Floodlight (software)

Floodlight (software)
Name	Floodlight
Title	Floodlight (software)
Developer	Big Switch Networks; Open Networking Foundation
Released	2011
Programming language	Java
License	Apache License 2.0
Repository	GitHub

Floodlight (software) is an open-source software project that implements an OpenFlow controller for software-defined networking (SDN) environments. It provides a Java-based platform for network control and management used by academic institutions, cloud providers, telecommunications companies, and data center operators, and interoperates with Ethernet switches, routers, wireless controllers, and virtualization platforms.

Overview

Floodlight was created to enable centralized control in networking environments by interfacing with OpenFlow-enabled devices from vendors such as Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Hewlett-Packard, Arista Networks and Dell EMC. The project bridges research initiatives from Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and the Open Networking Foundation with industry efforts from Big Switch Networks, Nicira alumni, and contributors associated with Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and IBM. Floodlight supports protocols and ecosystems including OpenFlow, NetFlow, sFlow, BGP, and interaction with orchestration platforms like OpenStack, Kubernetes, VMware vSphere, and Apache CloudStack.

Architecture and Components

Floodlight's architecture is modular and layered, drawing design inspiration from projects such as NOX, Beacon, ONOS (software), and OpenDaylight. Core components include the OpenFlow protocol handler, the device manager, the flow programmer, and a REST API server used by external systems like Ansible, Chef (software), Puppet (software), and SaltStack. Floodlight integrates with southbound plugins for Open vSwitch, hardware switches using OpenFlow 1.0, OpenFlow 1.3 extensions, and northbound APIs consumed by orchestration systems including CloudStack, Tungsten Fabric, and Contrail. The controller supports modules for topology discovery, link-state management, host tracking, and firewall/filtering features similar to capabilities in pfSense, iptables, and VyOS appliances.

Features and Functionality

Floodlight implements flow-based forwarding, reactive and proactive rule installation, and topology-aware routing akin to algorithms used in OSPF and IS-IS-based systems. It exposes a RESTful API compatible with management consoles developed by SolarWinds, Nagios, Zabbix, Prometheus, and Grafana for monitoring and telemetry. Security and policy modules allow role-based control analogous to RADIUS, TACACS+, and identity systems such as LDAP and Active Directory. Fault tolerance and scalability are supported through clustering approaches similar to Apache Zookeeper coordination and persistence backed by Apache Cassandra, Redis, or MySQL. Packet-in processing, flow statistics, and meter support enable integration with middleboxes and services from F5 Networks, Palo Alto Networks, and Fortinet.

Deployment and Integration

Floodlight can be deployed on virtualization hosts managed by KVM, Xen Project, and Hyper-V, or container platforms orchestrated by Docker and Kubernetes. Integration patterns include northbound service chaining with Service Function Chaining architectures, southbound device control for Data Center Bridging fabrics, and hybrid deployments combining traditional BGP edge routers and SDN overlays using VXLAN or GRE. It is commonly integrated with monitoring stacks involving Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana for logging, and with CI/CD pipelines leveraging Jenkins, Travis CI, CircleCI, and GitLab CI. Deployment scenarios range from lab testbeds connected to Mininet and GNS3 to production fabrics in facilities operated by Equinix, DigitalOcean, and regional carriers.

Development History and Licensing

Floodlight's origins trace to efforts around OpenFlow standardization promoted by the Open Networking Foundation and academic projects at Stanford University and UC Berkeley focusing on network programmability. Commercial stewardship involved Big Switch Networks which contributed code and operational experience derived from early SDN deployments at Yahoo!, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The project is implemented in Java and maintained via distributed source control on GitHub with contributions from engineers affiliated with Intel, Broadcom, Marvell Technology Group, and independent researchers from Carnegie Mellon University. Floodlight is distributed under the Apache License 2.0, enabling use by startups, enterprises, and research groups as with other projects like Hadoop, Spark (software), and Kafka.

Use Cases and Adoption

Floodlight has been used in research labs at MIT, Imperial College London, and University of Cambridge for experimentation in network virtualization, traffic engineering, and programmable campus networks. Production adopters have included cloud providers, content delivery networks such as Akamai, and telecommunications operators exploring NFV and 5G transport automation with integration into OpenStack-based orchestration. Academic and community tooling often pairs Floodlight with emulation environments like Mininet and test suites from IETF working groups; operational scenarios cover tenant isolation, dynamic load balancing similar to HAProxy use cases, and fine-grained access control for environments managed by ServiceNow and Splunk.

Category:Software-defined networking