SDN-based dynamic multi-path routing strategy for satellite networks

Abstract

Software Defined Network (SDN) is a new network architecture which is efficient, dynamic, controllable and adaptable. It is suitable for networks with high bandwidth requirements and high dynamic characteristics. Although the satellite network has a large communication coverage area, factors such as dynamic and time-varying topology, unstable links, unbalanced users of distribution and limited resources can easily cause serious network congestion and high transmission delay. The use of SDN to build a satellite network is conducive to solving the above-mentioned problems. This paper proposes a multi-path routing strategy based on SDN, which uses a combination of delay, bandwidth and node load to construct a link transmission cost calculation model, and adjusts the route for end-to-end transmission in time by real-time sensing of the network status and the load of the switching nodes in the network, thereby improving transmission efficiency. In particular, considering that the transmission delay of the satellite network is mainly determined by the propagation delay, this paper uses the Systems Tool Kit (STK) to establish the propagation delay model of the inter-satellite link to improve the accuracy of the transmission cost calculation. This paper compares the existing routing methods with the method in this paper on the Mininet simulation platform. The experimental results show that the method in this paper can effectively balance the bandwidth consumption of different links and improve the throughput of the network under the circumstance that the satellite network changes dynamically.