A Web Service- and ForCES-Based Programmable Router Architecture

Programmable networks have accentuated the need for a clear separation of the control and forwarding planes. The IETF ForCES protocol allows control elements to be connected to logically separated forwarding elements. The FlexiNET IST project relies on dynamic service deployment, which requires router programmability in the control and/or forwarding planes. Moreover, to shorten the implementation and deployment time of control elements, there is a need for simple higher-level APIs that shield such elements from ForCES protocol and model details. This paper proposes a ForCES CE Gateway (ForCEG) architecture that fulfills these requirements and maps Web Service interfaces to ForCES messages while checking the validity of commands to ensure consistency of the router state.