Performance evaluation of OpenFlow data planes

Abstract

The decoupling of data and control planes of network switches is the main characteristic of Software Defined Networks. The OpenFlow (OF) protocol implements this concept and it is found today in various off-the-shelf equipment. Despite being widely employed in industry and research there is no systematic evaluation of OF data plane performance in the literature. In this paper we evaluate the performance and maturity of the main features of OF 1.0 on nine hardware and software switches. Results show that the performance varies significantly among implementations. For instance, packet delays vary by one order of magnitude among the evaluated switches, while the packet size does not impact the performance of OF switches.