Software Defined Networking:

Mininet Tutorial
James Won-Ki Hong
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
POSTECH, Korea
[email protected]
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Outline
Introduction
Motivation

Installation
Mininet Tutorial
Command line interface usage
Application programming interface usage

Demo
Demo scenarios
Demo presentation

Experiences on Mininet

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Types of Network Testbeds

Platforms for Network/Systems Teaching
Platform

Advantages

Disadvantages

Hardware testbed

Fast
Accurate: ground truth

Expensive
Hard to reconfigure
Hard to change
Hard to download

Simulator

Inexpensive, flexible
Detailed
Easy to download
Virtual time

May require app changes

Might not run OS code
May not be believable
May be slow/non-interactive

Emulator

Inexpensive, flexible
Real code
Reasonably accurate
Easy to download
Fast/interactive usage

Slower than hardware

Possible inaccuracy from
multiplexing

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Hardware based Network Testbed (1/2)

Very Simple Network using Full System Virtualization

h1 (10.0.0.1)

s1

h2 (10.0.0.2)

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Hardware based Network Testbed (2/2)

Problems
Too much work even for creating such a simple network topology
Not programmable

h1 (10.0.0.1)

s1

sudo bash
# Create host namespaces
ip netns add h1
ip netns add h2
# Create switch
ovs-vsctl add-br s1
# Create links
ip link add h1-eth0 type veth peer name s1-eth1
ip link add h2-eth0 type veth peer name s1-eth2
ip link show
# Move host ports into namespaces
ip link set h1-eth0 netns h1
ip link set h2-eth0 netns h2
ip netns exec h1 ip link show
ip netns exec h2 ip link show

h2 (10.0.0.2)
# Connect switch ports to OVS
ovs-vsctl add-port s1 s1-eth1
ovs-vsctl add-port s1 s1-eth2
ovs-vsctl show
# Set up OpenFlow controller
ovs-vsctl set-controller s1 tcp:127.0.0.1
ovs-controller ptcp: &
ovs-vsctl show
# Configure network
ip netns exec h1 ifconfig h1-eth0 10.1
ip netns exec h1 ifconfig lo up
ip netns exec h2 ifconfig h2-eth0 10.2
ip netns exec h1 ifconfig lo up
ifconfig s1-eth1 up
ifconfig s1-eth2 up
# Test network
ip netns exec h1 ping -c1 10.2

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Emulator based Network Testbed

What We Want is
A simple command-line tool / API which can ease the work
The solution should allow us to easily create topologies for varying
size, up to hundreds and thousand of nodes

h1 (10.0.0.1)

s1

h2 (10.0.0.2)

h1 = net.addHost( 'h1' )
h2 = net.addHost( 'h2' )
s1 = net.addSwitch( 's1' )
c0 = net.addController( 'c0' )
net.addLink( h1, s1 )
net.addLink( h2, s1 )
net.start()
CLI( net )

Topology Generation using Mininet API

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Introduction to Mininet
Mininet
A network emulator which creates realistic virtual network
Runs real kernel, switch and application code on a single machine

Provides both Command Line Interface (CLI) and Application Program

ming Interface (API)
CLI: interactive commanding
API: automation

Abstraction
Host: emulated as an OS level process
Switch: emulated by using software-based switch
E.g., Open vSwitch, SoftSwitch

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Mininet Installation (1/2)

Mininet VM Installation
The easiest and most fool-proof way of installing Mininet
Procedures
Download the Mininet pre-installed VM image
Download and install one of the hypervisors (e.g., VirtualBox, Qemu, VMware Wo
rkstation, VMware Fusion, or KVM)
Import VM image into selected hypervisor

Native Installation from Source

Recommended OS: Ubuntu 11.10 and later
Procedures
$ git
clone git://github.com/mininet/mininet
Download source from
github
$ mininet/util/install.sh
-a + etc.
Full installation: Mininet
+ Open vSwtich + wireshark
$ mininet/util/install.sh -fnv

Minimum installation: + Mininet + Open vSwitch

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Mininet Installation (2/2)

Native Installation from Package
Recommended OS: Ubuntu 12.04 and later
Procedures
Remove all previously installed Mininet and Open vSwitch
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/mn /usr/local/bin/mnexec \
/usr/local/lib/python*/*/*mininet* \
/usr/local/bin/ovs-* /usr/local/sbin/ovs-*

$ sudo apt-get install mininet

Ubuntu
13.04
Install
Mininet package according to your Ubuntu version (choose one
of them!)
$ sudo apt-get install mininet/quantal-backports
$ sudo apt-get install mininet/precise-backports

Ubuntu 12.10
Ubuntu 12.04

$ sudo service openvswitch-controller stop

$ sudo update-rc.d openvswitch-controller disable

Deactive OpenvSwitch controller if it is running

$ git clone git://github.com/mininet/mininet

$ mininet/util/install.sh -fw

You can also install additional software from mininet source

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Mininet Tutorial (1/7)

Mininet Command Line Interface Usage
Interact with hosts and switches
Start a minimal topology
$ sudo mn

Start a minimal topology using a remote controller

$ sudo mn --controller=remote,ip=[IP_ADDDR],port=[listening port]

Start a custom topology

$ sudo mn --custom [topo_script_path] --topo=[topo_name]

Display
nodesnodes
mininet>
mininet>
Display
links net
mininet> dump

Dump information about all nodes

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Mininet Tutorial (2/7)

Mininet Command Line Interface Usage
Interact with hosts and switches
Check the IP address of a certain node
mininet> h1 ifconfig -a

Print the process list from a host process

mininet> h1 ps -a

Test connectivity between hosts

Verify
the connectivity
mininet>
h1 ping by
-cpinging
1 h2 from host0 to host1
Verify
the connectivity
mininet>
pingall between all hosts

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Mininet Tutorial (3/7)

Mininet Command Line Interface Usage
Run a regression test
Traffic receive preparation
mininet> iperf -s -u -p [port_num] &

Traffic generation from client

mininet> iperf -c [IP] -u -t [duration] -b [bandwidth] -p [port_num] &

Link variations
$ sudo mn -link

tc,bw=[bandwidth],delay=[delay_in_millisecond]

Python Interpreter
$ accessible
py locals()
Print
local variables

$ py [mininet_name_space].[method]
Execute
a method through invoking mininet API

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Mininet Tutorial (4/7)

Mininet Application Programming Interface Usage
Low-level API: nodes and links
mininet.node.Node
A virtual network node, which is a simply in a network namespace

mininet.link.Link
A basic link, which is represented as a pair of nodes
Class
Method
Description

Node

Link

MAC/setMA
C

Return/Assign MAC address of a node or specific interface

IP/setIP

Return/Assign IP address of a node or specific interface

cmd

Send a command, wait for output, and return it

terminate

Send kill signal to Node and clean up after it

Link

Create a link to another node, make two new interfaces

h1 = Host( 'h1' )
h2 = Host( 'h2' )
s1 = OVSSwitch( 's1', inNamespace=False )
c0 = Controller( 'c0', inNamespace=False )
Link( h1, s1 )
Link( h2, s1 )
h1.setIP( '10.1/8' )
h2.setIP( '10.2/8' )

c0.start()
s1.start( [ c0 ] )
print h1.cmd( 'ping -c1', h2.IP() )
s1.stop()
c0.stop()

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Mininet Tutorial (5/7)

Mininet Application Programming Interface Usage
Middle-level API: network object
mininet.net.Mininet
Network emulation with hosts spawned in network namespaces

Class

Net

Method

Description

addHost

Add a host to network

addSwitch

Add a switch to network

addLink

Link two nodes into together

addController

Add a controller to network

getNodeByName

Return node(s) with given name(s)

start

Start controller and switches

stop

Stop the controller, switches and hosts

ping

Ping between all specified hosts and return all data

net = Mininet()
h1 = net.addHost( 'h1' )
h2 = net.addHost( 'h2' )
s1 = net.addSwitch( 's1' )
c0 = net.addController( 'c0' )
net.addLink( h1, s1 )
net.addLink( h2, s1 )

net.start()
print h1.cmd( 'ping -c1', h2.IP() )
CLI( net )
net.stop()

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Mininet Tutorial (6/7)

Mininet Application Programming Interface Usage
High-level API: topology templates
mininet.topo.Topo
Data center network representation for structured multi-trees

Class

Topo

Method

Description

Methods similar to net

E.g., addHost, addSwitch, addLink,

addNode

Add node to graph

addPort

Generate port mapping for new edge

switches

Return all switches

Hosts/nodes/switches/links

Return all hosts

isSwitch

Return true if node is a switch, return false otherwise

class SingleSwitchTopo( Topo ):

"Single Switch Topology"
def build( self, count=1):
hosts = [ self.addHost( 'h%d' % i )
for i in range( 1, count + 1 ) ]
s1 = self.addSwitch( 's1' )
for h in hosts:
self.addLink( h, s1 )

net = Mininet( topo=SingleSwitchTopo( 3 ) )

net.start()
CLI( net )
net.stop()

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Mininet Tutorial (7/7)

Mininet Application Programming Interface Usage
Customized topology
# cat custom.py

LEN_DPID = 16
from mininet.topo import Topo
class MyTopo( Topo ):
def name_dpid( self, index ):
dpid = '%02d' % ( index )
zeros = '0' * ( LEN_DPID - len( dpid ) )
name = 's%02d' % ( index )
return { 'name':name, 'dpid':zeros + dpid }
def build( self, count=1):
hosts = [ self.addHost( 'h%d' % i )
for i in range( 1, count + 1 ) ]
s1 = self.addSwitch( **self.name_dpid(1) )
for h in hosts:
self.addLink( h, s1 )
topos = { 'mytopo': MyTopo }
# mn --custom custom.py --topo mytopo,3
*** Creating network
*** Adding controller
*** Adding hosts:
More examples can be found here:
h1 h2 h3
https://github.com/mininet/mininet/tree/master/examples

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Mininet Applications
MiniEdit
A GUI application which eases the Mininet topology generation
Either save the topology or export as a Mininet python script

Visual Network Description (VND)

A GUI tool which allows automate creation of Mininet and OpenFlo
w controller scripts

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Two Flow Insertion Methods

Reactive Flow Insertion
A non-matched packet reaches an OpenFlow switch, it is sent to the
controller, based on the packet an appropriate flow is inserted

Proactive Flow Insertion

Flow can be inserted proactively by the controller in switches before
packet arrive
SRC

DST

ACT

h1

h2

p1

OpenFlow
Controller

acquire
route

SRC

DST

ACT

h1

h2

p1

insert
flow

host1

switch1 (reactive)

switch2 (proactive)

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DEMO Scenarios
Construct a Customized Topology Using Mininet
A topology with two hosts and five switches

Scenario
Setup the flow in reactive manner
Ping from host1 to host2 in reactive manner
Ping from all hosts to the other hosts
1
0

switch2

switch3

host1

Route #1
1

switch
5

switch4

switch1
1

host
2

Route #2

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Testbed
RESTRESTbased
based
Jython
App

Java App

App
App

Static
Static
Flow
Flow
Pushe
Pushe
rr

Not standardized
yet, use proprietary
APIs
Northbound API

Floodlight Controller
Southbound API
OVS
Switch

Host

Host

OVS
Switch

Host

Host
Host
OVS
Switch

Host

OVS
Switch

OVS
Switch

Host

Host
Host

Implement
OpenFlow
Protocol

Host

mininet

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Floodlight Installation
Native Installation from Source
Recommended OS: any version of Linux distribution
Procedures
Install pre-requisite software packages
$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk
$ sudo apt-get install ant

Ubuntu

# yum install java-1.7.0-openjdk java-1.7.0-openjdk-devel

# yum install ant

EPEL

Download
from
github and build the stable version
$ gitsource
clone
git://github.com/floodlight/floodlight.git
$ cd floodlight
$ ant

Run #
the./floodlight.sh
floodlight

Access floodlight dashboard

http://floodlight_ip_address:8080/ui/index.html

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DEMO Execution Procedures

Procedures
Start Floodlight controller daemon
# $FLOODLIGHT_PATH/floodlight.sh

Initialize Mininet by specifying custom topology

$ sudo mn --custom ./topo.py --topo mytopo --controller=remote,
ip=127.0.0.1,port=6653

Initiate
a ICMP
request
from host1
mininet>
h1 ping
h2
Initiate
ICMP
requests from all hosts
mininet>
pingall

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Sample Examples using Mininet

At Stanford
Pick a paper, reproduce a key result or challenge it
Wide range of projects include transport protocols, data center topologies
E.g., CoDel, HULL, MPTCP wireless, Outcast, Jellyfish, DCTCP, Incast, Hedera,
Dcell, RED and more
Total # of projects: 18
# of replicated projects: 16
https://reproducingnetworkresearch.wordpress.com

At MIT
Design a transport protocol to achieve high throughput and low del
ay on cellular links
Baseline protocol: Sprout (NSDI 2013)
Competition between students, and two student protocols were co
Protocol Design Contests: Anirudh Sivaraman, Keith Winstein, Pauline Varley, Joao
mparable
with Sprout
Batalha, Ameesh Goyal, Somak Das, Joshua Ma, and Hari Balakrishnan, CCR July 2014

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Q&A

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