On the feasibility and efficacy of control traffic protection in software-defined networks

作     者：HU YanNan WANG WenDong GONG XiangYang QUE XiRong CHENG ShiDuan 

作者机构：State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications 

出 版 物：《Science China(Information Sciences)》 (中国科学:信息科学(英文版))

年 卷 期：2015年第58卷第12期

页      面：44-62页

核心收录：

学科分类：12[管理学] 1201[管理学-管理科学与工程(可授管理学、工学学位)] 08[工学] 081201[工学-计算机系统结构] 0812[工学-计算机科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：supported in part by National High-tech R&D Program of China(863 Program)(Grant Nos.2013AA013301 2015AA016101) 

主　　题：software-defined network protection control traffic resilience optimization 

摘      要：Software Defined Networking(SDN) is an emerging networking paradigm that assumes a logically centralized control plane separated from the data plane. Despite all its advantages, separating the control and data planes introduces new challenges regarding resilient communications between the two. That is, disconnections between switches and their controllers could result in substantial packet loss and performance *** paper addresses this challenge by studying the issue of control traffic protection in SDNs with arbitrary numbers of controllers. Specifically, we propose a control traffic protection scheme that combines both local rerouting and constrained reverse path forwarding protections, through which switches can locally react to failures and redirect the control traffic using standby backup forwarding options. Our goal is then to find a set of primary routes for control traffic, called protected control network, where as many switches as possible can benefit from the proposed protection scheme. We formulate the protected control network problem, prove its NP-hardness, and develop an algorithm that reconciles protectability and performance(e.g., switch-to-control latency). Through extensive simulations based on real topologies, we show that our approach significantly improves protectability of control traffic. The results should help further the process of deploying SDN in real-world networks.