SDN Resiliency to Controller Failure in Mobile Contexts

Abstract

Software defined networking (SDN) is a technology for management of computer networks. We are interested in SDNs where the switches are mounted on vehicles, the controller is airborne, and connectivity changes dynamically as a result of vehicular movement. The challenge of interest is that when a controller fails the switches are left with whatever configuration they had at the point of failure. Without a controller, as the switches move and links become unuseable, flows configured to use those links are broken unless the configuration has anticipated such events and provided alternative routes. We describe a high fidelity SDN network simulator which uses snapshots of actual switch configurations and analyzes their resilience to impacts of controller failure. We propose an algorithm for backup paths which is guaranteed to not cause loops, and conduct a simulation study to understand the types of domains where have the greatest impact on network performance.