Software Defined Mobile Networks (SDMN)

8The Controller Placement Problem in Software Defined Mobile Networks (SDMN)

Hakan Selvi,¹ Selcan Güner,¹ Gürkan Gür,² and Fatih Alagöz¹

¹ SATLAB, Department of Computer Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey

² Provus—A MasterCard Company, Istanbul, Turkey

8.1 Introduction

Traditional networks consist of a large variety of network nodes such as switches, routers, hubs, different network appliances, complicated protocols and interfaces, which are defined in detail through standardization. However, these systems provide limited ways to develop and adopt new network features and capabilities once deployed. Therefore, this semistatic architecture poses a challenge against adaptation to meet the requirements of today’s network operators and end users. To facilitate required network evolution, the idea of programmable networks and software defined networking (SDN) has been proposed [1]. This approach is devised to simplify network management and enable innovation through network programmability. In the SDN architecture, the control and data planes are decoupled and the network intelligence is logically centralized in software-based controllers. An SDN controller provides a programmatic interface to the network, where applications can be written to perform management tasks and offer new functionalities. The control is centralized and applications are written as if the network is a unified system. While this simplifies policy enforcement and management tasks, the binding ...