Quick Start#

Requirements#

OS: Linux

Connect to Your Remote Machine#

If you’re using a remote machine, set up port forwarding for viewing the OpenOptics dashboard.

ssh -L localhost:8001:localhost:8001 YOUR_MACHINE

Pull Docker Image and Clone Repository#

sudo docker pull ymlei/openoptics:latest
git clone https://github.com/mpi-ncs/openoptics.git

Enter the OpenOptics Environment#

Option A: With VS Code#

Open the folder openoptics with the VS Code Remote - Containers extension.
With Docker and the Dev Containers extension installed, press: • Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) • Command+Shift+P (Mac)
Run Dev Containers: Reopen in Container.

Option B: With Terminal#

cd openoptics/
sudo docker run --privileged -dit --network host \
--name openoptics \
-v "$PWD:/openoptics" \
ymlei/openoptics:latest /bin/bash

sudo docker exec -it openoptics bash

Install the Project and Initialize the Dashboard#

cd /openoptics/
pip install -e .

cd /openoptics/openoptics/dashboard
bash init.sh

You are all set!

Start with an Example Script#

Use the following commands to start a round-robin optical DCN with direct path routing:

cd examples
python3 routing_direct_perhop.py

Then you can try ping in your optical DCN,

h0 ping h1
h2 ping h3

Defining Your Own Optical DCN with Python APIs#

OpenOptics User APIs are located in openoptics/Toolbox.py. This file defines a number of useful functions for creating optical topologies, delopying routings, and monitoring the network. Every OpenOptics network is a BaseNetwork object:

net = Toolbox.BaseNetwork(
    name="my_network",
    backend="Mininet",
    nb_node = 4,
    time_slice_duration_ms = 32, # in ms
    use_webserver=True)

The backend parameter selects the network simulator or hardware target (currently "Mininet"). Backend-specific options are passed as extra keyword arguments and validated at construction time. For Mininet, link_delay_ms sets per-link propagation delay (default: 0):

net = Toolbox.BaseNetwork(
    name="my_network",
    backend="Mininet",
    nb_node=4,
    time_slice_duration_ms=32,
    link_delay_ms=1,         # 1 ms propagation delay (Mininet-specific)
    use_webserver=True)

You can use connect(node1,port1,node2,port2,time_slice) to connect ports of two nodes at the given time slice.

net.connect(node1=0,port1=0,node2=1,port2=0,time_slice=0)
net.connect(node1=2,port1=0,node2=3,port2=0,time_slice=0)
net.connect(node1=0,port1=0,node2=2,port2=0,time_slice=1)
net.connect(node1=1,port1=0,node2=3,port2=0,time_slice=1)
net.deploy_topo()

Or you can use provided high-level topology generators:

circuits = OpticalTopo.round_robin(nb_node=8)
net.deploy_topo(circuits)

circuits = OpticalTopo.opera(nb_node = 8, nb_link=2)
net.deploy_topo(circuits)

Next, you can define routing by adding time-flow table entries (as forwarding tables in eletrical DCNs) add_time_flow_entry(node_id, entries, routing_mode). Or use provided high-level routing generators:

paths = OpticalRouting.routing_direct(net.get_topo())
net.deploy_routing(paths, routing_mode="Per-hop")

Once you have created a BaseNetwork object, and defined its topology and routing, start the network by simply calling net.start(). Now run your Python file and your first optical DCN is deployed!

net.start() launches a command line interface defined in src/OpticalCLI.py. This CLI is an extension of Mininet’s CLI, with added support for optical DCNs, e.g. to query the number of queued packets in switches and the network’s packet loss rate.

You could find example scripts configuring different architectures under openoptics/examples/

Monitor with OpenOptics Dashboard#

To configure the OpenOptics web dashboard, navigate to src/dashboard and run:

bash init.sh

Make sure to set use_webserver to true when creating your BaseNetwork object. In your web browser, visit http://localhost:8001 to view the dashboard. The dashboard displays the network topology, along with realtime graphs of network performance served via WebSockets.

Note: If you’re running OpenOptics at a remote machine, make sure to enable port forwarding by passing -L localhost:8001:localhost:8001 to ssh.

Quick Start

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