An Algorithm to Design a Scalable Control Layer for a Software-Defined Network

Software defined networking (SDN) architecture streamlines the contemporary networks by separating the data forwarding capabilities of the data plane from the routing capabilities of the control plane that were previously carried out in the network nodes itself. Network changes in the data plane are propagated to the control plane through an interface existing between a switch and its controller and also among the controllers. Majority of the relevant research work focuses on building a control layer that aims to minimize communication delay between a switch and its controller. Such a control layer may compromise on the data loss that occurs as a result of a link break in the network. We propose an algorithm that aims to cut down the data loss as a result of a link break, resulting in a control layer which is more failure resilient. In addition to this, we consider each controller’s individual capacity to handle requests thereby, assigning it as many switches as it is capable of handling.