Restrictions for OpenFlow Agent
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Same interface cannot be added to more than one logical open flow switch.
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No support for output as an action for layer3 openflow logical switch (such as pipeline131, 132).
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Only layer 3 interface support for netflow sampling statistics.
Advantages
The advantages with Open Flow Agent are:
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increases network scalability
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reduces network complexity
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allows greater application control
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enables customer-feature-independence
About OpenFlow
The OpenFlow protocol is based on the concept of an Ethernet switch, with an internal flow-table and
standardized interface to allow traffic flows on a switch to be added or removed. The OpenFlow protocol
defines the communications channel between the OpenFlow agent and the OpenFlow controller. In an OpenFlow
network, the OpenFlow Agent exists on the switch and the OpenFlow controller exists on a server, which is
external to the switch. Any network management is either part of the controller or accomplished through the
controller.
In the Cisco OpenFlow scheme, the physical switch is divided into multiple logical switches by using the CLI
to configure the connection to the controller for each logical switch and enable interfaces for each logical
switch. The Openflow Agent software manages these logical switches.
The following figure shows the Cisco implementation of the OpenFlow network.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router System Management Configuration Guide, Release 5.1.x
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Implementing Open Flow Agent
About OpenFlow