A new approach to dynamic routing in SDN networks

Abstract

Today's networks are dominantly based on the Shortest Path First (SPF) routing algorithms. These algorithms assign weighting factors to links statically, such that the routing tables are recalculated only when a topology change occurs. As a result, the network traffic is often unevenly distributed, thus causing the congestion on some links even when the total traffic load is not particularly high. In this paper, we discuss how the above-mentioned problem could be alleviated by applying dynamic routing in Software-Defined Networks (SDNs). We propose three new dynamic routing algorithms and present their OpenFlow-based implementation. The efficiency of the proposed solutions has been verified on two OpenFlow network topologies in Mininet emulator. The obtained results show that the proposed solutions could significantly improve the network throughput in comparison to SPF routing model used in traditional networks.