Controller Placement Approach with Criteria Balance in SDN networks

Abstract

Software Defined Network (SDN) is an emerging technology that centralizes network control and automates network management by separating the data plane from the control plane. The control plane is a set of controllers that manage the network switches. The crucial problem of positioning these controllers is known as the Controller Placement Problem (CPP). The optimal controllers positioning is very constrained and affects the different network performance parameters, such as, controller-to-switch latency, inter-controller latency, number of hops between controller and switch and inter-controller. In this paper, we study the impact of optimizing some parameters on the others, we have developed different approaches, and each considers one or two parameters. Moreover, we propose a balanced optimization approach that considers the various network performance parameters. We formulate the problem as an Integer Linear Programming model that considers all parameters using the Lexicographic Multi-objective optimization method. By ensuring a balance between all parameters, network performance is significantly improved. The obtained results reveal that our approach is more inclusive and provides very interesting results.