo "OVS: Setting $IFACE_bridge_wimax DPID to $OVS_switchDPID_wimax..."
      ovs-vsctl set bridge $IFACE_bridge_wimax other-config:datapath-id=$OVS_switchDPID_wimax
      
      ## Set Tap DPID
      echo "OVS: Setting $IFACE_bridge_int DPID to $OVS_switchDPID_tap..."
      ovs-vsctl set bridge $IFACE_bridge_int other-config:datapath-id=$OVS_switchDPID_tap
      
      ...
      
      ## Wlan0
      echo "OVS: Connecting $IFACE_bridge_wlan0 to controller at $OVS_controllerIP"
      ovs-vsctl set-controller $IFACE_bridge_wlan0 tcp:$OVS_controllerIP
      
      ## WiMAX
      echo "OVS: Connecting $IFACE_bridge_wimax to controller at $OVS_controllerIP"
      ovs-vsctl set-controller $IFACE_bridge_wimax tcp:$OVS_controllerIP
      
      ## Internal
      echo "OVS: Connecting $IFACE_bridge_int to controller at $OVS_controllerIP"
      ovs-vsctl set-controller $IFACE_bridge_int tcp:$OVS_controllerIP
      ovs-vsctl set bridge br_tap other-config:hwaddr=12:51:16:90:8f:ee
      
      echo "OVS: Finished!"
      
    13. Now, the second-to-last thing to do in the setup script is to configure our network connections. We need to revoke the IPs from our physical interfaces and assign them to the OVS bridge interfaces corresponding to each inferface. This will allow us to inject data/packets into our OVS network. We also need to configure our OVS tap bridge as an available IP address in the same subnet as our VM's host-only network (noted earlier with ifconfig). And finally, we need to disable kernel IP forwarding.
      ##########################
      #CONFIGURE NETWORK ACCESS#
      ##########################
      
      ifconfig lo up
      
      ## Disable IP on physical interfaces
      echo "NTWK: Taking down $IFACE_wimax..."
      ifconfig $IFACE_wimax 0.0.0.0
      
      echo "NTWK: Taking down $IFACE_wlan0..."
      ifconfig $IFACE_wlan0 0.0.0.0
      
      ## Assign static IP addresses for bridge interfaces
      echo "NTWK: Assigning $IFACE_bridge_int IP as $IFACE_tap_IP..."
      ifconfig $IFACE_bridge_int $IFACE_tap_IP netmask 255.255.255.0
      
      ## Get an IP for bridge interfaces using DHCP
      echo "NTWK: Assigning $IFACE_bridge_wimax IP via dhclient..."
      dhclient $IFACE_bridge_wimax
      
      echo "NTWK: Assigning $IFACE_bridge_wlan0 IP via dhclient..."
      dhclient $IFACE_bridge_wlan0
      
      ...
      
      ## Turn off IP Forwarding
      echo "NTWK: Disabling IP Forwarding..."
      echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
      
      ...     
      
      
    14. Finally, look towards the bottom of system_setup.sh script. Notice the lines:
      #To add 100ms to all outbound traffic on br_wimax
      #tc qdisc add dev br_wimax root netem delay 100ms
      
      This command allows you to add a simulated delay on a particular interface. So we can see the handoff when it occurs, we will add a 100ms delay to the br_wimax interface. Uncomment this line to do so.
    15. Save system_setup.sh and close your text editor.
  3. Examine the kernel routing table, and create a script to automate adding and removing of IP routes.
    1. In the Root Terminal, change to the eth_control directory:
      $ cd eth_control
      $ ls
      ... delete_route.sh ...
      
    2. Determine and note the entries in the kernel IP routing table:
      $ route -n
      Kernel IP routing table
      Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Ifac
      192.168.193.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 eth2
      192.168.193.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 eth1
      192.168.93.0    0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 eth0
      0.0.0.0         192.168.93.2    0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0
      
    3. With your text editor of choice, open delete_route.sh:
      $ gedit delete_route.sh
      #!/bin/bash
      
      echo "Previous routing table:"
      route -n
      
      echo "Delete route for each phyical interface's OVS bridge..."
      route del -net 192.168.193.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev br_wifi0
      route del -net 192.168.193.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev br_wimax
      
      echo "Delete route for each physical interface..."
      route del -net 192.168.193.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev eth1
      route del -net 192.168.193.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev eth2
      
      echo "Delete default routes..."
      route delete default dev eth0
      
      echo "Add single default route via OVS tap bridge..."
      route add default dev br_tap
      
      echo "New routing table:"
      route -n
      
      exit 0
      
      Configure the script to remove all routes except a single default route via the br_tap interface. Note, until the system_setup.sh is executed, there will be no OVS bridge interfaces present. As such, this script will not be run until after system_setup.sh. (There is no harm in running it now, though. If an attempt is made to add or remove a non-existent route, a error message will be displayed and the script will continue.)
    4. Save the delete_route.sh script and exit the text editor.

Warnings

Warning Be on the lookout for typos in your scripts!

Notes

Note Write down your interface names, IP addresses, and subnet masks. All subnets must be the same for a Layer-2 handoff.

Tips

Tip If you need assistance, please ask for help!

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