Title: New method for controller-to-controller communication in distributed SDN architecture

Authors: Fouad Benamrane; Mouad Ben Mamoun; Redouane Benaini

Addresses: LRI, Faculty of Sciences of Rabat, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco ' LRI, Faculty of Sciences of Rabat, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco ' LRI, Faculty of Sciences of Rabat, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

Abstract: Software defined networking (SDN) is a promising technology that separates the control plane from the data plane in network devices and allows for programmability, flexibility, and efficiency in networks. Adopting this technology for data centres, cloud, and WAN networks could simplify network management. However, SDN was not initially designed for distributed architectures and could not handle a huge amount of data coming from a large network. We aim, in this paper, at providing new architecture composed of multiple SDN controllers, where each controller uses a dedicated interface to communicate with neighbouring controllers. Also, we provide several modes to customise this communication. Last, we show an initial proof-of-concept demonstration of our design.

Keywords: software defined networks; SDN; OpenFlow; multiple controllers; controller-to-controller interface; performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2017.086493

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 2017 Vol.19 No.3, pp.357 - 367

Accepted: 29 Sep 2016
Published online: 10 Sep 2017 *

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