Smart Hybrid SDN Approach for MPLS VPN Management and Adaptive Multipath Optimal Routing

The Virtual Private Network (VPN) service offered by the Multi-Protocol Label Switching Protocol (MPLS) is more and more solicited by clients thanks to its various advantages that it can offer especially concerning the security, the quality of service, and the flexibility. MPLS VPN relies on multiple protocols to function correctly and can be represented according to different architectures, each of which requires its own configuration. Besides, this technology is often used to interconnect a high number of sites which makes it challenging to deploy, manage, and supervise. Software Defined Network (SDN) is a paradigm, which, thanks to a centralized point (controller) can manage the MPLS VPN tunnels in an automatic, dynamic, and on-demand way between all the clients’ equipment. To manage the equipment by an SDN controller, they must be of the new generation supporting the OpenFlow protocol. The hybrid SDN paradigm allows Legacy equipment to be included in the orchestration as well, reducing OPEX and CAPEX costs. By the present work, we propose a new approach (SH-SDN) SDN Hybrid for the management of different architectures MPLS VPN based on a new graphical interface. The proposed approach allows not only to manage the MPLS VPN tunnels but also to ensure a reasonable quality of service level by performing an adaptive and an optimal load balancing across the multiple paths. The approach has been implemented and tested in a virtual test network consisting of different manufacturers (Cisco, Juniper, and HP). The results show that the SH-SDN approach offers a remarkable reduction in the MPLS VPN tunnel establishment time in a large network and a reasonable quality of service level of the transported applications through the multipath routing improved process.