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uldis
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OpenFlow feature?

Mon May 18, 2020 11:13 am

We would like to understand if the OpenFlow protocol is still in the use for the network operators and if there are lot of use-cases where is it widely used and if there would be benefits that we could upgrade the OpenFlow implementation in RouterOS from v1.0 to v1.3?
Or we need to look for newer version implementation?
 
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StubArea51
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Mon May 18, 2020 4:42 pm

OpenFlow is still very much in use! ISPs, Internet Exchanges and Data Centers all have use cases for OpenFlow. There is a fantastic open source controller called Faucet that is easy to get up and running.

https://faucet.nz/

We have been working on a project to use OpenFlow to manage traffic engineering in Wireless ISPs and went to Google's HQ last fall for FaucetCon to present that work. Video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyFXpEJ ... 1z&index=4

Unfortunately we couldn't use MIkroTik equipment because it wasn't at least ver 1.3 :(

Please implement this!!
 
buraglio
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Mon May 18, 2020 4:53 pm

Seconded. Faucet is unquestionably the de facto standard for doing openflow correctly in a production-ready and scalable way. They have a test suite that validates the vendor implementation making sure it's successful and supports all of the right components - the keys being multi-table and next-table. Please implement this, I'm willing to help test, and I will all but guarantee that the Faucet developers will aid as they have done with many other vendors (HPe, Arista, Cisco, ATI, NoviFlow, etc..)

An example of a very successful deployment at massive scale can be heard about here:
https://blog.ipspace.net/2019/04/using- ... -with.html
 
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Mon May 18, 2020 7:06 pm

It would be boon to many to have a Faucet compliant OpenFlow implementation within RouterOS. It would bring reasonably priced gear within reach of many that are interested in OpenFlow.

Including such a feature will surely increase the demand for RouterOS products.
 
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Hammy
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Mon May 18, 2020 7:08 pm

I look forward to implementing a Faucet-controlled OpenFlow network, per the work Sajan, Kevin, Nick, and Adair have been doing.
 
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Tue May 19, 2020 7:00 pm

When I was building a Brocade/Cisco SDN in 2015 for an ILEC telco using opendaylight, I wanted to incorporate Mikrotik to the SDN at the access and customer edge portions of the network - however due to lack of support for current openflow standards to match frames/packets for my flows and direct/rewrite across a service provider network, I abandoned Mikrotik as a contender on this platform.

We built a programmable network where customers could self service and adjust the particulars of their broadband, VPN, VOIP and IPTV service delivery from a portal that auto-provisions these changes without need for waiting on human service order fulfillment, so long as facilities were already available, taking order delivery from days (or weeks, sometimes) down to near instantly applied.

1.3 would've been sufficient for this use case (and stuff I've been working on since then).
 
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Wed May 20, 2020 2:41 am

It would be fantastic if Mikrotik gave OpenFlow some focus and updated it to OpenFlow 1.3
 
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chebedewel
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Fri Jun 26, 2020 8:24 am

Yes ! would love an upgrade to v1.3 ^_^
 
noucom
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Mon Jul 20, 2020 4:14 pm

Agree : +1
 
infrastation
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:33 am

Hello MikroTik folks, thank you for asking. Let me try to answer your question.

I have been working with network protocols for many years. When OpenFlow switches started to become generally available about 2012-2013, I took an OF 1.0 controller and tried to make assorted OF switches work with it to implement a few applications, with varying success. Also I tried to test stability, capacity, performance, spec conformance and feature set of each OF switch.

When the applications, the controller or the switches crashed for no apparent reason, it was important to understand what is going on on the wire. At that time packet analysers had no support for OF out of the box so I had implemented OF 1.0 decoding in tcpdump. With the decoded protocol exchange I typically either fixed a bug in the controller, or filed a bug report with the switch vendor.

In total I had closely studied hardware OF switches of 7 vendors (mostly brand name) in a lab with actual cables and servers, with 2 more vendors I had only a brief brush. The MikroTik implementation had the most faults and yielded the most bug reports. AFAIR, at least half of these bug reports quietly died somewhere on the MikroTik tech support side of the fence. This is not to offend anyone, but to convey essential facts in support of my point below.

On the upside, RouterBoard was undoubdetly the cheapest, also I found ways to work around the implementation faults in one specific application that required only 4 dataplane ports per OF switch and tolerated low bandwidth (MikroTik OF 1.0 was software-only at the time). So I bought a bag of RouterBoards and worked on that application for a while until much more important things kicked in.

Fast-forward to 2020, if MikroTik adds support for OF 1.3 anytime soon, I still have that bag of RouterBoards and it could be fun to rig something up using the aforementioned Faucet, as a possible example. But please mind that it would likely result in new faults and new bug reports, and if MikroTik just disregards these as before, it will work against the success of the product.
 
brotherdust
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Tue Sep 08, 2020 10:53 pm

We would like to understand if the OpenFlow protocol is still in the use for the network operators and if there are lot of use-cases where is it widely used and if there would be benefits that we could upgrade the OpenFlow implementation in RouterOS from v1.0 to v1.3?
Or we need to look for newer version implementation?
Uldis,
I think it's obvious from this thread that there's still an interest in OpenFlow. One of the things, I think, that is holding back some adoption is that Mikrotik's implementation doesn't support OpenFlow 1.3 with multiple tables. In the time since Mikrotik released an OpenFlow package for RouterOS, controller software has continued to mature and, I think, Faucet is a good candidate for being the de-facto standard here. I would very much LOVE to see this happen. Even if it's just on the CRS-3xx series, that would be fine. IIRC, the chipset for the CRS-3xx series has OpenFlow support, so it doesn't seem to be a HUGE investment to make that happen.

What's your thoughts on this, Uldis? Should we have hope Mikrotik will do this?
 
akant
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Sun Jan 31, 2021 12:19 am

Seconded!!! I would love to see Mikrotik support openflow 1.3 and Faucet!!
 
biba
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:46 pm

+1 I interested too
 
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:59 am

+1! Please add this to RouterOS
 
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Jotne
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Sat Aug 14, 2021 11:23 am

From MikroTiks Openflow manual:
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:OpenFlow
Currently RouterOS implements OpenFlow version 1.0.0 required features. Support for newer versions, optional features and switching hardware acceleration are to be added. Current implementation should be considered experimental - NOT production ready and is available for evaluation purposes.
So maybe there will be an upgrade in the future. Accounting that I do use in Splunk for Mikrotik are removed from v7.x, so they need to get Openflow out of beta state.

But I do not have high hope, since this was written for more than 5 years ago and page last updated in 2018

Other as written this:
Well, anything that doesn't touch the CPU can't be collected, so anything where you leverage switch chips will have definite limitations; there's only so much bandwidth between a given switch chip and the host CPU
Nothing much has changed since this video in 2014.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGGV-MDZ3UE
 
kiano
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Wed Sep 29, 2021 6:41 pm

maybe someone knows how is it with openflow upgrade in routeros?
it is very demanded functionality
 
brotherdust
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Sat Feb 18, 2023 12:17 am

We would like to understand if the OpenFlow protocol is still in the use for the network operators and if there are lot of use-cases where is it widely used and if there would be benefits that we could upgrade the OpenFlow implementation in RouterOS from v1.0 to v1.3?
Or we need to look for newer version implementation?
Would like to see OpenFlow v1.3 support at minumum; but if you're going to be putting in the time to upgrade it, why not v1.5?

I think it was generous of Mikrotik to make an OpenFlow 1.0 package for v6.x, however, its usefulness was very limited because it only supported v1.0. v1.3 is where all the fun stuff starts.
 
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loloski
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Re: OpenFlow feature?

Mon May 22, 2023 6:43 pm

Is this still alive or in the pipeline?, please I hope someone from MT can confirm thanks

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