International Journal of Computer Applications |
Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA |
Volume 185 - Number 14 |
Year of Publication: 2023 |
Authors: Bilal Babayigit, Mohammed Abubaker |
10.5120/ijca2023922820 |
Bilal Babayigit, Mohammed Abubaker . Docker Swarm-based SDN Multi-Controller Architecture for Enterprise Networks. International Journal of Computer Applications. 185, 14 ( Jun 2023), 17-23. DOI=10.5120/ijca2023922820
Software-defined network (SDN) is a new paradigm in computer networking that aims to simplify network management and to enable agile network evolvement by decoupling control and data planes using a single centralized controller. However, one of the weaknesses in SDN is the use of a single centralized controller, as it is unable to handle the flow of data processing and it is vulnerable to a single-point failure, especially as the network grows larger. A promising solution to address this problem is the use of multi-controller system. However, it is a critical factor for network performance and reliability to ensure the high availability of the controllers and their forwarding devices in multi controller architecture. Failures in communication between controllers and forwarding devices can lead to network downtime and service interruptions, which makes the high availability a fundamental requirement for enterprise networks. To solve this high availability issue in operations of SDN and to eliminate the single points of failure of multiple connections, this paper proposes a highly available multi controller system for SDN that uses a cluster of Docker containers by utilizing Swarm mode to build and manage this cluster. The proposed scheme is designed and implemented on a real system, and its functionality is validated. The result shows that by using this high availability approach, the single points of failure are overcome and the SDN multi-controller management is enhanced.