OpenDaylight concepts and tools¶

In this section we discuss some of the concepts and tools you encounter with basic use of OpenDaylight. The guide walks you through the installation process in a subsequent section, but for now familiarize yourself with the information below.

• To date, OpenDaylight developers have formed more than 50 projects to address ways to extend network functionality. The projects are a formal structure for developers from the community to meet, document release plans, code, and release the functionality they create in an OpenDaylight release.

  The typical OpenDaylight user will not join a project team, but you should know what projects are as we refer to their activities and the functionality they create. The Karaf features to install that functionality often share the project team’s name.

• Apache Karaf provides a lightweight runtime to install the Karaf features you want to implement and is included in the OpenDaylight platform software. By default, OpenDaylight has no pre-installed features.

• After installing OpenDaylight, you install your selected features using the Karaf console to expand networking capabilities. In the Karaf feature list below are the ones you’re most likely to use when creating your network environment.

  As a short example of installing a Karaf feature, OpenDaylight offers Application Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO). The Karaf feature to install ALTO is odl-alto-all. On the Karaf console, the command to install it is:

  feature:install odl-alto-all

• DLUX is a web-based interface that OpenDaylight provides for you to manage your network. Its Karaf feature installation name is “odl-dlux-core”.

  1. DLUX draws information from OpenDaylight’s topology and host databases to display the following information:

     1. The network
     2. Flow statistics
     3. Host locations

  2. To enable the DLUX UI after installing OpenDaylight, run:

     feature:install odl-dlux-core

     on the Karaf console.

• Network embedded Experience (NeXt) is a developer toolkit that provides tools to draw network-centric topology UI elements that offer visualizations of the following:

  1. Large complex network topologies
  2. Aggregated network nodes
  3. Traffic/path/tunnel/group visualizations
  4. Different layout algorithms
  5. Map overlays
  6. Preset user-friendly interactions

  NeXt can work with DLUX to build OpenDaylight applications. Check out the NeXt_demo for more information on the interface.

• Model-Driven Service Abstraction Layer (MD-SAL) is the OpenDaylight framework that allows developers to create new Karaf features in the form of services and protocol drivers and connects them to one another. You can think of the MD-SAL as having the following two components:

  1. A shared datastore that maintains the following tree-based structures:

  1. The Config Datastore, which maintains a representation of the desired network state.
  2. The Operational Datastore, which is a representation of the actual network state based on data from the managed network elements.

  2. A message bus that provides a way for the various services and protocol drivers to notify and communicate with one another.

• If you’re interacting with OpenDaylight through DLUX or the REST APIs while using the the OpenDaylight interfaces, the microservices architecture allows you to select available services, protocols, and REST APIs.