Laman: A supervisor controller based scalable framework for software defined networks

Abstract

Software Defined Network is a paradigm different from traditional networks, as it separates the control plane from the forwarding plane. Forwarding plane elements are responsible for switching while control plane controls the behavior of the network. This decoupling, apart from providing numerous benefits, gives rise to different overheads between these two planes. Overloading of the controller is a major logjam in such networks. Therefore, centralized architecture brings scalability issues, especially control plane scalability issues in such networks. A Supervisor controller equipped framework viz. Laman is proposed, that aims to preserve the approach of centralized architecture and improve the scalability of Software Defined Networks. The distribution of control in a network is logically divided between a Supervisory controller and application specific controllers. All the controllers are connected to a central controller, named as Supervisor Controller. By distributing the major incoming load of Supervisor controller, Laman can alleviate the load from the centralized controller and consequently improves scalability. Preliminary evaluation shows that Laman framework provides better performance as compared to the already existing similar frameworks.