Connectivity Guide

OpenFlow
Switches implement the control plane and data plane in the same hardware. Software-dened network (SDN) decouples the software
(control plane) from the hardware (data plane). A centralized SDN controller handles the control plane trac and hardware conguration
for data plane ows.
The SDN controller is the "brain" of an SDN. The SDN controller uses north-bound application programming interfaces (APIs) to
communicate with the business logic applications and south-bound APIs to set up controlled network devices, such as OS10 switches.
OpenFlow is an implementation of SDN. OpenFlow enables programmable networks. You can develop SDN controller network applications
using representational state transfer (REST) or JAVA APIs (north-bound APIs) to business logic applications. The SDN controller uses
OpenFlow south-bound APIs to communicate with the switches and relay information from business logic applications.
Advantages of an SDN include customization, accelerating new feature development, lower operating costs, and fostering an open, multi-
vendor environment.
OS10 supports OpenFlow protocol versions 1.0 and 1.3.
OS10 supports OpenFlow-only mode. In this mode, the SDN controller controls data path of the switch. The OpenFlow pipeline processes
all data packets.
NOTE
: When the switch is in OpenFlow mode, all Layer 2 (L2) and Layer 3 (L3) protocols are disabled. Link-level protocols such
as Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), Dot1x, and Virtual Link Trunking (VLT) are disabled as well.
NOTE: OpenFlow Hybrid mode is not supported.
Supported Platforms
• S4048–ON
• S4048T-ON
• S4100-ON
• S4248FB-ON
• S4248FBL-ON
• S6010–ON
• Z9100–ON
• Z9264F-ON
NOTE
: S5148F-ON and S3048-ON are not supported.
OS10 OpenFlow implementation reserves VLANs 1 and 4095.
The following is a known OpenFlow restriction in OS10:
Converting the switch from OpenFlow mode back to Normal mode removes all OpenFlow congurations. The switch returns to the pre-
Openow status. The management, interface (maximum transmission unit (MTU) and LLDP), and authentication, authorization, and
accounting (AAA) settings specied in the Normal mode are retained.
To start up the switch in Factory Default mode, you must:
1 Delete the startup conguration using the delete startup-configuration command.
2 Enter the reload command.
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