ESCAPEv2: Extensible Service ChAin Prototyping Environment using Mininet, Click, NETCONF and POX

Introduction

On the one hand, ESCAPE (Extensible Service ChAin Prototyping Environment) is a general prototyping framework which supports the development of several parts of the service chaining architecture including VNF implementation, traffic steering, virtual network embedding, etc. On the other hand, ESCAPE is a proof of concept prototype implementing a novel SFC (Service Function Chaining) architecture proposed by EU FP7 UNIFY project: https://www.fp7-unify.eu/. It is a realization of the UNIFY service programming and orchestration framework which enables the joint programming and virtualization of cloud and networking resources.

Installation

Dependencies:

sudo apt -y install python2.7 python-dev python-pip zlib1g-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev \
    libssl-dev libffi-dev python-crypto openjdk-7-jdk neo4j=2.2.7 gcc make socat psmisc xterm \
    ssh iperf iproute telnet python-setuptools cgroup-bin ethtool help2man pyflakes pylint pep8 \
    openvswitch-switch automake ssh libssh2-1-dev libgcrypt11-dev libncurses5-dev libglib2.0-dev \
    libgtk2.0-dev graphviz texlive-latex-extra

sudo pip -H install numpy jinja2 py2neo networkx requests ncclient cryptography==1.3.1 tornado \
    sphinx networkx_viewer

Because the core ESCAPEv2 relies on POX and written in Python there is no need for explicit compiling or installation. The only requirement need to be pre-installed is a Python interpreter.

The recommended Python version, in which the development and mostly the testing are performed, is the standard CPython 2.7.11.

The best choice of platform on wich ESCAPEv2 is recommended to install and the install-dep.sh is tested is Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS.

However ESCAPEv2 is developed on Kubuntu 16.04, some issues are experienced related to SAP-xterm initiation in case the platform was an Ubuntu 16.04 server image and ESCAPEv2 was started through an SSH channel. Considering this limitation we recommend to use the older 14.04 LTS version in case ESCAPEv2 is intended to run on a VM without any graphical interface.

The preferred way:

1. Download one of pre-build Ubuntu LTS image or create one in your VM manager.

2. Create the .ssh folder in the home directory and copy your private RSA key which you gave on the fp7-unify.eu GitLab site into the VM with the name id_rsa. If you use a VM image then the following commands can be used in the VM to copy your RSA key from your host:

   cd
   mkdir .ssh
   scp <your_user>@<host_ip>:~/.ssh/<your_ssh_key> ~/.ssh/id_rsa

3. Clone the shared escape repository in a folder named: escape.

   git clone git@5gexgit.tmit.bme.hu:unify/escape.git escape

4. Install the necessary dependencies with the install_dep.sh script (system and Python packages, OpenYuma with VNFStarter module):

   cd escape
   escape$ ./install_dep.sh

   In a high level the script above does the following things:

   • Install the necessary system and Python packages
   • Compile and install the OpenYuma tools with our VNF_starter module
   • Compile and install Click modular router and The Click GUI.
   • Install neo4j graph database for NFIB

   See help menu for further parameters:

   ./install-dep.sh -h
   Usage: ./install-dep.sh [-a] [-c] [-d] [-g] [-h] [-i]
   Install script for ESCAPEv2
   
   options:
       -a:   (default) install (A)ll ESCAPEv2 components (identical with -cgi)
       -c:   install (C)ore dependencies for Global Orchestration
       -d:   install additional dependencies for (D)evelopment and test tools
       -g:   install dependencies for our rudimentary (G)UI
       -h:   print this (H)elp message
       -i:   install components of (I)nfrastructure Layer for Local Orchestration

5. Run ESCAPEv2 with one of the commands listed in a later section. To see the available arguments of the top stating script check the help menu:

   ./escape.py --help

   To verify ESCAPEv2's components are installed and set up correctly you can run the following command and test the reachability of the initiated SAPs (xterm) with ping:

   ./escape.py -df -s examples/escape-mn-req.nffg
   # on SAP1 xterm
   $ ping sap2
   # on SAP2 xterm
   $ ping sap1

To setup virtualizer library as a subtree module manually, use the following commands from the project's root directory:

git submodule update --init --recursive --merge

For more information see: https://sb.tmit.bme.hu/escape/