Portable SDN Testbed Prototype

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a fieldof research that promises to change the landscape oftraditional network topology and management. Researchers and early adopters need adequate SDNtesting facilities. Industry is responding with embeddedsupport for SDN in their enterprise grade networkhardware, but is cost prohibitive for many research testenvironments. An alternative is to use software simulatednetwork topology tools that arguably do not emulate realworldbehavior. Our solution is to build a low cost, portable, standaloneSDN testbed. Called SDN On-The-Go (OTG), the testbedsupports many configurations for pseudo real-world SDNexperiments. SDN OTG is a self-contained testbed thatcan also be used as a portable teaching device, moved fromclassroom to classroom or taken home for privateresearch. We achieved repeatability factor 10 timesgreater than simulation based testing. Our SDN OTGphysical testbed weighs about twenty pounds, costs aroundone thousand US dollars, provides repeatable data, andcan be setup as a fully functional SDN testbed in a coupleof minutes.