An OpenFlow (OF) is a promising and alarming technology for enabling advanced functionalities in programmable networks. One of the most admired protocol standards is known as the OpenFlow protocol. It allows direct access and manipulation of the forwarding plane of network devices such as routers and switches as both virtual and physical.

OpenFlow provides access to the flow tables and instructs the switches to intimate how to direct entire network traffics. OpenFlow is the most deployed concept that communicates between switches and controllers. OpenFlow-based SDN applications have become very popular in many direct areas, such as,

 •  Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN)
 •  Wireless sensor networks
 •  Cellular networks
 •  Mobile networks
 •  Telecom domain
 •  Intrusion detection

The OpenFlow-based SDN has introduced some specific attacks as,

 •  Man-in-the-middle attack
 •  Denial of service risk attack

The OpenFlow-based SDN has several applications that include

 •  Internet research
 •  Rural connections
 •  Date center upgrading
 •  Mobile device offloading
 •  Wireless virtual machines
 •  Ease of configurations

OpenFlow deployments face several challenges:

 •  Security
 •  Availability
 •  Scalability
 •  Reliability
 •  Expenditure
 •  Compatibility