Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The controller placement problem for wireless SDN

Wireless Networks volume 25, pages 4963–4978 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

The software defined networking paradigm decouples the network’s control logic (the control plane) from the underlying routers and switches (the data plane), promoting centralization of network control. The controller placement problem is threefold in nature: the number of controllers to be placed in a network, the locations of these controllers and the assignment function of controllers to switches, with all of them important for the design of an efficient control plane. Most of the existing literature focuses on the placement problem assuming the medium between the controllers and the switches is wired. In this paper, we present a novel strategy to address the controller placement problem, which protects the latency, link failure probability and transparency in the case of a wireless SouthBound interface. We model the problem of determining the placement of wireless controllers in software defined networking. For this purpose, we present a heuristic solution, based on the simulated annealing genetic algorithm, which provides a fast and efficient solution.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

References

  1. Abdel-Rahman, M. J., Mazied, E. A., MacKenzie, A., Midkiff, S., Rizk, M. R., & El-Nainay, M. (2017). On stochastic controller placement in software-defined wireless networks. In 2017 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), (pp. 1–6) https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC.2017.7925942

  2. Abdel-Rahman, M. J., Mazied, E. A., Teague, K., MacKenzie, A. B., & Midkiff, S. F. (2017). Robust controller placement and assignment in software-defined cellular networks. In 2017 26th International Conference on Computer Communication and Networks (ICCCN) (pp. 1–9).

  3. Akyildiz, I. F., Lin, S. C., & Wang, P. (2015). Wireless software-defined networks (W-SDNs) and network function virtualization (NFV) for 5G cellular systems: An overview and qualitative evaluation. Computer Networks, 93, 66–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ashraf, U. (2018). Placing controllers in software-defined wireless mesh networks. In 2018 International Conference on Computing, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies (iCoMET) (pp. 1–4). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICOMET.2018.8346386

  5. Černỳ, V. (1985). Thermodynamical approach to the traveling salesman problem: An efficient simulation algorithm. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 45(1), 41–51.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Chaudet, C., & Haddad, Y. (2013). Wireless software defined networks: Challenges and opportunities. In 2013 IEEE International Conference on Microwaves, Communications, Antennas and Electronics Systems (COMCAS) (pp. 1–5).

  7. Dams, J., Hoefer, M., & Kesselheim, T. (2015). Scheduling in wireless networks with Rayleigh-fading interference. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 14(7), 1503–1514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Dvir, A., Haddad, Y., & Zilberman, A. (2018). Wireless controller placement problem. In Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), 2018 15th IEEE Annual (pp. 1–4).

  9. Faragardi, H. R., Vahabi, M., Fotouhi, H., Nolte, T., & Fahringer, T. (2018). An efficient placement of sinks and SDN controller nodes for optimizing the design cost of industrial IoT systems. Software: Practice and Experience.

  10. Foundation, O. N. Interoperability event technical issues report. Report June 2013. https://3vf60mmveq1g8vzn48q2o71a-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/openflow-spec-v1.2.pdf

  11. Gopal, R., & Ravishankar, C. (2014). Software defined satellite networks. In 32nd AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference.

  12. Heller, B., Sherwood, R., & McKeown, N. (2012). The controller placement problem. In Proceedings of the first Workshop on Hot Topics in Software Defined Networks (pp. 7–12). ACM

  13. Hu, T., Guo, Z., Yi, P., Baker, T., & Lan, J. (2018). Multi-controller based software-defined networking: A survey. IEEE Access, 6, 15980–15996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Hu, Y., Luo, T., Beaulieu, N. C., & Deng, C. (2017). The energy-aware controller placement problem in software defined networks. IEEE Communications Letters, 21(4), 741–744. https://doi.org/10.1109/LCOMM.2016.2645558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Johnston, M., & Modiano, E. (2017). Controller placement in wireless networks with delayed CSI. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 25(3), 1775–1788. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNET.2017.2651808.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Karakus, M., & Durresi, A. (2017). A survey: Control plane scalability issues and approaches in software-defined networking (SDN). Computer Networks, 112, 279–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Killi, B. P. R., & Rao, S. V. (2017). Capacitated next controller placement in software defined networks. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 14(3), 514–527. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSM.2017.2720699.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Kirkpatrick, S., Gelatt, C. D., Vecchi, M. P., et al. (1983). Optimization by simulated annealing. Science, 220(4598), 671–680.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  19. Lange, S., Gebert, S., Zinner, T., Tran-Gia, P., Hock, D., Jarschel, M., et al. (2015). Heuristic approaches to the controller placement problem in large scale SDN networks. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 12(1), 4–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Liu, J., Shi, Y., Zhao, L., Cao, Y., Sun, W., & Kato, N. (2018). Joint placement of controllers and gateways in SDN-enabled 5G-satellite integrated network. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications., 36, 221–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Liyanage, K. S. K., Ma, M., & Chong, P. H. J. (2018). Controller placement optimization in hierarchical distributed software defined vehicular networks. Computer Networks, 135, 226–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Megiddo, N., & Supowit, K. J. (1984). On the complexity of some common geometric location problems. SIAM Journal on Computing, 13(1), 182–196.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. Oni, P. B., & Blostein, S. D. (2017). Decentralized AP selection in large-scale wireless LANs considering multi-AP interference. In 2017 International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC) (pp. 13–18).

  24. Patzold, M. (2001). Mobile fading channels: Modelling, analysis and simulation. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Qin, Q., Poularakis, K., G. I., & Tassiulas, L. (2018). SDN controller placement at the edge: Optimizing delay and overheads. IEEE Infocom.

  26. Saadon, G., Haddad, Y., & Simoni, N. (2019). A survey of application orchestration and OSS in next-generation network management. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 62, 17–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csi.2018.07.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Sallahi, A., & St-Hilaire, M. (2015). Optimal model for the controller placement problem in software defined networks. IEEE Communications Letters, 19(1), 30–33. https://doi.org/10.1109/LCOMM.2014.2371014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Sallahi, A., & St-Hilaire, M. (2016). Expansion model for the controller placement problem in software defined networks. IEEE Communications Letters, 19(1), 30–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Singh, A. K., & Srivastava, S. (2018). A survey and classification of controller placement problem in SDN. International Journal of Network Management, 28(3), e2018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Tanha, M., Sajjadi, D., Ruby, R., & Pan, J. (2018). Capacity-aware and delay-guaranteed resilient controller placement for software-defined WANs. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management., 15, 991–1005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Vizarreta, P., Machuca, C. M., & Kellerer, W. (2016). Controller placement strategies for a resilient SDN control plane. In 2016 8th International Workshop on Resilient Networks Design and Modeling (RNDM) (pp. 253–259). https://doi.org/10.1109/RNDM.2016.7608295

  32. Wu, S., Chen, X., Yang, L., Fan, C., & Zhao, Y. (2018). Dynamic and static controller placement in software-defined satellite networking. Acta Astronautica. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.07.017.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Xie, J., Guo, D., Hu, Z., Qu, T., & Lv, P. (2015). Control plane of software defined networks: A survey. Computer Communications, 67, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Yao, G., Bi, J., Li, Y., & Guo, L. (2014). On the capacitated controller placement problem in software defined networks. IEEE Communications Letters, 18(8), 1339–1342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was (partly) funded by the Israel Innovations Authority under the Neptune generic research project. Neptune is the Israeli consortium for network programming.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Ariel Cyber Innovation Center, Ariel University, Ramat Hagolan St., 40700, Ariel, Israel

    Amit Dvir & Aviram Zilberman

  2. Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem, Israel

    Yoram Haddad & Aviram Zilberman

Authors
  1. Amit Dvir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yoram Haddad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Aviram Zilberman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amit Dvir.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dvir, A., Haddad, Y. & Zilberman, A. The controller placement problem for wireless SDN. Wireless Netw 25, 4963–4978 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-019-02077-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-019-02077-5

Keywords

search

Navigation