In this paper, we introduce NDNFlow: an open-source software implementation of a Named DataNetworking based forwarding scheme in OpenFlow-controlled Software-Defined Networks (SDNs). By setting up an application-specific communication channel and controller layer parallel to the application agnostic OpenFlow protocol, we obtain a mechanism to deploy specific optimizations into a networkwithout requiring a full network upgrade or OpenFlow protocol change.
Our open-source softwareimplementation consists of both an NDN-specific controller module and an NDN client plug-in. NDNFlow allows OpenFlow networks with NDN capabilities to exploit the benefits of NDN, by enabling the use of intermediate caches, identifying flows of content and eventually performing traffic engineering based on these principles.