Open Cloud eXchange (OCX):Architecture, Components, and Demo Scenario
Yuri Demchenko, Ralph Koning, Cosmin Dimitru, Cees de Laat (UvA), Migiel de Vos (SURFnet), Tasos Karaliotas (GRNET), Kurt
Baumann (SWITCH), Damir Regvart (CARNET), Sonja Filiposka (UKIM)
Intercloud Infrastructure/Services Provisioning(Enterprise Workflow deployment on heterogeneous cloud infrastructure)

OCX services and functional components

Resource and Cloud Provider Domains
VR3

VR1

VR5

VR7

Campus A
Infrastructure

Campus B
Infrastructure

VR2

VR4

OCX at Cloud Carrier or Network
Provider (NREN) level

Network Provider 1Campus A

Visualisation

Campus B

Visualisation

Cloud Carrier or Network Provider 2CE

UserGroup A

VR6CEUser
User
User

User
User
User
VR6
VR2UserGroup B

Cloud 2 PaaS
VR7

VR4

VR1Enterprise/Project basedIntercloud Infrastructure

VR5

Resource/
ServiceProvider

VR3

Cloud 1 IaaS

Resource/
ServiceProvider

CN

CN
CN

CN

CN

CN

CN

CN

Cloud PaaS Provider
CN

CN

CN

Cloud IaaS Provider• Architecturally and functionally the gOCX includes the following services andfunctional components :• Physical Point of Presence (PoP) for providers and customers.
• L0-L2 network interconnection facility (optionally also connectivity using
dedicated optical links). The associated service should allow topology
information exchange between providers and customers in a secure andconsistent way.
• Trusted Third Party (TTP) services in order to support dynamic peering,business/service and trust relation establishment between gOCX members. The
specific services may include:• Trusted Certificates repository and associated Trusted Introducer
service in order to allow establishment of dynamic trust
associations and/or federations.
• Trust Broker service supported by either or both the Trusted
Introducer and privacy/data security policy Registry orclearinghouse.
• Publish/subscribe Services Directory and Discovery, in order to provide a list of
all CSPs and their cloud services offered so that customers can subscribe tochosen services. An SLA clearing-house service can also be provided.
• Optional Cloud Service Broker that will provide service advice and integration
for the contracted community.

The Intercloud Architecture Framework components••••

Multilayer Cloud Services Model (CSM) for vertical cloud services interaction, integration and compatibility that defines
both relations between cloud service models (such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and other required functional layers andcomponents of the general cloud based services infrastructure.
Intercloud Control and Management Plane (ICCMP) for Intercloud applications/infrastructure control and management,
including inter-applications signaling, synchronization and session management, configuration, monitoring, run time
infrastructure optimization including VM migration, resources scaling, and jobs/objects routing.
Intercloud Federation Framework (ICFF) to allow independently managed clouds and related infrastructure components
federation at the level of services, business applications, semantics, and namespaces.
Intercloud Operation and Management Framework (ICOMF) includes functionalities to support multi-provider
infrastructure operation including business workflow, SLA management, accounting. ICOMF requires support from andinteracts with both ICCMP and ICFF.

Open Cloud eXchange (OCX) Definition, Design and Operational Principles
TTP

GEANT

University

NREN––––OCX– Transparency for cloud based services– No involvement into peering or mutual businessrelations• Trusted Third Party (TTP) services–Visualisation

VR6––CE

VR7OCX

VR4VR5User
User
User

VR3DFlow

Nodes: Providers and customers
OCX

IP/L3Visualisation

Pre-established trust relation with OCX as TTP
CEVR7L1VR4To support dynamic service agreements and/orfederation establishment
SLA Repository and Clearinghouse
Trusted Introducer for dynamic trust establishment• May include other special services tosupport smooth services delivery andintegration between CSP and Customer– Local policies, service registry and discovery– Topology information exchange L0-L2 (L3)

• QoS parameter: bandwidth, speed, latency

Trust relations established as a part ofdynamic federation between OCX members

OCXVR5L0

OCX Facilities
OCX backbone links/connectivity (Lo-L2)

L2
VR6

Re-use and leverage Internet eXchange
Open collocation services
Scalability for growing number of members
Controlled network parameters/QoS• No third party (intermediary/broker)
services

OCX Implementation: Hierarchical Topology Model
CSP• Direct service/inter-member peering

User
User
User

VR3

Demo Scenario: HD video editing and streaming

OCX Demo at TNC2014? Using the routed internet as comparison

62
1

Routed Internet

5

University ofAmsterdam

Okeanos

SURFnet7

NetherLightOCX

2

GRNET
OCX
13

5CloudSigmaGÉANT2014
NetworkingConference

6

Video Processing Sequence
1 - Spawn VMs at Okeanos and send video frames
towards these VMs
2 - Transcoding at Okeanos VMs
3 - More CPU power required; spawn VMs at CloudSigma and send video frames towards these VMs

SWITCHOCX

44 - Transcoding at Cloud Sigma VMs
5 - Okeanos VMs send transcoded frames to UvA
6 - Cloud Sigma VMs send transcoded Frames to UvA
7 - Show results at TNC

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) has some 4K movies that need efficient transcoding.
Using their local OCX (NetherLight) the UvA can easily get access to necessary computeresources at different Cloud Service Providers via high performance dedicated network
links. In the demo we use Okeanos (connected via GRNET OCX) and Cloud Sigma(connected via SWITCH OCX).
• The UvA created scheduling software that is able to spawn virtual machines at Okeanosor Cloud Sigma.
• The machines are spawned inside the L2-domain of the UvA, which gives the UvA fullcontrol.
OCX enabled GEANT infrastructure provides the following benefits• Allow the R&E community to select from a broad range of cloud services that ensure
network service levels and/or have a logical separation from the Internet• Allow CSPs to deliver their services efficient, using optimized paths, to the R&E
community (everyone is welcome, no limitations on “crossconnects”)• Facilitate transparant connectivity between the R&E community and CSPs (allow jumboframes, no firewalls/policies, private network, ..)• Enhance “time-to-market” by using Bandwidth-on-Demand or other Software Defined
Networking solutions
Related links
Intercloud Architecture Framework for Interoperability and Integration, Draft version 0.7, 1 July 2013. SNE Technical Report.
http://staff.science.uva.nl/~demch/worksinprogress/sne2012-techreport-12-05-intercloud-architecture-draft07.pdf
Open Cloud eXchange (OCX): Architecture and Functional Components. Proc. The 3rd workshop on Network Infrastructure Services
as part of Cloud Computing (NetCloud 2013), 2-5 December 2013, Bristol, UK

Credits: Yuri Demchenko, Migiel de Vos, Ralph Koning, Cosmin Dimitru, Tasos Karaliotas, Kurt Baumann, DamirRegvart, Sonja Filiposka, Cees de Laat
Contact: Yuri Demchenko <y.demchenko@uva.nl>, Migiel de Vos <migiel.devos@surfnet.nl>