Software-defined networking (SDN) is a networking architecture with improved efficiency achieved by moving networking decisions from the data plane to provide them critically at the control plane. In a traditional SDN, typically, a single controller is used. However, the complexity of modern networks due to their size and high traffic volume with varied quality of service requirements have introduced high control message communications overhead on the controller. Similarly, the solution found using multiple distributed controllers brings forth the 'controller placement problem' (CPP). Incorporating switch roles in the CPP modelling during network partitioning for controller placement has not been adequately considered by any existing CPP techniques. This article proposes the controller placement algorithm with network partition based on critical switch awareness (CPCSA). CPCSA identifies critical switch in the software defined wide area network (SDWAN) and then partition the network based on the criticality. Subsequently, a controller is assigned to each partition to improve control messages communication overhead, loss, throughput, and flow setup delay. The CPSCSA experimented with real network topologies obtained from the Internet Topology Zoo. Results show that CPCSA has achieved an aggregate reduction in the controller's overhead by 73%, loss by 51%, and latency by 16% while improving throughput by 16% compared to the benchmark algorithms.
Keywords: Controller overhead; Controller placement; Network partition; SDN; Switch role.
© 2023 Muhammed Yusuf et al.