Renaissance: A Self-Stabilizing Distributed SDN Control Plane using In-band Communications

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Canini, Marco, Salem, Iosif, Schiff, Liron, Schiller, Elad Michael, Schmid, Stefan
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 29.03.2022
• Subjects: Algorithms; Communication networks; Computer Science - Data Structures and Algorithms; Computer Science - Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing; Computer Science - Networking and Internet Architecture; Controllers; Failure; Fault tolerance; Floodlighting; Software-defined networking
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1712.07697

By introducing programmability, automated verification, and innovative debugging tools, Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) are poised to meet the increasingly stringent dependability requirements of today's communication networks. However, the design of fault-tolerant SDNs remains an open challenge. This paper considers the design of dependable SDNs through the lenses of self-stabilization - a very strong notion of fault-tolerance. In particular, we develop algorithms for an in-band and distributed control plane for SDNs, called Renaissance, which tolerate a wide range of failures. Our self-stabilizing algorithms ensure that after the occurrence of arbitrary failures, (i) every non-faulty SDN controller can reach any switch (or another controller) within a bounded communication delay (in the presence of a bounded number of failures) and (ii) every switch is managed by a controller. We evaluate Renaissance through a rigorous worst-case analysis as well as a prototype implementation (based on OVS and Floodlight, and Mininet).