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https://github.com/noxrepo/pox

The POX network software platform
https://github.com/noxrepo/pox

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The POX network software platform

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README 

        
# POX



POX is a networking software platform written in Python.



POX started life as an OpenFlow controller, but can now also function as an

OpenFlow switch, and can be useful for writing networking software in

general.  It currently supports OpenFlow 1.0 and includes special support

for the Open vSwitch/Nicira extensions.



POX versions are named.  Starting with POX "gar", POX officially requires

Python 3.  The last version with support for Python 2 was POX "fangtooth".

POX should run under Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.  (And just about anywhere

else -- we've run it on Android phones, under FreeBSD, Haiku, and elsewhere.

All you need is Python!)  Some features are not available on all platforms.

Linux is the most featureful.



This README contains some information to get you started, but is purposely

brief.  For more information, please see the full documentation.



## Running POX



`pox.py` boots up POX. It takes a list of component names on the command line,

locates the components, calls their `launch()` function (if it exists), and

then transitions to the "up" state.



If you run `./pox.py`, it will attempt to find an appropriate Python 3

interpreter itself.  In particular, if there is a copy of PyPy in the main

POX directory, it will use that (for a potentially large performance boost!).

Otherwise it will look for things called `python3` and fall back to `python`.

You can also, of course, invoke the desired Python interpreter manually

(e.g., `python3 pox.py`).



The POX commandline optionally starts with POX's own options (see below).

This is followed by the name of a POX component, which may be followed by

options for that component.  This may be followed by further components

and their options.



  ./pox.py [pox-options...] [component] [component-options...] ...



### POX Options



While components' options are up to the component (see the component's

documentation), as mentioned above, POX has some options of its own.

Some useful ones are:



 | Option        | Meaning                                                   |

 | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |

 |`--verbose`    | print stack traces for initialization exceptions          |

 |`--no-openflow`| don't start the openflow module automatically             |



## Components



POX components are basically Python modules with a few POX-specific

conventions.  They are looked for everywhere that Python normally looks, plus

the `pox` and `ext` directories.  Thus, you can do the following:



  ./pox.py forwarding.l2_learning



As mentioned above, you can pass options to the components by specifying

options after the component name.  These are passed to the corresponding

module's `launch()` funcion.  For example, if you want to run POX as an

OpenFlow controller and control address or port it uses, you can pass those

as options to the openflow._01 component:



  ./pox.py openflow.of_01 --address=10.1.1.1 --port=6634



## Further Documentation



The full POX documentation is available on GitHub at

https://noxrepo.github.io/pox-doc/html/