Impact of SDN Controllers Deployment on Network Availability

Abstract: Software-defined networking (SDN) promises to improve the programmability and flexibility of networks, but it may bring also new challenges that need to be explored. The purpose of this technical report is to assess how the deployment of the SDN controllers affects the overall availability of SDN. For this, we have varied the number, homing and location of SDN controllers. A two-level modelling approach that is used to evaluate the availability of the studied scenarios. Our results show how network operators can use the approach to find the optimal cost implied by the connectivity of the SDN control platform by keeping high levels of availability.