1 research outputs found
Semi-distributed Traffic Engineering for Elastic Flows in Software Defined Networks
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is becoming the reference paradigm to
provide advanced Traffic Engineering (TE) solutions for future networks.
However, taking all TE decisions at the controller, in a centralized
fashion, may require long delays to react to network changes. With the most
recent advancements in SDN programmability
some decisions can (and should indeed) be offloaded to switches.
In this paper we present a model to route elastic demands in a general
network topology adopting a semi-distributed approach of the control plane
to deal with path congestion. Specifically, we envision a Stackelberg
approach where the SDN controller takes the role of Leader, choosing the
most appropriate subset of routing paths for the selfish users (network
switches), which behave as Followers, making local routing decisions based
on path congestion. To overcome the complexity of the problem and meet the
time requirements of real-life settings, we propose effective heuristic
procedures which take into accurate account traffic dynamics, considering a
stochastic scenario where both the number and size of flows change over
time. We test our framework with a custom-developed simulator in different
network topologies and instance sizes. Numerical results show how our model
and heuristics achieve the desired balance between making global decisions
and reacting rapidly to congestion events