Reference Guide

8 Built-In Applications
The HP VAN SDN Controller ships with a default set of core network service components, which
provide an out-of-box experience in terms of enabling connectivity across network applications in
the Openflow network. The details of each are captured below.
Node Manager
Node network service component is responsible for creating and maintaining the node table. Each
end-host (called a node) is uniquely identified by the combination of IP address and network
segment. The data stored for each node includes the node’s MAC address, network interface,
timeout value, and the current location.
The node table sample data as shown in Table 10.
Table 10 Node Table
IP Address
MAC
Segment ID
Device ID
Interface
Timeout
10.250.100.1
00:af:cd:12:10:01
100
00:ae:c7:de:02:01:02:03
3
300
10.250.100.2
00:af:cd:12:10:20
110
00:ae:c7:de:02:01:02:03
4
1200
Node Manager publishes the com.hp.sdn.node.NodeService API via OSGI declarative services
and REST API. These APIs allow callers to perform queries against the node table.
Node Manager also publishes the com.hp.sdn.supplier.NodeSuppliersBroker, which allows callers
to register themselves as a supplier of node-related information, using an instance of
com.hp.sdn.node.NodeSupplierService. See Javadoc on page 9 for details.
Node Manager performs aging for all entries in the node table. If a node has not been updated
for a period of time exceeding its timeout value, then that node will be removed from the table.
This aging is performed to keep an accurate view of the live nodes on the controlled network.
OpenFlow Node Discovery
OpenFlow Node Discovery pushes flow-mods to controlled devices and listens for PACKET_IN
messages in order to discover nodes on the controlled network. When hybrid.mode=true in the
ControllerManager configuration, OpenFlow Node Discovery will push flows to controlled devices
which send copies of the following packets to the controller:
•
all ARP packets
•
all DHCP packets from the DHCP server to end-hosts
OpenFlow Node Discovery listens for PACKET_IN messages which contain the ARP or DHCP
protocol. If learn.ip=true in the OfIpDiscoveryComponent configuration, then OpenFlow Node
Discovery will also listen for PACKET_IN messages which contain the IP protocol. No flows are
explicitly pushed to controlled devices which copy all IP traffic to the controller, as that would
drastically reduce network performance by overwhelming the control plane. When the
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