Dynamic On-Demand Virtual Extensible LAN Tunnels via Software-Defined Wide Area Networks

The world of information and communications technologies continues to evolve at an exponential rate, not only inaugurating numerous breakthroughs in research, but also changing the perception of interconnectivity and exchange of information. The increasing popularity of software-defined networks (SDN) and the related technologies have shattered the realm of corporate infrastructures. The traditional approach for employees to access the corporate headquarter data centers has experienced challenges due to the significant traffic volume and delay, as more services have been moved to the cloud, e.g., Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Tunnel-splitting can mitigate the problem, but it is mostly static. The paper proposed a dynamic on-demand tunnels approach based on Extensible LAN Tunnels (VXLAN) and SDN. The primary objectives are to reduce the load on corporate network and delay for users to access SaaS. We conducted experiments for feasibility study using Mininet and the results showed that the delay could be significantly reduced and the approach allows for a single point of policy management, which it still preserved the benefit of split tunnels.