Open-Source Software Defined Networking Controllers:State-of-the-Art,Challenges and Solutions for Future Network Providers

Software Defined Networking(SDN)is programmable by separation of forwarding control through the centralization of the controller.The controller plays the role of the‘brain’that dictates the intelligent part of SDN technology.Various versions of SDN controllers exist as a response to the diverse demands and functions expected of them.There are several SDN controllers available in the open market besides a large number of commercial controllers;some are developed tomeet carrier-grade service levels and one of the recent trends in open-source SDN controllers is the Open Network Operating System(ONOS).This paper presents a comparative study between open source SDN controllers,which are known as Network Controller Platform(NOX),Python-based Network Controller(POX),component-based SDN framework(Ryu),Java-based OpenFlow controller(Floodlight),OpenDayLight(ODL)and ONOS.The discussion is further extended into ONOS architecture,as well as,the evolution of ONOS controllers.This article will review use cases based on ONOS controllers in several application deployments.Moreover,the opportunities and challenges of open source SDN controllers will be discussed,exploring carriergrade ONOS for future real-world deployments,ONOS unique features and identifying the suitable choice of SDN controller for service providers.In addition,we attempt to provide answers to several critical questions relating to the implications of the open-source nature of SDN controllers regarding vendor lock-in,interoperability,and standards compliance,Similarly,real-world use cases of organizations using open-source SDN are highlighted and how the open-source community contributes to the development of SDN controllers.Furthermore,challenges faced by open-source projects,and considerations when choosing an open-source SDN controller are underscored.Then the role of Artificial Intelligence(AI)and Machine Learning(ML)in the evolution of open-source SDN controllers in light of recent research is indicated.In addition,the challenges and limitations associated with deploying open-source SDN controllers in production networks,how can they be mitigated,and finally how opensource SDN controllers handle network security and ensure that network configurations and policies are robust and resilient are presented.Potential opportunities and challenges for future Open SDN deployment are outlined to conclude the article.

Threshold-Based Software-Defined Networking(SDN)Solution for Healthcare Systems against Intrusion Attacks

The healthcare sector holds valuable and sensitive data.The amount of this data and the need to handle,exchange,and protect it,has been increasing at a fast pace.Due to their nature,software-defined networks(SDNs)are widely used in healthcare systems,as they ensure effective resource utilization,safety,great network management,and monitoring.In this sector,due to the value of thedata,SDNs faceamajor challengeposed byawide range of attacks,such as distributed denial of service(DDoS)and probe attacks.These attacks reduce network performance,causing the degradation of different key performance indicators(KPIs)or,in the worst cases,a network failure which can threaten human lives.This can be significant,especially with the current expansion of portable healthcare that supports mobile and wireless devices for what is called mobile health,or m-health.In this study,we examine the effectiveness of using SDNs for defense against DDoS,as well as their effects on different network KPIs under various scenarios.We propose a threshold-based DDoS classifier(TBDC)technique to classify DDoS attacks in healthcare SDNs,aiming to block traffic considered a hazard in the form of a DDoS attack.We then evaluate the accuracy and performance of the proposed TBDC approach.Our technique shows outstanding performance,increasing the mean throughput by 190.3%,reducing the mean delay by 95%,and reducing packet loss by 99.7%relative to normal,with DDoS attack traffic.

Examining the Quality Metrics of a Communication Network with Distributed Software-Defined Networking Architecture

Software-Defined Networking(SDN),with segregated data and control planes,provides faster data routing,stability,and enhanced quality metrics,such as throughput(Th),maximum available bandwidth(Bd(max)),data transfer(DTransfer),and reduction in end-to-end delay(D(E-E)).This paper explores the critical work of deploying SDN in large-scale Data Center Networks(DCNs)to enhance its Quality of Service(QoS)parameters,using logically distributed control configurations.There is a noticeable increase in Delay(E-E)when adopting SDN with a unified(single)control structure in big DCNs to handle Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP)requests causing a reduction in network quality parameters(Bd(max),Th,DTransfer,D(E-E),etc.).This article examines the network performance in terms of quality matrices(bandwidth,throughput,data transfer,etc.),by establishing a large-scale SDN-based virtual network in the Mininet environment.The SDN network is simulated in three stages:(1)An SDN network with unitary controller-POX to manage the data traffic flow of the network without the server load management algorithm.(2)An SDN network with only one controller to manage the data traffic flow of the network with a server load management algorithm.(3)Deployment of SDN in proposed control arrangement(logically distributed controlled framework)with multiple controllers managing data traffic flow under the proposed Intelligent Sensing Server Load Management(ISSLM)algorithm.As a result of this approach,the network quality parameters in large-scale networks are enhanced.

Deployment Strategy for Multiple Controllers Based on the Aviation On-Board Software-Defined Data Link Network

In light of the escalating demand and intricacy of services in contemporary terrestrial,maritime,and aerial combat operations,there is a compelling need for enhanced service quality and efficiency in airborne cluster communication networks.Software-Defined Networking(SDN)proffers a viable solution for the multifaceted task of cooperative communication transmission and management across different operational domains within complex combat contexts,due to its intrinsic ability to flexibly allocate and centrally administer network resources.This study pivots around the optimization of SDN controller deployment within airborne data link clusters.A collaborative multi-controller architecture predicated on airborne data link clusters is thus proposed.Within this architectural framework,the controller deployment issue is reframed as a two-fold problem:subdomain partition-ing and central interaction node selection.We advocate a subdomain segmentation approach grounded in node value ranking(NDVR)and a central interaction node selection methodology predicated on an enhanced Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm(AFSA).The advanced NDVR-AFSA(Node value ranking-Improved artificial fish swarm algorithm)algorithm makes use of a chaos algorithm for population initialization,boosting population diversity and circumventing premature algorithm convergence.By the integration of adaptive strategies and incorporation of the genetic algorithm’s crossover and mutation operations,the algorithm’s search range adaptability is enhanced,thereby increasing the possibility of obtaining globally optimal solutions,while concurrently augmenting cluster reliability.The simulation results verify the advantages of the NDVR-IAFSA algorithm,achieve a better load balancing effect,improve the reliability of aviation data link cluster,and significantly reduce the average propagation delay and disconnection rate,respectively,by 12.8%and 11.7%.This shows that the optimization scheme has important significance in practical application,and can meet the high requirements of modern sea,land,and air operations to aviation airborne communication networks.

A Novel Load Balancing Strategy of Software-Defined Cloud/Fog Networking in the Internet of Vehicles

The Internet of Vehicles(IoV)has been widely researched in recent years,and cloud computing has been one of the key technologies in the IoV.Although cloud computing provides high performance compute,storage and networking services,the IoV still suffers with high processing latency,less mobility support and location awareness.In this paper,we integrate fog computing and software defined networking(SDN) to address those problems.Fog computing extends computing and storing to the edge of the network,which could decrease latency remarkably in addition to enable mobility support and location awareness.Meanwhile,SDN provides flexible centralized control and global knowledge to the network.In order to apply the software defined cloud/fog networking(SDCFN) architecture in the IoV effectively,we propose a novel SDN-based modified constrained optimization particle swarm optimization(MPSO-CO) algorithm which uses the reverse of the flight of mutation particles and linear decrease inertia weight to enhance the performance of constrained optimization particle swarm optimization(PSO-CO).The simulation results indicate that the SDN-based MPSO-CO algorithm could effectively decrease the latency and improve the quality of service(QoS) in the SDCFN architecture.

Blockchain-Based Secure Distributed Control for Software Defined Optical Networking

Software defined optical networking(SDON)is a critical technology for the next generation network with the advantages of programmable control and etc.As one of the key issues of SDON,the security of control plane has also received extensive attention,especially in certain network scenarios with high security requirement.Due to the existence of vulnerabilities and heavy overhead,the existing firewalls and distributed control technologies cannot solve the control plane security problem well.In this paper,we propose a distributed control architecture for SDON using the blockchain technique(BlockCtrl).The proposed BlockCtrl model introduces the advantages of blockchain into SDON to achieve a high-efficiency fault tolerant control.We have evaluated the performance of our proposed architecture and compared it to the existing models with respect to various metrics including processing rate,recovery latency and etc.The numerical results show that the BlockCtrl is capable of attacks detection and fault tolerant control in SDON with high performance on resource utilization and service correlation.

A Dormant Multi-Controller Model for Software Defined Networking

In order to improve the scalability and reliability of Software Defined Networking(SDN),many studies use multiple controllers to constitute logically centralized control plane to provide load balancing and fail over.In this paper,we develop a flexible dormant multi-controller model based on the centralized multi-controller architecture.The dormant multi-controller model allows part of controllers to enter the dormant state under light traffic condition for saving system cost.Meanwhile,through queueing analysis,various performance measures of the system can be obtained.Moreover,we analyze the real traffic of China Education Network and use the results as the parameters of computer simulation and verify the effects of parameters on the system characteristics.Finally,a total expected cost function is established,and genetic algorithm is employed to find the optimal values of various parameters to minimize system cost for the deployment decision making.

Software defined satellite networks:A survey

In recent years,satellite networks have been proposed as an essential part of next-generation mobile communication systems.Software defined networking techniques are introduced in satellite networks to handle the growing challenges induced by time-varying topology,intermittent inter-satellite link and dramatically increased satellite constellation size.This survey covers the latest progress of software defined satellite networks,including key techniques,existing solutions,challenges,opportunities,and simulation tools.To the best of our knowledge,this paper is the most comprehensive survey that covers the latest progress of software defined satellite networks.An open GitHub repository is further created where the latest papers on this topic will be tracked and updated periodically.Compared with these existing surveys,this survey contributes from three aspects:(1)an up-to-date SDN-oriented review for the latest progress of key techniques and solutions in software defined satellite networks;(2)an inspiring summary of existing challenges,new research opportunities and publicly available simulation tools for follow-up studies;(3)an effort of building a public repository to track new results.

A Survey: Typical Security Issues of Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has been a hot topic for future network development, which implements the different layers of control plane and data plane respectively. Despite providing high openness and programmability, the “three-layer two-interface” architecture of SDN changes the traditional network and increases the network attack nodes, which results in new security issues. In this paper, we firstly introduced the background, architecture and working process of SDN. Secondly, we summarized and analyzed the typical security issues from north to south: application layer, northbound interface, control layer, southbound interface and data layer. Another contribution is to review and analyze the existing solutions and latest research progress of each layer, mainly including: authorized authentication module, application isolation, DoS/DDoS defense, multi-controller deployment and flow rule consistency detection. Finally, a conclusion about the future works of SDN security and an idealized global security architecture is proposed.

Dynamic Threshold-Based Approach to Detect Low-Rate DDoS Attacks on Software-Defined Networking Controller

The emergence of a new network architecture,known as Software Defined Networking(SDN),in the last two decades has overcome some drawbacks of traditional networks in terms of performance,scalability,reliability,security,and network management.However,the SDN is vulnerable to security threats that target its controller,such as low-rate Distributed Denial of Service(DDoS)attacks,The low-rate DDoS attack is one of the most prevalent attacks that poses a severe threat to SDN network security because the controller is a vital architecture component.Therefore,there is an urgent need to propose a detection approach for this type of attack with a high detection rate and low false-positive rates.Thus,this paper proposes an approach to detect low-rate DDoS attacks on the SDN controller by adapting a dynamic threshold.The proposed approach has been evaluated using four simulation scenarios covering a combination of low-rate DDoS attacks against the SDN controller involving(i)a single host attack targeting a single victim;(ii)a single host attack targeting multiple victims;(iii)multiple hosts attack targeting a single victim;and(iv)multiple hosts attack targeting multiple victims.The proposed approach’s average detection rates are 96.65%,91.83%,96.17%,and 95.33%for the above scenarios,respectively;and its average false-positive rates are 3.33%,8.17%,3.83%,and 4.67%for similar scenarios,respectively.The comparison between the proposed approach and two existing approaches showed that it outperformed them in both categories.

EARS: Intelligence-Driven Experiential Network Architecture for Automatic Routing in Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking(SDN)adapts logically-centralized control by decoupling control plane from data plane and provides the efficient use of network resources.However,due to the limitation of traditional routing strategies relying on manual configuration,SDN may suffer from link congestion and inefficient bandwidth allocation among flows,which could degrade network performance significantly.In this paper,we propose EARS,an intelligence-driven experiential network architecture for automatic routing.EARS adapts deep reinforcement learning(DRL)to simulate the human methods of learning experiential knowledge,employs the closed-loop network control mechanism incorporating with network monitoring technologies to realize the interaction with network environment.The proposed EARS can learn to make better control decision from its own experience by interacting with network environment and optimize the network intelligently by adjusting services and resources offered based on network requirements and environmental conditions.Under the network architecture,we design the network utility function with throughput and delay awareness,differentiate flows based on their size characteristics,and design a DDPGbased automatic routing algorithm as DRL decision brain to find the near-optimal paths for mice and elephant flows.To validate the network architecture,we implement it on a real network environment.Extensive simulation results show that EARS significantly improve the network throughput and reduces the average packet delay in comparison with baseline schemes(e.g.OSPF,ECMP).

Real-Time Timing Channel Detection in a Software-Defined Networking Virtual Environment

Despite extensive research, timing channels (TCs) are still known as a principal category of threats that aim to leak and transmit information by perturbing the timing or ordering of events. Existing TC detection approaches use either signature-based approaches to detect known TCs or anomaly-based approach by modeling the legitimate network traffic in order to detect unknown TCs. Un-fortunately, in a software-defined networking (SDN) environment, most existing TC detection approaches would fail due to factors such as volatile network traffic, imprecise timekeeping mechanisms, and dynamic network topology. Furthermore, stealthy TCs can be designed to mimic the legitimate traffic pattern and thus evade anomalous TC detection. In this paper, we overcome the above challenges by presenting a novel framework that harnesses the advantages of elastic re-sources in the cloud. In particular, our framework dynamically configures SDN to enable/disable differential analysis against outbound network flows of different virtual machines (VMs). Our framework is tightly coupled with a new metric that first decomposes the timing data of network flows into a number of using the discrete wavelet-based multi-resolution transform (DWMT). It then applies the Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD) to measure the variance among flow pairs. The appealing feature of our approach is that, compared with the existing anomaly detection approaches, it can detect most existing and some new stealthy TCs without legitimate traffic for modeling, even with the presence of noise and imprecise timekeeping mechanism in an SDN virtual environment. We implement our framework as a prototype system, OBSERVER, which can be dynamically deployed in an SDN environment. Empirical evaluation shows that our approach can efficiently detect TCs with a higher detection rate, lower latency, and negligible performance overhead compared to existing approaches.

A Software-Defined Approach to IoT Networking

It is foreseen that the Internet of Things (IoT) will comprise billions of connected devices, and this will make the provi?sioning and operation of some IoT connectivity services more challenging. Indeed, IoT services are very different from lega?cy Internet services because of their dimensioning figures and also because IoT services differ dramatically in terms of na?ture and constraints. For example, IoT services often rely on energy and CPU?constrained sensor technologies, regardless of whether the service is for home automation, smart building, e?health, or power or water metering on a regional or national scale. Also, some IoT services, such as dynamic monitoring of biometric data, manipulation of sensitive information, and pri?vacy needs to be safeguarded whenever this information is for?warded over the underlying IoT network infrastructure. This paper discusses how software?defined networking (SDN) can facilitate the deployment and operation of some advanced IoT services regardless of their nature or scope. SDN introduces a high degree of automation in service delivery and operation-from dynamic IoT service parameter exposure and negotiation to resource allocation, service fulfillment, and assurance. This paper does not argue that all IoT services must adopt SDN. Rather, it is left to the discretion of operators to decide which IoT services can best leverage SDN capabilities. This paper only discusses managed IoT services, i.e., services that are op?erated by a service provider.

Workload-aware request routing in cloud data center using software-defined networking

Large latency of applications will bring revenue loss to cloud infrastructure providers in the cloud data center. The existing controllers of software-defined networking architecture can fetch and process traffic information in the network. Therefore, the controllers can only optimize the network latency of applications. However, the serving latency of applications is also an important factor in delivered user-experience for arrival requests. Unintelligent request routing will cause large serving latency if arrival requests are allocated to overloaded virtual machines. To deal with the request routing problem, this paper proposes the workload-aware software-defined networking controller architecture. Then, request routing algorithms are proposed to minimize the total round trip time for every type of request by considering the congestion in the network and the workload in virtual machines（VMs）. This paper finally provides the evaluation of the proposed algorithms in a simulated prototype. The simulation results show that the proposed methodology is efficient compared with the existing approaches.

Using Heuristics to the Controller Placement Problem in Software-Defined Multihop Wireless Networking

Solving the controller placement problem (CPP) in an SDN architecture with multiple controllers has a significant impact on control overhead in the network, especially in multihop wireless networks (MWNs). The generated control overhead consists of controller-device and inter-controller communications to discover the network topology, exchange configurations, and set up and modify flow tables in the control plane. However, due to the high complexity of the proposed optimization model to the CPP, heuristic algorithms have been reported to find near-optimal solutions faster for large-scale wired networks. In this paper, the objective is to extend those existing heuristic algorithms to solve a proposed optimization model to the CPP in software-defined multihop wireless networking (SDMWN).Our results demonstrate that using ranking degrees assigned to the possible controller placements, including the average distance to other devices as a degree or the connectivity degree of each placement, the extended heuristic algorithms are able to achieve the optimal solution in small-scale networks in terms of the generated control overhead and the number of controllers selected in the network. As a result, using extended heuristic algorithms, the average number of hops among devices and their assigned controllers as well as among controllers will be reduced. Moreover, these algorithms are able tolower the control overhead in large-scale networks and select fewer controllers compared to an extended algorithm that solves the CPP in SDMWN based on a randomly selected controller placement approach.

The Impact of Delay in Software-Defined Integrated Terrestrial-Satellite Networks

Satellite communication networks have been evolving from standalone networks with ad-hoc infrastructures to possibly interconnected portions of a wider Future Internet architecture. Experts belonging to the fifth-generation(5 G) standardization committees are considering satellites as a technology to integrate in the 5 G environment. Software Defined Networking(SDN) is one of the paradigms of the next generation of mobile and fixed communications. It can be employed to perform different control functionalities, such as routing, because it allows traffic flow identification based on different parameters and traffic flow management in a centralized way. A centralized set of controllers makes the decisions and sends the corresponding forwarding rules for each traffic flow to the involved intermediate nodes that practically forward data up to the destination. The time to perform this process in integrated terrestrial-satellite networks could be not negligible due to satellite link delays. The aim of this paper is to introduce an SDN-based terrestrial satellite network architecture and to estimate the mean time to deliver the data of a new traffic flow from the source to the destination including the time required to transfer SDN control actions. The practical effect is to identify the maximum performance than can be expected.

Service Function Chain in Small Satellite-Based Software Defined Satellite Networks

Software Defined Satellite Networks(SDSN) are proposed to solve the problems in traditional satellite networks, such as time-consuming configuration and inflexible traffic scheduling. The emerging application of small satellite and research of SDSN make it possible for satellite networks to provide flexible network services. Service Function Chain(SFC) can satisfy this need. In this paper, we are motivated to investigate applying SFC in the small satellite-based SDSN for service delivery. We introduce the structure of the multi-layer constellation-based SDSN. Then, we describe two deployment patterns of SFC in SDSN, the Multi-Domain(MD) pattern and the Satellite Formation(SF) pattern. We propose two algorithms, SFP-MD, and SFP-SF, to calculate the Service Function Path(SFP). We implement the algorithms and conduct contrast experiments in our prototype. Finally, we summarize the applicable conditions of two deployment patterns according to the experimental results in terms of hops, delay, and packet loss rate.

Naive Echo-State-Network Based Services Awareness Algorithm of Software Defined Optical Networks

As internet services newly emerge with diversity and complexity, great challenges and demands are presented to the Open Flow controlled software defined optical networks(SDON) to achieve better match between services and SDON. With this aim, this paper proposes a naive Echo-State-Network(Naive-ESN) based services awareness algorithm of the software defined optical network, where the naive ESN model adopts the ring topology structure and generates the probability output result to determine the Qo S policy of SDON. Moreover, the Naive-ESN engine is also designed in controller node of SDON to perform services awareness by obtaining service traffic features from data plan, together with some necessary extension of the Open Flow protocol. Test results show that the proposed approach is able to improved services-oriented supporting ability of SDON.

Orchestrating Network Functions in Software-Defined Networks

Software.defined networking(SDN) enables third.part companies to participate in the network function innovations. A number of instances for one network function will inevitably co.exist in the network. Although some orchestration architecture has been proposed to chain network functions, rare works are focused on how to optimize this process. In this paper, we propose an optimized model for network function orchestration, function combination model(FCM). Our main contributions are as following. First, network functions are featured with a new abstraction, and are open to external providers. And FCM identifies network functions using unique type, and organizes their instances distributed over the network with the appropriate way. Second, with the specialized demands, we can combine function instances under the global network views, and formulate it into the problem of Boolean linear program(BLP). A simulated annealing algorithm is designed to approach optimal solution for this BLP. Finally, the numerical experiment demonstrates that our model can create outstanding composite schemas efficiently.

A Low-Cost Measurement Framework in Software Defined Networks

Software Defined Network (SDN) makes network management more flexible by separating control plane and data plane, centralized control and being programmable. Although, network measurement still remains in primary stage in SDN, it has become an essential research field in SDN management. In this context, this paper presents a low-cost high-accuracy measurement framework to support various network measurement tasks, such as throughput, delay and packet loss rate. In this framework, we only measure per-flow edge switches (the first and the last switches). In addition, a new adaptive sampling algorithm is proposed to significantly improve measurement accuracy and decrease network overhead. Meanwhile, we consider a low-cost topology discovery approach into our framework instead of topology discovery currently implemented by SDN controller frameworks. In order to improve the accuracy of delay, we also join a time threshold value to adjust the time delay. Furthermore, we consider and analyze the balance between measurement overhead and accuracy in several aspects. Last, we utilize POX controller to implement the proposed measurement framework. The effectiveness of our solution is demonstrated through simulations in Mininet and Matlab.