Controller Backup and Replication for Reliable Multi-domain SDN

Abstract

Software defined networking (SDN) is considered to be one of the most promising paradigms in the future. To solve the scalability and performance problem that a single and centralized controller suffers from, the distributed multi-controller architecture is adopted, thus forms multi-domain SDN. In a multi-domain SDN network, it is of great importance to ensure a reliable control plane. In this paper, we focus on the reliability problem of multi-domain SDN against controller failure from perspectives of backup controller deployment and controller replication. We firstly propose a placement algorithm for backup controllers, which considers both the reliability and the cost factors. Then a controller replication mechanism based on shared data storage is proposed to solve the inconsistency between the active and standby controllers. We also propose a shared data storage layout method that considers both reliability and performance. Besides, a fault recovery and repair process is designed based on the controller backup and shared data storage mechanism. Simulations show that our approach can recover and repair controller failure. Evaluation results also show that the proposed backup controller placement approach is more effective than other methods.