B4: Experience with a Globally-Deployed Software Defined WAN

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of B4, a private WAN connecting Google's data centers across the planet. B4 has a number of unique characteristics: i) massive bandwidth requirements deployed to a modest number of sites, ii) elastic traffic demand that seeks to maximize ave...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: JAIN, Sushant, KUMAR, Alok, ZOLLA, Jonathan, HÖLZLE, Urs, STUART, Stephen, VAHDAT, Amin, MANDAL, Subhasree, JOON ONG, POUTIEVSKI, Leon, SINGH, Arjun, VENKATA, Subbaiah, WANDERER, Jim, JUNLAN ZHOU, MIN ZHU
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Access methods and protocols, osi model
Applied sciences
Computer science
control theory
systems
Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface
Exact sciences and technology
Software
Systems, networks and services of telecommunications
Telecommunications
Telecommunications and information theory
Teleprocessing networks. Isdn
Teletraffic
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Summary:We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of B4, a private WAN connecting Google's data centers across the planet. B4 has a number of unique characteristics: i) massive bandwidth requirements deployed to a modest number of sites, ii) elastic traffic demand that seeks to maximize average bandwidth, and iii) full control over the edge servers and network, which enables rate limiting and demand measurement at the edge. These characteristics led to a Software Defined Networking architecture using OpenFlow to control relatively simple switches built from merchant silicon. B4's centralized traffic engineering service drives links to near 100% utilization, while splitting application flows among multiple paths to balance capacity against application priority/demands. We describe experience with three years of B4 production deployment, lessons learned, and areas for future work.
ISSN:0146-4833
1943-5819
DOI:10.1145/2534169.2486019