Periodic Control Update Overheads in OpenFlow-Based Enterprise Networks

Software-defined networks (SDNs) detach the forwarding plane from the control plane and communicate instruction sets between the separated planes via the OpenFlow protocol. This arrangement solves some current challenges. However, it introduces challenges of its own that cut across security, scalability and lack of well-defined standards for northbound Application Programming Interfaces (API). This paper studies selected periodic control overheads exhibited by an operational OpenFlow network, and makes comparisons with selected distributed protocols running on legacy network architectures. Results from our simulations show OpenFlow generates significantly higher periodic control traffic (byte and packet count) when determining network state.