A lightweight protocol for consistent policy update on software-defined networking with multiple controllers

Author(s)

Ferrazani Mattos, Diogo Menezes ^{[1, 2, 3]} ; Muniz Bandeira Duarte, Otto Carlos ^{[2, 4]} ; Pujolle, Guy ^[5]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Fed Fluminense, TET, PPGEET, Niteroi, RJ - Brazil

^[2] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, COPPE, GTA, POLI, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

^[3] Univ Fed Fluminense, Lab MidiaCom, R Passo Patria 156, BR-24210240 Niteroi, RJ - Brazil

^[4] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, GTA, Ilha Fundao, POB 68504, BR-21945972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brazil

^[5] UPMC Univ Paris 06, Sorbonne Univ, Lab Informat Paris 6, Paris - France

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: JOURNAL OF NETWORK AND COMPUTER APPLICATIONS; v. 122, p. 77-87, NOV 15 2018.
• Web of Science Citations: 1

Abstract

Network-policy updates have to be committed in a consistent way on distributed-controller software-defined networking. Otherwise, the network may experience unexpected transitory configuration states, which compromise the performance, the security or, even, the correct operation. In this paper, we propose a scheme that provides consistent policy updates without rule conflicts and transitory states. The main contributions are: (i) a protocol that serializes policy update commitments to provide consistency; (ii) a consensus interface proposal that facilitates controller agreements about the network configuration version; and (iii) an algorithm for checking if a new policy is an update, a refinement, or if it conflicts with already installed policies. We prove that our protocol achieves a global order for all policy updates and that our algorithm correctly composes all policies. Simulation results using real network topologies show that the proposed distributed policy update scheme achieves a per-packet consistent configuration with a low control message overhead. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/50937-1 - INCT 2014: on the Internet of the Future
• Grantee: Fabio Kon
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 15/24514-9 - Stream project: security in real-time with elasticity, analytic, and monitoring
• Grantee: Otto Carlos Muniz Bandeira Duarte
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 15/24485-9 - Future internet for smart cities
• Grantee: Fabio Kon
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants