CAP for networks
Aurojit Panda, Colin Scott, Ali Ghodsi, Teemu Koponen, Scott J. Shenker · 2013
The CAP theorem showed that it is impossible for datastore systems to achieve all three of strong consistency, availability and partition tolerance. In this paper we investigate how these trade-offs apply to software-defined networks. Specifically, we investigate network policies such as tenant isolation and middlebox traversal, and prove that it is impossible for implementations to enforce them without sacrificing availability. We conclude by distilling practical design lessons from our observations.