Software-Defined Networking: State of the Art and Research Challenges

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current state of software-defined networking (SDN), its benefits in various environments, and discusses the challenges and solutions related to scalability, reliability, and security.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of SDN's advantages, challenges, and existing solutions, highlighting its potential to improve network management and performance.

Findings

SDN enhances network flexibility and management.

Challenges include scalability, reliability, and security.

Various solutions are proposed for these challenges.

Abstract

Plug-and-play information technology (IT) infrastructure has been expanding very rapidly in recent years. With the advent of cloud computing, many ecosystem and business paradigms are encountering potential changes and may be able to eliminate their IT infrastructure maintenance processes. Real-time performance and high availability requirements have induced telecom networks to adopt the new concepts of the cloud model: software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). NFV introduces and deploys new network functions in an open and standardized IT environment, while SDN aims to transform the way networks function. SDN and NFV are complementary technologies; they do not depend on each other. However, both concepts can be merged and have the potential to mitigate the challenges of legacy networks. In this paper, our aim is to describe the benefits of using SDN in a multitude of environments such as in data centers, data center networks, and Network as Service offerings. We also present the various challenges facing SDN, from scalability to reliability and security concerns, and discuss existing solutions to these challenges.