Make Flows Great Again: A Hybrid Resilience Mechanism for OpenFlow Networks

• Main Author: Walber José Adriano Silva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-06-01
• Series: Information
• Subjects: resilience mechanism; OpenFlow network; flow management; software-defined networking
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/9/6/146

A top concern in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is the management of network flows. The resource limitation in SDN devices, e.g., Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) size, and the signaling overhead between the control and data plane elements can impose scalability restrictions for a network. A notable SDN technology is the OpenFlow protocol, and failures in links and nodes inside an OpenFlow network could lead to drawbacks, such as packet loss. This work proposes the Local Node Group fast reroute (LONG), a hybrid resilience mechanism for OpenFlow networks that combines protection and restoration resilience mechanisms. The results achieved indicate that LONG is a practical approach when compared against the state-of-the-art algorithms.