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Abstract: This paper presents the proposal of a load balancing algorithm implemented in two of the most popular controllers for Software Defined Networks (SDN): OpenDaylight and Floodlight. A comparative study in terms of the available bandwidth and delay time of the packet forwarding was performed by means of simulation modeling in a base network in which a shortest path algorithm was implemented as well. The results show that the proposed load balancing algorithm improves significantly the performance of a SDN in terms of the offered QoS of an OpenDaylight based controller. The effect of the proposed load balancing algorithm in the Floodlight controller shows a smaller impact mainly on the bandwidth allocation due to its in-build modules that by default perform specific routing and forwarding operations efficiently according to the traffic demand.
Keywords: Software Defined Networking, Load Balancing, Floodlight, OpenDaylight, MININET.
1.Introduction
Software defined Networking (SDN) is described as a dynamic, manageable, adaptable and cost-effective network architecture suitable to cope with the transport of high bandwidth demands. SDN aims at the creation of networks in which the control is detached from the hardware and is given to a software application called controller. This fact allows achieving simpler, programmable, flexible, more scalable and automatable networks as well as greater security and reliability are acquired due to the centralized control [1, 2, 3]. In the context of the Quality of Service (QoS), load balancing is emerging as an important feature for future communication networks due to its versatility and constant improvements in communication and information systems. From the network's viewpoint, it provides scalability and easy management to TCP/IP, web, proxy, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and multimedia services. Load balancing allows the use of the existing parallel paths between input and output nodes to distribute the information flows that are transmitted in a network where its underlying contribution is to reduce the congestion through routing and traffic control according to the existing resources in the backbone. The fact of combining all these characteristics can generate new models and structures that support the appropriate and balanced distribution of traffic with assurances of QoS, thus obtaining the most optimal paths to destinations [4].
Load balancing distributes IP traffic to multiple copies or instances of TCP/IP services, each one running...