Field demonstration of multi-domain software-defined transport networking with multi-controller collaboration for data center interconnection [Invited]

Software-defined networking (SDN) with optical transport techniques enables network operators and data center (DC) operators to provide their resources dynamically on user´s demands while minimizing operating and capital expenditure. Current multi-domain networking techniques mainly rely on the path-computing element, while SDN has shown considerable potential for this inevitable issue. The first field demonstration of multi-domain software-defined transport networking (SDTN) without global topology information is detailed in this paper. A multi-controller collaboration framework and three schemes, a controller-driven scheme (ConDS), a cloud-driven scheme (ClDS), and a ClDS with dynamic optimization (ClDS-DO), for datacenter interconnection based on SDTN are demonstrated via field networks. We also extend the OpenFlow protocol and design the Java-Script Object Notation application programming interface to support this framework. Multi-domain lightpaths are automatically provided with limited signaling latency. The blocking performances of the proposed schemes are estimated, and the ClDS-DO has the best performance approaching the optimal boundary.