Real-Time Fair Resource Allocation in Distributed Software Defined Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a distributed algorithm for real-time, fair bandwidth allocation in large-scale software-defined networks, ensuring convergence to fairness while maintaining feasibility and handling traffic fluctuations efficiently.

Contribution

It presents a novel distributed algorithm that guarantees feasible, convergent solutions for fair resource allocation in SDN, suitable for large-scale, dynamic network environments.

Findings

Handles large network instances in real-time

Ensures convergence to fair resource allocation

Maintains feasibility throughout the process

Abstract

The performance of computer networks relies on how bandwidth is shared among different flows. Fair resource allocation is a challenging problem particularly when the flows evolve over time.To address this issue, bandwidth sharing techniques that quickly react to the traffic fluctuations are of interest, especially in large scale settings with hundreds of nodes and thousands of flows. In this context, we propose a distributed algorithm that tackles the fair resource allocation problem in a distributed SDN control architecture. Our algorithm continuously generates a sequence of resource allocation solutions converging to the fair allocation while always remaining feasible, a property that standard primal-dual decomposition methods often lack. Thanks to the distribution of all computer intensive operations, we demonstrate that we can handle large instances in real-time.