Software-Defined Networking Challenges and Research Opportunities for Future Interest

EasyChair Preprint 14639

Abstract

SDN is an emerging paradigm currently evidenced as a new driving force in the general area of computer networks. Many investigations have been carried out in the last few years about the benefits and drawbacks in adopting SDN. However, there are few discussions on how to manage networks based on this new paradigm. This article contributes to this discussion by identifying some of the main management requirements of SDN. Moreover, we describe current proposals and highlight major challenges that need to be addressed to allow wide adoption of the paradigm and related technology. 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. Thereafter, we present existing SDN-related taxonomies and propose a taxonomy that classifies the reviewed research works and brings relevant research directions into focus. We dedicate the second part of this paper to studying and comparing the current SDN-related research initiatives and describe the main issues that may arise due to the adoption of SDN. Furthermore, we review several domains where the use of SDN shows promising results. We also summarize some foreseeable future research challenges.

Index Terms—Software-defined networking, OpenFlow, programmable networks, controller, management, virtualization, flow.

Keyphrases: Future of SDN, Mininet SDN, Network Management with SDN, Research Opportunities for Future Interest, SDN Deployment Strategies, SDN Research Opportunities, SDN Scalability & Security, SDN and 5G, SDN challenges, Software Defined Networking (SDN), Traditional Networking

@booklet{EasyChair:14639,
  author    = {Santhosh Katragadda Katragadda and Oluwabukola Hallel},
  title     = {Software-Defined Networking Challenges and Research Opportunities for Future Interest},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 14639},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2024}}