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A General Approach to Conflict Detection in Software-Defined Networks

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Abstract

Software-defined networks (SDN) replacing the network appliances of traditional networks with logically centrally deployed applications, which are able to introduce the network function they implement into any element in the network. This flexibility renders SDN prone to conflict. We demonstrate conflict between applications in a laboratory setting to emphasize the importance of conflict detection in production networks. The evaluation of an analytical approach shows substantial obstacles in the general case. Our experimental approach produces conflict classes and detection patterns by means of studying network behaviour in the presence of multiple applications and traffic profiles being applied to different topologies. Based on such experiments, we illustrate the extraction of conflict patterns and their application to conflict detection in new situations.

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Notes

  1. http://www.projectfloodlight.org/floodlight/.

  2. https://man.openbsd.org/nc.1.

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the members of the Munich Network Management Team (www.mnm-team.org), directed by Prof. Dr. Dieter Kranzlmüller, for valuable comments on previous versions of this paper.

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  1. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Oettingenstr. 67, 80538, Munich, Germany

    Cuong Ngoc Tran & Vitalian Danciu

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  1. Cuong Ngoc Tran
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  2. Vitalian Danciu
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This article is part of the topical collection “Future Data and Security Engineering” guest edited by Tran Khanh Dang.

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Tran, C.N., Danciu, V. A General Approach to Conflict Detection in Software-Defined Networks. SN COMPUT. SCI. 1, 9 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-019-0009-9

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