Fault Tolerance and Failure Recovery Techniques in Software-Defined Networking: A Comprehensive Approach

Fault Tolerance and Failure Recovery Techniques in Software-Defined Networking: A Comprehensive Approach

연구 분야: Networking

학회: Journal of Network and Systems Management

The traditional networks have a decentralized routing process, which uses routing rules to direct packets, leading to looping problems during failure. This is primarily due to the close connection between the data/control planes and the absence of overall network topological information. Furthermore, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a rising network concept that has garnered significant attention from both academia and the industry. It enables network flexibility by separating the control and data planes, leading to centralized network control. The global network topology information supplied by SDN facilitates network management, allows designers to encounter their specific, end-to-end requirements, and enables invention in networking. To guarantee high reliability and availability in networks, fault tolerance is required to minimize service failure consequences. This paper discusses the different SDN fault tolerance approaches in the literature. Specifically, our study focuses on Link Failure Detection and Recovery in both, Control and Data planes. We involve a systematic classification, comparison, and analysis of the existing SDN fault tolerance approaches: Reactive, Proactive, and Hybrid. Research and practical implications of fault tolerance in SDN are further discussed, along with open challenges and future research directions.