Benchmarking of mainstream SDN controllers over open off-the-shelf software-switches

Abstract

The decoupling of the data plane and the control plane that became real through the advent of the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm, has made possible the fast and flexible customized prototyping of testbed environments. One of the critical challenges that must be faced is the deployment of low-cost high-performance open testbeds. Our group built a low-cost testbed that is highly flexible and customizable, and able to leverage a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the minimal combination of components needed to achieve more efficient outcomes in specific scenarios. In light of this, we assessed the use of ONOS, Floodlight, and Ryu mainstream SDN controllers, on top of low-cost open routers/switches platforms in which both OpenWrt and LEDE operating systems are embedded, to provide in-depth discussions on different aspects of the subject. When measured in terms of (a) throughput and (b) network topology discovery time, the results of the assessment provided unpublished performance and scalability perspectives about the relationship between the controller and the operating system.