Optimization Placement for SDN Controller: Bell Canada as a Case Study

Abstract

The tremendous proliferation of data traffic has been a key motivator for the upgrading of traditional IP networks One new conceptual model that has been developed for redesigning and managing communication networks is software-defined networking (SDN). The main premise behind SDN is the decoupling of the control and data planes, which enables the centralization of the control plane and the programmability of the data plane. Despite these advantages, the use of SDN remains challenging with respect to a number of aspects, such as finding optimal locations for SDN controllers in a wide area network (WAN) and determining the effective number of controllers. The work presented in this thesis addresses these challenges through two proposed strategies for dealing with the SDN controller placement problem. The Bell Canada WAN was considered as a case study: the network was examined, and the modeled procedures for determining the best location for SDN controllers were applied with the goal of enhancing the quality of service (QoS) and minimizing global latency. The simulations conducted as a means of validating and comparing the performance of the two models produced consistent results.