SDN-enabled converged networks

With the rapid progress of mobile Internet and the explosion of its applications, network operators are bearing different services from different service providers, content providers, and virtual service providers. It is better for the network operators to converge their network controllers in order to take advantage of open, scalable, and smart traffic transmissions. Meanwhile, efficiency and low cost are still of great importance for network operators. Software defined networking is capable of supporting the dynamic nature of future network functions and upper layer applications while lowering operating costs through simplified hardware, software, and management, whereas converged networking is capable of meeting the huge traffic delivery demand in the near future by taking advantage of different networks designed individually for different purposes. In this article, to benefit from the SDN and converged network techniques, we propose an SDN-enabled convergent network for efficient resource management, E2E QoS enforcement, and flexibility and scalability for future network evolution. We also investigate the system architecture and protocol, as well as key technical challenges. Some promising applications of the proposed network are implemented and evaluated based on our established open test platform to show its superiority to current network architecture and techniques.