Chapter 2

Software-defined networking

2.1 Introduction

Software-defined networking (SDN) refers to a way of organizing computer network functionality. SDN allows the network to be virtualized, providing greater control and support for traffic engineering.

2.2 Network limitations

Current operating networks are the result of protocol and network design decisions initially made in the 1970s. At that time, it was envisioned that 32 bits would be sufficient to handle all of the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that the Internet would ever need (roughly 16 million)—and it was, until February 2011, when the IP4 addresses ran out (Cert, 2013). Networks were also considered to be static. Once established, a network topology was not expected to change ...