Performance evaluation of pox controller for software defined networks

Abstract

In traditional network the coupling of data plane and control plane makes the data forwarding, processing and managing of the network hard and complex. Here each switch takes its own decision, makes the network logically decentralized. To overcome the limitations in traditional network the Engineers developed a new model network known as Software Defined Network (SDN). This network the control plane is decoupled from the data plane making it less complex. It moreover has a logically centralized approach unlike the existing network. This separation enables the network control to be directly programmable and the architecture to be abstracted for applications and network services. SDN platform provides advantages like programmability, task virtualization and easy management of the network. However, it faces new challenges towards scalability and performances. It is a must to understand and analyze the performances of SDN for implementation and deployment in live network environments. SDN working with POX is studied. This paper analyses the working of POX controller and evaluates the performance metrics of POX controller for SDN environment. The emulation is done using the Emulation software.