Design and implementation of a prototype of the entity Control Element (CE) of the Architecture ForCES

Abstract

This paper presents the designed an implementation of a prototype with the Forwarding and Control Element Separation (ForCES) Architecture. That is to say, which allows each of the elements to be improved separately and then interconnected through the ForCES protocol, even in remote locations. The Control Element (CE) is the logical entity that is part of the control plane and is responsible for managing Forwarding Elements (FE) of the data plane. The ForCES architecture allows you to see these two elements (the CE and the FE through the ForCES protocol) as a single Network Element (NE), even if they are located in remote sites each. To demonstrate this principle, a network testbed scenario was implemented, based on two Local Area Networks (LAN). The LAN 1, for the CEs and the LAN 2 for the FEs, once communicated through the ForCES protocol, the different LFBs configurations of the ARP, SNMP, RIP protocols were used to demonstrate their operation.