Controlling a Software-Defined Network via Distributed Controllers

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a distributed OpenFlow controller and an associated coordination framework that achieves scalability and reliability even under heavy data center loads. The proposed framework, which is designed to work with all existing OpenFlow controllers with minimal or no required changes, provides support for dynamic addition and removal of controllers to the cluster without any interruption to the network operation. We demonstrate performance results of the proposed framework implemented over an experimental testbed that uses controllers running Beacon.