Separation of the Control Plane and Forwarding Plane in Next-Generation Routers

Abstract

Ever since the Internet appeared, network elements, such as routers, have been enhanced with much functionality. They tend to increasingly integrate more services, such as support and security mechanisms, which ensure Quality of Service. Similarly, processor performance continues to increase rapidly. Thus, these two types of evolution trigger the concept of separating the Control plane and the Forwarding plane in network elements.This study addresses the separation of the control plane and the forwarding plane in Next-Generation Routers. XML syntax is used to model, on the one hand, the suitable elements of the control plane and the forwarding plane. Implementation and prototyping results indicate that this syntax type for modeling provides a flexible platform, which is truly able to manage the heterogeneity of the material implementing the Forwarding Plane.