Research Area:  Software Defined Networks
This paper proposes a framework on controller and switches to reduce overhead of controller-switch communication for SDN-based Data Center Networks (DCN). The proposal focuses on OpenFlow (OF), a well-known, sophisticated protocol for SDN, to reduce the number of control messages, consisting of both PACKET_IN and PACKET_OUT messages handled by the OF controller during rule installation on OF switches’ flow tables. The controller receives the first packet of a flow for forwarding path determination and selectively chooses switches for rule installation. Moreover, to ensure lower loads for the controller to handle, the proposed framework adds an out-of-band controller and avoids a hybrid architecture. Extensive simulation shows significant results on reduced controller workload. The performance provides a mutual trade-off by considerably improving rule matching rate in the presence of slightly enhanced number of flow entries, conserving resources on both OF controller and OF switches for SDN-based DCN operation. As a consequence, network latency is reduced while throughput is enhanced, which offers a great promise in the future deployment of DCN.
Keywords:  
OpenFlow
Controller
Switch
Overhead reduction
Data Center Networks
Author(s) Name:  Alif Akbar Pranata, Tae Soo Jun, Dong Seong Kim
Journal name:  Computer Standards & Interfaces
Conferrence name:  
Publisher name:  Elsevier
DOI:  10.1016/j.csi.2018.11.001
Volume Information:  Volume 63, March 2019, Pages 1-15
Paper Link:   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920548917304427