A Lightweight, Non-intrusive Approach for Orchestrating Autonomously-managed Network Elements

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable, non-intrusive method for orchestrating autonomous network elements using backpressure routing, achieving network stability and throughput with minimal controller interaction.

Contribution

It introduces a lightweight, decentralized orchestration scheme that allows network elements to accept or reject routing rules, reducing controller workload and enhancing scalability.

Findings

Achieves network stability and high throughput in simulations.

Requires minimal, infrequent interaction with the controller.

Proven effective through mathematical analysis.

Abstract

Software-Defined Networking enables the centralized orchestration of data traffic within a network. However, proposed solutions require a high degree of architectural penetration. The present study targets the orchestration of network elements that do not wish to yield much of their internal operations to an external controller. Backpressure routing principles are used for deriving flow routing rules that optimally stabilize a network, while maximizing its throughput. The elements can then accept in full, partially or reject the proposed routing rule-set. The proposed scheme requires minimal, relatively infrequent interaction with a controller, limiting its imposed workload, promoting scalability. The proposed scheme exhibits attracting network performance gains, as demonstrated by extensive simulations and proven via mathematical analysis.