Fault Tolerance in SDN Data Plane Considering Network and Application Based Metrics

Abstract: Failures in networks result in service disruptions which may cause deteriorated Quality of Service (QoS) for the end users. Since SDN is becoming the mainstream paradigm for networks, implementation of a robust fault tolerance scheme for SDN-based networks is crucial. Existing SDN data plane fault tolerance approaches can be classified as reactive and proactive which may or may not rely on the controller, respectively. However, none of them qualifies as a complete solution, providing only partial remedies. In this work, we propose Dynamic Protection with Quality of Alternative Paths (DPQoAP) that considers not only the existing faults within the network but also the quality of alternative paths. As a result, we can sustain the QoS throughout the network after the recovery. We also investigate how application based parameters are affected by link failures. To this end, we explore the change in Quality of Experience (QoE) caused by link failures under different cases using Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) for video streaming. On the other hand, even though DASH is proposed as a solution to improve the QoE affected by the dynamic conditions of the networks, it remains insufficient to handle the congested links that show the symptoms of a link failure. Thus, we apply the data plane fault tolerance approach in SDN to improve the QoE of DASH clients in the case of congestion as well as the failure. The performance of the proposed solutions are evaluated through various experiments considering the QoS and QoE parameters. It is observed that DPQoAP enhances the efficiency of the networking operations and adaptability of the applications.