Dynamic SDN controller assignment in data center networks: Stable matching with transfers
Tao Wang, Fangming Liu, Jian Guo, Hong Li Xu · 2016
Software defined networking is becoming increasingly prevalent in data center networks for its programmability that enables centralized network configuration and management. However, since switches are statically assigned to controllers, traffic dynamics cause load imbalance among the controllers. As a result, some controllers are not fully utilized, while switches connected to overloaded controllers may experience long response times. In this paper, we consider dynamic controller assignment so as to minimize the average response time of the control plane. We formulate this problem as a stable matching problem with transfers, and propose a hierarchically two-phase algorithm that integrates key concepts from both matching theory and coalitional games to solve it efficiently. Theoretical analysis proves that our algorithm converges to a near-optimal Nash stable solution within tens of iterations. Extensive simulations show that our approach reduces response time by about 86%, and achieves better load balancing among controllers compared to static assignment.